{"id":700305,"date":"2026-07-19T18:09:12","date_gmt":"2026-07-19T18:09:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/700305\/"},"modified":"2026-07-19T18:09:12","modified_gmt":"2026-07-19T18:09:12","slug":"man-utd-michael-carrick-wowed-by-two-gems-including-one-who-played-in-unnatural-role","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/700305\/","title":{"rendered":"Man Utd: Michael Carrick wowed by two gems, including one who played in unnatural role"},"content":{"rendered":"

Manchester United<\/a> manager Michael Carrick has raved about Jacob Devaney and Tyler Fletcher after the defeat to Wrexham.<\/p>\n

Man Utd<\/a> kicked off their pre-season campaign with a 1-0 loss to Wrexham at the Olympic Stadium in Helsinki on Saturday afternoon.<\/p>\n

Sam Smith\u2019s goal just before half-time proved to be the difference between the Premier League club and the Championship outfit.<\/p>\n

After the match, Man Utd boss Carrick<\/a> highlighted the positives and underlined the performance of Devaney and Fletcher.<\/p>\n

Devaney is only 19 years of age and spent the second half of last season on loan at Scottish club St. Mirren.<\/p>\n

Despite being a midfielder by trade, the teenager played in defence after coming on as a substitute for the second half, leaving Carrick hugely impressed.<\/p>\n

READ: Lewis Hall transfer preference between Man Utd and Chelsea emerges<\/a><\/p>\n

Jacob Devaney impresses Michael Carrick<\/p>\n

Carrick told MUTV, as relayed by The Manchester Evening News<\/a>: \u201cI was really pleased with the second-half team.<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought they controlled the game really well against a team that\u2019s not easy to play against, and makes you work for it, and they can play long into.<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought that, in general, the boys took responsibility and showed their quality. Again, that final bit of trying to break down a lot of bodies behind the ball, at this stage of pre-season it\u2019s not easy to find that sharpness. I think they can really be proud of themselves.<\/p>\n

\u201cJD playing centre-half, it\u2019s not natural to him, he\u2019s played there a little bit, but not a lot and I thought he did ever so well.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe had a really successful few months up there [in Scotland] and it was good to see him kind of take that next step. And you could see today the confidence and the assurance in his game, even though he was playing a slightly different position.<\/p>\n

READ MORE: Man Utd \u2018in talks with Tottenham\u2019 over signing English gem and want deal \u2018done quickly\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cHe was vocal, he was commanding and, yeah, I liked a lot of what he did there.\u201d<\/p>\n

Michael Carrick praises Tyler Fletcher<\/p>\n

Like Devaney, Tyler Fletcher, too, is 19, plays as a midfielder and came on as a substitute for the second half of the match against Wrexham.<\/p>\n

The son of former Man Utd and Scotland international midfielder Darren Fletcher, the midfielder was the captain of the Red Devils for the second 45 minutes.<\/p>\n

Carrick said about Fletcher: \u201cHe\u2019s had an eventful three or four months, really.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe had a couple of weeks off [after the World Cup].<\/p>\n

\u201cHe didn\u2019t want long off.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe wanted to get back into it, and again, I think he stepped into the game and took that responsibility.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe led the team in the second half really well.\u201d<\/p>\n

READ NEXT: Alvarez or Kroupi to Arsenal? Top 10 available strikers includes Man City and Chelsea stars<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Manchester United manager Michael Carrick has raved about Jacob Devaney and Tyler Fletcher after the defeat to Wrexham.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":700306,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[448,59,348,349,72217,50,221,101,56,1955,54,55],"class_list":["post-700305","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-front-page","tag-gb","tag-home-page","tag-manchester-united","tag-michael-carrick","tag-news","tag-premier-league","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-uncategorized","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/700305","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=700305"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/700305\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/700306"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=700305"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=700305"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=700305"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}