Harry Maguire has pointed to a clearer structure and results-driven momentum since Michael Carrick took interim charge in January. The captain highlighted the change in outcomes after a period of inconsistency under Ruben Amorim.<\/p>\n
No new signings arrived in the January transfer window, a factor linked in reports to a recruitment disagreement between Amorim and sporting director Jason Wilcox. That context means Carrick has taken charge of the exact same group of players.<\/p>\n
Since the managerial change, Carrick has taken 29 points from 39 on offer, winning nine of 13 matches. By contrast, Amorim collected 31 points from the opening 20 Premier League matches of this campaign. Across the two spells the records read: Ruben Amorim, 20 matches, 8-7-5, 1.55 points per game; Michael Carrick, 13 matches, 9-2-2, 2.2 points per game. Darren Fletcher also managed one match as caretaker, a draw against Burnley.<\/p>\n
United had lost only five times in the league before Amorim was dismissed this season, but the club had been beaten 14 times under his guidance across 2024\u201325, a campaign that finished in 15th place.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe results speak for themselves,\u201d Maguire told Sky Sports, reflecting on the consistency and positive momentum that has emerged in recent months.<\/p>\n
\u201cSince the manager has come in, and the formation has changed, we just \u200cseemed to pick up results. Games previously, when Ruben was here, were 50\/50, but we always ended up on the back of a defeat. Now it seems like it\u2019s the other way around, where we\u2019re a lot better in both boxes. We defend our \u2060box a lot better, \u2060and we\u2019re managing to \u200cbe clinical in the other box.\u201d<\/p>\n
Amorim had arrived with tactical ideas that produced titles at Sporting CP, deploying a 3-4-2-1 system that did not translate at United. When he briefly altered tactics for the win at Newcastle on Dec. 26 the team improved, but reverting back produced draws in the following two matches. Fletcher restored a 4-2-3-1 in his caretaker game, a structure Carrick has maintained.<\/p>\n
Goalkeeper Senne Lammens praised Carrick\u2019s clarity and simplicity. \u201cThe first thing was [Carrick\u2019s] ability to make everything quite clear and [present] a direct message. He didn\u2019t make it too difficult for us,\u201d Lammens told The Athletic at the time.<\/p>\n
Carrick\u2019s run has put Manchester United on course to return to the Champions League and strengthened his case for the permanent job while he remains in temporary charge until the summer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Maguire says Carrick’s arrival and formation change have helped United pick up results and momentum.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13287,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[179,969],"tags":[1021,1162,1530],"class_list":["post-13288","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-manchester-united","category-premier-league","tag-amorim","tag-analytics","tag-caretaker-manager"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13288","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13288"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13288\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13287"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13288"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13288"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13288"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}