Michael Carrick: Manchester United’s identity must come before individuals

Michael Carrick has demanded an immediate response from Manchester United after admitting the club have “lost our way a little bit” before Sunday’s Premier League meeting with Bournemouth.

The head coach spoke on Friday as pressure grows on his position following a run of two wins in 11 matches in all competitions. Those victories came against newly promoted Ipswich Town and Sabah in the Champions League.

United have also lost 1-0 at home to local rivals Manchester City, been beaten by newly promoted Hull City and suffered a damaging 4-1 defeat by Italian minnows Como in Europe’s elite club competition.

Carrick only became permanent head coach at the end of last season, but the recent results have led to speculation that he could be dismissed. He remained defiant as he addressed reporters.

“Recently we haven’t had a good time, that’s pretty obvious,” said Carrick. “We haven’t done well enough lately… and we’ve had a spell that we’re really not happy with.”

Describing Wednesday as “a bad night for a lot of reasons”, Carrick said the performance had hurt him and was “really unacceptable”. He also apologised to supporters who had spent time and money attending the match, saying it was difficult to see them leave feeling as disappointed as the players and staff.

“My responsibility is to get a team on a pitch that represents this football club, represents the supporters and they can be proud of it,” he said. “We have gone away from that just recently in certain games… and I’m definitely doing something about it.”

Carrick said United needed to recover the “vigour and intensity and enjoyment and passion” they had shown during five months of relative success earlier in the season.

He insisted the club’s traditional values remained central to his approach, highlighting humility, hard work and resilience. Carrick said the determination shown by United through adversity, comebacks, late goals and sustained success had been evident throughout the club’s history.

“Manchester United is always bigger and always has been, always will be bigger than any single individual,” he said. “Bigger than me, bigger than any of the players.”

Carrick cited former team-mates Ryan Giggs and Wayne Rooney, saying their focus had been serving the team rather than themselves. He also referred to Sir Alex Ferguson, Sir Matt Busby and Sir Bobby Charlton, praising their commitment to rebuilding the club.

“We’re not entitled to win,” Carrick added. “It takes hard work, it takes a lot of sacrifice. You’ve got to invest yourself in the football club.”

He said United had temporarily moved away from those standards but was confident they could return to them.

“It’s important we live up to that,” Carrick said. “Respect this football club, respect what it takes because it’s very, very important to me.”