Carrick: Looking to progress

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Michael Carrick has disagreed with John Terry's claim that Manchester United will find it difficult to improve this season.

Chelsea captain Terry stated his opinion earlier this week that many of United's players had been playing at their peak for the last two seasons.

Terry added that he expected his side to be stronger than last season, when the Blues finished two points behind United in second.

Carrick is confident that he personally will continue to progress, while he insists that his team-mates will also be ready for the challenge of defending their title.

"I want to keep improving, be successful and win more things," the midfielder told the Manchester Evening News.

"Hopefully, that will drive us on to more success this season. It is harder in the sense that all the other teams have improved and are getting better.

"We've been champions two years on the spin and are even more of a scalp, so teams are really up for it. We managed to overcome that challenge last season and that success drives you on.

"I think we will improve this season, as well as other teams and it's who can do it over the course of a season.

"We've managed to do it the past couple of years and it's the test to do it again."

Incredible

United triumphed in the Champions League as well as the Premier League last season and will be hoping to become the first club to win the competition in consecutive years.

However, Carrick accepts that it will be extremely difficult to repeat the European success this term.

"The big clubs are always going to be in there towards the end of the season and it is really tough," he said.

"Those type of things are won and lost on really small things, as we saw in the final last year so you need that bit of luck.

"We've shown we can do it once, so we will try to do it again. If we were to do it again this season, two years in a row, it would be absolutely incredible. But we've got to perform and see how far it takes us."