Michael Carrick upbeat about new season
Manchester United’s midfielder Michael Carrick is hoping to make most of this season as he comes out of the shadow of last season. Carrick had a miserable last 12 months for both, his club and country. He is hoping to revive his old form in the new season which will enable to make it to the England’s starting 11. Manchester United kicked-off its season against Newcastle at Old Trafford today.
The fixture was a repeat of an opening match between the two sides, two seasons ago, which ended in a draw. However, United were victorious today with a 3 goals to nil. On the other hand, Manchester United came out of that season with a championship crown whereas Newcastle were relegated to lower division. Last desperate attempt of bringing the old hero, Alan Shearer also failed as he could not save his old club from depths of relegation then. Nonetheless fans at White Hart Lane are now relishing their journey back to the Premiership.
Manchester United will be hoping to regain their Premiership which they lost to Carlo Ancelotti’s Chelsea last season. Carrick is also keen to make sure that home fans get to enjoy victory against Newcastle particularly after Chelsea started their season in the best possible manner by inflicting a painful 6-0 defeat over West Bromwich Albion. Commenting on Newcastle, Carrick said, “Newcastle will be flying. They are back in the Premier League and what better place to start than Old Trafford. They obviously want to get off to a good start and build up some momentum themselves. It is only two years ago that we played them in the first game at Old Trafford and drew. Hopefully it will be better this time.”
Carrick, who played for Tottenham before coming to Manchester United, has a below-par last season. Resultantly, he was dropped from the starting 11 by Ferguson. Despite such a poor season, he was still selected by Fabio Capello for 2010 World Cup but was not tried for a single time in England’s four matches. As a result, he is hungry to get some solid performance under his belt. Talking to reporters, Carrick shed some light on his last season and said. “Last season was disappointing and I ended up having a hard summer. But this is my fifth season and during that time I have gained a lot of experience. I am more determined than ever. When you don't get what you want, it hurts. You want it again badly. I am hungry for success, just as I was when I first came here.”
Carrick faces some stiff competition from rejuvenated Paul Scholes, ‘ever-dependable’ Darren Fletcher and newcomers Darron Gibson and Tom Cleverley for central midfield positions. On the other hand, Sir Alex Ferguson has plenty of attacking options; Ferguson has talents such as Dimitar Berbatov, Javier Hernandez, Michael Owen and out-of-form Wayne Rooney at his disposal for attacking combination.
Meanwhile, Sir Alex Ferguson will be looking to make most out for their previous season disappointments as they target to regain Premiership title from Chelsea. Manchester United narrowly missed out the title last season. As a result, they also missed out the chance of overtaking Liverpool's total of 18 league titles. This season Ferguson and his side have plenty of motivation for chasing the title. They showed their class today when they defeated Newcastle United with a convincing margin of 3-0 and Chelsea, earlier in community shield by 3-1. With the arrivals of new talent in the form of Xavier Hernandez and Chris Smalling, their squad is further strengthened. Additionally, they will also be looking to redeem themselves in Champions League after they were unceremoniously exited last year by Bayern Munich.
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