Jose Mourinho Backs Michael Carrick Amid Pressure at Manchester United
The pressure is already creeping in around Michael Carrick. The season is barely underway, but at Manchester United the clock always seems to tick a little louder, a little faster.
A third-place finish in his interim spell, Champions League football secured, and a permanent contract handed over as a reward – it all felt like the beginning of a new, steady chapter. Carrick, the calm figure in the chaos of United’s modern era, had earned his shot.
Then the 2026/27 campaign started.
An opening-day defeat to newly-promoted Hull City jolted the optimism. A late collapse against Everton turned three points into one and belief into frustration. Sunday brought the sharpest sting of all: a 1-0 home defeat to 10-man Manchester City, the kind of result that lingers in the stands and the dressing room long after full-time.
United have not been losing everything. They put five past Ipswich Town and brushed aside Sabah FK in the Champions League. Goals, progress, qualification boxes ticked. Yet the mood has not shifted. Performances have felt disjointed, fragile, short of the authority the supporters demand and the badge insists on.
Carrick has tried to keep the conversation moving forward. After the derby loss, he spoke of looking ahead rather than dwelling on setbacks, a familiar managerial stance at a club where every stumble is magnified. But he knows how this works. The spotlight will only intensify if the upcoming cup tie against Brighton & Hove Albion and the weekend meeting with Fulham do not bring both results and reassurance.
Into this tense backdrop stepped a familiar voice.
Jose Mourinho, the man who once ruled the same Old Trafford touchline and later had Carrick on his backroom staff, was asked for his view on the job his former assistant is doing. The Real Madrid manager did not launch into a tactical breakdown or a long defence. He kept it simple.
"He's doing well Michael, doing well," Mourinho said. Then he underlined it: "I'm happy with that."
Coming from Mourinho, those words carry weight. This is a coach who oversaw 144 games in charge of United between May 2016 and December 2018, collecting the Community Shield, Europa League and League Cup along the way. He knows the scale of the job, the noise, the demands, the impossibility of satisfying every corner of the club’s sprawling support.
He also knows Carrick. First as a player, the metronome in United’s midfield. Later as a trusted member of his staff, a bridge between dressing room and dugout. When Mourinho departed and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer arrived, Carrick stayed on, a rare constant in a revolving-door era.
Now Carrick stands alone in the technical area, the scrutiny squarely on him. Mourinho’s endorsement will not silence the critics or change a league table, but it does offer a reminder: this is a manager still early in his journey, trying to steady a club that has been searching for itself ever since Sir Alex Ferguson stepped away.
The next few days will say more than any soundbite. Brighton in the cup, Fulham at the weekend – two fixtures that would once have been routine assignments now feel like checkpoints in a broader judgement. Carrick has Mourinho’s backing. Soon he will find out whether he still has the one that matters most: Old Trafford’s.
