Michael Carrick made it four straight wins to the start of his second stint as Manchester United’s interim coach with a 2-0 victory over Spurs closing the gap with second-place Manchester City to three, before falling short in the draw at West Ham.
The former midfielder also impressed in his first spell with the club in late 2021, where he won two of the games overseen and managed to remain unbeaten against managers like Unai Emery’s Villarreal, Thomas Tuchel’s Chelsea, and Mikel Arteta’s Arsenal.
However, the club chose not to trust him going forward, and appointed Ralph Rangnick as the man to lead them until the end of the season — now they’ll ponder if they should have given Carrick a chance then.
Also, Manchester United have shown improvements this season, even before the sacking of Ruben Amorim. However, what they couldn’t have achieved under the Portuguese is winning four consecutive league games, much less a run of fixtures that featured Man City and Arsenal at the Emirates.
Michael Carrick’s successes in the early days of his return are turning into a mockery of how Manchester United operate, and if he indeed proves the best man for the job, they will forever wonder what could have been had he been trusted over four years ago.
Michael Carrick’s start is a mockery of Man United
Letting Michael Carrick leave back in December 2021 did not appear to be a poor decision, especially since he was inexperienced and the club was at a critical state, although there was no denying the results he had were remarkable.
Maybe those few weeks also prepared him for what was lying ahead as he went on to impress at Middlesbrough, before things went south between himself the club’s management, and his eventual departure at the end of last season.
For Manchester United, the lesson should have been learnt after they failed to land a successful coach since 2013. The focus on big names has not worked, and Michael Carrick has shown he is capable of delivering what they’ve been missing.
Probably too early to conclude right now that the former midfielder will indeed succeed, but come the end of the season, he will leave the club with a decision to make, and if his current performances are anything to go by, he may be walking his way to the job.
And why not?
Pep Guardiola, Zinedine Zidane, and currently Mikel Arteta, have all been given the platform to star at their former clubs and have gone on to succeed, and United is settling for one of their own after more than a decade of hiring and firing managers without success.
A mockery of Ruben Amorim’s credentials
Almost impossible to believe that Michael Carrick has succeeded fhr same team and started to deliver impressive results consistently straight from the onset, especially with players Amorim gave no chance of playing a significant part.
The Portuguese’s preference for a two-man midfield limited his options, causing him to cast out Kobbie Mainoo from the team, but the young Englishman has turned into one of the club’s best players right from Carrick’s first game.
It hasn’t taken any long for Michael Carrick to show that Amorim was never the right choice given his philosophy, and now that everyone is starting to see it, safe to say the one who showed them the light has made a mockery of both United and their former boss.
Kehinde-Hassan Afolabi
