Manchester United sack Michael Carrick after a 4-4 draw with Aston Villa

Sacking reported on 12 November

Manchester United have dismissed head coach Michael Carrick, the BBC reported on 12 November, a report that AD carried the same morning. The BBC's Simon Stone was at the Carrington training complex and saw Carrick arrive and leave at 11.15 before the sacking was announced. The decision followed a 4-4 draw with Aston Villa on Sunday, 8 November, which left the club 18th in the Premier League as the international break began. Carrick had signed a contract as head coach running until the summer of 2028.

From interim spell to head coach

Carrick took over as interim after Rúben Amorim was sacked on 5 January, and started by beating Manchester City and Arsenal. The second half of the season went far better, with twelve wins from seventeen matches, two defeats and a third-place finish that brought Champions League football. AD counts 11 wins, 3 draws and 2 defeats in his 16 interim matches, a return of 2.25 points per match. As head coach, his record over 16 matches reads 4 wins, 5 draws and 7 defeats, or 1.06 points per match.

Interim spell (16 matches)2.25

Head coach spell (16 matches)1.06

Interim spell (16 matches)

2.25 points per match

Head coach spell (16 matches)

1.06 points per match

Data from the article text

A collapse this autumn

The season opened with a 2-0 defeat at newly promoted Hull City. In the first ten Premier League rounds United won only once, at home to Ipswich Town, and collected eight points, which AD describes as the worst start in forty years. The BBC traces the run from a 3-0 defeat by Bournemouth two weeks before the Aston Villa match. A 2-0 loss at Chelsea followed, in which Lisandro Martinez was sent off for two bookings in five minutes, then a 3-2 comeback win over Roma in the Champions League.

United scored twice in stoppage time to salvage the 4-4 draw with Aston Villa, after conceding two goals inside four minutes. The BBC also reports that the club took 44 hours to say it was keeping Carrick after the Bournemouth defeat, although Carrick had been told the day before.

Replacement rumours

English media, cited by AD, name Argentine coach Mauricio Pochettino as the likely successor at Old Trafford. One report claims an agreement is already in place with the current United States national team coach. AD links these rumours to the United States Soccer Federation (USSF), which cancelled a press conference on Wednesday, 11 November. The reports remain unconfirmed in the sources.

Fixtures and the De Ligt pattern

United's first match after the break is at Liverpool on Sunday, 22 November at 17:30 at Anfield. Three days later they travel to Sporting in Lisbon. Telegraaf and Gelderlander also highlight the coaching churn around defender Matthijs de Ligt, 27. He will prepare for the 2027/28 season under another head coach for the twelfth summer in a row, a run that began with Peter Bosz at Ajax in 2016. Gelderlander counts Carrick's sacking as the latest change in that sequence.