Carrick says Martínez’s commitment is not a concern as United head to Roma in Champions League
Michael Carrick said he was not concerned about Lisandro Martínez’s attitude as Manchester United prepared to visit Roma in the Champions League on Tuesday, despite the defender’s recent outburst and a sending off at Chelsea. Carrick insisted Martínez’s commitment to the team remained intact.
Martínez was fined for comments aimed at United’s director of football, Jason Wilcox, and then received a red card in the defeat at Stamford Bridge at the weekend. The article reported that Martínez was expected to keep his place for the Roma trip, but also stated he is suspended for the visit of Unai Emery’s men following that red card. United are seeking to end what the club described as their worst run in 38 years, having failed to win any of their past nine matches.
“I’ve got no concerns about commitment at all,” Carrick said of the Argentina World Cup winner. He added: “Things happen in football, sometimes you do things, sometimes you make a decision, sometimes you make mistakes, sometimes it goes well for you, but the commitment is not an issue.”
Away defeats against Atlético Madrid and Como have left United 21st in the Champions League league phase, and reports in the piece suggested Carrick needs positive results against Roma and Aston Villa to secure his position. The article linked the team's poor sequence of results to mounting pressure on the caretaker manager.
“I can’t look into the future, I don’t know what’s going to happen,” Carrick insisted. “That doesn’t change the way I feel, that’s how we’re preparing for the game tomorrow and I’m really looking forward to the game. “You might think I’m crazy with the results we’ve had and what’s going on, but I genuinely can’t wait for the game tomorrow and that’s all I’m focused on. Whatever happens is going to happen after that, in whatever direction it goes in.”
United’s most recent home fixture ended in a 3-0 defeat by Bournemouth, a match that concluded with players being booed by the Stretford End. “In these tough times you can’t expect the fans 100,000% of the time to be happy and cheering when we’re not putting out results,” Kobbie Mainoo said. “We owe it to them to put the results out there for them to cheer again. “I feel like our way to repay that [the manager’s support] is to also be behind the manager on the pitch and off it and fight for us and fight for us as a team.”
Carrick will be without Luke Shaw, Marcus Rashford and Benjamin Sesko for the visit of Roma, while Patrick Dorgu has returned to training but is not fit enough to take part.
United’s next confirmed fixtures in the piece are the Champions League trip to Roma on Tuesday and a Premier League match against Aston Villa on Sunday.