Michael Carrick defends Manchester United star after he was hooked at half-time

Michael Carrick was asked about Patrick Dorgu’s half-time substitution after Man Utd’s defeat against Hull on Saturday.

Manchester United head coach Michael Carrick has no concerns about Patrick Dorgu following his half-time substitution against Hull on Saturday.

Dorgu had attempted three shots by half-time at the MKM Stadium, which was more than any other player, but they lacked quality and Carrick replaced him with Marcus Rashford for the second half.

The Denmark international was signed to play as a left wing-back in Ruben Amorim’s system, but he has been relocated to the wing by Carrick.

Dorgu has exclusively played as an attacker during Carrick’s tenure, but he is now set to face competition from Rashford, who offered more in the second half against Hull.

When Carrick was asked if he would have to put an arm around Dorgu following his half-time substitution, he said: “Pat’s fine, we love him to bits. He’s a fantastic player, Pat. He’s a great character.

“He’s a big part of what we do, and he will be. So it was just one of those decisions. It’s nothing personal. Sometimes you’ve just got to make them, you know, trying to do something a little bit different.”

United could not find a way to score after the change and Benjamin Sesko looked isolated when he was introduced with just over 20 minutes remaining.

“We changed things around a little bit in the second half and we kept trying to find a different way, a little bit of finding the spark. It happens, it does happen, it has happened before,” said Carrick.

“We’ve just got to keep finding those solutions, you know, and a little bit is that Ben’s been out for quite some time and hasn’t trained an awful lot. So there are kind of little bits of reasons for it.

“Bryan [Mbeumo] has been really good for a lot of pre-season and was one of our better players again today.”