Michael Carrick insists he feels backed by Man Utd board after Erik ten Hag criticism
Carrick Insists He Feels Backed by Man Utd Board After Ten Hag Criticism
Sky Sports News discusses Erik ten Hag's interview about Manchester United's management, recruitment and dressing room. Michael Carrick says the toxic-culture claim is Ten Hag's opinion and insists he feels backed by the board, while the guests see a mismatch between Ten Hag and the new ownership and say he must share responsibility for signings such as Antony. The show also notes the injury and results pressure on Carrick.
- Ten Hag's "toxic culture" claim is just his opinion and I should not comment on it. — It had nothing to do with me at that stage, and I do not know the details.
- I do not need reassurance from the board and I do feel backed. — The role and responsibilities are clear to me; I know when it is going well or needs to be better, and I have a really good relationship with everyone at the club, with no issues; the job is to win games.
- Ten Hag and United's new ownership were a mismatch on football direction and data, and that may have led to Ruben Amorim's appointment. — Ten Hag wanted to give football input to the new hierarchy, but it leaned on analytics and people from non-football backgrounds; the new owners did not yet have their own man in charge.
- Ten Hag must share responsibility for the Antony overspend and should have considered alternative targets. — Ten Hag said Sancho did not want to play on the right and United already had left-side options such as Rashford, so they pursued Antony all summer and spent £86m; Dan says they overpaid.
- Ten Hag's interview was valuable and gave a refreshing insight into what was really going on at United. — No one had properly asked Ten Hag at the time about the Ronaldo bust-up or the owners coming in.
- Ten Hag got some things right and some wrong, but his United tenure was defined by too many battles on every front, which is why he left. — He had to manage the board and new owners, playing style, results and the dressing room; some player conflicts were handled correctly, as the Ronaldo situation was created by Ronaldo rather than the manager.
- Carrick will have to get creative tonight because the squad is thin and United badly need a win to restart their season. — Nine first-team players are unavailable, the back four is decimated with only a few fit defenders, and United are six games without a win in all competitions.
► Subscribe to Sky Sports News: http://bit.ly/SkySportsNewsSub ► Watch Sky Sports with NOW: https://bit.ly/NOWSkySportsYT Danyal Khan and Rob Earnshaw discuss Michael Carrick's response to Erik ten Hag's criticism of the Manchester United board in his time at the club on Sky Sports FC. premierleague championsleague manchesterunited ► For the latest developments on this story: https://qrcode.skysports.com/skysports/topstories ► For the latest transfer news: https://qrcode.skysports.com/skysports/TransferCentre More from Sky Sports on YouTube: ► Sky Sports: http://bit.ly/SkySportsSub ► Sky Sports Boxing: http://bit.ly/SSBoxingSub ► Sky Sports Cricket: http://bit.ly/SubscribeSkyCricket ► Sky Sports Darts: https://bit.ly/SubSkySportsDarts ► Sky Sports Football: http://bit.ly/SSFootballSub ► Sky Sports F1: http://bit.ly/SubscribeSkyF1 ► Sky Sports Golf: https://bit.ly/SubscribeSkySportsGolf ► Sky Sports Premier League: https://bit.ly/SubscribeSkySportsPL ► Sky Sports Retro: http://bit.ly/SkySportsRetroSub ► Sky Sports WSL: https://bit.ly/SubscribeSkySportsWSL ► TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@skysportsnews ► X: https://x.com/SkySportsNews ► Website: https://www.skysports.com ► To enquire about licensing Sky Sports content, you can find out more here: https://www.skysports.com/more-sports/news/31754/11434270/license-sky-sports-footage
Transcript
Michael Carrick has played down claims of toxic culture at Manchester United by their former boss Eric Tenhog yesterday. As for Carrick himself, he insists he has the support of the Manchester United hierarchy. >> That's Eric's opinion. You know, I I don't really know the the the details of ins and outs of that really. It's totally wrong of me to to to comment and get involved cuz it was nothing to do me at that stage. >> Do you feel the backing of the board at the club? And are you happy with that backing and and during what's been a quite a tough start to the season, have you felt the need to sort any kind of to kind of seek any kind of reassurance from the board? >> Certainly not. No, I don't need any reassurance. Um, it's pretty clear, you know, it's pretty clear. I know the role. I know responsibilities. I don't I don't need anyone else to to kind of tell me that or tell me when it's going well or when it needs to be better. I know that myself. >> But you feel banked. >> Yeah. Yeah. Why wouldn't I? I know. I mean, I'm in this position. and have a good relationship. Um, a really good relationship with with everybody everybody at the football club. Um, there's there's really no issues and no problems with with with any of that side. Um, we got to win games of football and and that's what we're we're striving to do. >> Let's get straight to Dan Khn in KO. Dan, good morning. The second part of the Eric Tenhog interview has been released this morning. had a few things to say on the owner's Inos. >> Yeah, good morning Tom. Good morning, Rob. Yeah, it was very interesting part two of Lori Wwell's interview uh with the former Manchester United manager head coach Eric Tenhog. I mean, yes, he first of all tried to talk about, you know, towards the end of his reign that summer, um, where he signed that contract extension, just how much he tried to talk to the new ownership, whether that was Sim Radcliffe, Jason Wilcox, um, about really trying to be datadriven, but from a footballing perspective, and he was trying to give his input in terms of what he thought that should look like. and he slightly did take aim to how Inos in terms of Sir Jim Radcliffe's organization have really tried to look at analytics at the club. Now they've done that over recruiting the likes of Dan Sansson really leading leading sorry the uh datadriven approach at the club. He of course comes from an F1 background and others at Manchester United do come from perhaps more non-footing backgrounds which is what Eric Tenhog pointed at maybe not being best suited in his opinion. Now he also talked about other parts of his time at Manchester United that he spoke about in their long kind of pursuit for Anthony for example who they ended up spending 86 million pounds on over that summer and that was largely down to what Eric Tanhog said was the former Manchester United winger Jadden Sancho not wanting to play on the right hand side. Now remember Sancho was signed under Ole Gunnar Scholkar so was inherited by Ten Hog but he said essentially Sancho said he didn't want to play on the right hand side and United did have the likes of Marcus Rashford and other options on that leftand side. So that led to what Eric Tanog said was pursuing Anthony all summer. Uh they did end up pursuing him like I mentioned uh for quite a long time and no doubt overspent on that. So maybe Tennar has to take a bit of responsibility for that rather than looking at alternative targets. He also spoke about Alejandro Garacho, the former Manchester United winger. He talked about how he actually wanted him to sign for Bay Leverkusen as well, but luckily he didn't because Tanhog didn't last too long at the German club. He talked about how he just needs the right coach to really get the best out of him despite his Chelsea move not quite working out. Maybe he can find his best form once again at Aston Villa. It was quite interesting again getting some insights Eric Tenhog's tenure wasn't it but I think you know what what maybe has been missing from these two pieces um you know from Eric Tenhog's point of view and completely understandable he's in a new role at FC20 stage really talking about his datadriven approach and what his philosophy has been like since is there's not a whole of a lot of responsibility on his uh perspective in terms of maybe things he could have changed or parts that maybe he would have maybe not regretted but maybe during his time at United maybe managed a a little bit differently and I think that's always the interesting part of these stories what their perspectives are but I think more so it just shows Eric Tenhog and the United relatively new ownership at the time were just a bit of a mismatch and maybe the result of them not having uh their own man in charge and maybe what led to them appointing Ruben Amarim shortly after >> if you say there Dan I'll come back to you in a moment just want to ask Rob what he thought of the the 10H interview especially yesterday's uh stuff that came I liked it actually. I just thought it was um I I I I think it's important also to get because nobody ever asked uh Mr. Tenhag at the time and afterwards about well what was going on here? What was the situation? What was the situation with with the Ronaldo bust up? What was the situation with the owners coming in? So, I just thought it was refreshing to um get a little bit more of an insight on that. Um I just think some of the things that he said, yeah, he's completely right. You know, when you you have, you know, battles with certain players because they were challenging what was best for the team, maybe he was right at some point. Um now, did he do everything correct, Mr. Tenhag? No. Uh there was moments where I think even you know when you kind of look at Tenhag's time I think it was always a constant battle and that was the problem and the reason he left was because the battle became too much in terms of because as a manager you have to manage upstairs the board the new owners and what you what you're trying to do and they maybe say well we're not doing that and then there's the battle between that, but then also the players, the dressing room. And I think there was a big battle in every angle, whether it's upstairs, the playing style, um the results, and then also with your with his own players. Now, I think there's some decisions that he made with his own players that were right. Uh let's face it, you know, when when players do certain things, sometimes you have to say, I'm sorry, you've created this. You know, for example, the Ronaldo situation um was created by Ronaldo. So, in the end, that's that's not down to the manager. So, I think um there was lots of things that he got right, but lots of things that he didn't get right. And I think just coincidentally talked about it over the last few days. Um which doesn't help Michael Carrick and the position that he's at, right? >> Yeah. Well, Michael Carrick of course is the boss now, Dan. A big game tonight in the Champions League and his squad's pretty thin. >> Yeah, it is, Tom. I mean look at Michael Carrick is without nine of his first team players all unavailable for that game tonight. There are longerterm injuries like Manuel Lagartate for example but you look at the back four absolutely decimated. Aiden heaven is ill. He hasn't traveled. Landra Martinez is is injured. Uh Lenny Uro suspended. So you are looking at who can play in that back four. I mean it's Diego Harry McGuire new Mazerawi the only fit defenders that Michael Carrick has at his disposal. He might have to get a bit creative. Matias Delet is of course fit but hasn't played a game since end of last November. Feel like a quite a big call to throw him in from the start. So I think Michael Carrick as I mentioned going to have to get a little creative tonight in terms of finding some solutions. Let's not forget Manchester United need wins. They're six without a win in all competitions and they need to start getting these results not just for their Champions League uh campaign but also just to get more ALP and really start recharging their season, gathering some momentum. him. So, we'll see what he does tonight and we'll keep building up throughout the day here on Sky Sports News. >> Thanks, Dan.