Carrick deflects transfer criticism as United's injury crisis deepens after Como hammering

Michael Carrick refused to hold Manchester United’s transfer budget accountable for the club’s recent slump, even as nine senior absentees and a heavy defeat to Como piled pressure on the 44-year-old manager.

The United boss was pressed at his press conference on whether the club’s £150m summer outlay — significantly less than several Premier League rivals — had contributed to a string of poor results. Carrick acknowledged multiple factors were at play but stopped short of pointing the finger at the board. “I think there’s a lot of elements, different elements, some smaller than others of why we’ve ended up not winning as many games,” he said. “So, I’m pretty clear about that.”

When pushed further on whether the board had conceded he deserved greater backing in the window, Carrick redirected the conversation. “It’s not about receiving more support, it’s about doing what’s right on the football pitch to get results, and we haven’t done enough of that lately.”

His measured response stands in contrast to the frustration expressed by Lisandro Martinez earlier this month. The defender publicly stated he “expected more” from United in the transfer market following the club’s Champions League defeat to Atletico Madrid, a rare moment of candour that intensified scrutiny on the squad’s depth.

That depth has been severely tested in recent weeks. With nine senior players sidelined, Carrick has been forced to field players out of position, and the weaknesses were laid bare in the defeat to Como. United also sit bottom of the league’s key running statistics, a detail that has drawn widespread criticism.

Carrick pushed back on the narrative around pressing and physical output. “Pressing is one small part of football,” he said. “There’s all sorts of different ways of what people are classed as a press. You don’t necessarily need to press to win games of football. Sometimes you do, sometimes you don’t. It’s just a thing that gets thrown about.”

He was equally dismissive of running statistics as a standalone measure of performance. “It’s not necessarily just running stats that define football games,” he added. “We’ve just got to get back to doing a lot of the things that we were doing last season. We need to get back to being at our best.”

With the injury list showing no immediate signs of shortening and results continuing to disappoint, Carrick faces mounting pressure to arrest the slide — regardless of where the blame ultimately lies.