Man United shelve plans for mid-season friendly in Middle East

But since the turn of the year, the appetite for such a trip has waned somewhat. When United were considering the matter this season, the upcoming week was marked as an option.

United play away to West Ham United in the Premier League on Tuesday and then have a 13-day gap to their next fixture, against Everton, because they are not in FA Cup action this weekend.

The Kuwait Football Association claimed that it had been asked to organise a friendly for United in their country for February 12, but United have not verified that statement and it is unknown how serious the supposed offer was.

“I can’t organise an event for Manchester United’s arrival during 17 or 18 days,” the Kuwait Football Association president, Ahmad Al-Yousef, said at the end of January.

The only other period in which United could get away is the week after the next international break, which comes before the FA Cup quarter-finals, although by that point, the team will have only seven Premier League matches left, so travelling while in the middle of a push for European qualification makes little sense.

Another option on the table for Amorim’s successor, Michael Carrick, was to take the players away for a warm-weather training camp after the West Ham game, but he decided against that.

Instead, most United players are likely to get up to four days off this week and then report back to their Carrington training base to begin preparations for their match at the Hill Dickinson Stadium on Monday, February 23.

Thanks to United’s elimination from the FA Cup and Carabao Cup at the hands of Brighton & Hove Albion and Grimsby Town respectively, they have only 13 matches left this season, all but two of which take place on a weekend.

Carrick thinks that the extra time he is having with his players on the training pitches is helping his team become more defensively solid. Although United conceded twice against Arsenal and Fulham, they recorded clean sheets in the other two matches of Carrick’s tenure, the wins over Fulham and Tottenham Hotspur, and now sit in fourth position, five points above sixth-placed Liverpool.

In Amorim’s 21 matches in charge this season, United kept a clean sheet against only Sunderland and Newcastle United.

“It’s pleasing for sure and it’s easier to win games without having to score so many goals every week,” Carrick, who is contracted until the end of the season, said. “We do seem to be a team that can cause a lot of problems and create opportunities and score goals, so it’s definitely getting the balance right.

“There’s still things to improve on, it’s definitely something we’ve focused on, trying to be better as a team collectively when we don’t have the ball, but in three or four weeks, you’re not going to fix everything and all of a sudden look perfect.”

After winning all four of his matches in charge, Carrick is enjoying his time at the helm.

“You’ve got to enjoy the buzz of winning, right? That’s what we’re in it for,” the 44-year-old said. “You’ve got to manage the highs of it and you’ve got to enjoy the feeling of winning a game.”

Carrick will be without the injured trio of Mason Mount, Patrick Dorgu and Matthijs de Ligt for the match at the London Stadium.

De Ligt has missed the past 13 matches with a back injury, and Carrick admits that the 26-year-old Dutchman is still not ready to return to action.

“Mason will be back for the Everton game,” Carrick said of Mount. “It feels like Matthijs has been away for a long time at the moment, so we’ll see how he develops. He’s positive, he’s moving in the right direction, but Mason’s a little bit closer than him.”

West Ham v Manchester United

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