Michael Carrick has maintained that the pundits who comment on Manchester United's situation don't know the truth as he rejected certain opinions about the club

Michael Carrick insists the comments that those outside of Manchester United make are not "the truth" as he defended Lisandro Martinez in the aftermath of his fiery remarks.

The Argentine criticised the club's technical director Jason Wilcox and their summer recruitment after their loss to Atletico Madrid on Tuesday night. He's since come out and acknowledged he went about things the wrong way after talking with senior figures at the club.

But his interview came with United desperately out of form and Martinez's outburst has seen several pundits raise questions over the unity at the club and whether the dressing room are privately frustrated with how the summer was handled.

Carrick though maintains that, just because pundits and ex-players choose to cast their opinion on the current state of affairs, it doesn't mean they're correct.

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He said: "Just because people talk from the outside, that doesn't mean it's the truth. The squad today in training was in a fantastic place - that's the truth."

United, who have endured their worst start to a campaign in 40 years, will look to get back to winning ways when they head to Leeds on Sunday. They currently sit 13th having won only one of their six Premier League games so far and Carrick cut off a reporter who claimed it was he who needed the tide to turn.

"I don't need results," he quipped. "We all need results. It's not about me; Manchester United is bigger than an individual, so please, I don't go into every day thinking about me. It's not about any individual player; it's about this football club and its history."

Carrick's latest defeat came in the Spanish capital, but he has praised the way the team stuck at it despite going behind in the opening minute. They remained in the fight and missed several chances to level the contest before Atletico scored late, but the display was proof of the spirit that still exists.

"There's a lot of things that can impact the group in a lot of ways," he said. "From the game itself, you talk about the spirit and belief in the group, the way we started that game, it would have been easy for the game to have got away from us. The way we started to shows there's an underlying spirit."