Carrick Rejects Talk of Easy Start as United Face Hull

Michael Carrick is already tired of the narrative. Favourable start? Easy opening run? He wants none of it.

Manchester United begin their Premier League campaign at Hull on Saturday, taking on last season’s Championship play-off winners, before welcoming Ipswich to Old Trafford on 30 August. Two newly promoted sides, back-to-back. On paper, some have suggested, the perfect launchpad for another strong season.

Carrick snapped that paper in half.

“A newly promoted team away from home is a tough game,” the United head coach said, shutting down any suggestion that his side have been handed a gentle introduction. “I've been involved in them in the past so I'm fully aware of what's coming at us on Saturday and what we've got to be ready for.”

United finished third last season, a surge that helped convince the club to hand Carrick the job on a permanent basis. That run has fuelled the belief that they should “hit the ground running” against Hull and Ipswich and ride that momentum into the autumn.

Carrick is having none of that, either.

He dismissed the idea of a soft schedule as “pretty ridiculous” and insisted there will be no complacency in his dressing room.

“It's not favourable,” he said. “It's an easy thing to throw out there but it's pretty ridiculous. I'm not taking it that way at all.”

So United travel to Hull with expectation swirling outside and resistance to that storyline coming firmly from the man in charge. The fixtures might look kind. Carrick is treating them like a trap.