Michael Carrick has been fired as Manchester United head coach, in a sad yet expected development.

With only eight points from 10 Premier League games, Michael Carrick has been fired as head coach. The team has also been eliminated from the Carabao Cup already, and lost two out of four Champions League games.

Without a Premier League win since August, there was no way back for Carrick, and his sacking has now been confirmed, with the club mired in the relegation zone.

Carrick was appointed as full-time head coach at the end of last season after leading the team to a third-placed finish.

Here is a look at seven reasons it all went wrong wrong for Carrick…

Lack of work rate from the players

The core criticism of Manchester United on the pitch this season has been a lack of work rate from the players. United rank lowly among Premier League rivals for running and sprinting statistics.

Last season, Carrick inherited the fitness regime put in place by Ruben Amorim. In pre-season, he did not make it a priority. New signing Youri Tielemans admitted in an interview that there was no real running work undertaken in pre-season.

United have been constantly outworked by opponents, and it has made everything harder. The subsequent poor results should not really be a surprise.

The players did put in their highest distance covered of the season against Aston Villa, but it was too little too late.

Three midfielders signed and Casemiro still not replaced

Manchester United were forewarned about Casemiro’s departure at the start of 2026, given months to plan for the transfer window. United ended it by signing Andrey Santos, Youri Tielemans, and Carlos Baleba.

While sensible to sign three midfielders for squad depth, even combined they are less effective than Casemiro.

None of them have the aerial ability to repel threats defensively or score goals in attack. United’s midfield just does not look safe or authoritative with any combination that Michael Carrick has tried.

United needed a midfield destroyer and a physical threat. These were the traits Casemiro embodied, and you could add around that. But they failed to replace his strengths – and that was a major oversight.

Major squad gaps left unaddressed

Unfortunately, United’s transfer business began and ended in midfield. This was a self-inflicted error with striker Benjamin Sesko missing the entirety of pre-season with an injury. After he was rushed back for the start of the season, he suffered a relapse of his shin injury.

The upshot? Manchester United have been playing without a centre-forward for the past month.

United fans were also screaming for the club to sign another left-back, predicting that Luke Shaw would be beset by injuries once again. This warning went unheeded, and predictably, Shaw has been missing with injury for the past few weeks.

Defender Lisandro Martinez even blasted the board for the shortcomings before being forced into an apology. This revealed the frustrations of the players behind the scenes.

Tactical shortcomings

Michael Carrick reinvigorated Manchester United in January with a stunning win over Manchester City. But since then, you would be hard pushed to say he has imprinted his own tactical style on the team.

Even late last season there were struggles, with a loss at Newcastle and defeat at home to Leeds. This season it has been desperate.

United have won only one of eight games this season and are 16th in the league. There has not been one game this season when Carrick’s side have outplayed the opponents, except for 45 minutes against Ipswich Town.

To be fair to Carrick, it is hard without a striker and having to play centre-backs at full-back, but there has been little elsewhere to be impressed by. When you see United play against teams like Brighton, Bournemouth, Como, and even Tottenham and get outplayed, there is something seriously wrong.

It has felt like every team has been better drilled, more organised and more focused. Our players look like a team of individuals trying to make something happen.

A defence going backwards

Manchester United’s final game under Michael Carrick was a dramatic but also an embarrassing 4-4 draw against Aston Villa.

United were 2-0 down within the first four minutes, and after recovering to 2-2, conceding two early goals at the start of the second half again.

The team’s performances have been littered with basic defensive errors, and as a unit, United’s backline has been going backwards.

United have conceded 19 Premier League goals, the only teams with worse records are Ipswich Town and Crystal Palace. The team has not kept a clean sheet in the league all season.

Pre-season loss to Amorim was bad vibes

Pre-season was challenging for United as it often is in a tournament year. Yet heading into the friendly with AC Milan, vibes were high. Carrick’s United side were supposed to teach former coach Ruben Amorim a lesson.

Instead, Carrick’s United were ripped apart by Amorim’s tactics. How could that be allowed to happen?

Milan won 4-2 and it could have been more. This game exposed how Carrick’s United struggled against a specific tactical system that was copied by Hull City in their season opener, to inflict a damaging 2-0 opening defeat.

You wonder though, how many players lost a little belief in Carrick that day, especially ones who were sad to see Amorim leave in the first place?

Bad luck and loss of belief

United’s season began badly with the loss at Hull, but it was the dropped points against Everton where the season really began to unravel.

A victory would have placed us in the top half of the table on six points – but two long range strikes left us settling for a draw, and camped in the bottom half.

This was followed up by the wrongful VAR goal for City’s winner – although United did themselves no favours by failing to score against 10 men. These added up to four points from a possible 12, and from there, it has simply unravelled.

United fans hoped to start the season with three or four wins and build momentum. But after four games, it felt like we were back at square one.

The players have been sucked into a pit of negativity ever since, failing to work hard enough to get results, and making basic game-costing mistakes. There has been some bad luck along the way for sure – but ultimately United have got what they have deserved this season.