Manchester United have all but secured Champions League football after beating Brentford, but Michael Carrick has urged the team not to get ahead of themselves with celebrations.
On Monday night, Michael Carrick continued his impressive run as Manchester United recorded a 2-1 win over Brentford.
Casemiro and Benjamin Sesko scored in the first half, but Brentford pulled one back on the brink of stoppage time.
The win means United are sitting third in the Premier League, three points clear of Liverpool and Aston Villa.
Do Man Utd deserve more credit for being in third place?
Champions League football is almost guaranteed…
Michael Carrick sets crucial precedent with Man Utd ambitions
Carrick has done a tremendous job by turning United’s season around.
The 44-year-old looks to have led the club into the Champions League following on from Ruben Amorim’s dismissal in January.
Carrick has told United they “should not be over-celebrating” Champions League qualification as their ambitions should be far higher.
United need two points from their remaining four matches, unless the competing teams drop more points before the end of the season.
Carrick told reporters after the match that Champions League qualification is one thing, but so is finishing with as many points as possible in the league.
“We’ve given ourselves a great chance, we’ve put ourselves in a big position,” Carrick said, as quoted by The Mirror.
“It’s a tough league, it’s tough to get wins. You can see that throughout the league. To get the amount of wins we’ve had. I think the lads have got to take a bit of credit for that.
“The Champions League is one thing, but it’s not something that we should be over-celebrating either.
“We want to be finishing high up the league really and we want to be challenging high up in the league and trying to get more points so our season doesn’t get to a close when that happens.”
Having spent 12 years playing for United and winning everything, Carrick knows that winning the Premier League is the bread and butter at Old Trafford.
This is an example of Carrick setting an important precedent in the dressing room. Yes, getting back into the Champions League is great, but as United players, they will be judged on how they follow that up next season.
Carrick knows United have more work to do to get back to where the team belongs, but Sir Jim Ratcliffe has yet to decide whether the interim head coach will remain beyond this season.
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Sir Alex Ferguson’s influence over Michael Carrick
Carrick won’t be getting ahead of himself when United secure Champions League football.
Having spent much of his career playing under Sir Alex Ferguson at United, it comes as no surprise that he is taking such an approach to achieving this season’s objective.
Champions League qualification looked unlikely under Amorim, with United showing nowhere near enough consistency during the first half of the season.
Carrick knows the next step – when the season ends – will be winning the Premier League, if he gets the job.
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