Key Highlights
- Keep Michael Carrick on, and it’s just another Ole Gunnar Solskjær situation.
- But replace him and, for almost whoever they appoint – be it a Premier League veteran, foreign maestro, renowned past-his-best winner, Red Bull-adjacent gegenpresser, austere Dutchman or Portuguese ideologue – they have done it before and it hasn’t worked.
- It’s almost like the biggest problem at the club isn’t the manager. Carrick’s start was undeniably impressive.
- There was pace and zip and creativity.
- The relief of players being released from the 3-4-2-1 was akin to one of those videos of cows being allowed back into the pasture after being kept in a barn over the winter.
