A dejected-looking Michael Carrick next to the Manchester United badge
Michael Carrick has lots to improve on at Manchester United
Michael Carrick has been told he is already in danger of the sack at Manchester United, though a former star is adamant the manager is not to blame after bemoaning a series of baffling transfer decisions which leave the Red Devils way behind their Premier League rivals.
Co-owners INEOS invested some £155m (€181m, $209m) on strengthening the club’s midfield options this summer, with Andrey Santos, Youri Tielemans and Carlos Baleba all added to the mix.
Despite that investment, United have started the season poorly, suffering two defeats already and with just one win to their name, leaving them 13th in the table – and already a daunting eight points behind defending champions Arsenal and rivals Manchester City.
With a big week on the horizon – United face Brighton at Old Trafford in the Carabao Cup third round on Wednesday, before travelling to face winless Fulham in the Premier League on Sunday – Carrick could find the pressure dial firmly cranked up on him, just a matter of months after he signed a permanent deal to become their manager.
However, former United treble winner Nicky Butt is already fearing the worst for Carrick, though he suggests a lot of the problems have been forced upon the 44-year-old, rather than any he’s created himself.
And Butt, speaking on The Good, The Bad & The Football podcast, reckons four poor transfer decisions at Old Trafford, including the failure to land a new striker and strengthen in defence, have put Carrick in a tricky spot.
He warned: “I think that’s all well and good saying (Manchester United) doing (their recruitment) in sections, but if you’re a manager, you’re thinking: the forwards, they think they’re sorted. I don’t think they are. I think they need a number 9, an out-and-out number 9.
They’ve gone and sorted the midfield out, which is debatable.”
In a brutal warning about his job, he added: “I think they’ve done a decent job with that, but it could be that Michael could not even get to the next transfer window, and he could be going ‘well I’ve lost my job, and you’re not giving me the tools to go and do my job with the back four’.”
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Carrick told Man Utd also need to strengthen their defence
Serious questions have been raised at Carrick and United following Sunday’s 1-0 derby defeat to Manchester United – a game they enjoyed a man advantage for the majority of – and with pundit Jamie Carragher exposing the manager and two players who just don’t have the quality needed.
Butt, though, thinks it runs deeper than that and insists the problems start at the very top, namely their failure to strengthen properly across multiple transfer windows.
To that end, he also feels a failure to strengthen in defence is key.
“Because certainly whatever you say about that back four, Harry Maguire’s been an unbelievable player – a top, top player – but he’s getting to a certain age now, and he is getting older, and we’ve all been there, haven’t we?
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“You get older, and you slow up, or you’re not as good, not as quick. Lisandro Martinez is still at the top of his game; he’s still a really good player. I love Luke Shaw. When he’s fit and playing, he’s one of the best in Europe, but it’s a fact that he gets a lot of injuries.
“The right-backs [Dalot or Mazraoui], I don’t believe either of them are good enough.
“So you’re looking as a manager or as a coach, and you’re going, ‘well, I’m desperate to get some players in the back four’, but then it looks like the recruitment team and the powers that be at United are going, ‘no, that’s our next phase, and that might happen in January, it might even happen, and it’s gonna be really hard, or it’ll probably be happening in the summer.’
“That doesn’t help the coaches.”