I LOVED us losing last night.
Yes, really. I loved watching my team Man United lose a football match!
Sometimes defeat tells you far more than victory ever could.
United produced one of those performances at Newcastle. The type where you’re watching and thinking 'oh for fuck sakes. Here we go again 🤦♂️.' No urgency, no real control, no sense that anyone — players or manager — was truly imposing themselves on the game.
And this was against a Newcastle side that had lost their previous three matches at home.
Even worse, they went down to ten men… and still looked the better team.
That’s the part that stood out to me.
Now coming into this game, Carrick’s United had won six of their last seven. Across two interim spells, he hadn’t tasted defeat in ten matches in the dugout.
Ten.
We’d even climbed from 6th to 3rd and suddenly people were speaking about Champions League qualification as if it were almost inevitable.
So yes, I predicted a United win.
How foolish of me.
The truth is, when you go a long time without losing, you start to feel a little unstoppable. Momentum builds, confidence rises, and before you know it the good vibes start masking the problems that were always there.
That’s why I think this defeat might actually be a good thing.
It’s a humbling moment.
And humbling moments reveal character.
Carrick and his staff deserve credit for the run they’ve put together. The results have been strong and the table reflects that. But if they want to be here permanently next season, there’s still far more that needs to be shown.
This loss gives us the chance to see exactly what they’re made of.
This was Carrick’s first defeat as United interim, and our first of 2026. It’s been so long since we last lost that it’s actually difficult to know how this team will respond to a proper setback.
And the response is what matters now.
This wasn’t the first time Carrick has faced ten men either. It was actually the third in eight matches, with Spurs and Palace being the other two.
Those ended in wins.
This one didn’t.
And that’s important because while the results under Carrick have been impressive on paper, I haven’t really seen anything in those performances that convinces me he should be the permanent manager.
The style has been pretty basic.
A lot of it has relied on moments rather than control. Counter attacks, individual brilliance, late goals — the type of things that can carry you through a run of games but aren’t necessarily sustainable over a longer period.
When you’re winning though, people overlook that.
Results have a way of masking performances. If the 3 points arrive at the end of the night, the warning signs tend to get ignored.
And for weeks I’ve felt those warning signs were there. This post on the uncomfortable truth tells you everything about how I've been feeling about this interim period.
That’s why I kept saying that at some point, we would get found out.
Of course, I was hoping that day would never come but hoping and knowing are two very different things.
The winning run gave United something we haven’t had in a long time: momentum. Carrick deserves credit for that. Momentum in football can carry you through games, especially when confidence is high.
As we know, United climbed from 6th to 3rd and suddenly Champions League qualification started looking very realistic.
But momentum and control are not the same thing.
Momentum can get you past certain teams. It can lift you through difficult moments and help you edge tight games. But once you face an opponent with a bit more quality, momentum alone usually isn’t enough.
Control is what separates good runs from sustainable success.
Beating City and Arsenal earlier in this run was brilliant and, honestly, in those games it didn’t really matter how we got the results.
But when you start facing the likes of Fulham, Spurs, West Ham, Everton, Palace and a struggling Newcastle side, that’s when you want to see more than just scraping through.
That’s when you want to see the team start controlling matches.
Instead, what we’ve often seen is chaos football with moments. And chaos football can work for a while.
But it rarely lasts.
What this run has also done is create a bit of an illusion of progress.
Winning games, going unbeaten and climbing up the table naturally makes it feel like the team is improving rapidly.
But the table doesn’t always tell the full story.
League position can change very quickly.
Before the Newcastle game, United were 6 points ahead of Chelsea in 6th. After the defeat, the gap suddenly looks far less comfortable, with the Blues and Liverpool now only 3 points behind.
One loss and the picture changes like that, even after such a great run.
That’s why performances matter so much as they tell you the real story behind the results.
And it’s also worth remembering that things weren’t exactly disastrous before Carrick stepped in either. Under Ruben Amorim we were 6th and only a point off 4th.
So while the run has been positive, it hasn’t necessarily been the dramatic transformation that the table might suggest.
Which brings us to what happens next.
Now we get to see the most important part of Carrick’s management: The response.
Against Villa, the first thing I want to see is intensity and energy. A team that looks like it’s willing to give everything for the full 90 minutes.
Then comes the tactical side.
So far Carrick’s approach has been quite basic. Basic ideas can get you through a period of games, but eventually opponents start figuring them out.
We’ve seen that before.
That’s exactly what happened during Ole’s time and Carrick was part of that coaching staff as well.
At some point you have to evolve.
This is also a test of mentality.
We know this group has been mentally fragile in the past and setbacks have often led to poor runs of form. This defeat is an opportunity to show that this version of United is different.
The response isn’t just about beating Villa, it’s about seeing a different performance. More control. More authority. Better in-game management. Better preparation. A stronger mentality.
United have ten days until the next match. The last time we had a break like that, players jetted off for a holiday before returning with a flat display at Everton. We got away with it thanks to a late Sesko goal.
But personally, I didn’t like it.
For me, this team doesn’t need holidays right now. It needs work.
Fitness. Intensity. Energy. All three have been lacking for weeks.
Look at the performances: West Ham, Everton, Palace… and now Newcastle. The level has been almost identical.
The difference this time?
The luck ran out.
No late winner.
No moment of individual brilliance.
No perfectly executed counter attack to save the day.
The good vibes disappeared and reality kicked in.
And honestly, I think that reality was needed.
Somewhere along the way people started believing United were becoming unbeatable under Carrick.
Last night reminded us that we’re not.
Anyone can ride a winning streak.
What separates managers is what they do when that streak ends.
Do they double down on what wasn’t working?
Or do they adapt?
Because now the real test of Carrick’s United begins — not when everything is going right, but when things finally go wrong.
Michael Carrick tasted defeat for the first time as Man Utd interim after his team lost 2-1 to ten men Newcastle | Michael Carrick | Image via Manchester United official X (@ManUtd)