Strong league finish could land Carrick top job, but United are in false position | OneFootball

As Manchester United slide inexorably into next season’s Champions League, it’s hard not to think that barring a biblical capitulation Michael Carrick has coached his way into a permanent position in the Old Trafford dugout.

The interim head coach won’t be counting his chickens just yet, given United’s propensity for abrupt self-destruction. But should he get the club back to the top table of European football he will surely have passed the audition set – formally or informally – by INEOS when he was brought in to replace Ruben Amorim in February.

Great achievement

What discussions took place during his appointment, and what conversations have happened since, is anyone’s guess. But it is reasonable to assume that securing Champions League football was the primary task set, and therefore that achieving it could lead to the permanent role.

United are two wins away from securing what would undeniably be a huge feather in the cap of the relatively inexperienced manager. He was anything but a sure thing; this was no short-term deal for an established winner, no six-month contract for Jose Mourinho.

The former Middlesborough boss turning around a floundering United and steering it to at least a top five finish would be impressive however you slice it.

If the bottom falls out at this point it would be disappointing bordering on devastating, but it would deliver the underwhelming league position many imagined when he took over.

Low standard

That said, United are far from the only flounderers. Liverpool have mounted a historically pathetic defence of their Premier League title, a disastrous Chelsea have now lost five in a row without scoring, and Aston Villa are gently burning out while fighting on several fronts.

The way is clearing for underdogs like Brighton and Hove Albion, Brentford and Bournemouth to mount serious bids for Europe, revealing their own meteoric rises at the same time as the declines of everyone bar Arsenal and Manchester City.

It is therefore a distinctly low-calibre pack that United are currently leading, which risks rendering a potential high finish something of a false position, clearing a bar set only at knee height. The thought of the current United side, in their current form, facing Champions League opposition is terrifying.

Cause for concern

If Carrick’s side had maintained the breakneck form which swept aside both title contenders in his first two games in charge, then there would be little to discuss. An emphatic three months to ease into a third-place finish would certainly have landed the Englishman the job, and rightly so.

That he could still end up with it despite a worrying downturn in form starts to become a concern. What if he gets the nod but can’t reverse that trajectory? Time on the training ground clearly isn’t a magic bullet – there was plenty of that before the dismal defeat to Leeds United, which contained some of the very worst football of the Carrick era.

A more positive take would be that despite working with a squad with some glaring holes, Carrick will have done the job. A win is a win; you can only play what’s in front of you. History will look back on a league position, not form.

It’s hard to argue against appointing a coach who has delivered, in the circumstances, the best possible result and there is a strong case to make that his achievement, however many caveats there are, deserves a show of faith in return.

This summer will be make or break. Strong and decisive recruitment is essential to equip next season’s head coach – whoever that may be – with the tools to drag United back into the conversation for silverware.

In the current circumstances that could very well be the unassuming Englishman, but if he gets the nod then Slot, Rosenior and Villa’s busy fixture list could expect mentions in his acceptance speech.

Featured image George Wood via Getty Images

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