Man Utd tipped to appoint ex-coach to replace Carrick as Red Devils boss reacts to sack rumours

Man Utd have been told to hire ex-Ipswich Town boss Kieran McKenna if they sack Michael Carrick as the current Red Devils head coach responds to rumours around his job.

The Red Devils have had a poor start to the new season with two defeats, a draw and a win from their opening four Premier League fixtures.

Man Utd did beat Sabah 4-0 in their first Champions League match of the season but a 3-1 loss in the Carabao Cup to Brighton has piled the pressure on Carrick.

Carrick’s side threw away a two-goal lead with the Seagulls playing well to come back and beat Man Utd 3-2 at Old Trafford to progess to the next round.

The Red Devils’ second-half performance was especially disappointing and many fans were left questioning Carrick’s coaching and tactics after the match.

Antonio Conte and Eddie Howe have already been linked with the position and now talkSPORT‘s Alan Brazil now reckons former Man Utd coach McKenna should get the job if it becomes available.

Brazil said on talkSPORT: “I think Kieran McKenna. People seem to forget about Kieran.

“He will come back into football, he’s very, very bright and started at Man United.”

When asked if McKenna is the answer, he added: “I don’t know. I don’t know what the answer is to Man United.”

It feels like Man Utd need a result against Fulham over the weekend for the pressure to die down but Carrick insisted at a pre-match press conference: “I think that’ll be a lot longer than one or two games of results. I understand, first of all, taking away all that, that’s irrelevant for me.

“I know the club, I know the role, I know what’s expected here in terms of playing to a certain standard, playing at a certain level, achieving certain things on the pitch, so I get all that.

“In terms of future and ownership and how long I’ve got in the job, I’m thinking one part of it, like how long have I got, it’s ridiculous to think that way in a position that I’m in, that’s just not on the radar.

“I understand what we need to achieve and where we need to be as a football club for the owners, what they expect, for the supporters as much as anything, I get all that.

“It’s two or three games that we haven’t had certain results, and two or three games too many because I really hate losing, but that doesn’t mean that the world caves in. In some minds it does, it can’t for us, because we’ve got to perform.”

Carrick: ‘I’ll take the responsibility, whatever it is’

Carrick added: “That’s why I’m here. It’s my responsibility. I’m fine with that. It’s not a blame game. It’s not a blame game. We all search for things to look at and point at and find a blame.

“Sometimes it gets almost like too much of a thing to want to find someone to blame or something to blame. Blame me, no problem. I’ll take the responsibility, whatever it is.

“But it’s not about blaming people, it’s about finding solutions and being better, and that’s as a whole football club, as a group of players, as staff, as owners, supporters, it’s a whole collective thing, and you can put it in different directions, you can worry about different things, it’s about what you focus on.

“‘I’m totally happy taking responsibility, absolutely no problem with that, it doesn’t bother me. I just know where we want to get to and we want to get there fast.”

Carrick continued: “One hundred per cent it does, yeah. I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else, genuinely. It’s the best place for me to be, so in part of the times when it’s maybe not going to plan, that’s sometimes the best times to work your way through, find out a few things and come out an awful lot stronger.”