Michael Carrick singles out key positive in chaotic Bournemouth draw

Manchester United caretaker boss Michael Carrick has singled out a silver lining in the storm of his side’s controversial draw against Bournemouth.

United played out a dramatic 2-2 draw with Bournemouth at the Vitality Stadium on Friday evening.

The Red Devils twice let a lead slip as the points were shared, with Harry Maguire sent off in a chaotic second half.

Bruno Fernandes broke the deadlock in the 61st minute. Matheus Cunha won the penalty after he was dragged down inside the danger area by Jimenez and the United skipper sent Djordje Petrovic the wrong way from the spot.

But United’s lead was short-lived.

The visitors felt they should have been awarded a second penalty when Amad fell to the ground under a challenge from Adrien Truffert, but appeals to the referee fell on deaf ears. 25 seconds later, Ryan Christie had the ball in the back of Senne Lammens’ goal.

United responded immediately, with James Hill getting the final touch on Fernandes’s corner-kick delivery. But there was another twist in store as a fourth goal followed when Maguire was given his marching orders for a foul on Evanilson. Junior Kroupi converted the penalty to make it 2-2.

After the final whistle, a seething Fernandes slammed the decision not to award a penalty for the foul on Amad , only to send off Maguire and give a penalty for a very similar incident. Carrick echoed these sentiments in an interview with Sky Sports.

Carrick spoke to reporters in his post-match press conference and stressed his point, but also chose to highlight a major positive – how his players coped with Bournemouth’s pressure while reduced to 10 men.

The 44-year-old coach said, “My first [thought] is he definitely got one of them wrong, because he’s given one penalty for the same thing that he’s not given one as a two-armed grab. o the Matheus one, he gives, the second one on Amad he doesn’t, which is, I think, almost identical, really, two hands on someone in the box, and they go over and they’re in control of the ball.”

“For me, it’s two penalties, but it’d be interesting to see which one he acknowledges is wrong, whether the one we got or the one that we didn’t get. And it’s a huge moment.”

“You don’t give it, they go down to the other end and score and then it needs to be a bigger penalty to overturn just because they scored when actually it’s a penalty and it should be a penalty if you’ve already given one.”

“So a bit baffling, really, to make sense of that. And because they score, then the game flips a little bit and changes and then we defended with the 10 men after all that very well and the boys coming off the bench and finishing the game really strong.”

Carrick added, “So that was a big positive for us to take the point in the end because we’ve seen them win late here so we take that, but the penalty one’s just astonishing, I have to say, one of them must be wrong.”

On United’s slightly weaker away form than at home, Carrick explained, “I just think this league’s tough to win games in. We’ve won a lot of games recently, so I think the amount of points we’ve accumulated and some of the performances and the results that we’ve had I think is a big positive.”

“Home and away, it’s a tough league and it happens. You’ve seen how games can unfold quite quickly, but I thought we managed it, in the end, pretty well.”

Carrick revealed that he hadn’t spoken to referee Stuart Attwell to seek clarification on the contentious decisions. He further noted that an apology from PGMOL would be unhelpful as the damage has already been done.

“I haven’t spoken to him. Once it’s done, it’s done, you know, I think you can have all the conversations in the world about, could it have been this, could it have been that?”

“I just think, you know, surely that’s for VAR. If they’ve already just given one and agreed that that was a penalty. Surely the next one should be a straightforward one? As I say, one of them has got to be right, or they’re wrong or whatever. Do you know what I mean?

“But whether they apologise or don’t, it’s done now. But listen, we’re finishing taking a point, I think we can take a lot from that.”

On whether he had spoken to Maguire, Carrick answered, “I’ve not really spoken to Harry, to be honest.And I’ve not seen the actual incidents back, but listen, if he’s gone past him and he’s clean on goal and he’s put an arm on him, then he’s given a penalty for that.”

“If he’s put an arm on him, Amad, and he doesn’t give a penalty for that again, that’s what’s happening when it’s all in the same game, really, and there’s so many eyes on it and you can intervene and we didn’t get two of them.”

“They went against us. So it is what it is. I thought we coped with that really well, as I’ve said, so I think I’d rather take the positive from it tonight than that.”

United now face a 24-day break before returning to action on April 13, when they host arch-rivals Leeds United at Old Trafford.

Featured image Warren Little via Getty Images

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