Carrick praises Mourinho for sticking to Manchester United’s traditions

Manchester United assistant coach Michael Carrick has praised Jose Mourinho for sticking to the club’s tradition of bringing players from the youth academy to the senior team.

Mourinho is well known for relying on experienced players rather than on the youth and his arrival of Manchester United created the fear of traditions being broken. However, the Portuguese has relied a lot on young players. The likes of Jesse Lingard, Marcus Rashford and Scott McTominay were all in Manchester United’s youth teams and are now frequently used by Mourinho.

It’s been more than 80 years since the last time Manchester United fielded a time without a player who previously played in the club’s youth setup.

Carrick said, “He does get the history. For the manager to put him [Rashford] in and play him… and Scott [McTominay] last year… and give them games, big games as well.

The manager has to take a lot of credit for that. That’s the constant challenge though isn’t it? That’s what everyone wants to see, that next one.

“They say it’s getting harder. But that’s a challenge for us as a club and for English football – you might not get tens and twenties, you might get five or six players – but it’s got to keep happening.”

Carrick added, “At the end of the day the academies are there to produce players and to give kids a chance of getting in first teams. Especially at United; you can’t ignore the history and traditions.

When people ask me: ‘What’s my role now [at the club]?’ That’s a big part of the club. You can’t just neglect the history of the club and what it stands for. And bringing players through is a huge part of that. It’s always been that one, two, three, four – more players in some eras.

That’s how it is and that’s how it should be. That’s the people in the academy constantly striving towards that and taking a pride in that. I think credit has to go to the club for Marcus and the amount of games that he has played.”

Manchester United’s next fixture is a Premier League clash against Chelsea on Saturday.