Why Michael Carrick Insisted on Staying ‘Calm’ After Man Utd’s Hull Defeat

The Red Devils had never before lost to a newly promoted opponent in the first game of a season.

Michael Carrick sees little point losing sight of the bigger picture. | Freddie Yeo/MB Media/Getty Images

Michael Carrick maintained a cool exterior after Manchester United’s loss to Hull City in the club’s opening match of the new Premier League, even if that wasn’t how he felt on the inside.

Meanwhile, captain Bruno Fernandes said the team was guilty of making the “same mistakes” as last season, lacking aggression away from home and conceding from set plays.

Hull’s first goal came from a corner and their second was the result of a free kick, catching the Red Devils cold in the first half at MKM Stadium in East Yorkshire. There was improvement after halftime, coinciding with Marcus Rashford making his first competitive United appearance in more than 600 days, but this was still the first time that the club has ever been beaten by newly promoted opposition in a season opener—not just in the Premier League era.

Still, after an overall positive preseason followed a strong second half of 2025–26, Carrick isn’t losing focus on the bigger picture—even if the result and performance on the day fell below expectation.

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Carrick Not Willing to Panic Over Just ‘One Game’

Hull scored two set-piece goals in the first half. | Alfie Cosgrove/News Images/NurPhoto/Getty Images

“I’m talking to you quite calmly, but I’m not exactly calm inside and enjoying the day, so there’s a big difference,” Carrick told reporters before heading back west across England to Manchester.

There is no intention to rip it up and go back to the drawing board at this stage.

“I played here for a long time. You don’t get to play here for a long time without just going day by day, the results, the ups and downs, but you just carry on as normal,” he said.

“It’s 100% not that, and trust me, it’s not that. It just doesn’t mean that we all have to shout and scream and come out and create some chaos just because of it. Inside we’re hurting and we need to get better. But the calmness doesn’t mean there’s no emotion in it.

“We got beat, we’re hurt and it’s not a nice feeling. It doesn’t mean it’s going to change the whole direction of how we’re going as a team or as a football club. It’s one game and results can happen in football, we all understand that. It’s not nice when they do, but it does happen.”

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Fernandes Blames ‘Same Mistakes’

Bruno Fernandes saw familiar mistakes being made. | Alfie Cosgrove/News Images/NurPhoto/Getty Images

Speaking his mind in a postgame interview with broadcaster TNT Sports, Fernandes bluntly said that the “same mistakes” made in “every away game” last season contributed to the loss.

“We [gave] too much of the ball to them. In the first 20 minutes the [Hull] goalkeeper had more touches on the ball, too much time,” he lamented.

“We need to press a little bit more, be more aggressive, and set plays—we need to work on it, to be more aggressive and try not to concede these types of goals.”

Continuing to reflect with in-house media channel MUTV, Fernandes added” “We need to work on whatever didn’t work out for us today, we need to get better, we need to prepare ourselves for the next game [against Ipswich Town, Aug. 30].

“There’s not much I can say that will change the result today, but there’s a lot we can do in the next one to change that. We had a lot of the ball but we were not very decisive and this is even in the last third to score the goal to get a little bit of a chance and get a goal to ourselves.”

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