Under-pressure Manchester United boss Michael Carrick claimed that the club have ‘lost our way’ in a five-minute opening speech to the media ahead of their crunch clash with Bournemouth.
There is increasing uncertainty surrounding Carrick’s future at Old Trafford following United’s humiliating 4-1 defeat away at Como in the Champions League on Wednesday evening.
The defeat by the beautiful lakes of Italy extended United’s winless run to seven games in all competitions, with the club not having tasted victory since early September.
The 45-year-old is set to take charge of the Red Devils as they take on the Cherries on Sunday and in his pre-match press conference ahead of the match, Carrick spoke from the heart.
‘I’ll start today. I just want to say a few things, really,’ said Carrick. ‘Recently, we haven’t had a good time. I think that’s pretty obvious. So I totally accept what we’re going through at the moment.
‘We had five months of relative success in a spell where I was happy with a lot of things I was seeing and that we were doing as a team. We haven’t done well enough lately. We’ve had a spell that we’re really not happy with.
Michael Carrick gave a passionate near-six minute address to the media on Friday afternoon
‘Wednesday was a bad night. It was a bad night for a lot of reasons. It hurt a lot.
‘It obviously hurt me to see us play that way, to see how the game panned out. As I said after the game, it was really unacceptable.
‘The supporters are a huge part of this football club. They have to make the effort and the time and money they spend, to feel how we all felt on Wednesday was a tough moment.’
During the impassioned speech, Carrick seemingly spoke directly to his current squad by saying that Manchester United is ‘bigger than any single individual’, even listing names of legends such as Sir Alex Ferguson and Sir Bobby Charlton when making his point.
And while Carrick is happy to ‘hold the umbrella to keep everyone else dry’, he also wants his players to step up and reach the levels demanded by the 20-time champions.
Carrick continued: ‘We need to respect this football club and respect what it means to be here, respect what it takes to win, what you have to do to win.
‘I’m not entitled to be here. Entitlement cannot be at this football club. We’re not entitled to win. We’ve won in the past, we’ve got an incredible history, but that doesn’t mean that you’re entitled to just win.
‘I’m fully aware of that. It takes hard work, takes a lot of sacrifice. You’ve got to invest yourself in the football club and you’ve got to do a lot of things that maybe aren’t so nice, but you’ve got to do it for each other, and you’ve got to win.
United are winless in seven games after being humiliated by Como in the Champions League on Wednesday
Carrick refused to say whether had had spoken to Bruno Fernandes since his captain questioned the manager’s tactics
‘I think it’s important we live up to that, and it’s important for me to push those values, and it’s important for our supporters to feel that moving forward.
‘We’ve had it, we’ve kind of lost our way a little bit if I’m totally honest, and we will get it back. I’m totally convinced we’ll get it back. Respect this football club, respect what it takes, because it’s very, very important to me.’
Following the speech, Carrick was asked to address whether he is considering stripping Bruno Fernandes of the club captaincy after the midfielder questioned his tactics following the defeat to Como. He refused to answer directly.
However, Carrick claimed that the dressing room is ‘not divided’ despite the outspoken nature of Fernandes and Lisandro Martinez in recent weeks.
Martinez was first to break ranks, taking aim at his Old Trafford bosses – and director of football Jason Wilcox in particular – following a 2-0 defeat to Atletico Madrid in the Champions League last week. Fernandes then followed suit to question why United were so passive again.
He said: ‘It’s a decision from the staff to not press man to man and sometimes leave space behind and try to get the ball, wait for them, but sometimes when you give space to these teams they get confidence.’
Asked if he meant that Carrick got his tactics wrong, Fernandes added: ‘That’s on the manager and staff to say, not me.
‘Sometimes you have to be more brave under pressure, take the risk of pressing high and making them uncomfortable. As you saw with Como, the centre back was coming to mark me in my own half. We need to do that as a team but we were unable to.
‘A team that plays through the middle with small connections, if you give them too much time and space then they can hurt you out wide.’
