Carrick delivers emotional plea to restore Manchester United identity after seven-game winless run

Carrick opens press conference with impassioned statement

Manchester United head coach Michael Carrick delivered a passionate and emotional address to start Friday's pre-match media conference at Carrington, saying he wanted to set the tone before facing questions ahead of Sunday's Premier League meeting with Bournemouth at Old Trafford.

The intervention came after a torrid run of form. United have won just two games in all competitions in 2026-27, with their most recent victory coming on 10 September against Sabah in UEFA's premier competition. In the Premier League they have won just one of seven matches, drawn four and lost two – their fewest number of victories at this stage of a top-flight campaign since 1986-87.

United are winless in their last seven matches in all competitions, D3 L4, heading into the Bournemouth clash. It is their worst such streak since a run of eight matches without victory between November and December 2015, and they are winless in their last six against the Cherries, D4 L2.

"We have gone away from that recently"

Carrick, who took over at United in January, enjoyed a successful caretaker spell that led the club back to the Champions League and was made permanent boss in May. The start to this season has been dismal, and reports suggest the club's hierarchy are starting to look at potential replacements.

"I think recently we haven't had a good time; I think that's pretty obvious," Carrick said to start his press conference. "I totally accept that. What we're going through at the moment. We had five months of relative success in a spell where I was happy with a lot of things that I was seeing and that we were doing as a team."

"We haven't done well enough lately, I think that's pretty obvious to say, and we've had a spell that we're really not happy with. Wednesday was a bad night; it was a bad night for a lot of reasons, and it was a bad night that hurt a lot. It hurt me to see us play that way, to see how the game panned out."

"As I said, after the game it was really unacceptable for us to play like that and to be like that. My responsibility is to get a team on the pitch that represents this football club, represents the supporters, and they can be proud of it with the identity that we show. We have gone away from that just recently in certain games, which I'm totally, fully aware of and definitely doing something about."

Carrick added: "Our supporters are of the utmost importance to me and this football club, and for them to feel like they felt for five months at the start of the year, for us to have that about us and that connection and that real vigour and intensity and enjoyment and passion that we all felt through that period was something that we need to get back to, and we will get back to it. I fully believe that, but I think it's important that we recognise that we haven't been doing that."

Values, entitlement and moving forward

The run culminated in Wednesday's shocking 4-1 Champions League defeat by Como, following attacks on the club's hierarchy by defender Lisandro Martinez and then captain Bruno Fernandes' condemnation of Carrick's tactics in Italy.

Carrick reiterated the club's historic foundations: "Manchester United is always bigger and always has been, always will be bigger than any single individual. Bigger than me, bigger than any of the players, and it always has been. It was based on being humble, having humility and hard work, and we can never lose that, and I won't let us lose that. We've had it for a spell; I feel very strongly about that."

"There's a resilience about this football club that runs very deep. I've seen it with my own eyes, I've felt it, I'm know some of the individuals closely who have been a big part of that history. Entitlement cannot be at this football club."

He said: "I think it inspires me a lot to live up to that and keep driving that with the players and the group that we've shown for a good period of time and that we're capable of it. We're in a moment where it's not gone well, so we need to show exactly what it means. Respect this football club, respect what it takes to be here, respect what it takes to win, what you have to do to win. I'm not entitled to be here; entitlement cannot be at this football club. We're not entitled to win. We've won in the past, we've got an incredible history, but that doesn't mean that you're entitled to just win. I'm fully aware of that; it takes hard work; it takes a lot of sacrifice."

"Moving forward, we've had it; we've kind of lost our way a little bit, if I'm totally honest, and we'll get it back. I'm totally confident we'll get it back. Respect this football club, respect what it takes because it's very, very important to me."

Fernandes captaincy question

Asked about Fernandes and whether he has considered dropping him, Carrick was defiant: "The most important thing for me is the team, the squad and dynamics in the squad. It's about the football club. I'll always do what is best for the football club."

When pressed specifically on stripping Fernandes of the captaincy, he said: "The most important thing for me is the team and the dynamics in the squad. It is about the football club. Whatever the situation is, I will always do what is best for the football club."

Carrick said he wants to move on from both the Fernandes comments and the earlier criticism from Lisandro Martinez of the United hierarchy and technical director Jason Wilcox. "We need to move forward in the right direction, and we need to do things to enable us to do that," he added.

United face Bournemouth next, then Chelsea, Aston Villa, rivals Liverpool and high-flying Brentford in their next four Premier League games.