Man United managers since Sir Alex Ferguson: Best record, stats with Michael Carrick on the brink

Man United managers since Sir Alex Ferguson: Best record, stats with Michael Carrick on the brink originally appeared on The Sporting News. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here.

Michael Carrick's is seemingly on the verge of being dismissed as Manchester United manager after nine months in charge at Old Trafford.

Carrick oversaw a dramatic improvement after he replaced Ruben Amorim in January, initially on a short-term deal until the end of the season.

The former Spurs, United and England midfielder got the role on a permanent basis after leading the Red Devils to a third-place finish and Champions League football, but their form has fallen apart this term.

Sunday's 3-0 defeat to Bournemouth extended their winless run to eight matches across all competitions and United are languishing 16th in the Premier League table.

Carrick is United's ninth manager since Sir Alex Ferguson left Old Trafford in 2013. Here is how his record stacks up.

MORE: Man United 0-3 Bournemouth as it happened | What Bruno Fernandes said about Michael Carrick's tactics

Man United managers since Alex Ferguson compared

Record of Man United managers since Sir Alex Ferguson

Below is a breakdown of all the managers to have taken charge of Manchester United since Sir Alex Ferguson retired in May 2013, listed in chronological order. Ryan Giggs and Darren Fletcher are omitted, as they were only briefly appointed as caretakers. The same applies to Carrick's caretaker spell between the tenures of Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and Ralf Rangnick.

David Moyes

Ferguson's "Chosen One" soon had that weighty moniker used against him, but things did not start badly.

United won the Community Shield against Wigan Athletic and thrashed Swansea City 4-1 in their opening Premier League game. "Come on David Moyes, play like Fergie's boys…"

Only they couldn't keep it up. A 1-0 defeat to Liverpool at Anfield and an emphatic 4-1 derby loss away to Manchester City shortly afterwards were blows from which Moyes' United never really recovered.

Humiliating 3-0 defeats to both of those bitter rivals at Old Trafford in March 2014 left the Scot hanging by a thread and his former club Everton applied the final blow at a baying Goodison Park, ending Moyes' tenure within the first season of a six-year contract.

David Moyes Man United record: P51 W26 D10 L15 (50.98% win percentage)

Louis van Gaal

With the continuity-candidate plan in tatters, United made their first post-Fergie pitch for a major player in the global game with the gravitas to fill Sir Alex's shoes.

Hopes were high around Van Gaal after he led the Netherlands to third place at the 2014 FIFA World Cup. A largely assured start at Old Trafford was torpedoed by a crazy 5-3 defeat to a Jamie Vardy-inspired Leicester City.

From that result onwards, there was an overly prosaic emphasis in Van Gaal's United sides, with marquee signing Angel Di Maria and Robin van Persie among those whose influence rapidly declined.

Things seemed to have clicked during a spring 2015 run when Liverpool and City were authoritatively dispatched and United returned to the Champions League.

But despite the emergence of Marcus Rashford, United could not kick on in the 2015/16 season when they finished sixth as Leicester were crowned champions. An FA Cup final win over Crystal Palace could not save Van Gaal, because one of the biggest names in the sport was on the market at that time.

Louis van Gaal Man United record: Pl03 W54 D24 L25 (52.43% win percentage)

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Jose Mourinho

The stage was set for the next instalment of Mourinho's rivalry with Pep Guardiola following the thrills and spills across El Clasico's divide from half a decade earlier.

Manchester City's assured early-season derby win at Old Trafford gave an early indication of where part two might be heading, although Mourinho emerged from his first season with credit in the bank.

Despite only finishing sixth as Chelsea — also under new management with Antonio Conte — stormed to the title, Mourinho lifted the Carabao Cup and Europa League. It remains United's most successful post-Ferguson season in terms of silverware.

Mourinho's claim that United's second-place finish in 2017/18 behind City's centurions was among the best of his career felt faintly ridiculous. Their efforts that season have aged pretty well but cracks were already beginning to appear, most notably between the manager and his flagship signing Paul Pogba.

By the time Mourinho was sacked after a December 2018 defeat at Liverpool, United were a struggling mid-table rabble.

Jose Mourinho Man United record: P144 W84 D31 L29 (58.3% win percentage)

Ole Gunnar Solskjaer

Solskjaer's talking of "playing with a smile on your face", "the boss" and "Man United DNA" all felt faintly unserious amid the Klopp-Guardiola era, but it's hard to conclusively argue against the view that he remains United's best manager since his old mentor Ferguson.

Perhaps he lacked a wider tactical vision regarding how to dominate games, but there really is something to be said for making things feel good and fun, especially after the late Mourinho toxicity.

An improbable Champions League last-16 comeback at Paris Saint-Germain all but sealed Solskjaer's transition from interim to permanent boss. In 2020/21, they finished second to City — his record in derbies against Guardiola, especially away from home, was excellent — and agonisingly lost the Europa League final on penalties to Villarreal.

Solskjaer had an energetic, hard-working side and foundations to build on. Naturally, United brought back Cristiano Ronaldo, completely torpedoed the manager's system and he was out of a job after a November 2021 hammering at Watford.

Ole Gunnar Solskjaer Man United record: Pl68 W92 D35 L41 (54.76% win percentage)

Ralf Rangnick

United appointing the high priest of gegenpressing to oversee an attack led by Ronaldo and an increasingly disinterested squad to see them through to the end of the season is the sort of decision a club makes when no one really knows what they're doing.

Rangnick followed in the footsteps of his predecessors by getting hammered at City and Liverpool. Once it started to become clear that his move into a vaguely-defined consultancy role was unlikely to materialise, Rangnick repeatedly cut loose in public, telling press conferences that the squad was ill-suited to modern tactical demands and needed an overhaul.

It was difficult to argue with many of his conclusions, but this felt an awful lot more like self-preservation than leadership.

Ralf Rangnick Man United record: P29 W11 D9 L9 (39.93% win percentage)

Erik ten Hag

The first two-thirds of Ten Hag's maiden season in charge were an unquestionable success.

The Dutchman put United in the mix near the top of the table, jettisoned a malcontent Ronaldo, beat City at Old Trafford and won the Carabao Cup.

Then they went to Anfield. Hello, old friend.

Liverpool, who actually finished below United in the table in 2022/23, ran out 7-0 winners. Things were never the same after that.

The 2023/24 campaign — an eighth-place finish and a group-stage exit in the Champions League — was roundly awful until United avenged their 2023 FA Cup final defeat to City and made it two trophies in as many seasons under Ten Hag.

That victory helped to earn the Dutchman a contract extension that looked ill-advised at the time and plain stupid by the time he was finally sacked following an October 2024 defeat at West Ham.

Erik ten Hag Man United record: Pl28 W72 D20 L36 (56.25% win percentage)

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Ruben Amorim

Hopes were high as Amorim arrived at Old Trafford on the back of a dominant spell in charge of Sporting CP. His final home game in charge of the Portuguese club was a 4-1 win over an injury-hit Manchester City in the Champions League to further whet the appetite.

A dramatic Manchester derby win in December 2024 meant more success over Pep Guardiola and further endeared Amorim to supporters. The years of drift meant a hard line with stars such as Marcus Rashford and Alejandro Garnacho was broadly welcomed.

However, United simply did not win enough games. Even allowing for a spell of transition and Amorim's rigid commitment to 3-4-2-1, a 15th-place finish in the Premier League was unacceptable.

That and the defeat to Tottenham in the Europa League final would have cost many head coaches their jobs. Not Amorim, who was backed in the transfer market and saw fit to throw around ultimatums that results and his performance did not merit.

Ruben Amorim Man United record: P63 W24 D18 L21 (38.1% win percentage)

Michael Carrick

If you're starting to spot a pattern here, then you do so with good reason. Following the mid-season sacking of hard-headed, inflexible Portuguese disciplinarian comes the popular fan favorite and palpably good bloke to make everyone feel better again.

However, to simply dub Carrick as Solskjaer mk. 2, even considering his time on the Norwegian's backroom team, does his initial months at Old Trafford a diservice. United were a team transformed, ransacking City at Old Trafford and beating champions-elect Arsenal at Emirates Stadium in his first two games in charge. It was a, frankly, implausible start from the same group of players who were so abject under Amorim.

The fact that a largely unchanged squad - a second-rate midfield refit over the summer aside - is now circling the drain once more has led to questions over their character. Old Trafford serenaded Carrick after the loss to Bournemouth before throatily booing the players. It's quite clear where they're apportioning blame.

But, for all the correctly attributed mitigation to the wider shambles of United's ownership and executives, Carrick has a team that finished third in the Premier League last season down in 16th and winless in eight matches. Some of that is on him. He pointed out the team were not willing to run in the 4-1 defeat to Como and, frankly, they have not looked fit enough all season. Plenty of things can be the fault of Omar Berrada, Jason Wilcox and Sir Jim Ratcliffe, but that isn't.

"He does his best. But every season is different," Lisandro Martinez said after the defeat at Atletico Madrid. "You can't stay with what you did last season. The teams know how you play; the teams know every detail. And if you don't change, next season it is a big problem."

Then there's Bruno Fernandes, the player who swept the board as PFA and FWA Player of the Year last season. If Carrick is rightly given credit for unlocking the Portugal playmaker's unenviable gifts, he must now take his share of the blame for the club captain skulking around the place like a petulant teenager. Managers have to manage. Carrick took United's disperate and problematic squad to new heights last season and, as such, must shoulder his share of the blame for them being so tactically and tempramentally awful at this point.