Fabrizio Romano says Manchester United have not made any movement to contact other coaches, but he also says the club need results to keep faith in Michael Carrick. United are 12th in the Premier League with 5 points from 5 games and have won just 1 of their 5 league matches this season. The job is not gone, but the margin for error is already thin.

United's stance on Carrick

Romano's latest line is that United remain calm internally and still back Carrick. He said the club have not been in direct conversation with other coaches or representatives, and that the players are also believed to be behind the manager.

That matters because the reporting around the club is not all pointing in the same direction. Goal have described Conte as United's number one target if Carrick is sacked, while Romano's line is that nothing has started yet. Those are different stages of the same story, and right now the more concrete one is the club's current stance.

Why Conte is in the frame

The pressure has not come from speculation alone. United's recent league form is DLDWL, and the results include a 2-3 home defeat to Brighton in the League Cup and a 0-1 home loss to Manchester City in the Premier League. That is a poor enough run to keep the noise building, even if the club are still publicly and privately holding their line.

There is also a football reason for some patience. United have 182 touches in the opposition box, rank second for shots on target, and have a 7.1% conversion rate. Their expected goals total is 9.9, while they have scored 8 times. The chance volume is there, but the finishing has left the table position looking worse than the attack data suggests.

Romano's view is that United think time is needed after a summer rebuild in midfield, but he still stressed that results have to improve for that to last. The next league game will tell us more about how much room Carrick has, and the 12th-place position after 5 matches is the number United have to live with until the form changes.

Written by Jack Mercer with AI-assisted research, cross-checked against 4 outlets. How we work →