Michael Carrick plays down Wayne Rooney backing for permanent Man Utd role
By Ian Parker, Press Association
Michael Carrick insisted he was not listening to the likes of former team-mate Wayne Rooney after the clamour for him to get the Manchester United job long-term increased following Sunday’s 3-1 win over Aston Villa.
Bruno Fernandes became only the third Manchester United player in the Premier League era to reach 100 goals and 100 assists – joining Rooney and Ryan Giggs – as he set up goals for Casemiro and Matheus Cunha either side of a Ross Barkley equaliser, with Benjamin Sesko getting the hosts’ third.
A seventh win in nine for Carrick put them six points clear of sixth-placed Chelsea, firmly in the driving seat for a Champions League place, and led Rooney to say on BBC Radio 5 Live that Carrick should “100 per cent” get the job.
“I know him very well,” Rooney said. “I know his character, his personality. It needed a calm head, but someone who knows the place and the players needed some love, and he has given them that.
“We have seen the players play with more quality, more together as a team, and they look like a very strong team. For me, why would you change?”
Asked if he was able to shut out conversations about his future, Carrick did his best to laugh that off, saying, “There’s not that much noise is there? I don’t mean Wayne, just in general. It’s only noise if you listen to it.
“It doesn’t affect me one bit, to be honest. I’m in this position at the moment, doing the best I can, loving it obviously, and we keep pushing for more. We want to make the team as good as possible and keep improving. Whatever is going to happen is going to happen.”
Fernandes helped strengthen Carrick’s case as he was once again instrumental for United, a smart pass setting free Cunha to score their second after his corner was headed in by Casemiro for the opener.
That put him on 16 assists for the season, chasing down the record of 20 for a single Premier League campaign jointly held by Thierry Henry and Kevin De Bruyne.
“Bruno has done it for a long period of time now,” Carrick said. “In the big moments, making a difference whether he’s scoring or creating, he’s normally around it.
“Maybe (he can break the single-season record)… I don’t think it’s something you go chasing for. I think it happens naturally but if he does, then he’s obviously created goals for us, so I’ll be happy with that.”
Villa fell three points behind United as they lost a third consecutive Premier League match, although Unai Emery insisted he saw improvement in his side.
“Overall I feel we did good things but it was not enough,” he said. “We need more, but we are progressing.
“After the fantastic months in October, November, December, in the last two months struggling, we are recovering confidence again, working on things in our structure and the players are feeling better.
“Today the result is not changing, we were expecting that could happen because Manchester United here at home now are in a good moment and played very intelligently, but we competed and this is the way I want to keep it.”