Neville warns Carrick a Man Utd sacking looms if struggles persist into January

Gary Neville has warned Michael Carrick that his position as Manchester United manager will come under serious threat if the club are still struggling in the lower reaches of the Premier League table come December or January, following their 1-1 draw with Leeds United at Elland Road.

The result left United 13th in the table after winning just one of their opening seven Premier League matches. Carrick’s side are now on a six-game winless run stretching back to a 4-0 pre-season victory over Sabah at Old Trafford.

Despite the underwhelming outcome, Neville viewed the Leeds draw as a tentative step in the right direction. “It’ll feel like a stepping stone for Michael Carrick, and it’ll feel like the first step on the ladder in the Premier League,” the former United captain said on his podcast. “They may take some confidence from that, and there might be a blueprint there — maybe we have to bring Matheus Cunha, Marcus Rashford and others off the bench, and we might just have to have a go at being more solid.”

Cunha was restricted to a late substitute appearance at Elland Road, while Rashford did not feature at all.

Looking further ahead, Neville set out clear expectations for where United must finish the season. “I would say fourth would be a birdie, fifth would be par, and sixth would be a bogey,” he said. “But they can’t finish outside the top five because then you’re missing out on the Champions League, and it becomes a vicious circle. You can’t get those players because they want to play in the Champions League, and you’ve lost the £60m-£70m, and you’re in the Europa League on Thursday nights.”

Neville identified the upcoming fixtures against Bournemouth and Chelsea away as pivotal moments for Carrick’s tenure. “If they’re 13th in January, he’s got a problem because then you are what you are,” he said. “Whereas I think it’s still early enough — seven points from seven games — to say ‘OK, still early in the season’; you can’t say that after 15 games.”

With Brighton, Liverpool, and Aston Villa all performing above United at this stage of the campaign, Neville stressed that anything short of a top-five finish would represent a significant underachievement relative to pre-season expectations.