Manchester United are 13th in the Premier League, having taken four points from their first four games: a 2-0 defeat at Hull, 5-2 win against Ipswich, 2-2 draw at Everton and the 1-0 defeat by Manchester City on Sunday. Mitigation regarding the City reverse can be found in the derby coming three days after the Champions League win against Sabah on Thursday, with Enzo Maresca’s side having 48 hours more rest after winning at Porto. So are United, who host Brighton in the Carabao Cup on Wednesday before visiting Fulham in the league on Sunday, as poor as the table suggests?
After Ole Gunnar Solskjær was appointed as temporary manager in December 2018 as a result of José Mourinho’s tempestuous tenure, he won 14 of 19 games and took over permanently in March 2019. What followed was a nosedive of two victories from 10 matches and United ended in sixth – the position when Solskjær arrived. Carrick revived the club’s fortunes as the interim coach last season after Ruben Amorim’s meltdown and sacking, and guided United to third.
Yet after assuming the permanent role results have worsened. Just because Solskjær had an unstable team and was never secure in the job (being sacked in November 2021) does not mean his former teammate and assistant will have a similar experience. But how many more poor results is Carrick away from Jason Wilcox being accused of hastily appointing another popular former United player?
A clue that the director of football may have had reservations regarding Carrick may lie in the brevity of the contract given to him: it runs to 2028. When Phil Foden was sent off after 23 minutes at Old Trafford on Sunday, United had a man advantage over City. But Carrick’s men remained becalmed, the Kobbie Mainoo-Youri Tielemans central axis unable to exert control and create chances for the front four of Bruno Fernandes, Bryan Mbeumo, Matheus Cunha and Marcus Rashford.
For the first time in 12 home Premier League games under Carrick, United generated less than 1.0 xG (0.95), which should be more of a concern for Carrick than the quasi-farcical video assistant referee decision that allowed Erling Haaland’s winner (Enzo Fernández was, as Pro Ref later admitted, interfering with play). The same issue was evident in the opening defeat at Hull, where Andrey Santos partnered Tielemans, there was close to zero goal threat and Carrick’s side were a portrait of passiveness. You have to wonder why a summer window-long interest in a left-back that included Newcastle’s Lewis Hall (the No 1 target), Arsenal’s Myles Lewis-Skelly and RB Leipzig’s David Raum drew a blank.
Identifying that a position needs strengthening, then failing to do so, seems amateurish and cannot have delighted Carrick. Instead, three midfielders were bought: Tielemans, Santos and Carlos Baleba. With Mainoo and Manuel Ugarte (who has a long-term injury) in the squad, a case can be made that this was one too many recruits for the engine room.
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