Manchester United have removed Michael Carrick as head coach less than six months after making his appointment permanent, gambling that a new manager can reverse a season that has left the club in the Premier League’s bottom three.

The club’s case is rooted in results. Carrick followed last season’s third-place finish — achieved with 12 wins from his final 17 matches — with only one league victory in 10 this term. United said it had reached the “extremely difficult conclusion” that change was required to meet its ambitions, while praising Carrick’s “dedication and professionalism.”¹ Mauricio Pochettino, currently United States head coach, is widely reported to be the intended successor, with a release clause thought to be about £7.5m.²

Yet the decision has prompted a competing view inside and around Old Trafford: that Carrick has been held responsible for problems he did not create. Reports said some players believed he had been “hung out to dry” by the board, particularly after he continued taking training while his departure appeared imminent.³ The supporters’ trust similarly argued that responsibility “do[es] not primarily rest with him or indeed his predecessors as manager” but with the ownership, calling for greater accountability from the Glazer family and INEOS.⁴

Critics acknowledge that Carrick’s team underperformed, with defensive errors, injuries and public tensions involving senior players compounding a poor run. But they also point to recruitment gaps, including limited cover at left-back and centre-forward, and the wider pattern of managerial churn. Carrick is the second United head coach dismissed in a calendar year and the club’s eighth permanent manager since Sir Alex Ferguson’s retirement.²

The contrast is stark: United’s hierarchy believes a replacement can draw more from the squad; Carrick’s defenders believe another change without structural reform risks repeating the same cycle. Pochettino, if appointed, would inherit both an urgent points battle and a club still debating where its central problems lie.