Michael Carrick shrugs off Man Utd manager rumours as Sunderland draw exposes bigger issue

Michael Carrick says the talk around Manchester United’s next manager has not changed how he works. The interim coach was speaking after a flat 0-0 draw at Sunderland, where Manchester United did not manage a shot on target until injury time and only Matheus Cunha tested Robin Roefs right at the end. Senne Lammens still came away with the sort of night that helps explain why the wider conversation inside the club is about more than succession talk.

Carrick says the noise has not touched his work

Carrick was blunt about the manager speculation. “No, genuinely not. Whether it's discussed or not discussed, it hasn't bothered me. It hasn't changed how I go about it. I've been confident in the work that we're doing and working with the players and leading the club, so it literally hasn't had any effect on me at all no,” he told goal.com.

That is the line that matters most here. He is not pretending the noise does not exist, only saying it has not changed his routine. He backed that up with a straightforward view of leadership too: “I think as a coach or manager, you're only a leader of a group if people want to follow you. It's not a thing that you can talk about so much, it's actions that prove that.”

There is also the more practical part of his thinking. Carrick said he has already considered leaving the club “in a place at the end of the season where if it was me or somebody else, it's there to take even further.” That is a coach speaking like someone focused on the job in front of him, not on the noise around it.

United still have something to play for

The draw at Sunderland did little to soften the sense that Manchester United are trying to finish strongly rather than coast to the line. They are third in the Premier League with 64 points from 35 matches, and they have two league games left, against Nottingham Forest on 2026-05-17 and Brighton on 2026-05-24.

Senne Lammens put that target in plain terms. “We can't stop here. I know the Champions League was our main goal, but we want to finish with as many points as possible. We want to finish with a good feeling to build on for next season,” he said. He was even clearer elsewhere: “The manager has got the point across to us that this season is not finished. We have got Champions League, but we also want to finish third. We don't want to finish below third.”

That is the sharp edge of the story. Champions League qualification is already secured, but third place is still the stated target and the table leaves them with something to protect. The flat performance at Sunderland, where Carrick made five changes after the 3-2 win over Liverpool, suggested he is trying to balance rotation with standards rather than using the final run-in as a free hit.

Lammens' own night backed up his case. His 9.2 rating at Sunderland was the best individual marker in the brief, and he made good saves to keep out Noah Sadiki and Brian Brobbey. United did not look sharp enough going forward, but the goalkeeper was involved enough to justify the confidence in his post-match comments.

Carrick may keep insisting the succession talk has no effect on him, and there is no reason to doubt that from what he said. The more immediate issue is whether Manchester United can turn the final two games into a clean finish, starting with Nottingham Forest and then Brighton.