Michael Carrick explained he wants Manchester United to play with emotion and excitement after hearing Lisandro Martinez say the new head coach’s approach had touched his heart.

A month that started with Ruben Amorim’s acrimonious exit after 14 underwhelming months in charge ended with the Red Devils riding the crest of a wave, having secured a pair of stunning wins.

Carrick has been handed the reins for the remainder of the campaign and started life in charge with an impressive 2-0 derby triumph against Manchester City before last weekend shocking Premier League leaders Arsenal 3-2 in the capital.

Influential defender Martinez heaped praise on the head coach ahead of Sunday’s match against Fulham, including saying he will give the former midfielder everything as he had touched his heart.

When those comments were put to Carrick, the United boss smiled and said: “Yeah, well, you’ve got to play with feeling.

“You’ve got to play with emotion, you’ve got to play with excitement, so there’s definitely that side of things and it’s something we speak about.

“The tactical side, the technical side’s one thing, but the things I’ve just touched on is totally something else.

“The boys have been there. In training and in games and in meetings and everything around the place, they’ve been there in everything we’ve asked of them.

“Licha’s epitomised that in terms of how he’s gone about every day and certainly in the games, but we’re definitely aware of what it’s taken to have the couple of weeks we’ve had.

“A couple of weeks is a couple of weeks, you know. It’s good, but it’s two weeks and we’re definitely aware of that. It’s something we want to, and we need to, extend for longer.

“So, respecting the game, respecting what it takes to win games and how hard it is and how good a team Fulham are. That’s definitely on the front of our minds.”

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United head into the Fulham match without Patrick Dorgu, who scored a wonder goal at Arsenal before sustaining a hamstring injury that could reportedly rule him out for 10 weeks.

Losing the fleet-footed wide man is a blow for the Red Devils, who remain without defender Matthijs de Ligt but have welcomed frontman Joshua Zirkzee back to the group.

“Josh is back training this week, which is good news,” Carrick said. “He’s been out for a short amount of time, but first kind of training with us since we’ve been here, so that’s great to have Josh back.

“Pat, unfortunately, is going to be out for a period of time. We’re still working through how long that’s going to be, so we’ll have to see. Disappointing, he’s had such a big couple of weeks, Pat.

“[De Ligt] has not trained with us yet, so just working through the process really of getting him back as soon as we can.”