Opinion: Carrick has made Man Utd turnaround look easy – it wasn’t
Let’s rewind the tape and remember: United started 2026 with two draws and a crushing defeat to Brighton & Hove Albion in the Emirates FA Cup. The latter confirmed that 2025/26 would be our shortest full season, in terms of games played, for 111 years.
With no European football, and immediate exits from both domestic cups, several supporters I spoke to felt the season was pretty much over. Reds everywhere were desperately looking around for some hope, and there didn’t seem to be any available.
We were managerless. On a run of just one win in seven games. Even worse, the next two fixtures were the Manchester derby and a trip to north London to face the best team in the country, Arsenal, who had not lost at home all season.
Carrick had spent the early part of the new year holidaying with Wayne Rooney and friends in Barbados. A week later, he was in situ at United, with expectations probably at their lowest level since the mid-1970s.
The mood was on the floor. Lower than a snake’s belly. Forty-five minutes before the derby kicked off – Carrick’s first match in charge – one of my City-supporting mates tweeted: “WE WILL SMASH THESE.” Gulp. Inside the Stretford End, we didn’t know what to expect.
What we got, incredibly, was United’s best performance in a Manchester derby for maybe 20 years. And I don’t think that’s an exaggeration.
