How Man United went from ‘everything is wrong’ to a big blowout win that vindicates Carrick

MANCHESTER, England — Michael Carrick briefly looked exasperated in his weekly news conference Friday afternoon. “When Manchester United lose a game,” he said, “everything is wrong. I think it’s so easy to say, ‘This is wrong, that is wrong.'”

It’s been a rough week for Carrick. The defeat at Hull City on the opening weekend of the season was probably his lowest moment as United head coach. Ahead of Ipswich Town‘s visit to Old Trafford on Sunday, he would have known that the noise would crank up a notch had it not gone well.

He was perhaps fearing the worst when Ipswich took the lead Sunday. But after a Bruno Fernandes hat trick, a deflected effort from Harry Maguire and a late Bryan Mbeumo goal earned an emphatic 5-2 win, Carrick’s calm in a difficult moment has been vindicated. Maybe not everything is wrong after all.

He was able to smile afterward.

“It’s a week in football, isn’t it, I think? The ups and downs,” he said. “The most pleasing thing for me was — we spoke about actually in the week — about dealing with setbacks. If you want to be a good team and a successful team, every team gets beat and you’ve got to deal with setbacks in certain ways.

“For the way they bounced back and put in a performance like we did, that’s probably the biggest thing to take. There’s a lot of highlights, and there’s a lot of really good football today.”

Five goals and a first win of the season doesn’t mean there aren’t issues to address. United are still in the market for a left back before the transfer window shuts Tuesday, and efforts might well increase after this.

Luke Shaw was at fault for one of Hull’s goals last weekend, and he had another difficult day here. He was out-paced by Julio Enciso early on before Senne Lammens came to his rescue. And he won’t want to see a replay of Ipswich’s first goal: There didn’t seem to be much happening when Abdul Fatawu received the ball on the touchline, but in a flash, Ipswich’s No. 7 nutmegged Shaw before racing to the byline to cross for Leif Davis to score.

Shaw said afterwards he was “angry and disappointed.”

United looked at Davis the last time they signed a left-back, Patrick Dorgu, in January 2025. The expectation this time is that if a full-back comes in, it will be an understudy to Shaw rather than a big-name signing. Lewis Hall was United’s top target heading into the summer, but given Newcastle’s unwillingness to negotiate, that may have to be put on ice for at least a year.

United’s approach has been to build the squad carefully and gradually.

The forward line was overhauled last summer. In this window, the midfield was the priority. In 12 months, it will be time for the defence. As well as two full-backs, there’s an argument that United still need a new centre-back — even though there are already five in the squad.

“The situation that we’re in, the business that we’ve managed to do, I’m pleased with it,” said Carrick. “I think we’re a better group, a better squad, potentially a better team, you know. So, in that respect, we’re quite happy.

“We’re always open to if there’s something else to be able to add, so I wouldn’t shut that down, but as it stands, we’ll have to wait and see.”

Once the window closes on Tuesday, Carrick will be able to enjoy a relatively quiet week. Quieter than last week, anyway.

He couldn’t pick Lisandro Martínez and Kobbie Mainoo against Hull while they were still rusty after the World Cup. Back in the team against Ipswich, both were terrific.

Martinez’s distribution from centre-half was almost flawless. His performance was only dampened by a late mistake which allowed Ipswich to score a consolation.

Mainoo’s best moment came in the second half when he danced through three Ipswich’s challenges in midfield before sliding a pass through to Matheus Cunha, who won a penalty for Fernandes.

Marcus Rashford was bright on his return to Old Trafford for the first time since December 2024. Fernandes, with an assist for Mbeumo to add on his three goals, was imperious.

Mbeumo’s goal in the 82nd minute meant that United scored five in a Premier League game for the first time since August 2021. Their 33 shots was the most in a league for almost 10 years.

While the rebuild continues, United are going to have good days and bad. A bad day at Hull was followed by a good one against Ipswich.

If nothing else, Carrick — who has only overseen three defeats since his appointment as interim head coach in January — has earned the right to stay calm even when the pitchforks are out. After a week when he had to argue that not everything is wrong at Old Trafford, his team backed him up and did a lot right.