Michael Carrick pre-match press conference ahead of Everton v Man Utd | 20 February 2026

You said you’ve had a couple of weeks here to just take a breath and assess the start that you’d made together. Did you feel like the West Ham performance was a little bit of a step back from what you’ve shown, and what are the details that you think need to change for this Everton game? It may well have a similar approach to West Ham as well.

“I think you’ve got to be a bit balanced, you know, in terms of, I’ve spoken about not getting carried away before that game, in terms of winning games and certainly not getting carried away if we don’t come away with the three points. I think there’s an understanding that games are tough to win in this league and it’s proving, not just for us. So, I think a lot of the performance in terms of the control and how we went about the game, there was a lot of good things in the game. It probably got open towards the end when we were chasing it a little bit more, but we looked dangerous, and scoring late goals is a big positive. So, I think it’s an important point for us. Yeah, of course, we wanted to win the game, but [we’re] certainly not thinking that it was it was all bad or it’s a big negative. I think we’re pretty balanced going into the game to what we are coming out of it really and looking for the games ahead.”

It will have been 13 days [since the West Ham game] by the time you play Everton. How has it been having an extended break like that? Has it been helpful or did you feel it’s broken the rhythm? 

“Yeah, we try to make it useful, you know, the break that we’ve had at the moment. I think we’re trying to make [it] in different ways. I think it was important… I think when there’s change, and the kind of month or so that we had together, I think it was important for everyone to, you know, have a couple of days to digest that and take it in. And so the boys have trained a bit, had a few days off, trained a bit again, and not only of getting the balance right, but keeping the rhythm, keeping the sharpness, keeping the focus, which the boys have been, I have to say, really good in training again. And then, yeah, moving forward, the fixtures have thrown up some mixture of gaps between games really. So [it’s] just adjusting and adapting and we’ll see what kind of comes with that, especially obviously the international [break] and then a bit of a break after that. So, we’ll manage it as we go, but we’ll obviously try and make the best of it.”

How do you feel about the prospects of a [mid-season] friendly? Is it something you would welcome if that’s what the club thinks is the right thing to do?

“It just depends on a lot of things, really. I don’t think there’s a black or white answer with that one. I think it’s really, kind of, we’ll make a call and there’s a bit of an area in between where it depends on where the game is, what it’s like, what time it is, when the fixtures fall, you know. So, it’s not straightforward, but it’s something, if we need to look at, we can do if we think it’s the best for the players.”