Sandwiched in late November 2021 between the end of the wholly unsatisfactory Ole Gunnar Solskjaer era and Ralf Rangnick’s reign of terror, these were arguably the three best games of the season for United, from both a performance and tactical competence perspective. An oasis in a desert of despair.
The interim manager for this trio of games made changes that would prove a precursor to Erik ten Hag’s reign: he dropped Cristiano Ronaldo, then still the club hero in the middle of a 24-goal season. He rejigged the team tactically. And he showed he was not afraid to make big decisions – dropping another key player, Bruno Fernandes, for a crucial Champions League game against Villarreal.
The manager? Michael Carrick.
At the time, I distinctly remember thinking that Carrick had shown enough in three matches to suggest a promising managerial career could be in store for him. Three games, two wins, one draw.
However, a victim of circumstance, the club’s hierarchy were never going to appoint another popular former player as interim manager to replace Solskjaer, himself a popular former player-turned-interim-turned-permanent manager. They possessed neither the foresight nor the courage, despite the signs of promise under Carrick.
The amiable Geordie, who won five Premier League titles as a player at Old Trafford, the UEFA Champions League, the FA Cup and countless other trophies, announced his own surprise departure from the club during a post-match interview after the Arsenal game, saying he would be cutting ties to spend more time with his family and plot his next move.
His next move, as we are seeing now, has been to completely revolutionise his local team Middlesbrough.
Michael Carrick was appointed as the manager of Middlesbrough in October 2022. Since then, he has already made the best start of any manager in Boro’s history. He has turned the club from possible relegation candidates to a team with a genuine and unexpected chance of promotion back to the Premier League.
In his first 17 league games as a permanent manager at any level Carrick has won a club record-breaking 14 of them, including five in a row. During that time Middlesbrough have climbed from 21st in the table to 3rd with a real chance of automatic promotion.
Carrick has transformed the entire mood of the club, on and off the pitch. And he has done so displaying the tactical nous and man management skills of a man who could go on to have a very successful career in coaching.
Carrick-ball
Middlesbrough’s style of play under Michael Carrick is winning the club rave reviews from both outside observers and fans alike. “I’ve been watching Boro for 32 years and I genuinely think this could be the best football I’ve ever seen us play,” enthused one supporter on Twitter, and many are in agreement that Carrick’s modern, attractive style of football marks him down as a potentially top manager in the making.
Tactically, Carrick’s playing style is akin to some of the game’s brightest minds. Middlesbrough have switched to four at the back under his tutelage, but play in a similar way in possession to how Pep Guardiola often sets up his Manchester City side.
In what is nominally a 4-2-3-1 system, when Middlesbrough have the ball they switch more akin to a 3-2-4-1, with a box of four in midfield, one full-back tucking in to form a three-man central defence and one pushing up to create wide overloads.
The centre-backs are unafraid to get on the ball and step into midfield. The full-backs, Tom Smith and Ryan Giles, push high in attacking situations. The deep-lying midfielders, Jonny Howson or new signing Dan Barlaser, together with the promising young talent Hayden Hackney, control midfield.
When Middlesbrough get forward the left wide forward, Riley McGree, often comes inside or takes up a free role off his left wing, with left-back Giles providing driving attacking bursts from the full-back position.
The dangerous striker Cameron Archer, on loan from Aston Villa, tends to come out to the left also to create overloads.
Chuba Akpom, playing some of the best football of his career under Carrick in a new deeper no.10 role, is able to get on the ball and drive at defences, and push higher into the number 9 position that Archer vacates. And wide right, Marcus Forss, increasingly unfancied under previous manager Chris Wilder, can either stay wide, play as an inside forward or push further upfront.
It is a fluid, attractive way of playing that gives every player an element of attacking freedom and flexibility in the possession-based style Carrick was known for as a player, whilst remaining robust defensively.
Motivation and enjoyment
The results have been astonishing. But not only has Carrick found the right formula tactically, he has rejuvenated the careers of several players and has them fit, motivated and enjoying their football like never before.
“I feel like this season I’ve had the environment and when the gaffer’s come in he has taken my level up again,” says Chuba Akpom, once of Arsenal. “Everything’s just clicking for me.” Akpom has scored 20 goals this season – 16 of them under Michael Carrick – and won Championship Player of the Month in December and January.
“When you’re enjoying yourself the intensity of everyone goes up as well. Subconsciously you just go out there, enjoy, run, work hard and the team benefits from that. It’s a good environment in the changing room and at the training ground with the staff, with the gaffer (Carrick), with everyone to be honest with you and we’re going in the right direction.”
Dael Fry too cannot praise Carrick highly enough, saying this is the most enjoyable time of his entire career so far.
“He’s just got such a calm approach and that reflects with what we try and do on the pitch,” says 25-year-old defender Fry. “We’re really calm on the ball, we try to play out from the back and I know at times the fans get a bit nervy because I can hear them in their seats.
“But honestly, on that pitch we’re just so confident. Even when it doesn’t work, his message is keep doing it, keep trying it, and he (Carrick) takes full ownership. We’re just so confident on that pitch and we all believe in each other. It’s a fantastic way of playing.
“I think right now I’m enjoying my football more than I’ve ever enjoyed it in my whole career.”
‘Subconscious’ learning
A wonderfully gifted, cerebral midfield player whose understated style and personality meant his influence on Manchester United’s Champions League winning team of 2008 often went slightly unappreciated by some, it is clear that Michael Carrick has studied his craft and learned lessons working under the management of some of the game’s great managers.
First as a player under Sir Alex Ferguson and then as a coach, working under managers like Jose Mourinho and Louis van Gaal, Carrick has absorbed the environments he has been in and admits that these learnings have filtered subconsciously into his own emerging managerial style.
“I was always conscious of how all coaches and managers behaved and what they said at certain times – half-time, full-time, during the week. It’s something that’s just always kind of taken my attention. Obviously I learned a huge amount from him (Ferguson).”
“In situations, I’ve found that it’s not always in the moment where you think, ‘Yeah, I need to do this because this coach did it or that manager did it’. It’s more subconsciously, with experience, when things happen I’ll react in a certain way and then it’s afterwards I’ll reflect and think, ‘I’ve done that because I’ve seen Jose do it, I’ve seen Louis do it, I’ve seen Sir Alex or whoever’.
“It’s not something you draw on in the moment, quickly flipping through your experiences to see how to deal with it. It’s more that it’s just in there instinctively, and that’s the beauty of experience, both good and bad.”
At a certain point earlier this season Middlesbrough fans were despondently gearing themselves up for a long, hard battle with relegation. But all that has changed since Carrick walked through the door for his first senior managerial role. The Boro are bouncing again. There is even talk he could one day be the next England manager, premature as that may be.
First as players, now as managers – in the never-ending debate between Gerrard and Lampard perhaps the answer once again is Michael Carrick after all.