We take a look at everything Michael Carrick said in his first interview as Man Utd’s new interim head coach earlier this week.
The 44 year old, who was appointed until the end of the 2025-26 season, following Ruben Amorim’s departure. expressed huge excitement and positivity about returning to the club.
He spoke of his first day being efficient, calm, and positive, and that he got butterflies when he drove into Carrington gave him good butterflies, feeling natural and composed among great staff all pulling together.
In terms of what makes a Man Utd player, he made it clear that it’s down to hard work, humility, respect, looking out for each other, and fighting collectively.
He opens up on taking time away and lessons learnt from his time at Middlesbrough and his previous stint as United’s caretaker.
There was praise for what is described to be a balanced coaching team, consisting Steve Holland (vast experience), Jonathan Woodgate (loyal challenger), Travis Binnion (youth/academy focus), Jonny Evans (deep club knowledge).
His vision and style? As well as winning games, to improve players individually/team-wise, play positive/exciting football, support each other, and create enjoyable moments that get him “off his seat.”
Having had a look at the squad and youth, he’s been left excited by the talent on show, with young players on hand to adapt to United’s demands.
In a message to fans, he called for unity, energy, emotion, anticipation, and belief that something special can happen — urging them to back the team through good and tough times.
What has today looked like for you, then, your first day?
“It’s been really good actually. It’s been really, really efficient, if anything, you know. Coming into the building, driving in, driving myself, first thing this morning, was a nice feeling. I’ve done the drive many times before but that, in itself, coming in to work, was like giving me butterflies in a good way and a good feeling, as I said, coming into the building. And feeling that calmness and the composure, it felt quite normal for me. And that’s not playing it down or being blase. I just felt like I was in such a really good place, with good people, who were all pulling in the same direction. And the backroom staff here are fantastic. I’ve met pretty much all of them and gone through it, the plans and what’s gone before. What’s to come, in so much as what it feels or might look like. There’s all sorts going on but it’s actually been really quite a calm day. Quite a clear day in terms of focus, really, what we want out of the next few days, what we want it to look like. What we want the end of the season to look like. How we want to move forward, as a club. It’s been a really, really good day. I’ve loved it and it just give me a lot of positivity.”
We hear the phrase very often but what does it take to be a Manchester United player?
“It takes a lot of hard work, it takes a lot of humility and hard work. I’ll keep saying it a lot – it takes a lot of hard work, and [being] grounded and understanding that talent is one thing and ability is one thing, and the privileges of you playing is one thing but it’s actually coming back down the basics and fundamentals of treating people right, respect people, look out for each other and fight for each other. The rest of it comes on top, whether that’s tactics, whether that’s techniques, whether that’s goal celebrations, whatever that is, it needs to be underpinned by a foundation that we’re all in it together and we’re fighting for everything we can get. It takes a lot of hard work. There is no easy way around it and there shouldn’t be, you know. You get to the top because you deserve to and you can’t do it softly, should I say. That is the buzz of it, that’s the part where you’ve got to feed off it, you’ve got to feed off that energy and you’ve got to keep driving forward.”
