'Not straightforward' - Michael Carrick issues update on possible Manchester United mid-season friendly
Man Utd could play a mid-season friendly match to raise funds in a season without European football.
Michael Carrick insists Manchester United have yet to decide on whether they will play a lucrative mid-season friendly match.
United will have endured a 13-day gap between matches by the time they face Everton in the Premier League on Monday and have another two similar spaces in their fixture schedule on the horizon. United will play just 40 competitive matches across all competitions this season, their lowest number of matches in a full season since 1914/15.
The Reds were knocked out of both the FA Cup and League Cup at the first hurdle, while they also failed to qualify for European competition. It means United are playing the fewest number of first-team matches possible this season, after they played a mammoth 60 matches across all competitions a year ago.
United yet to decide on lucrative friendly match
Manchester United have yet to decide whether they will play a lucrative mid-season friendly match before the end of the campaign. It had been suggested that United could travel to Saudi Arabia to play in a high-profile friendly, after they made roughly £8.7m on a post-season tour of Asia.
Time is running out if United are to schedule a friendly match, and Michael Carrick explained that it was not a 'straightforward' decision despite their reduced fixture schedule.
"Moving forward, it's the fixtures that have thrown up some mixture of gaps between games, really, so just adjusting and adapting," Carrick said in his post-match press conference. "We'll see what kind of comes of that, especially obviously the international and then a bit of a break after that. So we'll manage it as we go, but we'll obviously try and make the best of it."
He added: "It just depends on a lot of things really. I don't think there is a black and white answer with that one. We will make a call and there is an area in between where it would depend on where the game is, what it is like, what time it is, when the fixtures fall. It is not straightforward, but it is something that if we need to look at, we can do, if it is best for the players."
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