Carrick's Man United struggles echo Solskjaer's final weeks as board pressure mounts

Michael Carrick’s stuttering start as Manchester United manager is raising uncomfortable echoes of Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s final weeks in charge, with INEOS and the Glazers reportedly growing concerned after a run of results that mirrors the sequence that ended Solskjaer’s tenure in November 2021.

United have lost two of their opening four league games and were beaten by Brighton in the Carabao Cup, leaving Carrick under mounting external scrutiny heading into Sunday’s Premier League trip to Fulham. The pattern feels familiar: a popular former player handed the job after a high-profile Portuguese manager — in Carrick’s case Ruben Amorim, in Solskjaer’s Jose Mourinho — was dismissed, only to find the goodwill eroding as results deteriorate.

For Solskjaer, the breaking point came with a 4-1 defeat at Watford — the team’s fourth loss in five games. An emergency board meeting lasting several hours followed, with Joel Glazer ultimately approving the decision to sack the Norwegian despite the credit he had built for guiding United to a distant runners-up finish in the Premier League.

Carrick has publicly insisted he does not feel under pressure, but he acknowledged the scrutiny after the Brighton defeat, pointing to a late Everton equaliser and a controversial Manchester City derby winner as context for the run. He knows, however, that explanations will only carry so much weight.

“Of course we can turn it around,” Carrick said. “We’ve got some really good players and it feels bad at the moment because we haven’t had a great week, or two or three weeks. But it doesn’t mean you can’t win another game of football quickly.”

He added: “The players have shown before what they’re capable of doing and we have as a group. It doesn’t count for much; it’s always about what happens next. It’s all about what you do next and dealing with the moments, and the ups and the downs. We’ve certainly got to deal with this moment in a good way.”

A victory at Craven Cottage on Sunday would send United into the extended international break with some breathing room. Fail to get a result, and the parallels with Solskjaer’s final days will only grow harder to dismiss.