Two Games to Save His Job: Carrick's Last Stand Starts With Roma

The question was put to Michael Carrick directly on Monday: did he feel he had two games left as Manchester United manager? "No, not at all," he said. "You might think I'm crazy with the results we've had and what's going on, but I genuinely can't wait for the game tomorrow."

The results are why the question exists. United are 17th in the Premier League, one place above the relegation zone on goal difference, with seven points from nine games and one league win all season. Saturday's 2–0 defeat at Chelsea made it nine matches without a win in all competitions — the club's longest winless run since 1984. The board has already stood by Carrick once in this slide, keeping faith after a 3–0 home defeat by Bournemouth and a 4–1 drubbing at Como in the Champions League, and got a 2–0 loss at Stamford Bridge for its patience. Reporting from Fabrizio Romano says the hierarchy's intention is to trust him for the next two matches and then assess the situation during the international break. Those two matches are Roma at Old Trafford tonight, and Aston Villa at home on Sunday.

Carrick insists the noise changes nothing inside Carrington. "That has no influence on how we prepare or on the game tomorrow," he said. "We cannot wait for the game tomorrow. That is all I am focused on. What happens after, happens." He maintains the dressing room is "in a good place" and that his players' commitment is not in question — this after a month in which captain Bruno Fernandes publicly questioned the team's tactics following the Como defeat, and Lisandro Martínez criticised the club's hierarchy after the loss at Atlético Madrid. Kobbie Mainoo, sat beside Carrick at Monday's press conference, urged his team-mates to play for their manager.

And then there is the opposition. Of all the teams to walk into Old Trafford with a man's job on the line, it had to be Roma. On April 10, 2007, Carrick — then a 25-year-old midfielder in his first season at the club — opened the scoring with a chip and curled in the sixth as United destroyed Roma 7–1 in a Champions League quarter-final, overturning a first-leg defeat. They were the first Champions League goals of his career, and the only brace he ever scored. He was asked about it on Monday. "It was a magical night, I have to say," he said. "It was one of the best nights, one of the best games, one of the best atmospheres I've been fortunate enough to witness. The fact that I scored a couple and that was very unusual gives me great memories."

History is firmly on his side tonight, for whatever that is worth to a board counting points. United have won all four of their home matches against Roma, and Roma have won only once in 21 away matches against English clubs. But this Roma side, unbeaten in Serie A under Gian Piero Gasperini, arrive with four points from their three Champions League games to United's three — with Donyell Malen, eight league goals and three more in this competition already this season, leading their line — and Gasperini has warned his players not to underestimate a wounded host.

Carrick at least has Leny Yoro available — "he's been fantastic, one of our best players," he said of the defender, who is managing a tendon issue — while Patrick Dorgu is back training with the group but will not be involved, Luke Shaw is out, and Marcus Rashford is a day-by-day doubt.

What tonight decides is the temperature of Sunday. A win ends the run at nine, puts United's European campaign back on its feet, and sends Carrick into the Villa game managing a team that has remembered how to win. A tenth match without a victory turns Sunday — Unai Emery's Aston Villa, at Old Trafford — into the last examination before the international break hands the board two quiet weeks to make a decision. Nineteen years ago, Roma at home was the night Carrick announced himself at this club. He does not need another 7–1. He needs a win, any win, and he needs it tonight.