Every word from Carrick press conference after West Ham 1 Man Utd 1 on 10 Feb 2026
“It’s always a balance. The boys who have played have done fantastically well. That’s the importance of the group, I say it after every game. Ben is doing a lot of work, he is in a really good place and he is ready to kick on. It’s managing the balance. We could have changed things earlier, but when he came on he made a big difference.”
It’s the first time you’ve not had a full week to prepare going into a game. How much difference did that make?
“It is what it is, it doesn’t make a difference to us. We know how hard it is to put a run together in this league, it’s not easy. Sometimes you’re dangerous, you have a spark, and sometimes you are stodgy. You need to find the answer, you need to find a way. The goal we conceded was a frustrating one, with the flow of the game. But football throws things up. In the grand scheme of things we managed to take something from the match and we move on.”
It was a big move for Ben and sometimes he has maybe looked a little short on confidence, but he has come up with two massive goals for you – that looked like the finish of a player who has been playing in this league for years tonight…
“It’s an unbelievable finish. From that angle, to generate that and to get it on target, it’s some finish. He is capable of that. But it’s not like he has suddenly burst onto the scene, he has proven he scores goals, and he does it in training. The last one [v Fulham] would have done him the world of good, but that was a big moment for him, and for us.”
