Erik ten Hag is right: sacking Carrick fixes nothing

Update (30 Oct): since this interview, United have lost 4-1 at Como and 3-0 at home to Bournemouth. The hierarchy then explored replacing Carrick, with Eddie Howe among those considered, before deciding to give him more time. Ten Hag's warning about emotional decisions looks more relevant now, not less. The original article from 20 October follows.

Erik ten Hag has told The Athletic that sacking Michael Carrick is "100 per cent not" the solution, and on this one we'd back him. The most convincing part of his interview isn't about Carrick at all. It's his account of a club leadership that made promises, didn't keep them and stopped talking to its manager.

The headlines went to Cristiano Ronaldo. The part that matters for Carrick's season is about the people above the dugout.

What Erik ten Hag said about Carrick

Speaking in Enschede, in the first of a two-part interview republished in full by Sky Sports, Ten Hag was blunt:

"It is not the solution to dismiss him. 100 per cent not. Fans will demand this if results don't improve - it is coming out from the stomach, from the emotion. You have to make rational decisions. He showed good coaching abilities at Middlesbrough and last season. So let him do his process. I think he has a good staff."

He framed it around the club rather than the coach:

"The leadership, you need their competence, you need the right strategy. What is your identity? What are the work methods? You need the right structures and quality people. Then you need time."

That lands in a week when United are six games without a win, their worst run since 2018-19, and head to Como with a threadbare back line.

The promises made in Ibiza

The case Ten Hag makes for Carrick rests on what happened to him. United's hierarchy had looked ready to replace him before the 2024 FA Cup final. The 2-1 win over Manchester City changed that, and two weeks later the extra year in his contract was triggered after talks during his holiday in Ibiza.

"I wouldn't go on with only one year left," he said. "So I said, 'I need an extra year and we have to do it together'. They promised me loyalty, they promised me backing, they promised communication, that we get aligned. We spoke about the issues. But the promises, they didn't keep."

One of those, he says, was Scott McTominay. The interview records that McTominay had scored 10 goals that season and was sold to Napoli for €30.5m (then £25.7m) as United raised funds for Manuel Ugarte.

"That's why I got disappointed. In Ibiza, we agreed. I said, 'No selling Scott McTominay'. We would go aligned in the transfer window. I make an argument, a reason: we don't have scoring abilities. Scott brings scoring abilities and great mentality. He has United in all his veins. So when they bring up the subject, 'No'. And in the end they sold him. I got, of course, very embarrassed and disappointed."

That is his version, and United haven't responded to it on the record. It still rings true for anyone who watched that summer. A manager says he needs goals from midfield, and the club sells the midfielder who scores them.

Why the Ineos complaint matters more than Ronaldo

Ten Hag also says Sir Jim Ratcliffe raised the idea of the manager becoming a head coach after their first meeting at Carrington, then went quiet. "I said, 'OK, let's discuss, but my contract is different'. I never heard anything," he said. "That is what I was used to, but with them there was no communication."

Then the sharpest line in the interview. Ten Hag says he wasn't backed on discipline involving Jadon Sancho, Marcus Rashford and others:

"And so, they are continuing the toxic culture; they fuel it, they give the power to the players. Rashford is an amazing player, if his mindset is right. I always showed my trust in him, played him. But when you show these standards, sometimes you have to make corrections."

United's view is that behaviour in the squad did improve, with Ruben Amorim backed in moving players on. Rashford is back in the squad now and was on the bench at Elland Road on Sunday, so expect Carrick to be asked about this.

Asked about Lisandro Martínez, who was fined for criticising Jason Wilcox after Madrid, Ten Hag declined to discuss him directly. He did point at the old Real Madrid group of Casemiro, Raphaël Varane and Ronaldo instead: "I can say I think that's what the Madrid connection brought in, that players are powerful and they want to decide."

The Ronaldo material, about missed sessions and unfinished laps after the 4-0 defeat at Brentford, is four years old and changes nothing now.

What links Ten Hag in 2024 and Martínez last week is the same complaint. People under pressure on the pitch don't feel the people upstairs are with them.

Where Ten Hag's account is weakest

He isn't a neutral witness. "All the data was showing we are good," he says of his final weeks. United were 14th with 11 points from nine games when he was sacked on 28 October 2024, the day after losing 2-1 at West Ham. He calls that game "probably one of our best games". We'd argue the table said otherwise, and his claim that the dressing room was still with him is impossible to test from outside.

He also had two and a half years, two trophies and plenty of signings. His wider point stands anyway. Changing the coach without changing how the club backs the coach has been tried, and it hasn't worked.

Give Carrick the time Ten Hag didn't get

Sacking Carrick after six without a win, with half a defence on the injury list, would be the emotional decision Ten Hag warns about. Ineos should judge him on a full run of games with a fit squad, and judge themselves on whether they've given him what they promised.

Erik ten Hag has said plenty today that's easy to dismiss. Not this. If Carrick goes before Christmas, it'll tell us more about the leadership than about him.

Ten Hag was sacked on 28 October 2024, the day after a defeat at West Ham. Two years almost to the day, United's leadership were weighing up the same decision about his successor's successor. That's the pattern Ineos need to break, and Carrick should get until the end of the season to show whether he can.