Manchester United will not rush a decision on Michael Carrick's future, with the hierarchy set to use the international break to review a season that has left the club 18th in the Premier League.
United rescued a late point in Sunday's chaotic 4-4 draw with Aston Villa, but the result still confirmed their worst-ever start to a Premier League season. Carrick said after the game that he would not walk away, and for now the board are in no hurry to push him either.
According to Sky Sports, the club's bosses plan to fully evaluate the campaign so far during the two-week break before reassessing their options. Carrick and his players were given Monday off, with the head coach and his staff due back at Carrington on Tuesday, while most of the squad are away on international duty.
Three reasons Carrick gets more time
Sky Sports reports three key reasons why United are holding off. Firstly, the supporters are not calling for Carrick to be sacked — the affection for a man who won 11 major trophies as a United player, including five league titles and the Champions League, has kept the pressure from the stands away.
Secondly, there is a feeling in the boardroom that Carrick and his staff still retain the support of the players. The fightbacks of the last week — recovering to beat Roma 3-2 in the Champions League, then twice coming from two goals down against Villa — are taken as proof the dressing room has not downed tools.
Thirdly, United's bosses remain unconvinced that changing the head coach would solve the team's problems. If they believed it would, they could already have moved for Julian Nagelsmann or Eddie Howe, both out of work and understood to be keen to talk if a vacancy opened up. Football365 notes that Howe remains director of football Jason Wilcox's preferred replacement, with Wilcox leading the review process alongside chief executive Omar Berrada before making a recommendation to Sir Jim Ratcliffe.
The hierarchy also feel Carrick over-achieved last season by finishing third and reaching the Champions League, while this season's squad has badly under-achieved — and the review will ask why.
The numbers that keep the pressure on
The case against waiting is written in the numbers. United have won just one of their last 11 games and have conceded 30 goals in all competitions, the worst record of any team in Europe's top five leagues. In the league alone they have shipped 19 goals — only Crystal Palace and Ipswich have let in more — and 15 of those across all competitions have come in the last three matches.
The Villa draw was the third game of the stay of execution Carrick was granted after the 3-0 home defeat by Bournemouth on 25 October. That run brought a 2-0 defeat at Chelsea, the Roma comeback and Sunday's eight-goal thriller: one win, one draw, one defeat, and a place in the relegation zone. It is United's lowest position after 10 matches since the 1986-87 campaign.
So what happens next?
The break buys time, but it does not buy Carrick safety. United return on 22 November with a trip to Anfield to face Liverpool — the worst possible fixture for a manager under review — before a kinder run against bottom-half sides including Coventry, Nottingham Forest and Sunderland at Old Trafford. In effect, the review has two verdicts available: back Carrick properly and say so, or make the change early enough in the break for a successor to work with the players who remain at Carrington. Drifting to Anfield with the question still open is the worst of both worlds.
Beyond the Final Whistle: a review is only leadership if it ends in a decision. United's problems — a defence leaking goals at a rate no top-five-league side can match — will not fix themselves while the board deliberates, and every day of silence makes the Liverpool trip harder for whoever stands in the dugout. Carrick has earned the fans' patience; he has not yet earned the board an excuse to wait.
Should United stick with Carrick through the Liverpool game, or make the change during the break? Have your say in the comments.
