Michael Carrick delighted as Manchester United cruise past Rosenborg in pre-season
By Joel Masibo, July 25, 2026Manchester United head coach Michael Carrick expressed his satisfaction after watching his side deliver an impressive 5-0 victory over Rosenborg in their second pre-season friendly, praising both the senior squad and the club’s emerging young talents on Friday, July 24, 2026.
The commanding win in Norway came just six days after United suffered a narrow 1-0 defeat to Wrexham in their opening summer fixture. Against a Rosenborg side already deep into its domestic campaign, the Reds showed significant improvement with an energetic and clinical display.
Young winger Shea Lacey opened the scoring in the first half to give United a deserved lead before Joshua Zirkzee produced a brilliant individual effort to double the advantage. Following several substitutions after the hour mark, the youthful replacements maintained the intensity as Jacob Devaney, Harry Amass and Ethan Williams all found the net to complete an emphatic victory.
Carrick’s assessment
Speaking after the match, Carrick was encouraged by the performance and stressed the importance of building fitness while avoiding injuries during pre-season.
“Clean sheet, scoring goals, and everyone, by the looks of it, coming through injury-free is what you want at this stage, really. As much as we want everything to improve and performances to be better all the time, I think keeping players fit and progressing through pre-season is as important as anything. So, two games in, two weeks in, I think we can take where we are and we’re pretty happy. The second half, the younger players coming on, I thought they were fantastic. They played as a team really well and deserve what they got second half.”
Carrick acknowledged that every player is at a different stage of preparation, with some requiring more minutes than others as the coaching staff carefully manages workloads.
“It’s important to build through this pre-season, some players need more minutes than others as they go and we’re managing some players a little bit more than others. I’ve said it before the game, it’s never going to be perfect, two weeks in and you’re kind of building towards that. So, I thought there was a lot of good things, some of the goals were fantastic goals and it’s just as pleasing to keep a clean sheet. So yeah, we’re moving forward nicely.”
Academy players
The United boss reserved special praise for the academy players, saying their confidence and willingness to express themselves were among the biggest positives from the evening.
“This is the best place to be as a footballer when you’re in that zone and you’re confident and that’s obviously my job to try and get the players in that frame of mind. The senior players at this stage, they’re finding their way, but you can see they’re in a good place and kind of getting used to having good results over a period of time, which is good. The younger players, when you see them expressing themselves and being themselves and keep pushing themselves to be better, I think some of the play second half was really, really good. I was delighted to see that from them, because you hope that. They’ve all got potential in different ways, and you want them to fulfil it and keep pushing themselves and they certainly did that.”
Looking ahead
Looking ahead, Carrick believes his squad is progressing well as they continue preparations for the new campaign, with more World Cup players expected to rejoin the group over the coming weeks.
“I think we’re in a good place. I think there’s four weeks to go to the start and we’re gradually getting some boys back from the World Cup as we progress. But I think a little bit of patience and time and trying to keep ahead and as I said, keeping everyone fit but moving forward is a really good direction to go in. And as it stands right now, I think we’re in a pretty good place. So, the boys will get better as we go.” He said.
Manchester United will continue their pre-season preparations with another friendly against Atletico Madrid in Stockholm next weekend as Carrick looks to build further momentum before the new season begins.