Michael Carrick’s case for being Man United’s next permanent manager | OneFootball

With seven Premier League games remaining, Manchester United’s hierarchy are undecided about whether to give Michael Carrick the permanent manager’s job. They shouldn’t be.

Incredibly, just three months have passed since Ruben Amorim’s doomed project finally swerved off the road. In that time, his replacement has swept away the tiresome conversations about failing formations and rotten results, replacing them with a standard back four and a major upswing in performances. This back-to-basics approach has clearly worked for the players, who have enjoyed seven wins, two draws and a solitary defeat from his first 10 games in charge.

Carrick’s Tactical Approach Has Unleashed His Star Men

Tactically, the former United midfielder has stuck by the same principles that worked well in much of his three-year spell as Middlesbrough head coach. The go-to formation is a 4-2-3-1, with centre backs and midfielders bouncing passes off each other in tight spaces to draw in the opposition and expose any gaps left behind. Aided by former England assistant Steve Holland and former internationals Jonathan Woodgate and Jonny Evans, the new coaching group has drilled the side to drop back quickly out of possession, forming a deep line and aiming to close the opponent’s passing lanes. These methods have resulted in the club’s best run of league form since the relatively brief flickers of quality during Erik ten Hag’s first autumn.

The tactics are hardly revolutionary — but they’ve mostly worked. Summer signing Benjamin Sesko has started hitting the net regularly. Matheus Cunha has added more end product, consistently notching crucial goals and assists. Elsewhere, Harry Maguire is back to his dominant best at the heart of central defence and fan favourite Kobbie Mainoo is out from the cold and thriving alongside the rejuvenated Casemiro.

Perhaps no one player sums up the Carrick-effect more than team talisman, Bruno Fernandes. Misused as a deep lying playmaker by Amorim, our liberated captain has hit career-best form from his favoured number 10 role. He’s already overtaken David Beckham’s United record for assists in a Premier League season and is threatening the all-time standard of 20, held by Thierry Henry and Kevin De Bruyne.

Tellingly, Bruno didn’t even get his first assist until October, at which point he was toiling in a position that hampered his attacking potency. Under Carrick, the Portuguese has rocketed to into the conversation about the PL Player of the year.

More Than Just Results

The new sense of positivity around the club has got as much to do with personalities as point-scoring. Amorim’s tenure was marked by constant background chatter around formations and team selections, and his irritating knack of creating drama during press conferences meant that there was usually a divisive talking point. Even during the team’s rare spells of optimism, the media was only ever a couple of leading questions from the next toxic bombshell. Some admired the honesty, others just saw it as damaging verbal diarrhoea.

Presently, the feeling around Old Trafford reflects Carrick, the manager (and player). Quiet. Controlled. Fresh faced loanees aren’t being randomly thrown under the bus. Nobody knows who the goalkeeping coach even is, let alone if he’d work harder than a star attacker. Mercifully, the drama is limited almost entirely to match days. Bad news for journos seeking a quick story, maybe. But great news for anyone who wants United to be talked about for on-pitch performances — not the manager’s latest brain fart.

Comparisons to Solskjaer

So, what’s stopping INEOS from nailing their colours to the mast and offering the thoughtful Geordie the permanent gig? The most common objection raised against Carrick is the Solskjaer comparison. There’s concern that United are about to repeat history by handing the job to a club legend whose emotional connection to the badge outweighs his managerial credentials. It’s a lazy argument.

Solskjaer was appointed on sentiment, a feel-good story built on memories of ’99 and not a great deal else. His coaching record before United amounted to a respectable stint at Molde and a chastening few months at Cardiff. There was no clear tactical identity and no obvious plan for what came after the initial bounce. The warning signs were visible early, but the contract was handed out anyway.

Carrick is a different proposition. He spent nearly three years forging his managerial credentials in the Championship at Middlesbrough. Not glamorous work, but real graft in a notoriously tough league. He arrived with a defined tactical approach, an experienced coaching staff and the backing of a board that is finally making the right moves in the transfer market. Unlike the sentiment-driven appointments of the Woodward and Glazer era, this one is seemingly being based on evidence.

But let’s play devil’s advocate and say the comparison holds. Let’s say Carrick turns out to be another Solskjaer. So what? Ole secured Champions League football in both of his full seasons in charge, finishing third and then second in the Premier League. At the time, it felt like underachievement. After Ten Hag and Amorim, it almost looks like a golden era.

The Risk of Looking Elsewhere

Then there’s what would be lost by appointing an outsider. There’s always a shinier toy out there, someone who seems primed to be the next great managerial heavyweight. Previously the chosen ones were Ten Hag and Amorim. Now it’s the likes of Luis Enrique and Julian Nagelsmann. The fact that the former is unlikely to ditch PSG for the current project, and the latter won’t be available until after the World Cup, makes both a stretch. Can the club afford to drift on without a permanent manager in place, waiting on figures who may never arrive and shrugging when transfer targets ask who they will be playing under?

One thing we’ve learned is that sure things just don’t exist in football. Top managers have big egos. Some hit the ground running. Others disrupt the dressing room, try to force players into unfamiliar roles, and fall out with the people above them. For every bold transition, there are several more mismatched failures. We’ve learned the hard way that the wrong guy means bridges get burned, squads are ripped up and re-started, and results don’t always improve.

Sometimes the right answer is staring you in the face. It’s Carrick, you know.

Featured image George Wood via Getty Images

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The Peoples Person has been one of the world’s leading Man United news sites for over a decade. Follow us on Bluesky: @peoplesperson.bsky.social