Weve gone from all the players being shit to we should beat one of the form teams in the country easier and by more goals, Carrick has had 2 weeks training with the players we've already gone on a run games we have seen once in almost 2 years and it's not enough for some
Michael Carrick - Head Coach for the remainder of the season
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Weve gone from all the players being shit to we should beat one of the form teams in the country easier and by more goals, Carrick has had 2 weeks training with the players we've already gone on a run games we have seen once in almost 2 years and it's not enough for some
Everton and West Ham coming up soon which will be similar. Should give us an idea of whether Carrick is the right manager or not. Until then I'm unconvinced much has changed just yet.
In terms of performance, I thought it was pretty much the same as most of our matches against mid-table opposition this season - they've generally been tight games that could tip one way of the other. The players do seem happier and more confident since Carrick's arrival, though, which perhaps leads to the balance tipping your way more often in these types of contests.
Considering the ABU crew had us off like, 'well you always raise your game vs City and Arsenal. Fulham was supposed to be the 'how will you do against a low block'. It's 9 points from 3 and we've used pretty much the same team throughout. This isn't just a bounce, Carrick and Holland have got these guys playing and enjoying their football.
Yes and it's not just us having tight matches against mid-table opposition. Even the top 2 are struggling more than usual. The baseline in the PL has risen dramatically over the years.
To be fair, we have raised our game versus the big clubs in the past few years and have let ourselves down more in matches against the lower positioned sides.
There are still some questions there that will be answered as the season progresses. Absolutely delighted with how it's going though. Couldn't ask for much more these last three games.
I think everyone is happy with the wins.
But we're talking about whether Carrick should be permanent manager. Of course it's not enough.
If three wins against teams who all had more of the ball than us is all it takes to convince someone Carrick should be appointed permanent manager, they're an idiot.
Especially when they've seen someone like Solskjaer previously turn up at the club and win 14/17 games, only to then only win 5 of the next 24. Of all the lessons to learn from that time, the most basic should be that even half a season of results isn't a lot to judge someone on, let alone three games.
Saturday will be interesting. Spurs have a decent away record despite their home form and they always make an effort against us home and away. Another test for Carrick regardless of Spurs overall form
It does also depend on how you get the results. The underlying numbers weren't great under Solskjærs interim period. I trust the people we have at the club now a whole lot more to make a decision like that than Ed Woodward.
Fulham were good but we kept them at relatively arm's left as we protected the middle areas and didn't let them in behind our fullbacks. Apart a few aerials/crosses, which did cause some havoc and is an issue of ours, can you remember them creating 'much'? It wasn't a great game by us at all, as we ceded too much possession, got too deep and couldn't control the game as much as we should have but it was at worst, equal parts worrying and equal parts encouraging.
Under Amorim regardless of the results (and they were diabolically bad), it was pretty much always more questions than answers. As for 'dominating', let's see how this pans out, I'm not sure we should be expecting front foot, high press 'domination' type of games. However, if the opposition want to sit back, I have a lot more faith in Amad, Cunha, Mbeumo, Bruno etc breaking a team down playing in their respective positions under Carrick than the mess of a system under the previous manager. I foresee our games continuing in this same vein of a mid-block with two midfielders in a box in front of the CBs and building from there where it will be a more 50-50 balance in terms of territorial play. Hopefully and ultimately, I feel the tactics (of having a solid base) and our individual quality would shine through more to give us the edge in these situations. At least that's what I've seen under Carrick.
It's still touch and go. Tottenham won't be an easy game at all.
You don't have to be convinced see 'much' has changed, just enough to know that the previous manager wasn't it and so far Carrick has proven that quite adequately. He may not be the answer for the long term but that shouldn't be the point of this remaining season left.
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3 games is mental to talk about that, it was always gonna happen when you win game especially the big 2 at the start, I imagine the only people thinking or talking about this is the press to get column inches I bet Carrick himself is just thinking about Spurs and Wilcox and the others are already working towards a shortlist
I haven't seen us played through like that since the Ten Hag years. We were wide open at times with our 4 central players being slow.
We need speed in those positions to play dominant football. Casemiro is off, Maguire should follow and we need to sign 2 athletic midfielders to play behind Bruno.
Yoro and Heaven should ge given the rest of the season to cement one or both of the other positions for next season.
We are far too easy to play pretty football against because we're unathletic at our core.
We need speed in those positions to play dominant football. Casemiro is off, Maguire should follow and we need to sign 2 athletic midfielders to play behind Bruno.
Yoro and Heaven should ge given the rest of the season to cement one or both of the other positions for next season.
We are far too easy to play pretty football against because we're unathletic at our core.
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Unathletic? I thought we beat both City and Arsenal because we played at a pace they didn’t like. If you watched Arsenal v Chelsea tonight it was like watching two teams walking for 80 minutes. Carrick has got some dynamism back into the team. Yes, we’ve still got problems with a thin squad, but Carrick can’t fix that. He has to play with the hand he’s been dealt with.
Yes, agreed, Maguire, Martinez, Casemiro and Mainoo is a decent platform to build from in possession, but out of possession, especially when the spaces are a little bigger (as they were against Fulham, as compared to against City), it's a desperately unathletic bunch. I like all four players and we obviously want to retain Mainoo long term, but he needs legs around him.
Against City that was certainly the case. The spaces were very small though because we were setup in a low block and our whole focus without the ball was closing off central spaces and forcing City to play it wide. Martinez, Maguire, Casemiro and Mainoo are all actually very good at winning duels in confined spaces. The problem comes when we're not playing in a low block and the spaces we have to defend are much bigger - those four simply don't have the ground coverage. We saw some of that against Fulham, which as the poster above says, was disconcertingly reminiscent of Ten Hag at times.
Has nobody been watching us for the last 14 months? We've been like a sieve during Amorim's entire time here even with a back 5, so why selectively only mention during ETH's time?
Those ground coverage and personnel issues doesn't disappear overnight. Carrick saw this and with a simple tactical fix reduced our weaknesses quite significantly. Unfortunately for us, even with that 'significant' change, we are still vulnerable if we don't get the pressing triggers and defensive lines on point. Whilst Fulham did get behind our midfield at times, we kept them away from our box for most of the match until the penalty incident 85 mins in. Even with those tweaks, it was still enough to win 3 games in a row, something that took Amorim 30+ games to do.
The evaluation shouldn't be 'wow these are limited players and we're seeing the same issues', as everybody knows that, it should be 'how fecking incompetent was Amorim to not change anything or set the team in a way to actually give them a chance to compete?'.
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The first paragraph of Michael Carrick’s book. <3
I don’t understand why people are so enthusiastic to spend so much time to speculate and predict/judge Carrick’s ability by microscopically analyzing what they saw or they think they saw. I guess a week is too long and too boring for us to wait for the next game! 
Carrick is developing this team. Every week, we will get a chance to see either progress or setback. Let’s beat spurs!
Carrick is developing this team. Every week, we will get a chance to see either progress or setback. Let’s beat spurs!
I would assume ETH is used as the reference point because his final season was by far the most exposed we've been.
Looking at a very basic measure, shots on target against us across the season:
25/26 - 88 (so far)
24/25 - 149
23/24 - 203
22/23 - 142
21/22 - 180
20/21 - 141
19/20 - 131
18/19 - 171
17/18 - 143
16/17 - 116
15/16 - 120
The negative outlier doesn't take much spotting, nor was it difficult to see why it was happening at the time. Teams were running through us in a way I've never seen before or since, it was beyond abysmal.
That's fine, I don't think anyone would dispute we were horrifically bad during ETH's time. However my point is, was the Fulham game that much of an outlier compared to the rest of the games we've had under Amorim for the past 14 months? I'm assuming those are stats only for the PL and if extrapolated, 88 would give 139 for 38 league games. So not much difference from last season, which includes 3 months of ETH's tenure. It's just bit of an odd reference point in this thread and I'd hate to be that guy but I have to here (as you may not be aware), their posting history is an indicator of why.
We were vulnerable at times against Fulham with how they got in behind our midfield but I also thought we did well in the second phase instances to get a man between the ball and I don't recall them creating much in open play apart from aerials.
Ah, I am unaware of their posting history, so without knowing the context I'll leave ye to it.
We've got too many slow players. We could do with Heaven and Yorro to kick on and De Ligt to return
We were like that through the whole of Amorims tenure tbf. That Casemiro/Bruno midfield got overran quite frequently.
What I would say aswell is this ‘wide open’ situation could have happened at various points during the Arsenal and City game.
One thing was clear during all three games and that’s the amount of bodies we pushed forward which will lead you susceptible to breaks.
We were undoubtedly sharper in the city game overall but city had plenty of situations where they had 5 v 4 on the counter and Arsenal had a few too.
The difference was Fulham were better at being more direct. They carried the ball quickly through midfield and played into the wide areas without hesitation. Berge was miles better than anything Rodri or Rice produced. In him and iwobi they had two very good ball carriers.
City and Arsenal didn’t do that. That’s not their style to counter that quickly so all they kept doing was passing it, recycling it, taking extra touches over and over. And it allowed us to get back into shape quite often.
There seems to be an hot topic over this but we were like it through the second part of ETH’s reign and through Amorims.
It’s not something that’ll get fixed overnight. We don’t have a DM capable of tidying up those situations. We were also poorly coached in dealing with those situations under two managers.
Ultimately it will keep happening but I think this set up allows us to trust our players a bit more in dealing with those counter situations. (Extra midfielder and Full backs not having to cover so much ground to get back)
For all the talk of Fulham running into space etc, I felt we dealt with most things when they got near or into our area until Maguire had a brain fart.
Are Bruno, Casemiro, Mainoo, Licha or Maguire quick? That's the core of our team and the answer is an obvious no. Yes we are unathletic and that can't continue if we want to play dominant football.
We beat City and Arsenal because we played compact countering football not because they couldn't keep up with us. We made the pitch bigger against Fulham and the same old problems rose to the surface. We are unathletic and half decent footballers look like Real Madrid galacticos when they are chased by our gang.
There is not a tactic in the world that can make such an unathletic bunch play dominant football as evidenced by our routinely being outplayed by middling teams at OT since Ole left.
Agreed. I think a Baleba type makes all the sense in the world. Athletic and good on the ball. We really need Yoro to turn into Rio 2.0 quickly as well.
I'd like Anderson but Baleba would be a good second option and probably more realistic!
Or let's get different players
IMO, this is what it should take for Carrick to be considered as a permanent candidate at the end of the season. All 5 parameters must be met.
1. CL-qualification (it's ours to lose atm)
2. Points per game average 1.84 (average for CL-qualification the previous seasons)
3. XG in line with actual points per game (underlying data suggesting it’s sustainable)
4. Tactical flexibility/variations (with a clear improvement and ability to dominate against the “lesser teams”)
5. Harmony and no leaks from dressing room (line-ups etc.)
1. CL-qualification (it's ours to lose atm)
2. Points per game average 1.84 (average for CL-qualification the previous seasons)
3. XG in line with actual points per game (underlying data suggesting it’s sustainable)
4. Tactical flexibility/variations (with a clear improvement and ability to dominate against the “lesser teams”)
5. Harmony and no leaks from dressing room (line-ups etc.)
It's unfair to have different criteria for him than any other manager. Why do we have sky high standards when we appointment from within vs endless excuses, time, patience, etc when we appoint from outside?
If we were to hire Tuchel/Enrique in the summer would you have the same standards to not fire them after 17 games as you listed?
Who says these criterias are different for Carrick? They should be applied for any manager we have. If not, it would mean that our standards have dropped.
Recruiting from outside should imply that the candidate have delivered on these 5 parameters (within the relativeness of where they're recruited from).
No, I wouldn't judge or fire them after 17 matches but if they failed after a full season they should be under real scrutiny. And for an unproven manager like Carrick it is just how it is, he only has 17 matches/rest of the season to prove himself, which he must in order to be considered. Tuchel/Enrique or similars have proven themselves over a much longer periods already.
I've said elsewhere we need to wait until the end of the season, then make a considered, unemotional decision, using the performance & results from all games. But now I've just read that, I want to give him the job right now.The first paragraph of Michael Carrick’s book. <3
You can already sense that fans are reluctant to appoint him unless he does something historical, which is strange to me because he's nothing like Ole and the options around Europe are underwhelming to say the least (we aren't getting Enrique).
We gotta just wait to see how he does the rest of the season. So far so good though.
Carrick's managerial record so far consists of not getting promoted from the Championship with Middlesbrough. And he is potentially competing for the United job against manager who have won Champions League, La Liga, Serie A and/or Bundesliga titles.
If we're being "fair", then based on his actual record as manager he obviously shouldn't be appointed United manager ahead of those other options. If we'd replaced managers at the end of the season and were only choosing based on merit then he wouldn't even be considered, so he's lucky to have this opportunity as interim manager to try and put his name in the ring.
But if he's actually going to jump to the top of the list ahead of those seemingly much more qualified options, he should have to do remarkably well as interim manager. Which yes, means higher criteria for him. That's the natural consequence of starting from a position of having a lot more to prove.
I actually look forward to our matches now.
Right now we should be focused on the here and now, not a decision that should be made In May. So far, Michael has vastly exceeded all reasonable expectations, but one could almost attribute it to a combination of game raising and new manager’s bounce. I wouldn’t, but some might.
But now we face an opponent which is ensuring a miserable season and will likely sit very deep on us, conceding possession probably in the 65/35 range. Can we break down such an opponent? I think we will, but we shall see.
And if we do, let’s say, crush Spurs 4-0, oh my.
But now we face an opponent which is ensuring a miserable season and will likely sit very deep on us, conceding possession probably in the 65/35 range. Can we break down such an opponent? I think we will, but we shall see.
And if we do, let’s say, crush Spurs 4-0, oh my.
I hear you. And while intellectually we all know your former attitude was the correct one, I think the latter is also totally normal and fine. Football is emotion, feck emotionless cold-minded football - there is no such thing.
Whether he gets the job or not, I will always love Carrick for these words. Just like Ole will always be a United hero, regardless of whether his managerial stint was success or not.
Cheers!
Spurs is potentially a good team. If they can avoid mistakes it will be a very difficult game.
Why would they sit back? They pressed Cheaty didn‘t they? Very few teams sit back these days.
For me, if Carrick can get the team into the Champions League; the form looks good and general play look good; and the squad are United and behind him, he should at the very least get a chance to lay out his vision as a manager in an interview.
By no means saying give him the job. There may be someone comes up better in an interview (please God not Southgate)
My worry with a Tuchel or Poch (as examples) is that they'd not be starting the job until well into July.
By no means saying give him the job. There may be someone comes up better in an interview (please God not Southgate)
My worry with a Tuchel or Poch (as examples) is that they'd not be starting the job until well into July.
Spurs definitely have it in them to pull our shorts over our heads and I'm sure Carrick is treating the game with alarm against an opponent which put in a fantastic second half against City. But I think they'll have a hard time containing Mbuemo and Cunha. We need to be alert on free kicks and if we are we should be able to scrape the win even if Spurs avoid mistakes. We have some real quality in the starting XI and everyone right now, even down to Dalot, is playing at a very high level.