Carrick sends Man Utd stars demand after AC Milan loss - 'No excuses'

Michael Carrick has told Manchester United's players that they must improve after their performance against AC Milan was 'not good enough'. The Red Devils lost their final pre-season game 4-2 against former boss Ruben Amorim's side, despite taking the lead twice through Harry Maguire and then Patrick Dorgu.

Carrick had a near-full-strength squad to choose from in Wroclaw, Poland but his team faltered after he made changes on the hour mark. United's manager introduced the likes of Marcus Rashford, Kobbie Mainoo and Lisandro Martinez, each of whom were given their first minutes of pre-season.

In an honest post-match interview, Carrick told MUTV: "We're disappointed with today. We didn't play well today. There's reasons for that in some ways [but] we need to learn from it, we need to improve.

"Some of the boys were playing their first minutes. There's different reasons anyway. No excuses, we just didn't play very well today.

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"But in the whole, we're ready for next week. A lot of the boys will be better for the minutes. We've done a lot of work on the training pitch ... I think the performances in the games have been pretty good. So, we're still in good spirits going into next week."

The defeat meant that United ended their pre-season campaign with three wins, one draw and two defeats. On the summer campaign, Carrick concluded: "It's been very good.

"I think there's a lot of positives to take from it. A lot of the performances, I think the group has grown and got stronger."

United will now return to Manchester and prepare for their opening Premier League fixture away to newly promoted Hull City at 12:30pm next Saturday. "The boys will have a day off tomorrow and then in for the rest of the week," Carrick explained.

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"Five days of training in different ways, sometimes a little bit harder, sometimes a bit more of recovery. But we'll work through the week and be better for it. We're looking forward to it."

Carrick hopes to have both Mason Mount and Benjamin Sesko available for the clash with Hull. Mount picked up a knock last week while Sesko has been out since the end of last season with a shin injury.

After facing Hull, Carrick's side will take on another newly promoted team, Ipswich Town, at Old Trafford. It's then a trip to Everton, a home derby against Manchester City and a visit to Fulham before the international break.