Michael Carrick has revealed that Ole Gunnar Solskjær has been fully supportive of his appointment as Manchester United’s interim head coach because the Norwegian, who was also interviewed for the role, is a close friend.
The pair were at United together during the 2006-07 season and Carrick was a member of Solskjær’s coaching staff when the Norwegian was first the club’s caretaker manager then a permanent appointment from December 2018 to November 2021.
When Solskjær was sacked Carrick managed United for three games but he departed after Ralf Rangnick took over, stating that loyalty to Solskjær was a factor. Carrick was asked whether he had spoken to his former teammate since beginning his second interim tenure.
“Yes, I spoke to him,” he said. “I’m close, we’ve been through a lot together, so he’s been fully supportive as you’d expect. He’s some man and I respect him an awful lot. He wished us all the best and he was happy that we got the right result against Manchester City.”
Carrick was asked whether he might seek advice from Solskjær. “With friendships, you have conversations,” he said. “I’ve got a lot of friends in places that I can kind of pick on if I need to be. I’m not one that bothers a lot of people, to be honest. But he’s certainly there if I ever need him.”
Saturday’s victory over City at Old Trafford derived from United being proactive in Carrick’s opening match. He takes the team to Arsenal for Sunday’s 4.30pm GMT kick-off and suggested the strategy might differ.
Carrick said: “Every game’s different. Even if you come in half-time and you’ve had a good performance for 45 minutes, I’m never one that likes to say: ‘Same again.’ Because it’s never, ever the same again. You’ve kind of got to build on it.
“So it won’t be a kind of copy and paste. There’s new elements that need to come into it. We need to be ready, be at our best. And if we are our best and we’re there, we feel we’ve got a good chance. It’s just about playing what we feel the game needs.”
Patrick Dorgu scored United’s second against City when operating as a wide attacker, having played mostly as a wingback since signing last January. Carrick said: “He can do both. He was immense last week: his work rate and the way he played the position. I wouldn’t want to pin him down.”
