Matheus Cunha compared Michael Carrick\u2019s arrival to a dose of old\u2011school inspiration and credited the caretaker manager with sparking Manchester United\u2019s recent recovery. Cunha opened the scoring in the derby and said: \u201cWhen Michael [Carrick] came, he came with magic! Alex Ferguson vibes. He talks so much about his team, the conquering team. This feeling comes to us. We feel so happy with the information, we focus so hard to reach the objective.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt the end of the day, this is just the start of the journey, it\u2019s the beginning\u2014a beautiful beginning!\u201d<\/p>\n
United were seventh when Carrick took the helm, narrowly beating out Ole Gunnar Solskj\u00e6r in the race of former players to replace Ruben Amorim. Since that change the club have posted the best record in the league, a run that has included victories over Arsenal, Manchester City and Liverpool. That same group of players had earlier been dumped out of the Carabao Cup second round by fourth\u2011tier Grimsby Town.<\/p>\n
There has been a tangible shift beyond nostalgia. Carrick has moved the team from Amorim\u2019s 3-4-2-1 to a more direct 4-2-3-1 and has repositioned players to suit their strengths. Bruno Fernandes explained how Carrick identified the right half-space as a key area for the playmaker to exploit; it was from that zone that Fernandes started the move which led to Benjamin \u0160e\u0161ko\u2019s goal against Liverpool.<\/p>\n
Few have benefited more than Kobbie Mainoo. The academy graduate, who had one foot out of the door by the end of Amorim\u2019s tenure, signed a new lucrative deal and is now a nailed-on starter. Mainoo said of Carrick: \u201cHe\u2019s played a huge part in it, all the confidence he gives all the players. You want to follow him and fight for him and die for him on the pitch.\u201d<\/p>\n
After 17 games Carrick\u2019s record stands alongside Sir Alex Ferguson\u2019s early benchmark: Carrick (start date Jan. 17, 2026) 12 wins, 3 draws, 2 losses, 33 goals for and 19 against; Ferguson (start date Nov. 8, 1986) 7 wins, 6 draws, 4 losses, 22 goals for and 15 against.<\/p>\n
United\u2019s hierarchy have made no decision on a permanent appointment. Andoni Iraola is being seriously considered and the interest in Luis Enrique has not been entirely closed off. Carrick declined to discuss his future: \u201cWhatever is going to happen is going to happen,\u201d he shrugged.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Players credit Michael Carrick\u2019s blend of nostalgia and tactics for Manchester United\u2019s revival. Jan<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13615,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1083,172],"tags":[1446,317,342],"class_list":["post-13616","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-man-utd","category-epl","tag-academy","tag-benjamin-sesko","tag-bruno-fernandes"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13616","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=13616"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13616\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13615"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13616"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13616"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13616"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}