Michael Carrick: 10-man Manchester United ‘found a way to unravel’ after strong first half at Chelsea

Michael Carrick’s Manchester United showed improvement in performance and a major uptick in attitude for a while, but it all came crashing down in the second half as the Red Devils went down a goal and a man before losing 2-0 to Chelsea at Stamford Bridge on Saturday.

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Bruno Fernandes started the game after patching things up with Carrick, whose men looked good and even superior in the first 45 minutes.

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The Red Devils had a goal pulled back for offside before the break as Matheus Cunha’s plant leg was a bit beyond the Blues’ back line on a corner kick.

Halftime proved an obstacle, as Chelsea struck just after the break. United’s midfield and back line fell asleep at the worst time as Morgan Rogers carved them up for a 50th-minute goal.

VAR then intervened to award a penalty to Chelsea in the 63rd minute, also giving Lisandro Martinez his second yellow card just before Cole Palmer slammed the penalty home.

Michael Carrick speaks after 10-man Manchester United’s loss at Chelsea

Good first half, what happened in second? "We didn’t really get going second half. We could’ve, should’ve been up really first half. Thought everyone was as positive as we could’ve hoped for. We looked really dangerous coming into half time and we found a way to unravel it second half. Bad goal to concede then penalty and we’re up against it. Turned right on its head."

Did the first goal hurt the team’s confidence? "I don’t think the heads dropped. There’s no hiding from the fact that we haven’t won enough games. It gives them a lift and makes it harder for us. We didn’t start the second half particularly great."

Lisandro Martinez’s sending off: "I’ve not looked at it, to be honest. I’ve not seen it."

Do you feel let down by him? "No."

Fans sang your name again but still a few boos for players: "There’s a lot of emotion. We’re a great football club. We want to win football matches. The supporters make a lot of effort and pay a lot of money to watch us play. Things have gone against us in a big way and unraveled quite quickly. There’s a lot of emotional running around.

"We have got to move forward and take the things that worked for us today. A lot of the good things, especially in the first half and use that moving forward."

Do you expect to be in charge for the next game? "Yeah."

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How do you feel? "Terrible obviously a lot of disappointment. We’ve done a lot of right things especially in the first half when we could’ve been up one or two nil."

"As we said the first half we had a lot of chances, which is a positive because the last few games we didn’t create a lot. They are a good team with quality."

First goal seemed to sap the team’s confidence: "Every goal hurts but with what we’ve shown today, we can really be — I won’t say proud but the mentality was there. Everyone worked really hard and we still have to modify some bits at the training ground, work even harder and we have two very important games."

Martinez’s red card — players let manager and fans down again? "The mentality was there from the first minute. it’s harder with 10 men but even there we still trust everyone. We kept our press as a team even with a man down. We still had some situations at the end, even at 10. We did everything as a team today."

Source: sports.yahoo.com — article syndicated from the publisher’s feed; all rights remain with the original publisher.