Manchester United are expected to sack Michael Carrick, and the only real question left is when the board says it out loud. BBC Sport reports that no final decision has been taken, but that chief executive Omar Berrada and director of football Jason Wilcox are now likely to recommend a change to Sir Jim Ratcliffe and the Glazers. The international break was supposed to be a chance to assess things calmly. The assessment has not gone well for the head coach.
Sunday's 4-4 draw at home to Aston Villa was the sort of afternoon that tells you everything about a team in trouble. United came back twice. They also conceded four. One win in ten league games leaves them 18th, a single point above Crystal Palace at the bottom, and only Palace and Ipswich have shipped more than United's 19 goals. You have to go back to 1986-87 to find a worse start to a top-flight season at Old Trafford.
A decision the club has already delayed once
United had this conversation three weeks ago. After the 3-0 home defeat by Bournemouth on 25 October, the board came close to acting and chose not to, reasoning that Carrick and the squad deserved a run of games to prove they could fix it themselves. Three matches later the ledger reads one win, one draw, one defeat. Not catastrophic. Not nearly enough either, from a squad assembled at this cost.
Carrick signed a two-year deal in the summer. He was popular, he knew the building, and his interim spell in 2021 had bought him enormous goodwill. All of that has drained away in fifteen matches, of which United have won three in all competitions.
Who the club has already spoken to
BBC Sport reported in October that United had sounded out Eddie Howe and Julian Nagelsmann. Antonio Conte is known to want the job. And multiple sources say Mauricio Pochettino would be open to Old Trafford, which is the name that keeps surfacing in the papers. The Argentine extended his contract with the United States in August, though that deal is thought to contain release clauses covering a handful of elite jobs. The US play Haiti over two legs in a Concacaf Nations League play-off on 14 and 18 November, so nothing can move there immediately.
How it fell apart this fast
The forty-eight hours before the opening game at Hull did more damage than anyone realised at the time. Benjamin Sesko was still working back from the shin problem that ended his previous season early, then Amad Diallo went down with an ankle injury that cost him seven weeks. Carrick lost his striking alternative and had to push Bryan Mbeumo wide right. Matheus Cunha came in and kept dropping into the pocket Bruno Fernandes wants for himself. United looked blunt, and they looked physically second-best against a newly promoted side.
Jan Aage Fjortoft, interviewing for Viaplay, said afterwards the team had lacked passion. Carrick called that ridiculous and pointed out it was one game. He was right about the sample size and wrong about the direction of travel. A week later United were losing at home to Ipswich until Marcelino Nunez slipped in his own half, Cunha pounced, and Fernandes equalised before completing a hat-trick in a 5-2 win. Fernandes has scored once in the league since, a penalty against Villa.
Then came Everton, where United led twice and still drew, Ainsley Maitland-Niles firing in from distance deep into stoppage time after Sesko had looked to have won it. Asked how confident he was that the players would respond, Carrick snapped back that it had not been that bad. It got worse. City, down to ten men, beat them anyway with a Haaland goal that Howard Webb later admitted should have been disallowed. Brighton were 2-0 down inside ten minutes in the EFL Cup and won. Lisandro Martinez publicly blamed Wilcox for the summer recruitment. Fernandes criticised the tactics after a 4-1 Champions League defeat by Como in which United conceded inside two minutes, having already conceded inside the first minute against Atletico Madrid.
Carrick dropped his captain for the Bournemouth game and brought him back at Chelsea. United lost both.
Context: Michael Carrick, 45, signed a two-year contract with Manchester United last summer. United are 18th in the Premier League with one win from ten games, their worst start to a top-flight season since 1986-87, and have won three of fifteen matches in all competitions. Source: BBC Sport (Sami Mokbel and Simon Stone).
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