Manchester United defender Noussair Mazraoui has opened up on life at Old Trafford under Michael Carrick and his backroom staff.
Noussair Mazraoui lines up pre-match
Noussair Mazraoui lines up pre-match
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Noussair Mazraoui believes the upturn in Manchester United's form this season has been helped by the fact they're being led by a head coach who "feels the value of the club". United have won five of Michael Carrick's six games as interim head coach, and they can overtake Aston Villa in third with a win over Crystal Palace today.
Carrick's impressive start means he is now favourite to secure the job on a permanent basis, and calls for him to be appointed the club's full-time head coach will grow louder if he guides United to Champions League qualification.
Mazraoui reflected on Carrick's opening six weeks as United head coach, and the Morocco international revealed how his history with the club has helped United to climb the Premier League table.
"He has a big history at the club. He knows the club really, really well. You see and you feel that in this type of coaching and the words he's saying to us in his meetings," Mazraoui told the United Review. "
"You really see that he knows the club, really feels the value of the club, because he has a great history here. He won big prizes, so he knows how it is in the good times, in the bad times, and you just see and feel that, and I think we also show that through these last games, of course.
"That's not by luck or anything, that's more quality and his understanding of the club rather than anything else."
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Jonathan Woodgate arrived at Old Trafford when Carrick was appointed in January, and Mazraoui lauded the impact of the backroom staff.
"He's really positive," he said. "He's really, really clear. The whole staff is like on [a] line. They know what they want and they're telling us what they want. Really clear and really positive, in a way which you really understand."
Having hung up his boots at the end of the 2024/25 season, Jonny Evans was appointed head of loans and pathways at United, a role he stepped down from in December. He returned to Old Trafford just a month later following the departure of Ruben Amorim, and is now a key part of Carrick's backroom staff.
Mazraoui chuckled when asked about being coached by someone he called a teammate only last season, but claimed there has been very little change in their relationship since Evans became a coach.
"Yeah, that's funny, of course, that change," he added. "Especially when I arrived, I knew him as my teammate, and I have quite a good relationship with Jonny.
"I spoke a lot with him as a teammate, but I already saw him [as more senior], like because of his age, the respect was really, really high. So, basically nothing really changed."
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