Michael Carrick said our 1-0 away victory over Everton is “a great win”
for the Reds.
It was a tough, physical and at some points gritty game of football, but Carras' charges overcame those testing conditions to take all three points, courtesy of a Benjamin Sesko goal on the counter.
Senne Lammens was another key performer, stopping shots and commanding his area despite the best efforts of the Toffees to unsettle him.
Carrick discussed the pair, and much more, with Sky Sports, MUTV and BBC Match of the Day after the final whistle.
Here’s a selection of what he had to say…
DIGGING IN
“Yeah, without a doubt. I think there's games when you have to do that and show different sides to the game, really, and I kind of expected, you know, we had the first four games where, the first obviously four wins in a row and some really good performances in there and I kind of expected a little bit of a period where we'd have to find ourselves a little bit and find results. And we did it to a point at West Ham and we had to do it today. And that spirit, that sacrifice, that willingness to work for each other as a team, I think the way we had to defend the box for the last spell of the game, everybody playing their part and in the end, a clean sheet, fantastic, and a great win for us.”
DEALING WITH EXTENDED BREAK
“It was [a slog], it was. It didn't really come easy for us tonight. It's a tough [place]. I've come to Everton for a long time and when we come over here it's always tough and so I've never had an easy game, I've never had a game where it's all clicked, I don't think, that I can remember. So, we expected a tough one tonight. Listen, when we played our last game [13 days ago] is what it is, you know, but the lads have trained really well actually, and we came in looking and feeling good about the game. It just was one of those nights for us, we had to dig deep, it was a bit of a struggle at times, but sometimes they’re the best ones to win.”
SUMMER SIGNINGS CLICKING
“Yeah, it was a great move, you know, we know we're capable of that. I think we've got players that can do that. If we defend as a team and we put the work in, we always feel we've got a chance. The clean sheet was just as important as the goal, but it was a fabulous goal, brilliant for Matheus [Cunha], defending well, changing and the transition, and Bryan picks out the pass and for Ben, it's just a really confident, strong finish, which I liked. You know, it was fantastic, delighted for him again. He's made an impact again and he keeps doing it.”
SESKO’S STARTING CHANCES
“Yeah, listen, Ben's in a good place at the moment and we've had some really good talks about it and patience is one thing for him and building him and help grow and help him grow as a player and develop him as a player here. And he's patient and he understands that, you know, he's going to be a big player for us for a long period of time, I'm sure, of that. So, we've got to manage that. We've got some really good forward players and he's made a big difference for us when he's been on the pitch, but that's obviously decisions as we move forward. But the balance has been good with the forward players, so we need to continue that.”
CUNNING CUNHA
“He had to defend second half Matheus and he did it really well. It was some pass over the top [for the goal]. We needed a whole team performance in terms of the pressure Everton put us under, and the boys did it. If you do you get rewards because we've got dangerous players.”
SAFE SENNE
”He made a couple really good saves, he looked calm and composed in a tough environment. A lot of corners coming in under his crossbar, didn't get flustered, took some good chances and clean hands. He was immense for us tonight.”
TO THE NEXT ONE
“There’s a lot. We’ll take a lot from tonight, but there’s definitely things we can get better at. But I’ve lost track of time now, what is it, seven or eight weeks or maybe a bit more? I don’t know how long it’s been, so it’s still early days. We can’t expect it to be perfect. So, we’ve got a few days now to look back at this one and try and improve a few things. Every game’s different. We had to find a way tonight, and hopefully we can find a way on Sunday as well.”