Manchester United Sack Michael Carrick After Worst Start in 40 Years — Pochettino Set to Take Over

By Imran Javed | November 12, 2026

Manchester United have sacked head coach Michael Carrick, the club confirmed on Thursday, November 12, 2026, after a disastrous start to the season left the 13-time Premier League champions sitting 18th in the table. United have taken just 8 points from 10 league games, winning only once, in what is their worst start to a top-flight campaign in 40 years. Mauricio Pochettino, the 54-year-old head coach of the United States men’s national team, is set to replace him, with an agreement in place for the Argentine to take charge at Old Trafford.

Key Facts

How the Season Fell Apart

The numbers tell the story of a collapse that no one at Old Trafford saw coming six months ago. Eight points from ten games. One win. A team that finished third in May now sitting in the relegation places in November, one point above bottom club Crystal Palace and ten points short of the top four. It is, by the club’s own grim measure, the worst start to a top-flight season since 1986/87 — forty years ago, in a different era of English football entirely.

The final straw came on Sunday, November 8, in a match that summed up everything wrong with United’s season. At home to Aston Villa, they fell 2-0 down inside four minutes. They fought back, then fell 4-2 down early in the second half, before a late comeback salvaged a 4-4 draw. The fight was there. The defending was not. Across the season, United have won just three of 15 matches in all competitions and are on an eight-match winless run in the Premier League. For a club of this size, with this squad and this wage bill, those figures are indefensible — and the board has acted.

The club’s statement was short and formal, but it carried one line that will stay with Carrick long after the headlines fade: “Michael is, and always will be, a Manchester United legend.” The club also said it “intends to appoint a permanent successor as quickly as possible” — and it has not wasted any time.

From Saviour to Sacked in Six Months

Carrick’s story at United is one of the strangest arcs in modern Premier League management. The 45-year-old arrived as interim head coach on January 13, 2026, after Ruben Amorim was sacked, with the season drifting and the squad low on confidence. What followed was one of the great rescue jobs in the club’s recent history. Carrick won 12 of the remaining 17 games in 2025/26, collected the highest points tally in the league during that period, and dragged United to a third-place finish and Champions League qualification. He was nominated for Premier League Manager of the Season, and on May 22, 2026, the club handed him a two-year contract running to 2028.

That is what makes this sacking so remarkable. Six months after being rewarded with a long-term deal for saving the season, Carrick is gone — undone by a start so bad that it has no parallel in four decades at the club. The contrast between the two halves of his tenure is almost impossible to explain with a single cause: the same manager, largely the same players, and two completely different teams. The collapse has been sudden, total, and — for the board — impossible to ride out any longer.

Why Pochettino, Why Now

The successor is no surprise. Mauricio Pochettino, 54, is set to take over at Old Trafford, with an agreement in place for the Argentine to leave his job as head coach of the United States men’s national team. It will be his fourth job in England, after spells at Southampton, Tottenham and Chelsea, and his first return to the Premier League since leaving Chelsea. United will pay $10 million to release him from his US contract, which he signed in August 2026 and which runs to after the 2030 World Cup.

For United, the appeal is obvious. Pochettino knows the Premier League and has a record of improving young players — exactly the profile this squad needs. He is expected to be in the dugout for the trip to Liverpool at Anfield on November 22, which is about as unforgiving a first game as English football can offer. A new manager bounce against the club’s fiercest rivals would change the mood overnight; a heavy defeat would make the scale of the job brutally clear.

What Happens Next

The immediate priority is simple: win games and climb out of the bottom three. United are one point above Crystal Palace — this is a relegation battle, whatever the badge says. The Liverpool game on November 22 will be Pochettino’s first test, and after that the fixtures will not wait for anyone. The new manager will need to steady a defence that has conceded four goals at home in a single afternoon, restore confidence to a squad that has forgotten how to win, and do it all under the brightest spotlight in English football.

For Pakistani fans, the drama at Old Trafford is familiar territory — United are one of the most followed clubs in the country, and the news will dominate football conversations from Lahore to Karachi this week. The Premier League title race is moving on without them: Manchester City’s 3-0 win at Anfield showed the standard at the top, and United are currently ten points away from even the top four. Away from the Premier League, Pakistan’s cricket calendar is busy too — the first Test against Sri Lanka is under way, and Pakistan’s run to the SAFF Championship semi-finals is also on this week. The gap between where they are and where they believe they belong has never looked wider.

Carrick’s departure closes one of the most dramatic chapters in United’s recent history — a rescue, a reward, and then a collapse, all inside ten months. The club has chosen Pochettino to write the next one, and whether the eighth permanent manager since Ferguson can finally break the cycle will be decided on the pitch in the weeks ahead.

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