Man Utd should dance with the devil in Conte after Carrick cosiness | OneFootball

Michael Carrick, very obviously, is not the problem at Manchester United. Nor, sadly, is he likely to be the answer.

There probably is no single manager to individually remedy all of the ills at Old Trafford. A coach can’t change the ‘unpleasant’ ownership or the unaccountable executives. Right now, all any United boss can achieve is to inspire a capable but flawed squad to perform greater than the sum of its parts.

Carrick, like some others before him, prompted a swift and dramatic improvement over 17 games through the second half of last season. But when the time comes to build something more sustainable, Carrick is the latest to confront the reality that United simply aren’t built for sustainable.

Carrick may yet discover a winning formula. For the sake of English coaches, those with a vaguely neutral standpoint ought to hope he can. But who truly believes that is a likely prospect?

His success as an interim manager was built on identifying a fix that only one man in the world – his predecessor – could not see while adopting a predominantly vibes-based approach to management that has served previous caretakers so well at Old Trafford.

Vibes – as we know from previous United reigns – do not tend to last. For sustainable success, it has be fortified with tactical, mental or physical fortitude – all three, ideally – and Carrick’s United seem to possess an insufficient quantity of any of those traits.

So while INEOS stumble between rakes while burning the wrong bridges, and the Glazers neglect to even offer the impression of giving a f***, inevitably, the rest of us can ponder which manager might be next when United reach for the reset button within easiest reach.

As ever, it is not an inspiring list of potential candidates.

There is an all-too-obvious name: Eddie Howe.

Obvious not in the sense that he is best qualified or suited to what may be an impossible job anyway. But Howe’s face, as inoffensive and unobjectionable as it is, probably couldn’t appeal to United’s current ownership any more if it had Fred The Red tattooed on it.

After the vibes guy, United tend to go for a tactician. But if they are ever to emerge from their doom loop, they should trust a manager who, initially at least, will take players and executives out of their comfort zone.

‘Someone like Jose Mourinho?’ I hear you ask. And may I say, the cynicism doesn’t suit you.

Mourinho was proved right about many things at United, but United were not ready for Mourinho. Back in 2016, the post-Sir Alex Ferguson era was still in its infancy. It was assumed success was inevitable because, under Fergie, it was. For Ed Woodward, his cronies and too many of the players, all that cage rattling was unseemly and unnecessary. No one with any authority had sussed that United’s aura went with Ferguson.

Now, even if they still don’t yet know it, United need a bit of a bastard. Someone with the clout, credentials and intensity to push the execs above them and pull along the players below them.

Which brings us to Antonio Conte.

There is talk in Italy that the 57-year-old has been sounded out about the United role, though other reports closer to home say the United board retain their faith in Carrick.

That’s good. Because the former club captain deserves some more time to assert himself as permanent manager. United did not envisage being backed into a corner by Carrick’s initial success this summer but once there, they were obliged to provide the tools he – or anyone else – needed to continue their progress.

United failed to do that. Their ‘best in class’ recruitment brains are, apparently, incapable of focusing on more than one area of the squad to strengthen per window. Last year, it was the attack. This summer, their midfield. By refusing to get around to the defence – the same one Erik ten Hag has at his disposal four years ago – until at least 2027, they have doomed Carrick to fail.

But United know Carrick won’t complain about his players or his superiors. Not publicly at least. Right now, Carrick, ever the diplomat, is working to appease everyone but pleasing almost no one.

Shifting from Carrick’s calmness to the ferocity of Conte would be a seismic shock for almost everyone at Old Trafford. But is that not what is required to lift United from their cycle of lacklustre and mediocrity?

Conte wins. And United ought to know better than most that it’s easier to build while winning.

As a manager, Conte has six title triumphs to his name, including four with four different clubs – Juventus, Chelsea, Inter and Napoli – since United last won the Premier League.

Repeatedly, the Italian has taken over underwhelming, underperforming teams and turned them into winners. United value Premier League experience in their recruits – Conte inherited a Chelsea side that finished 10th in 2015/16 and made them 93-point champions within a year.

Premier League table while Conte managed Chelsea

Gone, almost certainly, would be the passiveness that has taken over United teams in the modern era. Conte’s teams, in and out of possession, are nothing if not aggressive, the winning ones always a reflection of their manager.

He brings an identity, but not one so radical that he cannot adapt. Conte’s teams are underpinned by non-negotiable principles, the sort that can be passed on to successors, rather than being overburdened by a particular philosophy.

United are still too soon out of the Amorim era for any of that silliness, though the irony of Conte’s preference for three-at-the-back is hard to ignore. But with his style and shape, Conte is a pragmatist, not a dogmatist.

The things he won’t compromise on would put him on collision course with United almost immediately. Some of the players would not relish the uptick in intensity in training, especially after Carrick’s more easy-going approach, and the board are known not to appreciate having their decisions and methods tested or questioned.

Which is precisely what has prompted the stasis that the Red Devils need to be shaken out of. Conte is more likely than most to achieve that, but the rampant self-preservation that plagues United from the very top down means they almost certainly would not give him the chance.