Michael Carrick praises United’s grit after 5-2 home win over Ipswich

Michael Carrick praised Manchester United after their 5-2 home victory over Ipswich in the Premier League on 30 August 2026. He said the manner of the response to last week’s defeat at Hull was the most pleasing aspect of the performance.

Bruno Fernandes scored a hat-trick in the 40th, 61st and 68th minutes as United recovered from Leif Davis’s opener to secure the win. A Jacob Greaves own goal after 56 minutes and Bryan Mbeumo’s 82nd-minute strike completed the home scoring, while Chuka Akpom added a stoppage-time second for Ipswich. It was United’s first five-goal Premier League game since the opening day of 2021-22, a 5-1 home win over Leeds that also included a Fernandes hat-trick.

Carrick was delighted by the manner of United’s reaction to last week’s disappointing 2-0 defeat at Hull. “It’s a week in football, isn’t it? The ups and downs,” he said. “The biggest pleasing thing was – we spoke about in the week, about dealing with setbacks if you want to be a successful team. Every team gets beat. You’ve got to deal with setbacks, whether that’s momentum in the game, whether that’s a goal, whether that’s losing a game or a run of games, whatever it may be. You’ve got to deal with the setback.

“We spoke before about trying to overcome last week, and then we took a mini setback if you like, going a goal behind. But showing stubbornness, belief, confidence, and togetherness the boys showed at that stage – in a small part, because we’re so early in the season – I think that was really pleasing for me. The way they bounced back, that’s probably the biggest thing to take. There’s a lot of highlights, but that mentality was what we really relied on today.”

Of Fernandes, who has led the side since January 2020, Carrick said: “He means a lot to us. He’s the captain, he’s been here for a good number of years now. He’s experienced a whole load of different emotions, different things. He’s got a lot of experience to pass on and show them the way a little bit, and lead by example, help in different moments.

“Times like today – when you’re looking towards certain players to give us that little bit of something, and he did that particularly well.” Fernandes’s hat-trick came after he won the Professional Footballers’ Association Player of the Year on Tuesday, which followed him also winning the Football Writers’ Player of the Year. He said: “It was a massive result. We lost three points last week. First game at home, the fans have been waiting for this. It’s not to make up for last week, you can’t get six points from it.

“Scoring before half-time is always important if it’s to get on top of the game or draw the game. We were in control of the game. In the second half, we were very good. Scoring goals is the best feeling in football. Doing a hat-trick at home with our fans is something I’m proud of. I hope I can do much more and help my teammate score goals too.”

Marcus Rashford started for United in the league for the first time since 1 December 2024 and impressed as United recorded 33 shots, their most since 38 against Burnley in 2016. Carrick said: “Really pleased with Marcus. I am sure it was nice for him to be back and start games and be involved in a good performance. He will only get better.” Kobbie Mainoo also made a first start of the season; Carrick added: “On today’s performance, not much really. I thought he was pretty much all-around very good for a first start back. I understand Bruno will get a lot of credit today, and he deserves that as well, but I thought Kobbie was immense in the middle of the pitch for us and underpinned the performance of the team.”

Greaves’ own goal followed an incident in which Harry Maguire handled the ball then struck a shot that appeared to be going off-target before it deflected in off the defender. The video assistant referee ruled the goal legal as Maguire did not score, which baffled Gary O’Neil.

Ipswich’s manager said: “I was stood there and thought: ‘That is definitely getting disallowed,’ and then I thought: ‘What if Maguire’s shot is not going in?’”