Michael Carrick says he is convinced his Manchester United squad has improved following their summer transfer business. United spent the summer window focusing on a midfield overhaul, securing the signings of Andrey Santos from Chelsea, Youri Tielemans from Aston Villa and Carlos Baleba from Brighton. Goalkeeper Karl Darlow also joined the club on a free transfer from Leeds.
The Red Devils' net spend across the transfer window finished at £118m, less than the likes of newly promoted Ipswich and Coventry and Gary Neville was adamant that United need to invest in their defence before the end of the window. Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player However, despite failing to do so, Carrick is confident in the strength of his squad for the remainder of the season. "I think we've brought some really good players into the football club, and improved the squad in different ways, individually but collectively," Carrick said during a charity golf day for his foundation.
You go into the window and when you come out of it, you want to be stronger than you were at the start. I'm convinced we are that. "Transfer windows are never straightforward and this window in particular has been challenging for different reasons.
There's a lot of money being spent in and around the league itself, and I think we've made the most of the situation that we've found ourselves in. "That's the world we live in. Teams at certain points are going to spend a lot of money.
Sometimes it's going to be more than what we spend, sometimes maybe not. We've got to make the most of what we can and understand where we're at. I think we're a very good team, we want to keep getting better." Carrick couldn't have asked for a worse start to the new season as his side were left humiliated by newly promoted Hull City on the opening weekend.
However, after surviving an early scare, they responded with an emphatic 5-2 victory over Ipswich Town in their first home game of the campaign. The former Red Devils midfielder was keen to point out the courage of his squad for bouncing back from such a disappointment, saying it gives him plenty of encouragement moving forward. "Since I came back really and we got the group together, we've lost a couple of games, we've had some setbacks, but the way the boys have dealt with it gives us a lot of courage moving forward," Carrick said.
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