Carrick: No Excuses For Result

Michael Carrick believes Manchester United can have "no excuses" following Thursday's disappointing Europa League defeat to FC Midtjylland.

Louis van Gaal's Reds took the lead at the MCH Arena through Memphis Depay's 38th-minute strike, but goals from Pione Sisto and Paul Onuachu mean the Danes will now take a slender advantage to Old Trafford for next week's second leg.

Carrick captained the side in the absence of the injured Wayne Rooney, and gave an honest assessment of the result following the final whistle.

“It was a bad night," he told MUTV. "To come here and lose is nowhere near good enough. The only positive is that we’ve got another chance at [winning] it, but it doesn’t really change the fact that we were simply nowhere near good enough tonight."

Quizzed on the potential impact of David De Gea suffering a knee injury during the warm-up, Carrick continued: “You can talk about injuries but, irrespective of that, we can’t make any excuses. The performance wasn’t good enough and it has to be better - we have no excuses tonight.

Asked if the players expected to kick on in the second half, he added: “Yeah, we certainly did. I thought the first half was alright, we were pretty much in control but the second half wasn’t the same, we didn’t have the same intensity or tempo and in general it wasn’t good enough. You can use any excuse but at the end of the day we weren’t good enough."

The England international also thanked the travelling fans for their continued support and promised an improved performance when the sides meet again in Manchester on 25 February.

“Of course we’re confident of turning it around," he said. "We’re all very disappointed now but, when the dust settles, we’ll get our head around. Next week is another day, another game, and we need to be better. We can’t perform like that and expect to win games. We’ve got to be better irrespective of the opposition, so next week we’ll be better and looking to go through.

“I can’t knock the supporters, they were incredible. They’ve been great throughout my time at the club, especially during the last couple of years when they haven’t had much to shout about. They’ve stuck with us and travelled tonight to support us so I can only apologise. Hopefully we can give them some reward for the unbelievable support they’ve shown both the players and the club.”