Carrick rejects claim Manchester United are unmanageable after Como defeat

Michael Carrick appeared to apologise to travelling supporters after his side's 4-1 Champions League defeat at Como on Wednesday and rejected the idea that Manchester United are an unmanageable club. He also accepted that the team's performance in that match was "unacceptable."

Carrick is clinging to his job after a run of seven games without a win ahead of Sunday's Premier League home game against Bournemouth (14:00 GMT). Pressure on him has been intensified by controversial comments from senior players Lisandro Martinez and Bruno Fernandes attacking the club's recruitment and his tactics. If Carrick were to lose his job it would be the third managerial change in as many seasons and would mean eight long-term bosses, including Ralf Rangnick, have lost their jobs after failing to get close to the heights of Sir Alex Ferguson, who retired in 2013.

There is an argument that the number of prominent ex-players with media outlets and the proliferation of fan channels that attract large audiences makes United an impossible club to manage, but Carrick gave a one-word response to that notion: "No." He said he took issue with some of the claims being made about his team, particularly the suggestion they do not run enough or fail to press opponents.

On the subject of pressing Carrick said: "You've got to be careful with just saying 'not running'. We've won a lot of games over a period of time and this pressing thing; pressing is one small part of football. "There are all sorts of different ways that are classed as a press. What actually is it? What are you doing it for? Is it to your strength? Is it covering up other spaces? "It's just thrown about as a bit of a word at the minute. You don't necessarily need to press to win games of football. Sometimes you do, sometimes you don't. "It's not necessarily just running stats that define football games either. "We've just got to get back to doing a lot of the things that we were doing last season and for certain parts of this season."

Although Carrick was appointed ahead of his former boss and team-mate Ole Gunnar Solskjaer as Ruben Amorim's replacement in January, the pair remain close. Solskjaer drove up to United's base in Trondheim before the pre-season victory over Rosenborg in July to spend time with Carrick and his backroom team, and the two have been in touch this week. Carrick also confirmed he had spoken to Sir Alex Ferguson, "who is a regular at matches as he approaches his 85th birthday." Ferguson signed Carrick from Tottenham in 2006 and managed the midfielder's Manchester United team in his testimonial game at Old Trafford in 2017.

Carrick said he was convinced he could turn the situation around and expressed faith in his players: "I definitely trust them, 100%." He added: "We'll be a different team on Sunday. We have to be a different team on Sunday," a message he said was aimed at the squad ahead of the Bournemouth game on Sunday (14:00 GMT) where he needs them to deliver.