Michael Carrick has opened his latest Manchester United spell with momentum. Add that to his caretaker run in 2021, when he beat Arsenal and Villarreal either side of a draw with Chelsea, and it is easy to see why supporters and sections of the club want him considered for the permanent post at season\u2019s end.<\/p>\n
Yet the club will not make a long-term appointment on a small sample of matches. Carrick inherited a squad that had struggled for consistency under Ruben Amorim after the Portuguese coach\u2019s departure in early January. He discarded Amorim\u2019s unconvincing 3-4-2-1 and reintroduced a 4-2-3-1 which appears to suit the players. The immediate result has been a clear lift in confidence; players have been empowered and have shown tactical discipline. They could have hit double figures against City and flashed the sort of tactical discipline needed to best an Arsenal side leading the way in both England and Europe.<\/p>\n
Amorim\u2019s record against elite opponents offered evidence his side could rise to big occasions, but his tenure was defined by disappointing results elsewhere. United failed to beat West Ham United, Brentford, Nottingham Forest or Bournemouth, endured two defeats and a draw in four games against Wolverhampton Wanderers and made hard work of Fulham, Everton, Crystal Palace and Brighton & Hove Albion.<\/p>\n
Carrick now works with largely the same squad plus the return of Kobbie Mainoo from purgatory. February\u2019s run of fixtures will tell us whether the positive signs are sustainable. Based on club stature and recent form, United will be favourites in their next five matches: Fulham at Old Trafford on Feb. 1, Tottenham Hotspur at Old Trafford on Feb. 7, West Ham United at the London Stadium on Feb. 10, Everton at Hill Dickinson Stadium on Feb. 23 and then a March meeting with Crystal Palace.<\/p>\n
If Carrick navigates this sequence successfully, the conversation about offering him the permanent job will become harder to ignore. For now, his immediate impact is clear, but the real test is under way.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Carrick has started strongly at Manchester United. February fixtures will define his long-term case.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6299,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[179,172],"tags":[1021,1162,1087],"class_list":["post-6300","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-manchester-united","category-epl","tag-amorim","tag-analytics","tag-coaching-change"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6300","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=6300"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6300\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6299"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6300"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6300"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6300"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}