Mixed Feelings For Carrick

Michael Carrick is glad to be back in action for Manchester United sooner than he initially expected - but disappointed that his return wasn't a winning one.

The 34-year-old midfielder made his 11th start of the season in the Reds' 1-1 draw with Leicester City, having missed the previous two matches in seven days at home to PSV Eindhoven and away to Watford.

After Saturday evening's game, Carrick admitted he had feared being out for longer when he was stretchered off with an ankle injury during England's friendly against Spain in Alicante three weeks ago.

"I thought it was a bad one at the time, but the scan showed that there wasn’t too much damage," Carrick told MUTV. "After the swelling went down then I was free to get back involved. I'm fine now."

Carrick played the full 90 minutes against Leicester alongside Bastian Schweinsteiger and later shared his colleague's frustration at United's inability to build on the German's equaliser on the brink of half-time.

"We felt that we would be better in the second half and that that we would push on and look to win the game like we always do," continued Carrick in his MUTV interview.

"We thought if we kept playing then the [winning] goal would come but we never really got enough clear-cut chances, just a couple of bits and pieces from set-plays.

"To get back into the game after going one goal down, especially with the form Leicester are in, we could maybe take positives from that. But really we’re disappointed with the result as we came here to win the game."

While the Carrick-Schweinsteiger axis at the heart of United's team was familiar, the rest of the formation was different with Louis van Gaal deploying three central defenders behind them and utilising Matteo Darmian and Ashley Young as wing-backs. Further forward, Juan Mata supported a front pairing of Anthony Martial and Wayne Rooney.

"I thought it was fine and we controlled most of the game," replied Carrick when asked about the 3-4-1-2 system.

"Leicester had a few breaks and were quick on the counter-attack, there was always that threat and we had to deal with it. But apart from their goal, I felt that we were in control.

"We just needed to find that winner and we couldn’t do that. We are not satisfied with that [four points from the last two away games]. Regardless of our win last week, we came here to win this game too.

"Seeing the way the game went we feel that we’ve let that slip. We’ll take the point because it’s not an easy place to come, but we feel that we should have taken the three points."