Manchester United have once again reached a familiar crossroads in the post-Sir Alex Ferguson era, moving on from a manager who once appeared to be the answer.<\/p>\n
No side collected more Premier League points after Carrick took over as interim boss last season, a spell that carried United to third place and persuaded INEOS to hand him the job permanently. There was also an understanding that 2026\/27 would be harder, with more matches and greater expectation, but few could have anticipated how badly the campaign would unravel.<\/p>\n
Just two and a half months into the season, United\u2019s form has become hard to defend, with relegation talk no longer sounding entirely far-fetched. Supporters have made their view clear: the anger is directed less at Carrick than at the players and those above him.<\/p>\n
After the 3-0 loss to Bournemouth last month, the squad walked off to a chorus of boos once Carrick had disappeared down the tunnel. The team assembled by Omar Berrada and Jason Wilcox has not delivered, and both men now face the task of choosing the next manager. Mauricio Pochettino looks the likeliest candidate.<\/p>\n
Injuries have also played a part, particularly Benjamin \u0160e\u0161ko\u2019s early-season problems. He managed only 206 minutes in all competitions before Carrick was dismissed, forcing the manager to improvise with Matheus Cunha and Bryan Mbeumo in central positions. Joshua Zirkzee, despite Carrick saying in September that he \u201cbelieves\u201d in him, was largely overlooked.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m telling you, Josh can do some really top things. I\u2019ve seen it myself, and I\u2019m looking forward to him doing that a little bit more,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Zirkzee has not started a league game this season and has mostly been used in brief appearances, though he did score at Como and helped spark the late comeback against Aston Villa on Sunday.<\/p>\n
Marcus Rashford also benefited from Carrick\u2019s arrival. Barcelona declined to keep him permanently, allowing him back into the fold, and he was restored after being frozen out by Amorim. Yet his season has brought no goal contribution, and injury followed after he lost his starting place.<\/p>\n
Kobbie Mainoo is another who gained from Carrick\u2019s return. Reintroduced to the side, he earned a new contract in April and a place in Thomas Tuchel\u2019s England World Cup squad. United then tried to prepare for Casemiro\u2019s exit with the arrivals of Andrey Santos, Youri Tielemans and Carlos Baleba, but the broader picture still points back to the same issue: the manager has paid the price for failings elsewhere.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Carrick\u2019s exit leaves United exposed, with injuries, poor planning and uncertain futures.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":22415,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[179],"tags":[1836,242,180],"class_list":["post-22416","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-manchester-united","tag-2026-27-premier-league","tag-injury","tag-player-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22416","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=22416"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22416\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22415"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22416"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22416"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22416"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}