Carrick says important to 'digest' changes at Man Utd ahead of Everton clash

Michael Carrick says it has been important to "digest" the changes at Manchester United as they head into the Everton game.

United are aiming to maintain their unbeaten run under Carrick with four wins and a draw so far.

They have had a long break from the draw away to West Ham until Monday's game, and Carrick believes that they have been able to make use of it.

He said: "We have tried to make the break important. When there is change and after the month we had together it was important to have a couple of days to digest, take it in, where they have trained a bit and taken a few days off, trained a bit again.

"Keeping the balance right, keeping the rhythm and the sharpness, the focus and I have to say the boys have been really good in training again."

There will be other long spells without a game before the end of the season, due to United not playing in Europe, and Carrick was non-commital over whether they would try and look for a friendly.

"Moving forward the fixtures have thrown up some mixtures of gaps between games so it is just about adapting we'll see what happens especially with the internationals and a break, we will manage it as we go and try and make the best of it," he said.

Carrick also spoke of the importance of "balance" after being asked in a pre-match press conference if there was "disappointment" over the draw at West Ham.

"I think we've got to be balanced, not getting too carried away with winning games and certainly not getting carried away if we don't come away with the three points," he said.

"There has to be an understanding that games are tough to win in this league and it's proven not just for us.

"I think a lot of the performance in terms of the control, how we went about the (West Ham) game, it was a very good game, it got open towards the end when we were chasing it a little bit but we looked dangerous and scoring a late goal was a big positive so it was a big point for us.

"Certainly we wanted to win the game but we are not thinking it was all bad or a big negative, we were pretty balanced going into the game and coming out of it."