Carrick: United Are Stronger …
With both Manchester United and Liverpool undertaking their pre-season preparations in the Far East, the mere 37-mile stretch of water between United’s base in Macau and Liverpool’s Hong Kong training camp is perhaps an early indication little will separate the two clubs over the coming months.
Rafael Benitez’s £40 million spending spree is second only to Sir Alex Ferguson’s £50 million-plus investment in his team this summer and Liverpool expect to launch a sustained title challenge this season.
United midfielder Michael Carrick said Ferguson’s squad were braced for a dual assault from Merseyside and west London between now and next May. He added: “Liverpool have strengthened with Fernando Torres and I believe Chelsea will be better again, so everyone at United will be on their toes. We’re not resting on what we achieved.
“Last season I learned a lot from the likes of Ryan Giggs, Paul Scholes and Gary Neville about just what it takes to win the League, but players like them always look forwards rather than backwards and that’s what people like myself have to do.
“But let’s remember that we won the Premiership and that was a great achievement. We’ve strengthened the squad and things are looking good. But it won’t just be the new signings that make a difference - the players who are already here will have improved as well.”
The new signings - Owen Hargreaves, Anderson and Nani, with Carlos Tevez expected to follow - will stiffen the competition for places throughout the squad, nowhere more so than in the midfield area patrolled by Carrick last season.
But having come of age following his £18.6 million move from Tottenham last summer, Carrick is confident he can resist the challenge.
“If you think about it too much, it can distract your focus from what the real job is,” he said. “I always believe in myself playing with the players here and I always believed we could win the League last season.
“Whether people believed that at the start of the season or not didn’t really matter to me, but I felt more like a United player the longer the season went on. It was a case of having a settling-in period, getting used to the way we play and the different expectations here. The challenge last season made me improve quite a bit, so, hopefully, I can keep doing that.”
While last season was a personal triumph for Carrick, the one blemish for him was United’s failure in Europe and he said that they were determined to make amends next campaign.
“You learn more from nights when it doesn’t go so well, like Milan,” he said. “I was away on holiday when the European Cup final [Liverpool v Milan] was on and I didn’t bother watching it because I knew it could have been us. That will drive the squad on this season to do better.”
