Carrick took United from seventh to third, and now Wilcox is judging him for a squad with no left-back

In May, Michael Carrick was the man who fixed Manchester United. He had taken over as interim head coach on 13 January after Ruben Amorim was sacked, United finished third, and Champions League football was secured with three league games to spare. The club gave him the job permanently and a two-year contract.

Five months later, according to Goal, the same club have given Jason Wilcox, their director of football, full authority to decide whether Carrick keeps it. ESPN reports that he will be on the touchline against Bournemouth at Old Trafford on Sunday. Whether he is still there in November is a different question, and I think United are about to answer it the wrong way.

The case against him is real

Nobody needs to invent a crisis here. United have won two of their 11 games in all competitions this season. They have one Premier League win, seven points from seven matches and sit 13th. They are out of the Carabao Cup, and on Wednesday they lost 4-1 at Como, a club playing only their third Champions League match. That made it seven games without a win.

Then there is the dressing room. Lisandro Martínez went after the club’s recruitment, and Wilcox in particular, after the 2-0 defeat at Atlético Madrid, then apologised and was fined. After Como, Bruno Fernandes told TNT Sports that not pressing man-to-man was “a decision from the staff”, and that it was “on the manager and on the staff to see, it is not me.” When your captain says that on camera, it is hard to argue that nothing is wrong.

But look at who is doing the judging

Here is my problem with how this is being handled. Goal reports that people inside the club accept the summer recruitment left the squad short, with no left-back and no extra forward signed. United spent big on Andrey Santos, Youri Tielemans and Carlos Baleba in midfield instead. United were missing nine players through injury, suspension or illness in Como. That is how Matthijs de Ligt came to make his first start in 325 days.

Carrick did not build that squad on his own. Wilcox has been the main figure behind United’s recruitment since he became director of football, and in May he was the one saying Carrick had thoroughly earned the job. Now he gets to decide whether the head coach pays for the gaps. That is an awkward arrangement, and sacking the coach first is the oldest way for a football club to avoid asking harder questions about itself.

United know this better than most. Carrick is the seventh permanent manager since Sir Alex Ferguson retired in 2013. The BBC reports that some senior figures are wary of changing again so soon, and they should be. Each of those changes was sold as a fresh start, and here they are in October having the same conversation again.

Who would come in?

The names doing the rounds do not settle it either. Antonio Conte is said to be keen, with his representatives in regular contact. Eddie Howe is out of work and Sir Jim Ratcliffe is reportedly an admirer. The Telegraph has Julian Nagelsmann as a top contender. Cesc Fàbregas was asked about it before Como played United and would not play along: “I won’t answer that question because I think that’s not a very nice question.”

None of them is a quick fix for a squad with a missing left-back and nine players out. Whoever comes in would want a left-back and a striker in January, which is the same list Carrick already has.

Four games before the break

After Bournemouth, United go to Chelsea, host Roma in the Champions League and then play Aston Villa before the November international break. That is a fair window. If Carrick loses the dressing room completely in those four games, the decision makes itself. If he gets something out of Sunday against a Bournemouth side who are 15th on six points, he has earned the chance to try to fix this with more of his players fit.

Carrick said last week that managing United was “the best job you can get and the best position I could have.” Sacking him now, a few months after giving him a two-year contract, would be another United decision that looks like a reset and is really an admission of what went wrong in the summer.

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