Three from three for Carricky at the wheely 🙌.
Back into the top four. Goals flowing. Good vibes back. Fans smiling again.
This is what we’ve been missing.
In just three games, Michael Carrick has changed the culture at Old Trafford, achieving what Ruben Amorim took almost 14 months to manage: three consecutive wins.
However, United did do their best to make things unnecessarily squeaky bum against Fulham. A two-goal lead disappeared in the 90th minute, sending Marco Silva and everyone connected to Fulham into raptures after a superb equaliser.
But in this moment, they displayed once more that these teams just don't learn:
Never early celebrate against Man Utd ❌.
I almost feel like we do this on purpose at times, just to make things more dramatic, you know?
For the second game in a row, United needed a late winner to secure all 3 points — Cunha last week, Šeško this time. That never-say-die attitude, so synonymous with this club, feels like it has returned under the interim.
And yet, for me, the biggest change Carrick has made isn’t just cultural or emotional.
It’s how in tune he is with us, the fans.
All fans have their predicted lineups. All fans have ideas about what changes need to be made during games to positively influence the outcome. While those opinions differ in places, there is usually a shared logic that most supporters arrive at when watching the same match unfold.
When the manager arrives at those same conclusions, that’s when it feels like something is cooking.
This isn’t about fans thinking they know better than the manager. It’s about shared game logic. When millions of people watching week-in, week-out are calling for the same changes at the same moments, it usually means the game state is obvious. Carrick isn’t listening to the crowd — he’s reading the match in the same clear, intuitive way.
That’s where one of my biggest issue with Amorim lay.
It had nothing to do with his system, but everything to do with his personnel choices and in-game decisions, which often felt disconnected from what the match was asking for. Sometimes it genuinely felt like blud was trying to lose on purpose 😬.
We never knew what team he was going to pick. More often than not, predicted XIs were way off, and even when you did get it right, it felt like you’d just answered the final question on Who Wants to Be a Millionaire. Worse still, even with an incorrect prediction, the XI he selected was usually one fans disagreed with anyway.
And then came the changes.
Amorim had this habit of subbing defenders for defenders — or even worse, attackers for defenders — while we were losing games 😭. He rarely took the gamble to push players forward, opting instead for caution that produced negative results more often than positive ones. Which naturally led to the question: why go negative if you’re still going to lose?
With Carrick, that disconnect simply doesn’t exist.
In his three matches so far, he’s picked sides that most fans would arrive at themselves. With Dorgu injured, the solution felt obvious — Cunha on the left — and Carrick saw it the same way. When games reached the point where changes were needed, he acted when supporters expected him to, usually around the 60–70 minute mark. The players he removed were the ones fans were calling out, and the replacements were exactly who people wanted to see.
That alignment isn’t coincidence. It comes from clarity.
Carrick uses square pegs in square holes. Mainoo, a player many couldn’t understand why he was being left on the sidelines, has started all three matches alongside Casemiro and is already reaping the rewards. Bruno back at number ten looks like himself again — influential, decisive, and at his creative best. With 14 matches remaining, he now sits just 8 assists away from the all-time record of 20.
Because roles are clear, performances improve. Dalot for example, looks like a different player since Carrick’s arrival. There’s less confusion, less hesitation, and far more intent.
Just as importantly, Carrick doesn’t tinker for the sake of it. If something is working, he sticks with it. The starting XI hasn’t been overhauled week to week, and that stability has translated onto the pitch.
And when changes are needed, they’re positive ones.
Each of Carrick’s last three games has been swung by his substitutions: Cunha assisting Dorgu in the Derby, Cunha scoring the late winner at Arsenal, and Šeško delivering the decisive goal against Fulham. These aren’t reactive, damage-limiting changes — they’re proactive decisions aimed at winning matches.
That’s why the alignment with fans matters. Not because supporters are being indulged, but because everyone is responding to the same reality on the pitch.
Why this connection between manager and fans matters so much is because supporters live with this club every single week. We follow the team relentlessly, consume every bit of news, and constantly discuss what we’re seeing with one another.
For many, it’s more than support — it borders on religion.
That level of immersion creates a collective understanding of the team. Not in terms of tactics or training-ground detail, but in terms of momentum, balance, and what a game feels like in the moment. When thousands of fans arrive at the same conclusions, it usually isn’t arrogance — it’s pattern recognition.
With Carrick, that shared understanding is finally visible. He appears to be on the same page as supporters when it comes to personnel, timing, and game management. Whether that comes from his history at the club or previous experience as an interim, his sense of what’s required feels far closer to the reality fans are watching than it ever did under Amorim.
This is why I value a manager who feels on par with the supporters. Not because fans know best, but because shared logic breeds clarity. When everyone is seeing the same game — manager, players, and fans alike — football becomes simpler, braver, and far more effective.
Michael Carrick has won all three of his matches in charge of Man Utd | Image via Manchester United official X (@ManUtd)