Nicky Butt looks beyond Carrick as he pinpoints culprit for Man United’s early woes | OneFootball

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Former Manchester United star Nicky Butt has suggested that Michael Carrick could be gone by January thanks to the club’s failure to adequately bolster the squad during the summer window.

Shaky start

United are enduring a mixed start to the new season. United have played four Premier League games, winning one, drawing one and losing two.

Last weekend’s 1-0 defeat to 10-man Manchester City has piled further pressure on Carrick and his players, fuelling debate over whether the club did enough in the market to solve the team’s glaring issues.

The Red Devils brought in three midfielders but failed to make additions in attack and in defence. Already, the failure to sign a left-back is looking like a massive mishap, with Luke Shaw struggling for fitness in the early stages of the campaign.

United’s backline has also proven itself to be vulnerable and there are doubts that anything meaningful can be achieved in the current state.

It’s understood that Carrick is under no immediate pressure and he retains the confidence of the top brass. But Butt has claimed that the United head coach is at risk of being sacked unless things improve fast.

Sack prediction

Butt said on The Good, The Bad & The Football podcast, “I think that’s all well and good saying (Manchester United) doing (their recruitment) in sections but if you’re a manager, you’re thinking: the forwards, they think they’re sorted. I don’t think they are. I think they need a number 9, an out and out number 9.”

“They’ve gone and sorted the midfield out, which is debatable.”

“I think they’ve done a decent job with that, but it could be that Michael could not even get to the next transfer window, and he could be going ‘well I’ve lost my job and you’re not giving me the tools to go and do my job with the back four.’”

“Because certainly whatever you say about that back four, Harry Maguire’s been an unbelievable player—a top, top player—but he’s getting to a certain age now, and he is getting older, and we’ve all, we’ve all been there, haven’t we?”

“You get older and you slow up or you’re not as good, not as quick. Martinez is still at the top of his game, he’s still a really good player. I love Luke Shaw. When he’s fit and playing, he’s one of the best in Europe, but it’s a fact that he gets a lot of injuries. The right backs, I don’t believe either of them are good enough.”

He added, “So you’re looking as a manager or as a coach, and you’re going, ‘well, I’m desperate to get some players in the back four’ but then it looks like the recruitment team and the powers that beat United are going, ‘no, that’s our next phase, and that might happen in January, it might even happen, and it’s gonna be really hard, or it’ll probably be happening in the summer.’ That doesn’t help the coaches.”

Carrick will be hoping for far better fortunes on Wednesday when United face Brighton & Hove Albion in the third round of the Carabao Cup.