Michael Carrick\u2019s start has become harder to defend after Manchester United\u2019s latest setback at Old Trafford, with the manager now matching a sequence the club had not seen since the early part of the century.<\/p>\n
United have never gone nine matches without a win since 2000, but Carrick has now equalled the eight-game stretch previously recorded by Louis van Gaal between November and December 2015. That run remains a familiar reference point, not least because Van Gaal kept his job despite it.<\/p>\n
The Dutchman\u2019s sequence ended with a 0-0 draw against Chelsea, a result that appeared to buy him more time. He then opened 2016 with a 2-1 victory over Swansea City, a result that helped him see out the season. Whether Carrick receives the same patience is now the central question.<\/p>\n
United\u2019s next fixture is another meeting with Chelsea, and it arrives at a moment when the club need something to shift quickly. The Blues\u2019 performance against Tottenham Hotspur on Saturday was described as awful, which at least leaves open the possibility of a much-needed response from Carrick\u2019s side.<\/p>\n
The wider picture is bleak. As the analysis notes, there is effectively little United can do to change matters other than dismiss the manager. Results are demanded immediately, yet the feeling around the club is that Carrick has too few allies in senior positions if performances continue at this level.<\/p>\n
The problems extend beyond the dugout. The board are under scrutiny, but any real reset would take time. The ownership need to settle on a direction, the recruitment team need to prioritise properly and the squad needs to be cleared of a toxic culture that is dragging everything down. Those are not fixes that happen overnight.<\/p>\n
Pressure is also building around Omar Berrada and Jason Wilcox, but replacing two of the club\u2019s most powerful figures would be another long and complicated process. United do not have the luxury of waiting, with Chelsea, Roma, Aston Villa, Liverpool, Sporting CP and Brentford all next on the schedule. On current form, the winless run could easily grow even longer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Carrick has tied a unwanted United record as pressure rises, and Chelsea now looms next.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":22078,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[190,179],"tags":[1836,1162,59],"class_list":["post-22079","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-chelsea","category-manchester-united","tag-2026-27-premier-league","tag-analytics","tag-featured"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22079","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=22079"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22079\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22078"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22079"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22079"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22079"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}