Man Utd couldn’t ignore Carrick. Now they must back him… | OneFootball

It’s Carrick, we know…

Manchester United have concluded their five-month search for a manager by appointing the one they already have. It is the right decision.

At least, it is right now. In six months or a year, giving Michael Carrick the permanent job might be viewed as yet another managerial mistake among a litany of them at Old Trafford. But for United, and everyone else, there are no dead certs, no candidate who can credibly guarantee success.

So the sensible bet is the one to have demonstrated he can deliver. Which, to this point, Carrick has.

Under his interim leadership, United have been better in the Premier League than any other team outside of Manchester. Which is impressive even without the context of the mess Carrick inherited.

United were, as was becoming their default state, a mess. Ruben Amorim had them bobbing around the European places, and when their faltering rivals gave them opportunities to seize a top four place – necessary then for a Champions League place, before you could find them in cereal boxes – they were utterly incapable of taking their chance.

It took Carrick one whole game to break United’s ceiling under Amorim. And from there, they have never looked down.

It has be acknowledged how easy Amorim made himself to follow. The Portuguese manager’s dogmatic devotion to his precious three-at-the-back system and how it handicapped his squad presented Carrick some of the easiest early wins imaginable.

Just by playing players – some very good ones – in their best positions in a formation that suits their collective qualities, Carrick prompted the simplest of improvements.

He hasn’t sought to complicate things since. Unlike some managers, never has he appeared tempted to show how clever he is.

It would have been easy to fall into that trap during what was effectively a five-month trial period. It was always going to take that whole period to prove he is capable. But anyone seeking to make a different judgement would have done so after his first two games: a Manchester derby, then a trip to leaders Arsenal.

Very few, even at United – especially at United, probably – will have expected Carrick to start with two wins from those two, then four out of four, but the team and the manager have ridden the wave since, 10 wins, three draws in 15 matches carrying them all the way back to the Champions League.

Carrick cannot deny that his cause has been helped by the lack of stand-out, available alternatives. If Luis Enrique was to have declared a wish to manage United next season, he almost certainly would be.

But with the big beast managers either unable or unwilling to take the job this summer, keeping Carrick makes complete sense rather than looking to another coach on the up, yet to prove themselves on a stage like Old Trafford in the brightest spotlight.

Now, though, with a two-year deal signed, the hard work really starts for Carrick and his crew. Because the only security that contract provides is a pay-off if United’s progress stalls or the players’ tune out.

Neither of which is an unrealistic possibility. The attention span at United – and inside every big dressing room – is short and getting shorter, while the expectation over the course of his new deal compared to the last goes from just taking part in the Champions League to winning the Premier League.

Fortunately, United don’t need Carrick to spearhead a revolution, but refinement can often be trickier. And however long he remains in charge, the job will never be easier than he’s had it so far.

Come next season, it will be Carrick’s United. Over the summer, Ratcliffe, Wilcox, Berrada and co. need to give him a chance of succeeding by recruiting the volume and quality of players necessary to compete on three more fronts than he has had to so far.

And he has to build a United team in his image while winning. Which no one yet knows if Carrick is capable of.

But his body of work so far, combined with the absence of obvious alternatives, makes it necessary to find out.