MIDDLESBROUGH fans tuning into Manchester United this season cannot help be overwhelmed by a sense of deja vu.
The impressive job Michael Carrick performed by leading them back into Champions League after replacing Ruben Amorim last season is fast getting forgotten.
Those left at the end jeered, having already booed United midway through the first half and again at half-time, after the latest feeble showing against Tottenham.
Following a bright honeymoon, Carrick’s tenure is quickly regressing Riverside style.
A cycle of tactical stubbornness, poor and hesitant game management and defensive fragility led to his downfall in the North East after just under three years in 2025.
The Red Devils are now witnessing it firsthand.
United do have an identity, but it is as boring, uninspiring and as interesting as a Carrick press conference. He probably has 4-2-3-1 in his lottery numbers too.
The words from opposition managers were particularly damning in those final months on Teesside. Praise for Carrick for “sticking to his principles” may as well have been translated to ‘Boro are easy to predict’.
While passing and ball retention stats remained high, the metrics that actually keep managers employed dropped alarmingly. Expected goals (xG), chance conversion, and big-chance creation fell off a cliff. Despite loads of sterile possession, his side lacked urgency.
Sound familiar? United fans certainly feel so. They voiced that exact frustration on Saturday, booing midway through the first half as the Red Devils drifted through another low-energy display.
BEST FREE BETS AND BETTING SIGN UP OFFERS
Granted, during that dismal final fall in the 2024/25 campaign at Boro, he was hampered by the loss of pacey winger Ben Gannon-Doak to injury and the January sale of Emmanuel Latte Lath. What is the excuse now?
Poor game management remains his most damaging flaw. Boro squandered 25 points from winning positions in his final season, and that inability to protect leads has resurfaced at United. When momentum turns, Carrick looks out-thought in the dugout.
At Boro, changes routinely occurred only after the team went behind, and even then, his interventions were largely like-for-like swaps.
Crucially, without the outlet of speedster Gannon-Doak, Carrick appeared unable to find a solution by changing shape. Instead, he continued to bang his head against a brick wall… no doubt slowly like his side’s play.
When the slump deepened, his reluctance to make decisive in-game changes caused uproar in the stands and, ultimately, internally too at Boro.
His stubborn insistence on slowly playing out from the back was laid bare during Boro’s 6-1 Carabao Cup semi-final second-leg thrashing at Chelsea in 2024. As Chelsea pressed ruthlessly to score four before half-time, a flexible coach would have instructed his team to go long to relieve the pressure on the overwhelmed defence and two midfield sitters. Carrick stood and watched things implode.
Changes routinely occurred only after going behind at Boro, usually limited to like-for-like swaps. When questioned by local reporters, he claimed the clock was “irrelevant” when judging changes. Yet his first substitution still consistently comes around the 65th minute.
Is it just his total confidence in his pre-game plans or is he unable to conjure up something in the heat of battle? Unfortunately, at present, it seems to be the latter.
Middlesbrough witnessed the complete arc of Carrick’s management. Shining bright first before the regression sets in and then the lack of adaptability and tactical nous to stop the rot proving to be his undoing.
We will soon find out whether he has learned from those past mistakes.