Carrick: Rvp Can Make Us Scary

Michael Carrick says the return to form of Robin van Persie will make Manchester United "scary" again.

Van Persie scored a fine goal in a 3-0 defeat of Hull City on Saturday which some called their best performance of the season.

The Netherlands star has been inconsistent since the summer – his ineffectual display against Arsenal, in which he touched the ball just 13 times, came in for particular criticism.

But a week made a big difference and he repaid the faith of manager Louis van Gaal with a much-improved performance. The 31-year-old threatened on a number of occasions and teed up a goal for Wayne Rooney before capping victory with a powerful left-foot strike.

He left the field to an ovation as he was replaced by fit-again Radamel Falcao - whose availability might have threatened Van Persie's place - for the final 20 minutes.

Carrick said: "We all get criticised at certain times and it's something you have to deal with. The best way to answer it is the way he did it against Hull.

"Robin scored a great goal and hopefully that will be the start of a good run over the weeks to come.

"When you have got him scoring, Wayne scoring and Falcao coming off the bench and nearly scoring, we'll be a threat to anyone. You want those boys when they're flying and it's scary to play against.

"What Robin and Wayne did against Hull, we've seen that happen so often in the past and hopefully we'll see that in the coming weeks again. It gives the whole team huge confidence and belief that, even if we're not playing great, we're always in the game."

It was United’s third win in succession - the first time this season they have achieved that feat – and Carrick is hopeful the current team can restore the fear factor to playing at Old Trafford.

The 33-year-old said: "I think everyone in the stadium felt it was a good performance and that's the sort of standard we want to be at - dominating teams and winning.

"We've done it in the past but the past is the past. We need to do it again and hopefully as time goes on we can carry on like this and that fear factor will creep back."

"(Beating) Arsenal was a huge result for us, but the performance wasn't great. We got the performance for long periods against Hull, winning comfortably in the end, so we will look to keep that going against Stoke this week.

"But we can't look too far ahead. We've never done that. We've never said, 'Right, we need to go on a 10 or 15-game run'. It's bit by bit."

"We believe we can have a really good season but it's been a strange start in many ways.

"Hopefully we can get the injured lads back fit. We had a couple of lads struggling on Saturday but when you can bring the likes of Falcao and Ander Herrera on it does give you confidence.

"That's the beauty of having this strength. You have players to choose from, despite the injuries."

Carrick himself only returned to action a month ago after suffering an ankle injury in the summer.

He said: "That was only my third start in seven months but I felt fine. It's just a case of getting back into the swing of things and finding your rhythm really. Hopefully the more games I have the better I'll get."