The verdict inside INEOS on Tuesday’s 3-2 comeback at Old Trafford is unforgiving. According to Sky Sports’ Rob Dorsett, the nature of the victory against Roma was chaotic, rescued by a retaken Bruno Fernandes penalty rather than by any sign the team is turning a corner.
That matters because it decouples the question of Michael Carrick’s future from any single scoreline. If the project is being judged on direction rather than on Tuesday nights, a scrappy three goals against a mid-table Serie A side does not settle anything.
The other piece of the decision has already been made. Should Carrick go, there will be no caretaker. Manchester United will move straight to a permanent appointment, according to Sky Sports, because the club wants a longer-term strategy for its most important footballing role rather than another stopgap.
Howe and Nagelsmann in a two-way race
The shortlist has tightened. Eddie Howe and Julian Nagelsmann are the two front-running candidates, with Brighton’s Fabian Hurzeler also under consideration. Unai Emery was the preferred name, but he is close to signing a new long-term deal at Aston Villa.
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Inside Old Trafford, reporting points to a split between United’s director of football Jason Wilcox, who favours Howe, and head of recruitment Christopher Vivell, who wants Nagelsmann. All three names could be appointed at short notice, David Ornstein said on NBC Sports.
‘They wanted to keep Carrick on’
The counter-reading is just as important. Ornstein has pushed back on the idea that Carrick is only still in charge because a change has been postponed.
“I do think, whether you like it or not, that they wanted to keep Carrick on,” Ornstein said on NBC Sports, adding that United’s hierarchy had sensed a shift in player mentality at the training ground after a league defeat at Bournemouth, and that the squad understood another managerial change was not the answer.
The Sky Sports reporting lands in the same place. There is, Dorsett wrote, “still support for Carrick among the United hierarchy, and a lingering concern that changing the head coach won’t necessarily change the team’s fortunes.”
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One league win in nine as reassessment window nears
The context around the manager is as grim as the mood around him. United are 17th in the Premier League, kept out of the relegation places only by goal difference after winning one of their opening nine league matches. The Roma win, celebrated as a release, was their first in any competition for ten games.
Fernandes himself described his part in it bluntly. “I was lucky,” he told Football Italia of the penalty that was saved by Devis Vasquez and then retaken after Roma midfielder Bryan Cristante encroached into the area. Matheus Cunha scored twice to complete the turnaround.
Carrick’s next assignment is Aston Villa at home on Sunday before the November international break, which the club’s hierarchy has long marked as the natural window to reassess his position.
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