The United interim manager was disgusted by the decision to dismiss the defender for pulling Leeds striker Dominic Calvert-Lewin's hair in Monday's (13.04.26) Premier League clash as he didn't feel the contact was worthy of a straight red card.

Carrick said: "He goes to grab his shirt and ends up touching his hair and the bobble comes out and you end up getting a red card for it.

"It’s not aggressive, there’s no jolt, there’s no tug, no sudden movement. He kind of touches it and glances through it.

"We’ve got to be careful where the game’s going if we’re giving red cards for that.

"Two arms in the face for their first goal and that’s deemed alright. It’s a shocking decision, an absolutely shocking decision."

Carrick was also frustrated at the decision to allow Leeds' opening goal to stand but was left disappointed by his own team's sluggish start during the 2-1 defeat.

He told Sky Sports: "We didn't start the game particularly well. We conceded, which came after Leny Yoro got a forearm smash in the back of his head.

"They didn't decide to overturn that, which was a big moment in the game. We didn't quite have the rhythm, we didn't click. We had some moments but it wasn't there for large parts of the half.

"Sometimes you don't have good spells in games, other times you do. We know we can be better and do things better.

"We'll look at that. But the way we played second half, and could've got something out of the game in the second half, I'm pleased the way we went into that."