Carrick: United Have A Lot To Play For

Michael Carrick is excited by the fact Manchester United are targeting success on four fronts this season, as the team aim to make it 17 games unbeaten when visiting Stoke City on Saturday.

The Reds are in action in the Premier League, EFL Cup and FA Cup over the next 10 days, as well as resuming the Europa League campaign next month, and United's experienced central midfielder is happy to have so many games to look forward to.

"I tell you what, at this point of the season, to be in all competitions, I'd snap your hand off – that's where you want to be," the 35-year-old told MUTV. 

"There's no way you complain about playing too many games because playing a lot of games means you've got a lot to play for and that's exactly where we want to be.

"There's loads to play for this season, challenging on different fronts with different opportunities in different competitions, so it's where we want to be and we look forward to the end of the season."

United's nine-game winning run ended with a 1-1 draw against Liverpool last Sunday but Carrick was satisfied to see his side's undefeated streak continue after Zlatan Ibrahimovic netted a late leveller.
"When you're down with, what, seven or eight or minutes to go, then you obviously don't want to be getting beat so you take the point," Carrick continued.

"It's frustrating but, at the same time, in some ways we've kept that run going, we've kept the momentum and just that makes the Stoke game as big as ever really.

"Five points is not an awful lot [from sixth to second in the table], never mind how long is left of the season. I think we're right in there. We've had a good run, we had a little setback at the weekend but it's important to get back to winning and getting that run again."

Should Carrick feature against the Potters on Saturday then he could come up against Peter Crouch, who he knows well from their international endeavours together for England.

When asked if he admired the Stoke striker’s recent scoring resurgence, which has yielded three goals in his last three league games, Carrick humorously replied: "Of course, yeah. But 35 is no age, is it? 

"Credit to Crouchy, I don't think anyone can doubt what he brings to the team. He's quality, he's technically very good and his goals record is very good as well. He's having a good patch at the moment and hopefully we can keep him quiet on Saturday."