Manchester United have made a clear decision for this January window: the group Michael Carrick inherited in mid-January is the one expected to finish the season. Reports indicate the club has ruled out both arrivals and departures during this winter window.<\/p>\n
Wilcox concentrated on appointing a new head coach during the opening weeks of January and ultimately selected Carrick rather than Ole Gunnar Solskj\u00e6r. There are still around two-and-a-half weeks left in the window, but the reshuffle appears set to be limited to the dugout.<\/p>\n
“Every department, the scouting department, the sports director needs to do their job,” Amorim declared in what proved to be his final press conference as Manchester United\u2019s head coach (rather than manager). “I will do mine for 18 months and then we move on.”<\/p>\n
ESPN report the Red Devils have no intention of making any short-term deals. Club officials accept the squad has imperfections; a new midfielder remains on the wishlist. Nottingham Forest\u2019s Elliot Anderson, Crystal Palace controller Adam Wharton and Carlos Baleba of Brighton & Hove Albion are identified as United\u2019s top three midfield targets, but those clubs are not thought to be willing to lose regular starters mid-season and would require significant fees. The club has reportedly rejected signing a second-choice option this month.<\/p>\n
With no incoming reinforcements expected, there is little appetite to allow departures. Talks with Roma over a move for the seldom-used striker Joshua Zirkzee were halted by United after Amorim\u2019s exit. Kobbie Mainoo looks similarly likely to stay at Old Trafford despite continued external interest. Mainoo is still thought to be “desperate” to play as much as possible ahead of this year\u2019s World Cup and, should he not figure in Carrick\u2019s plans, would remain keen on a winter exit, per the Daily Mail.<\/p>\n
In his first public address after his appointment, Carrick told Manchester United\u2019s in-house podcast: “Hopefully, we can play a really exciting type of football and be positive and express and bring excitement.” He added, “I want to be off my seat. I want to be enjoying watching the boys play, and results obviously need to come with that.” The former Middlesbrough boss may scoff at the idea of “philosophy”; “I hate that word,” he once sniped during his time on Teeside, but he is focused on tactical work. “I think for me it\u2019s [about] working with the players,” he beamed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
United will keep the same squad this January; Carrick to lead through season with no arrivals. Done.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5968,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1083,1348],"tags":[216,1021,215],"class_list":["post-5969","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-man-utd","category-manchester-united-news","tag-adam-wharton","tag-amorim","tag-carlos-baleba"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5969","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=5969"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5969\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5968"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5969"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5969"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5969"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}