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When the Champions League draw pitted Manchester United against Roma, the more nostalgic were transported back 20 seasons. To a night that, ultimately, proved a staging post on Sir Alex Ferguson’s way to conquering Europe the following season. To a European Cup win that, in its margin, has only been bettered in United’s history by the Busby Babes’ 10-0 demolition of Anderlecht in 1956. To the only time in 464 appearances for United that Michael Carrick scored twice.
In 2007, United faced a Roma side that included the World Cup winners Francesco Totti and Daniele de Rossi. They thrashed them 7-1. “A magical night,” Carrick recalled. “It was one of the best nights, one of the best games, one of the best atmospheres I’ve been fortunate enough to witness. So the fact that I scored a couple and that was very unusual gives me great, great memories, but it was more the actual whole the emotion of the night. It was a special one.”
But Carrick’s initial response had been: “Long time ago, hey?” Increasingly, that comment could be applied to many of the good times: to the heady days in spring when he won 12 of his first 17 games after returning to Old Trafford. Now, nine without a win, beaten in each of the last three, Carrick could do with recapturing some of the magic he and his teammates produced to inflict Roma’s record European defeat. Although, as Gian Piero Gasperini’s team are third in Serie A and, two weeks ago, United lost 4-1 to the side now fourth in the Italian top flight, it feels unlikely. But, almost two decades ago, United had lost consecutive games before welcoming Roma to Old Trafford. Things can change, quickly and dramatically.
“You might think I’m crazy with the results we’ve had and what’s going on, but I genuinely, really can’t wait for the game,” said Carrick. And indeed, it may sound delusional; or, at the least, the words of a man who remembers what United was and imagines it could be again.
But not, perhaps, with him as manager, or this group of players, or this hierarchy or these owners. Carrick’s cryptic reference to “what’s going on” was shorthand for the public criticisms of either him or Jason Wilcox voiced by Bruno Fernandes and Lisandro Martinez, of the Argentinian’s sending-off at Chelsea, of the fans’ audible dissent against the sporting director, the Glazers and Sir Jim Ratcliffe, of the possibility this is his last week in the job.
“I can’t look into the future,” said Carrick. “You never know what’s going to happen.” Lose to Roma and then Aston Villa and his position would seem untenable; but then it did when United were beaten by Bournemouth last Sunday and he was given a stay of execution.
But too few of Carrick’s squad seem intent on keeping him. The feckless Martinez, whose recklessness ensured defeat on Sunday, is a case in point and, after a series of wretched performances, Carrick faces a decision whether to select the Argentinian. It is his way to defend his players and he said: “I’ve got no concerns about [his] commitment at all. The dressing room is a good, good place, so perceptions are a funny thing.”
The loyalists, the men still in Carrick’s camp, definitely include Kobbie Mainoo, who has known the older midfielder he was 14 and the former United captain was beginning his coaching career. Carrick revived Mainoo’s fortunes, after Ruben Amorim had marginalised him, when he took temporary charge in January. “I’m grateful for the trust the boss has put in me,” he said. “Knowing he’s a player who’s been at this club and knows the history of this club and knows what it takes to win, I take those words to heart.”
It may be a rare speck of good news for Carrick that Mainoo returned from injury as a substitute at Chelsea. United have only lost one game the Mancunian has started this season.
Mainoo said the players appreciate Carrick’s tactic of trying to shield them from criticism. He knows that they owe him. “Of course,” he said. “And I feel like our way to repay that is to be behind the manager on the pitch and off it, and fight for us and fight for us as a team.”
The supporters have made it clear where their allegiances lie, serenading Carrick and booing the players after Bournemouth’s emphatic win, and Mainoo reflected: “In these tough times you can’t expect the fans 100,000 percent of the time to be to be happy and cheering when we’re not putting out results.”
Which they have not been. There could be consequences, and not merely for Carrick. The 2008 Champions League winner played in three finals of this competition. Now United have lost their last two European matches and their next five – Roma, Sporting CP, Leipzig, Bayern Munich and Villarreal – offer few guarantees of victory for a stumbling side. United risk becoming the first Premier League club to fail to even get a top-24 finish in this revamped format. “There is the bigger picture and it is about getting through to the later stages,” said Carrick.
As he knows, United once surged into a Champions League semi-final with a 7-1 demolition. But that was a long time ago.
