Michael Carrick has revealed what he told his Manchester United side at half-time, with the team going into the break 1-0 down against Crystal Palace.
Manchester United added another Premier League victory to their tally on Sunday, overturning an early deficit to beat Crystal Palace 2–1 as Bruno Fernandes and Benjamin Šeško got on the scoresheet.
Palace started brightly and took the lead when Maxence Lacroix rose to head home from a corner. United’s task became tougher when Luke Shaw was forced off injured, with Noussair Mazraoui shifting across to fill the left-back role.
Despite improving before the interval, the hosts were unable to restore parity before the break. They came out strongly in the second half, and the decisive moment arrived when Lacroix brought down Matheus Cunha in the box, earning a red card. Fernandes made no mistake from the spot to bring United level.
Sensing their opportunity against ten men, United pressed on and completed the turnaround as Fernandes threaded a well-weighted pass into Šeško, who applied a composed finish to maintain his excellent 2026 run and lift the Reds into third place.
Carrick on what was said at half time
Going into the second half 1-0 down, Michael Carrick revealed what he said to his squad that spurred them on to score twice within 20 minutes of the second half.
When asked if there was a particular change he wanted to make, he said, “There’s always something. It was just a couple of little tweaks in shape, maybe a couple of ideas, some things we tried from the start that we wanted to kind of tweak a little bit, but honestly, it wasn’t major, really, and I’m not taking much credit for that.
“It was more that you’ve got to find a way in games sometimes and there’s a few ideas that we wanted to make more runs, we wanted it to be a little bit more aggressive in attacking their back line to a point, which is something you always try to do, but I thought we did it in the second half and ended up getting the penalty from that.
“So it was more how do we react. It’s been going in our favour. I said to them, here’s something I’ve been waiting for, this moment, to see, go on then, what we’re going to do about it and be positive. And the boys responded ever so well, so it was a big thing for us.”
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Man Utd’s response to a new challenge
With the win over Crystal Palace, Carrick extended his unbeaten run to seven games, six of those being victories, while also moving up to third in the Premier League for the first time since May 2023.
Under Carrick, United have recovered seven points from losing positions, and for the first time in his tenure, his side went into half-time trailing.
On the side’s resurgence in the second half, he said, “It’s the biggest thing for us to take from the game, really. It’s the first time that we’ve been in that situation, going in at half-time. I thought we were a little bit off to start with.
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“I think they started particularly well, so credit to them. Probably after 20 minutes or so, I thought the game started turning in our favour, and we finished the half stronger, and it looked a little like what we were trying to do.
“At half-time, it was about being in that position and how we react and showing that personality and the belief
“Football is tough at times, and this league is tough, so you’re never going to have it your own way, but to then come back like we did in the second half and turn the game in our favour is the biggest thing for me to take from today for sure. “
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