Man Utd’s Second Half vs Roma Proves the Players Haven’t Given Up on Michael Carrick
Manchester United ended their winless run with a rousing second-half comeback against Roma on Tuesday. Head coach Michael Carrick appears to still have the players’ support.
The writing has appeared to be on the wall for Michael Carrick for a while.
A winless run of nine games through the autumn had taken the Manchester United head coach to the brink of the sack, and many have been left surprised that he has survived as long as he has.
One award-winning and very well-respected sports data website last week described his situation as a “stay of execution”. The expectation is it is only a matter of time before Carrick is dismissed.
The fear, in light not only of a dreadful run of results but also captain Bruno Fernandes’ decision to publicly question Carrick’s tactics, is that the players have turned on the coach. Once that happens, we all know there is no way back.
So, at 2-0 down after a woeful first half in Tuesday night’s Champions League game at home to Roma, it was hard to escape the feeling that this was, finally, the end.
The Serie A side had raced into a 2-0 lead inside 17 minutes, the earliest a visiting team had scored twice at Old Trafford in any major European competition, beating Sporting Braga’s record of 20 minutes from October 2012.
The only noteworthy thing anyone associated with the hosts produced before the break was the supporters’ protests against the club’s ownership, with chants persistent throughout the first half and tennis balls launched from the stands.
On the pitch, United managed just five shots, all from outside the penalty area, worth just 0.24 expected goals.
man utd vs roma stats Champions LEague first half
man utd vs roma stats Champions LEague first half
But after the break, almost completely unexpectedly, even for a club synonymous with famous and improbable comebacks, they roared back. United scored three times to secure their first win since 10 September and give themselves a good chance of making it into the Champions League knockout stages.
“It’s one win,” Carrick said afterwards. “So, we’re not getting too carried away with things.”
There is, indeed, no reason to start making any assumptions about this being a turning point in the season and, what’s more, the truth is it was only really one half of encouragement. But the manner of the win, the performance, the spirit shown by the team and, most importantly, the effort the players put in, may have proven that while Carrick is still around, all is not entirely lost.
There was a palpable energy, urgency and desire to what United did after the break, and that was the bedrock of their turnaround, shown most starkly in some of their basic defensive numbers.
United’s players made just six tackles and committed only three fouls in the first half; in the second half, they made 15 tackles and committed eight fouls. And that’s in spite of the fact they only had marginally less possession after the break: 51.0% in the second half, down from 53.6% in the first half.
In other words, they didn’t make more attempts to win the ball simply because Roma had more of it.
man utd vs roma, first half vs second half
man utd vs roma, first half vs second half
They pushed up and tried to win the ball consistently in Roma territory far more after the break. United’s players racked up 159 pressures in the opposition’s half in the second period, having made just 125 in the first. In the final third, their pressure numbers increased from 71 before half-time to 92 after. There was clearly a greater aim to win the ball back high up the pitch.
The fact they were 2-0 down obviously contributed to this. Roma will have naturally sat back a little with the hope of preserving their lead, allowing more opportunities for United to press high.
But the important point here is United’s players still tried. They didn’t down tools or shy away from the challenge in the face of yet more adversity and vociferous fan discontent. They proved they are still fighting for Carrick.
“At half-time, I was wanting them to be more positive if anything, and not get too disappointed and frustrated,” Carrick said after the game.
“The easiest thing is when you keep trying to do something is feeling sorry for yourself. If something goes wrong, you get disappointed. That’s not going to help anybody. We might as well all go home if that’s the case. We’ve got to keep looking for the next moment, the next solution.”
Once the effort was there, the impact was felt where it mattered. United had 10 shots after the break (of their 15 in total), and all seven of their shots from inside the box, too. They registered 2.46 of their 2.70 expected goals in the second half, and all three of their big chances as well. There was almost nothing in common between the first- and second-half performances here.
man utd vs roma stats Champions League second half
man utd vs roma stats Champions League second half
A single win might not mean much for United’s season, and there won’t be many who watched this chaotic comeback and changed their minds on Carrick, but there may well be something to build on, at least for the visit of Aston Villa on Sunday.
Beyond that, though, there’s no getting away from there being a good chance Carrick doesn’t last beyond the international break that follows Villa’s visit.
The good feeling from this game may not last long at all, and the evidence of recent weeks suggests Carrick’s reign may well have run its course.
And there is a bad omen from the win over Roma, too. United have now won both of the last two Champions League home matches in which they have trailed by 2+ goals, also beating Atalanta 3-2 in October 2021, who were also managed by Gian Piero Gasperini. The United manager for that game was Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, who oversaw a 5-0 home defeat to Liverpool four days later and was sacked within a month.
This may well still be the end of the road for Carrick, but for now, the players are still fighting his corner.
Enjoy this? Subscribe to our football newsletter to receive exclusive weekly content. You should also follow our social accounts over onX, Instagram, TikTok and Facebook.
UEFA Champions League Opta Stats
UEFA Champions League Opta Stats