Earlier this week we reported on Manchester United's wider post-Ferguson churn. Now the club has appointed Mauricio Pochettino as their new head coach, with Michael Carrick sacked on Thursday after the club’s worst-ever start to a Premier League season left them in the relegation zone. The deal runs until the summer of 2029, and the first league game is already severe, away to Liverpool on Sunday, November 22.
United's immediate league problem
The appointment is being made against a grim league backdrop. United are 18th in the Premier League with 8 points from 10 matches, and their recent league form is DLLDD. The Champions League is not offering much relief either, with United 17th there on 6 points from 4 matches.
Pochettino does at least arrive with Premier League experience from Southampton and Tottenham Hotspur, but the first test is hard to soften. The club also have Brentford at home on November 28 in their next three fixtures, so there is no long runway to settle in.
The finals record that follows him
There is also the record that will follow him into the job. SI FC put it bluntly: “That’s seven finals for Pochettino, yet only two triumphs.” The same source says he has won just three pieces of silverware as a manager, all at Paris Saint-Germain, and that his career has five cup final defeats to date.
That is not the whole story, because the wider timeline around those finals can be read two ways. One framing says seven finals and two triumphs, while another counts seven finals and three wins when the 2021 Trophée des Champions and Coupe de France are included. Either way, the broad point remains the same: United are hiring a manager whose biggest nights have often ended badly.
The immediate focus, though, is simpler than that debate. Pochettino's first Premier League game is at Liverpool on 22 November, and United will go into it with 8 points from 10 league matches already on the board.
Written by Jack Mercer with AI-assisted research, cross-checked against 2 outlets. How we work →
