Michael Carrick spoke to the media ahead of Man Utd's game against Arsenal in the Premier League on Sunday.
Solskjaer and Carrick contended for the interim job this season.(Image: 2021 Alex Livesey - Danehouse)
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Michael Carrick has revealed that he has spoken to Ole Gunnar Solskjaer since beating him to the Manchester United interim job. Carrick, Solskjaer and Ruud van Nistelrooy were considered to take charge of United for the remainder of the campaign, but Carrick landed the role.
United sources described Carrick as 'impressive' throughout the interview process, and he made a dream start to his interim role by overseeing a stunning victory against Manchester City last weekend.
Solskjaer has been out of work since being sacked by Besiktas in August. The Norwegian was responsible for Besiktas crashing out of Europe and was axed after just seven months in charge.
Carrick got a first taste of coaching as part of Jose Mourinho's backroom staff and he was retained when Solskjaer took over. Carrick has remained in touch with Solskjaer since working with him during that spell.
When asked whether he'd spoken to Solskjaer, Carrick said: "Yeah, I spoke to him. I'm close, we've been through a lot together, so he's been fully supportive and as you'd expect. He's some man and I respect him an awful lot. He wished us all the best and he was happy that we got the right result."
Discussing whether he would pick Solskjaer's brains, he responded: "I think friendships, you have conversations, I've got a lot of friends in places that I can kind of pick on if I need to be. I'm not one who bothers a lot of people, to be honest. But he's certainly there if ever I need him."
Carrick served as United caretaker after Solskjaer was sacked in November 2021. He left the position with an undefeated record, which included a 3-2 victory against Arsenal, but he does not believe that previous encounter against Mikel Arteta is relevant ahead of this weekend's clash against the Gunners.
Carrick after beating Arsenal in November 2021.(Image: 2021 Manchester United FC)
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"I'll be honest with you, I think the confidence I'm taking going into the game is what we've seen since I've been here between me and my staff in terms of the game itself, training, how the boys have gone about it. Games from three or four years ago. It's done. It's in the past," he said.
"So as much as the experience kind of helps you in certain moments, I think it's a totally different game on Sunday and two teams going into it, looking forward to it in good shape."
Speaking about United's game plan at the Emirates on Sunday, Carrick said: "I think it's just playing to what we feel the game needs, really.
"It's never the same. Even if you come in half time and you've had a good performance for 45 minutes, I'm never one that likes to say same again because it's never, ever the same again. You've got to build on it. So it won't be kind of copy and paste.
"I think there's new elements that need to come into it. We need to be ready, we need to be at our best. And if we are our best and we're there, we feel we've got a good chance."
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