Carrick must step out of shadows to be his own man

Is a big task for the young and fairly shy coach but he has to rapidly distance himself from the failures under Solskjaer

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Despite the huge scale of the job, placing Michael Carrick in temporary charge of Manchester United following the sacking of Ole Gunnar Solskjaer makes sense.

This relatively inexperienced assistant manager will need a great deal of support from those around him and to quickly re-establish the faith in the coaches that the players have clearly lost.

But he is a club legend, has ambitions to be a manager and is close to the first-team squad.

Yet, exposing a young and fairly shy coach to the glare of being United manager for any prolonged period of time could be damaging and unfair. Certainly when United’s hierarchy were casting around for a solution a few weeks ago, the conclusion was there was no one on the staff who could easily step up to take over.

That staff, despite the presence of as seasoned a coach and assistant and – for a while – manager as Mike Phelan, painfully lacks experience, which was one of the accusations levelled at Solskjaer, who foolishly detached himself as something of a “general manager” and delegated far too much of the training-ground work.

Carrick was key to that, as was Kieran Mckenna, five years his junior at 35 and someone he is close to. The pair were often tasked with much of the actual coaching of the first team.

Although Carrick has been favourably mentioned in dispatches for the work he does one-on-one with players, and is credited with spotting Mason Greenwood’s potential early and pushing for him to be promoted, the truth is United have not been a well-coached team and he has played his part in that.

The ultimate responsibility fell on Solskjaer and he has paid the price. Now Carrick has to show, for however long he is in charge, that he was working under instruction and is far more capable of being his own man.

Despite often being described as too nice and too laid back, Carrick has made no secret that he wants to be a manager one day. He made that clear on his retirement three years ago when he accepted an offer from then-manager Jose Mourinho – who was himself sacked a few months later – to join his coaching staff.

Like Solskjaer, Carrick’s legendary status as a player at United is beyond dispute. In his seven seasons under Sir Alex Ferguson, the midfielder won the league five times, scored a penalty in the Champions League final shoot-out win over Chelsea in 2008 and, frankly, has never been adequately replaced.

Making such a success of his career at United, having joined from Tottenham Hotspur in 2006, shows he has a harder, more competitive edge than he has often been given credit for. The Geordie’s softly spoken manner may also mask that, as did the ridiculous way he was constantly overlooked by England until late in his career.

There have also been personal challenges. In his youth Carrick suffered badly from growing pains and injury, later on he recovered from a heart scare and battled depression, and has a drive for perfection that he has admitted shows an obsessive compulsive disorder streak. He even folds his dirty training kit before putting it in the laundry skip.

It will be a big challenge for Carrick. He has to get to the pitch of the job quickly, even if he will take over amid a well of goodwill on which he will have to capitalise in the short term with two important fixtures away to Villarreal in the Champions League tomorrow and then Chelsea in the Premier League on Sunday.

At the very least, United – and Carrick – will hope that he can take advantage of the release of pressure that should always follow the sacking of a manager who is struggling. Whether he can sustain anything beyond that, and how long he is at the wheel, remains to be seen. Yet again United have taken a gamble.

He is a club legend, has ambitions to be a manager and is close to the first-team squad