Carragher refuses to sympathise with Carrick after Manchester United sacking

Jamie Carragher has dismissed calls for sympathy towards Michael Carrick after Manchester United confirmed the manager’s sacking on Thursday, just 10 games into the Premier League season with the club sitting in the relegation zone.

Carrick’s exit comes 11 months after he was first handed the role — including an interim stint — following a summer in which United spent £155 million in the transfer market. The club’s poor form this season ultimately proved decisive for the hierarchy.

Speaking on Stick to Football shortly before the dismissal was officially confirmed, former Liverpool defender Carragher was blunt in his assessment of Carrick’s situation.

“Michael Carrick got the job on the back of nothing. He got the job on the back of basically playing for Man United and he’s done really well,” Carragher said. “So this idea that we’ve got to feel sorry for Michael Carrick — what’s happened to him in the last 18 months, he will look back at this and say it’s painful for him right now, but what he did to get them into the Champions League, the big games he won against Arsenal, Liverpool, all these games, he’s done brilliantly.”

Carragher acknowledged Carrick’s achievements during his interim spell last season, when he took over from Ruben Amorim in January and guided United into the Champions League places, losing just twice in the second half of the campaign. But he argued that record does not entitle Carrick to wider sympathy given the circumstances of his appointment.

“He’s not a manager who’s been managing for 10 years, working all over the world to get this job at Manchester United — he had about two years at Middlesbrough, was doing a bit of punditry, then got the Man United job. They gave him it,” Carragher added. “I don’t feel sorry for Michael Carrick. He’s been managing one of the biggest clubs in the world on the back of basically not really doing a lot. He was never at the calibre of managers in the Premier League — the managers in the Premier League are the best in the world and he’s just not quite at that level.”

Mauricio Pochettino is understood to have a verbal agreement to succeed Carrick at Old Trafford. The United States national team head coach is expected to fulfil two CONCACAF Nations League fixtures before crossing the Atlantic to take charge ahead of United’s upcoming league fixture against Liverpool.