Paul Pogba Backs Michael Carrick as Manchester United Manager

Paul Pogba has never been shy about speaking his mind on Manchester United. This time, his verdict is simple: keeping Michael Carrick was the right call.

From uncertainty to authority

United’s 2025/26 campaign did not begin like a season that would end in optimism. Under Ruben Amorim, the team lurched from one inconsistent performance to another, the club drifting while the rest of the Premier League found its rhythm. Champions League football, absent for two years, felt distant again.

The mood shifted the moment Carrick stepped in.

Initially handed the reins on an interim basis at the start of the year, the former United midfielder walked into a dressing room short on confidence and direction. He left it looking like a side with a plan. Across 17 Premier League matches, Carrick’s United collected 12 wins, three draws and just two defeats – title-contending form over that stretch, and enough to drag the club up to third place and back into Europe’s elite.

The numbers tell one story. The way United played told an even louder one.

Carrick pushed the team onto the front foot. The football became more aggressive, more assertive, with a clear attacking intent that supporters at Old Trafford had been craving. Players looked liberated rather than constrained, and the connection between the stands and the pitch, frayed for so long, began to repair itself.

United’s hierarchy insisted they would not be rushed, that they would survey all “available and suitable options” before making a permanent appointment. On paper, the search remained open. In reality, Carrick was setting the standard every week. The job, as many inside and outside the club quietly admitted, was his to lose.

Last month, the inevitable became official. Carrick was confirmed as permanent manager.

Pogba’s seal of approval

From the outside looking in, one of the most high-profile former players to endorse the decision is Paul Pogba, a man who knows both the club and Carrick well from his own time in Manchester.

Speaking to Sky Sports, Pogba did not hesitate.

“I think he’s doing a great job and he did it also at the time when he was the assistant of Ole Gunnar Solskjaer,” the Frenchman said, pointing back to Carrick’s earlier work on the coaching staff.

“He’s a great guy, he has experience, he was a great player, and he has a very good connection with the players, you could see it when he took the team.”

That “connection” has been one of the defining features of Carrick’s short tenure so far. The squad has responded to him not just as a tactician, but as someone who understands the demands of playing for United at the highest level. Pogba, who made 233 appearances for the club across two spells, clearly recognises that dynamic.

“I think it’s going to be good for United,” he added. “I wish them the best, obviously, for him and all the staff and the players.”

Pogba’s words echo the mood around Old Trafford. For the first time in a long time, there is a sense that United are not just reacting to crisis, but building something with intent.

The real test comes next. With Champions League football secured and a crucial summer transfer window ahead, Carrick now moves from the role of rescuer to architect.