Michael Carrick has issued an emotional statement at Manchester United’s latest press conference, acknowledging the club’s poor run of form while insisting he is confident the team can recover.
United have won only two of their 11 matches in all competitions this season, against Ipswich Town and Sabah. Their difficult start has intensified speculation over Carrick’s position, with Antonio Conte, Unai Emery, Eddie Howe and Fabian Hurzeler among the names linked with the job.
The 1-0 home defeat by Manchester City, despite City playing most of the match with 10 men, was followed by losses to newly promoted Hull City and a 4-1 Champions League thrashing by Como. United have also drawn at home with bottom-of-the-table Tottenham.
Michael Carrick statement on Manchester United’s form
Carrick accepted that the club had fallen below the required standard and said Wednesday’s result had been particularly painful.
“Recently, we haven’t had a good time. I think that’s pretty obvious,” he said. “So I totally accept what we’re going through at the moment.”
He added: “We haven’t done well enough lately. We’ve had a spell that we’re really not happy with. Wednesday was a bad night. It was a bad night for a lot of reasons. It hurt a lot.”
Carrick said his responsibility was to produce a side capable of representing United and giving supporters something to be proud of, admitting that the team had moved away from that standard in recent matches.
“My responsibility is to get a team on a pitch that represents this football club, represents its supporters and they can be proud of it with the identity that we show,” he said.
“We have gone away from that just recently in certain games, which I’m totally fully aware of and definitely doing something about.”
The United manager placed particular emphasis on the relationship between the team and its supporters, saying the club needed to rediscover the intensity and connection it had shown earlier in the season.
“Our supporters are the utmost of importance to me and this football club,” Carrick said. “For us to have that about us and that connection and that real vigour and intensity and enjoyment and passion that we all felt through that period was something that we need to get back to and we will get back to it.”
He also referred to the values associated with Manchester United’s history, including humility, hard work and resilience. Carrick said the club’s past success did not mean its players or staff were entitled to win.
“Manchester United is always bigger and it always has been, always will be bigger than any single individual,” he said. “Bigger than me, bigger than any of the players and it always has been.”
Despite the pressure surrounding his position, Carrick ended his statement by expressing confidence that United could regain their direction.
“We’ve had it, we’ve kind of lost our way a little bit if I’m totally honest and we’ll get it back,” he said. “I’m totally confident we’ll get it back.”
