Carrick will be in the dugout for the visit of high-flying Bournemouth this weekend, with sources at the club insisting it is business as usual - if only for the time being.
But Carrick was in a defiant mood as he opened his pre-Bournemouth press conference with a heartfelt, off-the-cuff speech in which he promised to get United back in touch with its roots, repeatedly acknowledging the difficult moment in which the club finds itself.
He spoke for six uninterrupted minutes about the state of the club as he called for players and fans to be humble and patient as they work to get the club back on track.
Speaking out: Michael Carrick
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Every word of Michael Carrick’s emotional speech
“I’ll start today. I just want to say a few things. I think it is important. Recently we haven’t had a good time, that is obvious. I totally accept that.
"We had five months of relative success in a spell where I was happy with a lot of things I was seeing and that we were doing as a team.
"We haven't done well enough lately. We've had a spell that we're really not happy with.
"Wednesday was a bad night. It was a bad night for a lot of reasons. It hurt a lot.
"It obviously hurt me to see us play that way, to see how the game panned out. As I said after the game, it was really unacceptable.
"The supporters are a huge part of this football club. They have to make the effort and the time and money they spend, to feel how we all felt on Wednesday was a tough moment.
“My responsibility is to get a team on the pitch that represents this football club, the supporters, and they can be proud of it. We have gone away from that recently in certain games, which I am fully aware of. It is important we all recognise that, I certainly do.
“The supporters are of the utmost importance today. To have that connection, vigour, intensity, enjoyment and passion we felt in that period is something we need to get back to, and we will get back to it.
“But I think it is important we recognise we haven’t been doing that. The foundations of this club, the values of this club have been etched for many years, and I get every one of them. It comes down to being humble and hard-working, and being proud to live up to those values.
“There is a resilience about this club that has been shown for a long time, whether that is bouncing back from adversity, comebacks, late goals, success. That runs very very deep. I have seen it with my own eyes, I’ve felt it, I know the individuals who have been a big part of that.
“Manchester United has always been bigger than any individual. Bigger than me, bigger than the players, and it always will be. I played with Ryan Giggs - it was never about Ryan Giggs. It was about Man United. Wayne Rooney’s biggest thing was sacrificing for the team.
“Sir Alex Ferguson, the greatest manager of all time, Sir Matt (Busby), Sir Bobby (Charlton), the resilience was unbelievable. The way they united this football club. We can never lose that. I won’t let us lose that.
“We've had a tough spell, I feel strongly about that. It inspires me a lot to live up to that. We are capable of it. We are in a moment where it has not gone well, so we need to show exactly what it means: respect this club, respect what it takes to be here and do what it takes to win.
“We are not entitled to be here, we are not entitled to win. It takes hard work. I think it is important we live up to that, and it is important for me to push those values.
“It is important to feel that moving forward. We have lost our way a bit, if I’m honest, but I am totally convinced we will get it back. That is very important to me.”