Michael Carrick might fulfil the one criterion that so many of his former team mates have been saying is critical to managing Manchester United — he knows the club, probably better than you do, probably better than the club knows itself come to mention it, actually probably better than you know yourself — but this is not an episode of Mastermind that the former Middlesbrough manager is preparing for. Carrick has been handed the United reins at the gallop to the finish line, 17 games of Premier League and Premier League only with the chance to pip an awful lot of other big name runners and riders in the final furlongs. There is an immense opportunity to deepen his status in Old Trafford folklore over the coming months but how might Carrick go about claiming it?
The first thing to say is that Carrick has done his apprenticeship and while the United job, even on an interim basis, is an almighty step up, it would be for almost anyone. At least the 44-year-old does not need to learn the basics on the job like the man he replaced, caretaker Darren Fletcher. Beyond a successful three game spell holding the Old Trafford fort in 2021 — United cycle through safe pairs of hands like the Robot Devil — there is three years at Middlesbrough to fall back on and it is at the Riverside Stadium that we get our first hints at what kind of manager Carrick might be.
How Carrick managed Middlesbrough
The most important takeaway from his time at Middlesbrough might be that Carrick seems to be absolutely fine. That is not nothing when it comes to appointing a new manager. Most statistical analysis on the impact of head coaches has suggested that only the very best have an outsized positive impact, most might come in and deliver a short term boost before performances settle down. Much as a small few might overhaul a club for the better there are those who can do so for the worst. No thank you, I will not be naming examples today. Carrick though, does not appear to be from that dreaded latter category.
His trajectory in the north east is that aforementioned middle of the road output. Coming to Middlesbrough with a record of two wins and a draw as United’s pre-Ralf Rangnick interim, Carrick inspired an immediate upswing in performances. On his appointment on October 24, 2022, Boro were hovering above the relegation zone. When they crushed Preston North End 4-0 in March automatic promotion was only three points away, their style of football one of the most thrilling in England with Carrick coming to be viewed as an outstanding coaching prospect.
It never quite got better than that. Middlesbrough committed one of the EFL’s cardinal sins of heading into the playoffs without momentum and found themselves beaten by Coventry City in year one. The next saw Boro slip just outside the top six and the following ended with them in 10th. A record of 60 wins, 28 draws and 50 losses was not to be sniffed at, but few tears were shed on Teeside when owner Steve Gibson sacked Carrick in the summer.
After all Middlesbrough were one of the leading sides in the second tier. Their salary bill last season was estimated to be the sixth largest in the division, much as it had been the previous year. Here’s the thing though, while an upper midtable finish on a fringe playoff wage bill might seem like an underperformance at the Riverside, you would take that in a heartbeat if you were Manchester United. That’s bringing European football back to Old Trafford. Where does Sir Jim sign up for that?
It might ultimately have been a disappointing ending for Carrick, but it was one that the man himself “learned an awful lot” from. Just how much of that he will be able to apply during a tenure with a defined end point is an open question, particularly when it comes to his tactics.
It would perhaps be wise not to expect too much of an overhaul from a man who has professed his hatred for the word “philosophy.” Anyone who has spent most of their playing career under Sir Alex Ferguson will appreciate that management is about much more than turning up with a formation and expecting the club to bequeath you the players to best deploy that. It might just be that Carrick adapts to what Ruben Amorim has left him.
That might not be as hard as you imagine. During his Middlesbrough tenure Carrick played what on paper looked to be a 4-2-3-1, but his approach is perhaps best illustrated from this pass network in a 2-1 win over Oxford United last season. Playing Samuel Iling-Junior at left back makes for a particularly extreme example, but note just how dramatically the left back, No.29, has pushed on, with right back Anfernee Dijksteel (No.15) notably more withdrawn. This was consistent across Carrick’s three seasons in the Championship, his left back pushing on and his left sided forward moving infield to create the standard 3-2-5 attacking shape, a strong double pivot shielding against counters.
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Now imagine how that might look at United, with Patrick Dorgu bombing on from left back into space created by Matheus Cunha’s movement infield with Noussair Mazraoui tucking into a position he is very confident in. If need be the roles could be reversed too with Luke Shaw well suited to the third center back in possession role now that he has lost the burst of his youth. It wouldn’t exactly be Dorgu and Amad Diallo charging down the flanks, but United can probably cope with a bit of a downgrade on what is, in expected goals terms, the second best attack in the Premier League.
With the ball at their feet, Middlesbrough played how you would expect from a team managed by one of the few great tempo-dictating midfielders produced by England. They passed the ball, a lot. In Carrick’s final season Boro ranked fifth in the league for possession having been eighth and third in the two proceeding years. Only two teams attempted more passes of 10 metres or fewer and they ranked in the same position for average number of passes per attacking sequence. They weren’t the Championship’s most sedate side but they weren’t exactly hurrying up the pitch either.
It’s a similar story without the ball too. Only two teams allowed their opponents to complete a greater proportion of their passes than Boro’s and they allowed the eighth most passes per defensive action (a measure of pressing intensity) in 2024-25. Broadly middle of the road defensively, they were strong in their duels but when they allowed opponents through struggled to stop good shots, a bit of a problem right the way through Carrick’s tenure.
That in possession style could be a tough match for the Premier League. After all, plenty of the hallmarks of Carrick’s Championship side were similar to those implemented by Amorim in his early weeks at United. He too wanted to build play with short goal kicks, with his deeper players drawing the opposition onto him, finding a way through the press and unleashing forwards in transition. It never really worked and by his first full season the Portuguese had adapted to the top flight’s new normal: balls into the channels, goal kicks up to the big man, runners right across the pitch.
CBS Sports sources suggest that United are unlikely to do major business in the January transfer window so what Carrick has is what he will have to work with. That will be a challenge if he wants to create ball-playing sides. The Old Trafford engine room has long been held together by sticking plasters and good will and this summer must see the arrival of someone who can dictate tempo from midfield. Bruno Fernandes can do that but his greatest qualities are found in his more aggressive passes. Whether Carrick can trust him to play deep in a back four system will be an intriguing early question?
If not Fernandes, it is not obvious who else. For all the excitement around what Amorim’s sacking might mean for Kobbie Mainoo, Carrick has previously described the 20 year old as “more of an attacker” than a holding midfielder. Mainoo’s great talents are in ball-carrying rather than passing. Again it looks like a gamble to play him alongside someone like Casemiro, who doesn’t have the legs to cover if there are two or two and a half center backs behind him.
In spite of Amorim’s complaints about how much more would be needed for him to get his project up and running, this United already has the look of one that might suit a back three system. There are a lot of center backs, plenty of whom are pretty decent, and enough options to fill the spots for attack-minded wing backs or inside forwards.
Carrick, however, knows that tactics are only part of life as a head coach, interim or otherwise. He has to set the tone at one of the biggest sporting organisations on the planet. At his first press conference, it didn’t seem to be a role he was relishing. “Sat in this chair in front of you lot is very different to the role in coaching,” he joked. Carrick might not like it, but it will matter. Indeed, one of the few things Amorim could be said to have done at a very high level was to reset expectations at Old Trafford according to where United were not where they expect to be.
Carrick too is not going to let supporters get carried away, stressing the priority as “improvement,” using that or its derivations seven times in response to a question of what the target was for his interim tenure. “Improvement. I think certainly improvement and helping improve individuals.
“A big part of what I really enjoy is improving individuals and, in the end, I think if you improve the individuals, we create a better team. So, certainly working with the players and improving them with that, I think. And, listen, results, that’s what it is. There’s an element of performance, there’s an element of improvement, and there’s an element of doing what it takes to win in certain ways, in certain occasions.
“So, certainly, the higher up the league we finish, we want to keep pushing and finishing as high up as we possibly can, and we’ll see where that takes us.”
Beyond that and a nebulous reference to Europe, there was not much to set expectations against. That is the way Carrick would like it. In his playing career he was not one for making headlines and it seems he won’t be in his second spell in the Old Trafford dugout. Roy Keane had dragged his old feud with Carrick’s wife Lisa back into the headlines this week, jibing that she would “probably [be] doing the team talk” at Manchester United. It is the sort of story that could run and run in a media ecosystem that evidently discombobulated Amorim.
Not when Carrick is in charge. “Honestly, it didn’t bother me,” he said of the pressure Keane might be applying. “I understand there’s plenty of opinions around and some are positive, some are not so much.
“There’s a lot of opinions, a lot can be said. It is the way of the world, I’m not going to pay too much attention to most of that. I think it’s not for me to do that.”
There was Carrick serving notice. If anyone had come to Carrington in search of some Ragnickian soundbites, a cutting assessment of where United really are a la Jose Mourinho, they were going to be disappointed. As best he can, Carrick will be taking the air out of Old Trafford. That is no bad thing.
The sheer noise around Old Trafford for so long seemed to obscure one simple truth this season. United were alright. They were not zooming back towards title contention as their fans might expect, not least because ownership had set a target of glory in two years’ time, but they were ticking along reasonably nicely. They might only need a coach who can convert a few draws into wins, give them a bit of a short term boost and then move on. If that is indeed the case, then Carrick should do just fine.
How to watch Manchester United vs. Manchester City, odds
- Date: Saturday, Jan. 17 | Time: 7:30 a.m. ET
- Location: Old Trafford — Manchester, England
- TV: USA
- Odds: Man U +283; Draw +310; Man City -120
