Michael Carrick is still in charge at Manchester United after a difficult week that left many expecting INEOS to act. That decision did not arrive, which means the manager heads into a major meeting with Chelsea under intense scrutiny.<\/p>\n
Chelsea have had their own swing in fortunes. They followed a first Premier League clean sheet since January against Everton with a home league defeat to Tottenham Hotspur, only the second such result for a Chelsea manager since 1990, before also losing in the cup to Liverpool. Their clearest path to silverware has now gone.<\/p>\n
Yet the attention on Carrick is much sharper. He may only have one more opportunity to prove his case before his position becomes untenable.<\/p>\n
One of the key issues is Bruno Fernandes. Carrick felt he had to leave out his captain for Bournemouth\u2019s visit to Old Trafford after Fernandes criticised his gameplan in the aftermath of the 4-1 defeat at Como. That public criticism cut deep, especially because Carrick had helped unlock the version of Fernandes who set the Premier League\u2019s single-season assist record and won the PFA Player of the Year award last season. Under Carrick, Fernandes was restored as a playmaker and United functioned as a better collective.<\/p>\n
Even so, United cannot rely on Fernandes alone. The team\u2019s poor start has gone hand in hand with the midfielder\u2019s struggles, but the Bournemouth defeat showed that dropping him was not a long-term answer.<\/p>\n
Carrick also has a left-back problem that appears to have been worsened by decisions made in the summer. United looked for cover for Luke Shaw late in the window, but that chase ended once it became clear that Lewis Hall would not leave Newcastle United. With Shaw already missing multiple games through setbacks, the manager has been forced to improvise.<\/p>\n
Diogo Dalot was used there last Sunday, with Mason Mount drifting infield, but the shape lacked balance and urgency. Marcus Rashford could be used to add thrust, while another option would be to alter the setup at right back. Carrick could also lean on the academy, with Shea Lacey making back-to-back substitute appearances and Harry Amass, Jack Fletcher, Jariyah Shah and Jim Thwaites in first-team training. Amass, who has already made two senior appearances this season, looks the likeliest candidate if a left-back change is made.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Carrick stays in post, but Fernandes, left-back concerns and academy calls all demand answers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":22136,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[190,1083,179],"tags":[1836,59],"class_list":["post-22137","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-chelsea","category-man-utd","category-manchester-united","tag-2026-27-premier-league","tag-featured"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22137","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=22137"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22137\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22136"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22137"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22137"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22137"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}