Manchester United Appoint Michael Carrick as Full Time Head Coach: What to Expect Next Season

It's Carrick, you know...

After joining the club in January on an interim basis and successfully guiding Manchester United back to the Champions League (and a third place finish), United have officially confirmed that Michael Carrick has been appointed as the permanent head coach.

The 44-year-old former midfielder replaced former head coach Rúben Amorim and masterminded a mid-season turnaround, turning Old Trafford into a fortress again and beating the likes of Manchester City, Liverpool, and the newly crowned Premier League champions Arsenal along the way.

As the wins kept racking up, the appointment looked more and more inevitable, but United were adamant that they would wait until the end of the season. While there is still one game to go, the club have officially announced Carrick has signed a two year contract, with the option of an extra year.

Speaking via the club's official website, Carrick said: "From the moment that I arrived here 20 years ago, I felt the magic of Manchester United. Carrying the responsibility of leading our special football club fills me with immense pride.

"Throughout the past five months, this group of players have shown they can reach the standards of resilience, togetherness and determination that we demand here. Now it’s time to move forward together again, with ambition and a clear sense of purpose. Manchester United and our incredible supporters deserve to be challenging for the biggest honours again."

As an interim, the praise was almost universal for the job he did - with no team having a better points total (36) since he took over. However, the new contract comes with new expectations, with some pundits already predicting United to be potential title challengers, so lets have a look at what to expect next season.

Midfield overhaul

Undoubtedly the biggest issue for Carrick (and the higher ups at Old Trafford) is to replace Casemiro. At Real Madrid, the Brazilian was recognised as arguably the best defensive midfielder the world. After signing for United for £70 million in the 22/23 season, his first season was largely successful as he was influential in securing a third place finish and helping the team win the Carabao Cup.

However, his second season saw him drop off massively. He looked unfit and was constantly being overrun in the Premier League, with former Liverpool defender turned pundit Jamie Carragher famously telling Casemiro to 'leave the football, before the football leaves you'. While his third season at the club saw him in and out team before a late season resurgence, his fourth and final season was undoubtedly his best. Carrick helped him simplify his game and he once again looked close to the dominant midfielder we once knew. The surprising aspect of his game however was his goal threat from set pieces, scoring a career best nine goals (eight of them coming from corners). Despite the fans best efforts for him to stay, the Brazilian announced that he will be leaving the team at the end of the season, leaving a Casemiro shaped hole in midfield.

While finding a partner to the rejuvenated Kobbie Mainoo has to be high on the list, United need at least three midfielders to help with the squad depth. Names such as Elliot Anderson, Adam Wharton, Sandro Tonali, Carlos Baleba, and Matheus Fernandes all fit the bill as Premier League proven signings, but United will need more than one midfielder.

According to Fabrizio Romano, Manchester United are looking to make contact with Atalanta midfielder Éderson, but with at least eight extra games next season midfield reinforcements are non negotiable.

Any other positions need fixing?

While fans have a plenty of reasons to be upset with INEOS since they took a minority ownership of the club, one thing they can agree on is how much better their recruitment has been.

Outside of Manuel Ugarte and Joshua Zirkzee, the signings under INEOS' reign have largely been successful. Before his season ending injury, Dutch centre back Matthijs de Ligt was enjoying a his best spell of football at Old Trafford. Full back Noussair Mazraoui has established himself as a brilliant, versatile squad player willing to execute any tactical role required. Young centre back Leny Yoro has shown glimpses of why all the top teams in Europe were chasing him before he chose United. Meanwhile, Ayden Heaven and Patrick Dorgu have both shown glimpses of their potential since joining United in January 2025.

However the summer 2025 transfer window has widely been hailed by fans as the club's best transfer window in a long time. Matheus Cunha and Bryan Mbuemo, joining from Wolves and Brentford, looked as though they were tailor-made to wear the iconic red shirt. While striker Benjamin Šeško grew in stature as the season went on and has shown signs of potentially being an elite, long term option to lead the line. All three attackers have scored double digits, making them the first trio of new signings to score 10 or more goals in a Premier league season since Lukas Podolski, Olivier Giroud and Santi Cazorla all scored double digits for Arsenal in the 2012-13 season.

However, arguably the stand out signing was unknown goalkeeper Senne Lammens, who joined from Belgium first division side Royal Antwerp. Signed for £18 million on deadline day, the young goalie has oozed composure the moment he stepped between the sticks at Old Trafford, a position former captain turned pundit Gary Neville once called the 'hardest position in football'. In the space of a season, the 23 year old has cemented himself as United's undisputed number one keeper. The Athletic even ranked Lammens as the signing of the season in their end of year awards.

So what positions could United be looking at? Left back remains an area of concern despite Luke Shaw's stellar season. On track to play every game of a season for the first time in his career, the 30-year-old left back has been consistently impressive throughout the campaign. However, this has largely been down to United only playing one game a week, allowing his body to recover. With his injury history and the increase in games next season, a left back who can deputise Shaw should be a priority after the midfield reinforcements.

Style of play

As simple as it sounds, putting players in their right positions can really make a difference. Despite personally being a fan of Amorim (despite all of the negative records during his reign) and believing his sacking was wrong at the time, one thing that can't be defended was his stubbornness of sticking to his 3-4-2-1 formation. It was a system that forced United's best player to play in a deep position, keep the clubs most promising youngster sidelined, and an insistence of substituting a centre back every game.

However, as soon as Carrick came in, he ditched the back three, brought Mainoo back into the team and moved Bruno Fernandes into his natural number 10 position. 11 wins from 16 games (at the time of writing) shows the players clearly enjoy the football their playing under Carrick, but one nitpick that has come Carrick's way is how will he establish a style of play against teams who will sit deep.

For the record, I'm not a fan of the phrase 'style of play'. If a manager doesn't have a 'style of play', they are often bailed out by 'individual brilliance' according to the new age of 'tacticos' on social media. To them, style of play often refers to a team that can dominate the ball like any Pep Guardiola team, but if you look at the some of the best managers in history, their 'style of play' isn't as identifiable. Can you tell me how Carlo Ancelotti played? What about Sir Alex Ferguson? I bet if you ask any fans of those two managers (or any other iconic manager), you will likely hear a different answer from each fan, and that is how I feel about Carrick.

Since taking over in January, we've seen this United team destroy opponents on the counter attack (see Mbeumo's goal against Man City in Carrick's first game or Šeško's goal versus Everton). But if you watched his Middlesbrough team, you would know Carrick likes his teams like to dominate possession. During his three year spell at the Championship club, Middlesbrough averaged 55.2% possession, the second most of any club during that period, according to TNT Sports.

In recent games, with Champions Leagues was almost a given, it has been noticeable that United are playing out of the back more. While in one instance, it led to Lammens committing his only error leading to a goal against Liverpool, there have been instances of the build up looking quite free flowing, so it'll be interesting to see it how this team evolves after a full pre-season.

If you’re a Manchester United fan, there is every reason to look toward the next two years with optimism.

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