Amid the luxurious settings of Carton House Hotel in Maynooth on the outskirts of Dublin, Michael Carrick sat down with journalists to talk through the major issues around Manchester United right now.Carrick is measured in his approach, but as he relaxed into the conversation he gave the biggest insight into his thinking since he became United’s permanent head coach in May.With the Amazon documentary cameras rolling, he talked transfers, Marcus Rashford, squad balance, £100million players, Kobbie Mainoo, his midfield vision with Youri Tielemans and Andrey Santos, the left-back position, academy players and whether United really can challenge for the title this campaign.The Athletic details the key quotes and the context around them…More transfers?The burning question for supporters right now is whether United are going to make further forays into the market. So far, Santos and Tielemans are the only outfield signings and while each has looked good in pre-season there are concerns about whether Carrick’s team are ready for their reintroduction to the Champions League.Carrick was asked whether he would be happy with his squad if the window ended now.“I think we’ve got a pretty good balance in all when you lay the squad out, but yeah, of course, we would like more,” he replied. “We would like more, we need to keep pushing for more.”He would not get drawn on numbers but essentially confirmed left-back is a position he wants to strengthen. Asked directly on a signing to support Luke Shaw, he said, “Listen, there’s one or two areas where we’d like to improve and we feel that there’s the possibility to improve, but again, that needs to be something that we can do that makes us better and improves the group, whether that’s quality or whether that’s a little bit of depth. That’s something we’ve got to manage. That’s pretty obvious.”(Markku Ulander/Lehtikuva/AFP via Getty Images)On the prospect of a third midfield signing, he said: “We always want to strengthen in every way. It depends on if it’s going to help us, and in what ways. It can’t be for the sake of it, but of course we need to improve. It’s something that we’re working towards, for sure.”Carrick is right in saying that across his 4-2-3-1 formation, United have two players for every position, although some spots are filled by academy players or by shuffling people from their preferred role. So ideally, signings would arrive to increase the quality in depth.Left-back is high on the agenda now, but whether United make a real play for Newcastle United’s Lewis Hall or Arsenal’s Myles Lewis-Skelly remains to be seen, given the money required.Jorge Salinas, at Racing Santander, would be more of a prospective signing at lower cost.Harry Amass started against Leeds United, but there is an expectation he departs, with a loan more likely given his game-time in positive pre-season.United remain weighing up targets in midfield and at centre-forward.Carrick added: “We’re not naive, we know what we’re going into, but we feel we’re a stronger group now than we were last season in many ways, so we’ve just got to capitalise on that.”Midfield make-upThe perceived wisdom is that United need an athletic midfielder to supplement their current options, but the likelihood is that Santos and Tielemans partner each other away at Hull City on the opening day of the Premier League.They are two players who predominantly rely on their technique and passing to influence matches, and that quickness of thought and execution has been seen to good effect in pre-season.(Ash Donelon/Manchester United via Getty Images)It was the type of midfield Carrick himself played in alongside Paul Scholes. United won six trophies and reached three Champions League finals in four years with that approach, and Carrick suggested he is trying to implement a similar style as head coach.“Just naturally, we all see the game for certain things,” he said. “Your eye takes you to different parts of the game. We can all watch the game and see something a little bit different.“Being a midfielder and how I’ve seen the game, in some ways it helps because you’re kind of connected to all parts of the team over time. I’m not saying you have to be a midfielder to be a good coach, but I think it’s how my reference points are in some ways, and what I feel has worked over the years, what kind of football I think the supporters want to see as well, and hopefully that fits together.“Naturally, midfield is a big part of the teams that I’ve coached.”He is thrilled so far with the impact of Santos, 22, and Tielemans, 29. “Andrey, for such a young man to come in the way he’s come in, his character, his personality is a dream,” Carrick said. “He’s so positive, so mature, so switched on; he wants to learn. He comes in straight away and he’s trying to help other players and communicate in games. He has that personality where he’s got a real substance to him.