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Michael Carrick says Manchester United are prepared for the start of the Premier League season despite ending pre-season with a frustrating 4-2 loss to Ruben Amorim’s AC Milan.

United have had an inconsistent summer, suffering defeats to AC Milan and Wrexham but also recording emphatic victories over Rosenborg and Atletico Madrid.

However, the final warm-up match finished on a particularly disappointing note as United surrendered the lead twice and then conceded two goals in the space of three minutes on their way to defeat against Milan.

With only a week to go before their opening Premier League fixture against Hull City, and with injuries beginning to pile up, there are understandable concerns over whether United are fully ready for a season in which they hope to challenge on four fronts.

Carrick, though, remains convinced his team can begin the campaign strongly, even while accepting that the display against Milan fell below the required standard.

Speaking to MUTV after the match, he said: "We're disappointed with today. We didn't play well today. There's reasons for that in some ways [but] we need to learn from it, we need to improve.

"Some of the boys were playing their first minutes. There's different reasons anyway. No excuses, we just didn't play very well today.

"But on the whole, we're ready for next week. A lot of the boys will be better for the minutes.

“We've done a lot of work on the training pitch. I think the performances in the games have been pretty good. So, we're still in good spirits going into next week."

Among the encouraging signs for United was that Bruno Fernandes and Youri Tielemans both played the full 90 minutes, while Marcus Rashford, Kobbie Mainoo and Lisandro Martinez all came off the bench in the second half to make their first appearances of the summer.

United could still be without injured duo Mason Mount and Benjamin Sesko for the trip to Hull. It is also still unclear whether Carrick’s squad will add any more new signings before the summer window closes.

Taking everything into account, Carrick was firm in his view that it has still been a worthwhile pre-season for United: "It's been very good. I think there's a lot of positives to take from it. A lot of the performances, I think the group has grown and got stronger."