Michael Carrick and his weak ‘fine’ rebuttal only sparks bigger Man Utd questions | OneFootball

Head coach Michael Carrick’s weak attempt to reassure supporters has actually raised more doubts: what is ‘fine’ for Manchester United?

Carrick rightly earned a lot of praise for his work after initially returning to Man Utd as caretaker boss last season, with Champions League qualification and a third-place finish beyond the wildest dreams of supporters when he replaced Ruben Amorim.

But it is also fair to say that the Red Devils legend was a beneficiary of circumstance, with the necessary changes in tactics and personnel post-Amorim obvious even for the most passive of football supporters from the outset.

And with the bonus of only focusing on the Premier League, Carrick (with the returning Kobbie Mainoo as part of a more suitable 4-2-3-1 formation) inspired an immediate and prolonged upturn in Man Utd’s form and performances, thus leaving INEOS in an impossible position when it came to appointing a new permanent manager.

With few top-level alternatives on the market, INEOS had little option but to hand Carrick the job permanently, even though the task of leading Man Utd was always going to be an entirely different animal this season as they returned to competing in all four competitions.

Man Utd stuck to their task of rebuilding their midfield in the summer, but they appeared to have no funds left to bolster a defence which is already being exposed this season.

After three games, Man Utd have collected four points, scored seven goals and conceded six, with a constant threat in attack but frail defence set to be a major theme of their season.

At the weekend, Man Utd would have earned a valuable 2-1 win at Everton and be sitting on seven points if it had not been for a debut wonder goal by Ainsley Maitland-Niles.

It’s fine margins, and Man Utd’s picture could easily be looking a whole lot rosier heading into a week in which they have their first Champions League game since 2023 and a Manchester derby at Old Trafford.

And with the mixed bag of Man Utd’s start, there are positives and negatives to dissect about Carrick’s side, and it is too soon to get carried away, but the head coach did set off alarm bells during his press duties post-Everton.

Manchester United “will be fine”? Is that it?

“We haven’t started the season that bad. It’s not that bad, we’ve got that close to coming away with three points today; that’s football,” Carrick told reporters when trying to trying to settle supporters on Man Utd’s start to the 2026/27 campaign.

“There are moments we can deal with a bit better, but we’ll be fine.”

The “we’ll be fine” portion of this statement may have sent a shiver down the spine of many a Man Utd supporter who have been battered from pillar to post since Sir Alex Ferguson’s retirement.

2026 has arguably been United’s finest year since Ferguson called it a day, and there has even been some talk over a potential Premier League title challenge this season.

So it is hard to fathom why the manager of this supposed Premier League giant is coming out with such a feeble statement as “we’ll be fine” and sounding like a boss fighting to avoid relegation rather than the other end of the table.

Carrick went on to mention that his squad possesses the right “mentality” for the forthcoming season, but it is now unclear whether the same can be said for the recently appointed Man Utd manager.

Thanks largely to INEOS’ current transfer model, Man Utd are now closer than they have been in years to being in a position to win the Premier League title, but it will not help them if they have a manager with a defeatist attitude after “fine” for the club in recent years has arguably been taking a spot in the Europa League.

That can no longer be considered good enough, and Carrick needs to get with the programme if he wants to avoid being left behind.