The day before it was announced that Michael Carrick would be the permanent Manchester United head coach, I spent the best part of an hour interviewing him at the club’s Carrington training ground for the United We Stand fanzine. I first interviewed him 20 years ago and have continued to do so at regular intervals.
This time, I was interested in what his first few days were like as United boss and also his future vision for the team.
“We came in on a Tuesday,” the 44-year-old says of his first week in charge in January, with games against Manchester City and Arsenal to follow. Weeks earlier, Carrick had been using his own season ticket to watch games.
“The first time we met the players was when we were training on Wednesday. We had two pitch sessions, Wednesday and Friday, where you can do a little bit. It was more a real focus on the feeling of playing here and what it should feel like. The enjoyment, the embrace of the challenge and what an unbelievable opportunity we’ve got playing here. You can forget that when you’ve gone through different spells.
“It was something I’ve always felt proud of when I’ve been here in the past. I just came in talking about that, what the club means to me, what the club means to a lot of people and for the boys to feel positive about that, because it can get on top of you. It got on top of me at different times, so I was just trying to put those experiences across to the lads.
“I don’t want to go on about the past too much, but I think sometimes showing them vulnerabilities is not a bad thing. I found it hard at times, and that’s how it should be because if you didn’t find it hard here, everyone would be here and doing it and being successful. It’s a challenge, but when you get there, that’s why it feels so good.
“I was going with that message of togetherness and the supporters and what they want, how they want us to play, how they want us to behave and just trying to paint that picture as much as tactics and the games. But in the first couple of games, we tried to keep it as simple and as clear as we possibly could.
“Actually, ‘simple’ is not the word because you end up going into a lot of detail, but clarity was important for the lads not to overthink it and trust themselves. They’re good players and we’re a good team.
“But… you can only do so much in a certain space of time, so I thought you can have a big effect on the mentality in that small space. You’re not going to change the way they play or make them into different types of players, but it’s how powerful your mind can be. If you’re thinking about the right things, you can perform in a whole different manner.”
United did perform well, defeating City 2-0 and then winning 3-2 at Arsenal. Before Arsenal, Carrick told his players, “If we’ll do certain things, we’ve got a good chance of winning”. He wanted to give them that belief but also believed what he was saying.
“We needed to back it up,” he explained. “That first week (beating City) can happen, one-offs, anyone can beat anybody. So the next challenge was to get into the lads that it wasn’t enough.”
United did back it up.
“It was special,” he recalls of that flying start. “It’s funny, you go through the years and you have some moments that you never really thought you’d get. And you never know if you’ll get them again. You always think, ‘Is that the last one?’. You’re always chasing the next high, the next buzz.
“That’s why everyone comes back to watch us every week. And so then to get that from the first game — not just for me, but for everyone, the staff, the coaches, backroom staff — it gave everyone such a great feeling. And the stadium (vs City) was as bouncing as I’ve seen it. It was one of my best memories. It’s how you want to remember it on days like that.”
Victory at Arsenal was a key early result in Michael Carrick’s tenure (Justin Setterfield/Getty Images)
How did he make that happen?
“The connection straight away with the players was there,” Carrick adds. “You don’t always get that, for whatever reason. You can have meetings and you can just feel them. There can be a drift; you get that with any group of people, but initially for that time, you could feel that they were there as much as you could. That’s a powerful thing to have, when you know people care that much, they want to do well. Not necessarily for me, but for themselves, for the club.”
Beating top teams is one (important) thing, breaking down more defensive sides is another. How will Carrick’s United solve this long-standing problem?
“There are different ways of scoring goals, different ways of playing in certain games,” he says. “Our best teams came up against teams defending in a lot of numbers. More recently, teams have won the league in the last few years and found it hard to score against low blocks or whatever.”
So what is the solution?
“Potent players in certain positions, different ideas and a lot of it’s mentality,” he says. “About being positive, going for it and looking for the goal with the fans behind you. Looking to be quite aggressive in a football sense and always looking for the solution and what can happen instead of worrying about what the problem is. I think there’s a big difference in your mind of how you approach that.”
Football has changed a lot since Carrick played; he retired in 2018. There is now much greater emphasis on analysis and data. How does he feel about that and what are the key things he wants from his team?
“There are more details in the game now,” he says. “There was a lot more individual problem-solving before. The game went almost too far, where there were too many answers given and it became a bit sterile. Like ‘coach, coach, coach’, too detailed and taking that freedom and that expression away from players. That’s just my opinion.
“You need a structure, responsibilities, principles, discipline — of course you do — but giving that freedom for expression to then go and do what you’re good at, I think that’s a big part of the game.”