Michael Carrick has reinvigorated Manchester United in the image of his single-minded captain
Manchester United players aren’t always easy to like. For those of us who grew up watching football in the early years of the Premier League, the very idea of enjoying one of them is enough to tickle the gag reflex.
It might be suggested that jealousy is at the root of that sentiment but it’s not as simple as that. Football supporters rail against dynasties because we’re biased. We see the evil that men do playing out in penalty areas week in and week out because we are the wronged.
Three decades ago, United were the Death Star and Eric Cantona was among its senior crew. Supporters of rival Premier League clubs were damaged by him on a regular basis, in ways both legitimate and nefarious, and we could only confess to our admiration for his genius long after he retired.
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At least, that was how it happened for me. Watching my team stymied time and again by Cantona’s brilliance and deviousness, there was no room for affection. Only much later could I look back on him, far removed from the heat of the moment, and feel a little love.
I’ll neverlove the current United captain. He’s nowhere near the level of Cantona in terms of style and skill. He shares some of the less endearing characteristics and seeing those against my team in 2026 is every bit as infuriating as it was in the bad old days of Red Devils domination.
Yet something unexpected has happened since Michael Carrick was installed as United’s interim head coach in the aftermath of Ruben Amorim’s sacking.
I didn’t want it. I don’t understand it. I’m not happy about it and I can’t even begin to process it. But it’s there, and this time I’m going to cop to it while it’s still raw.
I’ve started to enjoy watching Bruno Fernandes.
‘Carrick came in with the right ideas’
On the eve of the Manchester derby, Carrick’s first match of his second spell in charge, I wrote thathe couldn’t have chosen a better fixture to set the tone.
United had drawn their last three league games against Burnley, Leeds United and Wolverhampton Wanderers but it seemed to me that a win against Manchester City at Old Trafford could nudge them up a level or two in the push for a return to the Champions League.
It wasn’t an especially insightful thought but it was predicated on a truth that was personified by Fernandes: if Carrick could get United going, they have the players to climb those crucial couple of places in the Premier League table.
United won that game and the next three. Even in the subsequent draw against West Ham United, the first points dropped under Carrick, they showed a degree of stickability that wasn’t there before.
It’s a better environment for Fernandes. The 31-year-old midfielder is in his element, clearly suited to the new challenge and his freedom within it.
“I think Michael [Carrick] came in with the right ideas of giving the players the responsibility, but also some freedom to take the responsibility on the pitch during the decisions that are needed,”Fernandes said after United’s win against Tottenham Hotspur.
“We hope we can help him even more so everyone can see, not just us as the players, that we are good players and that is why we are at Manchester United, but also the staff is very good.”
Unhindered by Amorim’s tactical zealotry, United’s captain is having fun and firing on all creative cylinders with – to my eye, at least – less of the stuff that rubs opposition supporters up the wrong way.
Fernandes is United’s shapeshifter. For years, he’s been the player who best understood the mandatories that come with playing for United but had to demonstrate it from deep in the trenches, leading by sheer force of personality, working his arse off and getting stuck in even where he shouldn’t.
Now, his passing, vision and imagination have all shifted back to the forefront. I’ll watch that all day long.
United are a team refreshed
It’s been a long slog. Fernandes moved to Old Trafford from Sporting CP in 2020 and is just about the only United player to maintain any kind of positive reputation for the entirety of that period.
He shared the pitch with a host of theoretical big-hitters including the likes of Cristiano Ronaldo, Paul Pogba and Edinson Cavani, and he came out as United’s most important player by far.
The Red Devils have reached two European finals and won two cup competitions with Fernandes in the team but these have not been vintage years for the self-styled biggest football club in the world.
United have looked like a team refreshed under Carrick. I think a lot of that has to do with Fernandes playing to his considerable strengths but his teammates are also closer to his level than ever before.
For all Fernandes’ continued influence, Carrick’s United mini-renaissance has been a group effort and the midfielder’s teammates are starting to match the standards he’s been setting all along.
Diogo Dalot has been transformed.Kobbie Mainoo is back in the picture after being almost completely frozen out by Amorim, bossing the midfield in the derby and reminding us all of his potential.
Matheus Cunha and Bryan Mbeumo, both signed last summer for colossal transfer fees, have looked menacing in the past five matches, not for the first time as United players but certainly more consistently.
Another summer signing had his best United moment yet at the London Stadium. With his team trailing and heading for a first loss on Carrick’s watch,Benjamin Šeško flicked an audacious finish beyond the reach of West Ham goalkeeper Mads Hermansen in the sixth minute of injury time.
Fernandes is thriving because of freedom and it’s not just a case of Carrick tasking him with solving his own problems. It’s a consequence of renewed trust in the performances of his teammates.
Fernandes is United’s thrust in the Champions League battle
With the Red Devils devoid of European football this season and first-hurdle exits from both domestic cup competitions already masterminded by Amorim, they’re looking to capitalise on having a singular focus in the second half of the season.
The draw at West Ham was a missed opportunity to climb into third place in the Premier League but if Carrick can deliver a Champions League berth he’ll have fulfilled the brief and then some. The three teams above United and the three teams directly below them all have European football to deal with too.
It would be easy to back United simply because they seem to have momentum on their side and they’ve never not been a juggernaut when they really get rolling, but there’s more to it. They’re playing closer to their upper limits individually and collectively, and Fernandes is right in the thick of it.
The cruel twist is that Fernandes has already given United his best years. His age could even tempt the Red Devils to cash in on persistent interest from the Saudi Pro League at some point in the next few transfer windows.
United’s history is littered with legitimate legends, players and managers who’ve done everything there is to do and won everything there is to win in football.
Fernandes won’t join those ranks but he has been a stalwart and a standalone beacon of hope in a series of subpar seasons. Now he’s enjoying himself and he’ll be desperate to deliver a more meaningful legacy to go along with it.
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