Carrick singles out one Man Utd youth player for his 'confidence' in preseason

Michael Carrick singled out one Manchester United player for praise over his "confidence" after the friendly with Leeds United.

The United boss is continuing to experiment during preseason and give players minutes to get them in shape for the start of the campaign.

Against Leeds, Carrick introduced players returning from the World Cup and also Academy players who are looking to step up.

Jack Fletcher was given a chance in midfield alongside Andrey Santos and showed promising signs with his link up but it was also a learning curve as he was caught out at times.

Harry Amass, whose future is uncertain, also started at left back in the game in Dublin which ended with United winning on penalties. And then in the second half several other youth players were also introduced.

Afterwards Carrick said he was impressed by the youngsters and also singled out Fletcher for praise with the confidence to go forward to take a penalty.

He stated: "I thought they did really well all of them in different ways, and even those that didn't go according to plan. I think that is part of learning and that is why we wanted to give a lot of them the opportunity to feel it in that kind of area and atmosphere and that level really, where there are two really good teams going at it.

"So in that way I was really encouraged and with Jack stepping up to take the penalty and to have the confidence to do that was great.

"There are times when things don't go your way but you have to have that belief to keep trying, I was delighted with all of them to be honest."

Nous Mazraoui also praised the youth players afterwards. He said: "They did really well I already gave them a compliment, I am not going to give any names because their confidence is going to fly, but I think they did really well and the experience in those kind of games will really help them."