Michael Carrick relishing rejuvenated Manchester United firepower

Andy Hampson 03:43 02/12/2014
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  • Back in form: Michael Carrick believes the best of Robin van Persie is yet to come

    Manchester United midfielder Michael Carrick has backed Robin van Persie to get back to his best as the fear factor slowly returns to Old Trafford.

    United produced their most convincing display of the season as they overpowered Hull 3-0 in a one-sided contest on Saturday in

    which Van Persie responded to his critics with a fine goal.

    Van Persie’s form has been indifferent this season and he came in for heavy scrutiny after an ineffectual display – in which he touched the ball just 13 times – in United’s unconvincing win at Arsenal on November 22.

    But a week made a big difference for the Dutchman and he repaid the faith of manager Louis van Gaal with a much-improved performance as Hull were swept aside.

    The 31-year-old threatened on a number of occasions and teed up a goal for Wayne Rooney before capping victory with a powerful leftfoot strike.

    He left the field to a standing ovation from fans after he was replaced by Radamel Falcao – whose availability might have threatened Van Persie’s place – for the final 20 minutes.

    “We all get criticised at certain times and it’s something you have to deal with. The best way to answer it is the way he
    did it against Hull," he said.

    “Robin scored a great goal and hopefully that will be the start of a good run over the weeks to come. When you have got
    him scoring, Wayne scoring and Falcao coming off the bench and nearly scoring, we’ll be a threat to anyone.

    “What Robin and Wayne did against Hull, we’ve seen that happen so often in the past and hopefully we’ll see that in the coming
    weeks again.”

    “I think everyone in the stadium felt it was a good performance and that’s the sort of standard we want to be at – dominating teams and winning.

    “We’ve done it in the past but the past is the past. We need to do it again and hopefully as time goes on we can carry on like this and that fear factor will creep back.”

    Tough test: Stoke City manager Mark Hughes hopes his side will be up to the task at hand against Manchester United

    United will soon get the chance to put that to the test as they host Stoke tonight.

    After back-to-back defeats, Mark Hughes could not have asked for a more difficult task with which to resurrect his side’s fortunes than going up against his old club who have won their last three matches.

    “They seem to have run into a little bit of form unfortunately from our point of view," Hughes lamented.

    “If we’d faced them earlier then maybe it would have been easier, but they’ve had three wins on the trot and they seem to be getting to grips with what the manager wants.”

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