Carrick accepts responsibility after Como loss, vows to protect players

Michael Carrick accepted responsibility for Manchester United's recent slump at his Friday press conference, speaking after the club's 4-1 Champions League defeat to Como on Wednesday that extended their winless run to seven matches.

The United head coach opened the session with an emotional statement and said he remained "100 per cent" convinced he could reverse the situation despite growing pressure on his position. He acknowledged the team had "lost their way" in recent weeks and promised to address the problems rather than avoid them.

"The responsibility for me to be in this position is to lead. It is my responsibility whatever goes on the pitch, what we are as a group and what we look like and what we feel like," Carrick said. "If anything, to hold that umbrella for me to get wet and for everyone else to stay dry. You know, that's the position I'm in, and it's a privileged position."

Carrick described the Como defeat as a painful setback and said United's performance had fallen short of required standards. "Recently, we haven't had a good time. I think that's pretty obvious. So I totally accept what we're going through at the moment," he said. "We haven't done well enough lately. 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. It hurt a lot," Carrick added, saying the result "obviously hurt me to see us play that way" and calling the display "really unacceptable." The loss intensified criticism of the coach and increased scrutiny over his future at Old Trafford.

Carrick responded to questions about captain Bruno Fernandes and the squad's unity, rejecting claims of a divided group but declining to say whether he had spoken to Fernandes since the match. He also refused to comment on the midfielder's future as captain and emphasised the need to restore a clear identity for the team.

"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," Carrick said. He acknowledged the supporters' disappointment at travelling to Como and seeing the heavy defeat. "The supporters are a huge part of this football club. They have to make the effort and the time and money they spend, to feel how we all felt on Wednesday was a tough moment," he said.

Carrick noted he took charge in January 2026 following Ruben Amorim's departure and pointed to the earlier part of his tenure when United secured a top-three Premier League finish and Champions League qualification. Referring to that period he said, "We had five months of relative success (last season) in a spell where I was happy with a lot of things I was seeing and that we were doing as a team," adding, "For them (the fans) to feel like they felt for five months at the start of the year ... is something we need to get back to. We will get back to it. I fully believe that." Asked if he still believed he could lead United out of the current crisis he replied, "Yeah, yeah, 100 per cent."

United sit 13th in the Premier League with seven points, one point clear of Bournemouth, whom they host on Sunday.