Carrick: The Aim Is To Challenge

Michael Carrick is refusing to get carried away with Manchester United’s excellent form in the Barclays Premier League, but insists his team-mates can achieve something special with the burgeoning spirit that pervades Louis van Gaal's squad.

United have moved up to third place in the table after recording five consecutive wins in the last month and hope to make it six when historic rivals Liverpool visit Old Trafford on Sunday. This impressive run of form is particularly remarkable because of the extensive list of players who have missed matches due to injury in recent months.

In an exclusive interview with United Review, the official matchday programme, Carrick is asked what he and his colleagues can achieve when everybody returns to full fitness. “It would be easy for me to say everything will be rosy and that we’re going to be really successful, but it’s not as easy as that – we have to work hard,” Carrick explains. “We’ve had some really good performances of late and others when we’ve struggled to win. But in some ways, that isn’t unusual.

“In seasons when we have been successful, there have been periods when things haven’t gone for us but we’ve found a way to get through it. I just feel the same as before – if we are near the top of the table after Christmas then we have a great shout of achieving something with the squad we’ve got."

Asked if United are in the title race, Carrick spoke positively about the remainder of this campaign: “It was a big weekend with Chelsea losing at Newcastle and other results going for us. If we are in and around the top by Christmas or January then we are right in there with a chance.

"I think with this squad that we have, which is gradually improving and building, then anything can happen. It is all won and lost in the last two or three months of the season, so the aim is definitely to challenge.”