Michael Carrick has held his first press conference as Man Utd head coach and club bosses would have loved what they heard.
Michael Carrick gave little away in his Manchester United press conference(Image: )
You could imagine the scene. Omar Berrada and Jason Wilcox gathered around one of the TVs in Carrington’s open-plan set-up, watching the latest Manchester United head coach speak to the media. It’s been a moment of the week that the club’s powerbrokers haven’t exactly been looking forward to in recent weeks.
But if Ruben Amorim was the press conference equivalent of Bazball, capable of going on the attack at any of the deliveries he would face, then Carrick was the next man in when all that unravels. The equivalent of losing an Ashes series 4-1 and deciding you now need someone to show the straightest of straight bats.
That is exactly what Carrick did when the cameras rolled for the first press conference of his second spell in charge at Old Trafford. In November 2021, his pre-match press conferences were held on Zoom. In person, he would watch the ball carefully, then drop it safely at his feet.
You could say the end of the Amorim era was categorised by press conference broadsides, but they were simply more spectacular at the end. Throughout his reign, he would throw in grenades when speaking to the media. From criticisms of players to calling his squad “maybe the worst Manchester United team in history”, he was a headline-making machine.
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United didn’t want any more of that. Wilcox quickly decided he wanted someone who knew the club to take over for the rest of the season. Carrick was the coach with the biggest upside, the one whose potential remains unexplored, but he is also a safe pair of hands.
Across a little over four minutes and five questions while the cameras were rolling, the 44-year-old gave nothing away. Berrada and Wilcox would have been clinking glasses and exchanging high fives.
There were a couple of questions in there that could have made headlines: his conversations with the owners and Roy Keane’s unnecessary criticism of his wife. Carrick negotiated them both safely. He offered almost no insight into what he had said to Sir Jim Ratcliffe and the Glazers and claimed he wasn’t bothered by Keane’s uncalled-for attack on Lisa.
Even the questions about football were dealt with to try to avoid creating a story. Success would simply be improving. Improve the players and the rest will take care of itself. He also said that Wilcox and Berrada had laid no expectations for the rest of the season.
Given United’s ambitions clearly remain to qualify for Europe and that Darren Fletcher had laid down the Champions League as a challenge last Sunday, that seems unlikely. But Carrick’s approach was to try and avoid heaping any unnecessary pressure on the squad.
Carrick may have hinted at his approach to media dealings in his first response. Asked how he had found his first few days back and what it was like to be sitting in the media chair, he said: “Two very different roles sat in this chair in front of you lot, it’s very different to the role in coaching.”
Ultimately, the club’s former midfielder will be judged on results, but you can imagine his bosses will be happy if he avoids making any noise as well. After the chaos of the Amorim era, what they need is stability. If Carrick provides that on and off the pitch, then they will be delighted.