Michael Carrick has insisted he will not resign as Manchester United manager despite the club heading into the November international break in the Premier League relegation places.
The Red Devils currently sit 18th in the table, a point behind both Nottingham Forest and newly-promoted Coventry City, having won just one league game all season. They were also knocked out of the League Cup in the third round by Brighton & Hove Albion, and currently sit 17th in the Champions League league phase standings after suffering defeats to Atletico Madrid and Como.
Pressure mounts after mixed results
Carrick's position has been the subject of increased scrutiny as a result, having overseen just three wins all season and lost seven of their 15 games in all competitions. United had been in the midst of a nine-game winless run before recovering from 2-0 down to beat AS Roma 3-2 in midweek.
They had to come from behind again against Aston Villa on Sunday, twice fighting back from being two goals behind as two stoppage-time goals earned them a 4-4 draw. The Red Devils will return to action away at Liverpool on November 22 following the international break, with Carrick's future certain to remain the subject of speculation over the next fortnight in the build up to the game.
Carrick's defiant response
But despite United's ongoing struggles, Carrick insisted he would not be walking away from the club in a spiky interview with Sky Sports following his side's draw with the Villans. "We're in November. I don't like the situation where we are," he admitted. "I don't like the results that we've had, but we can definitely do something about it."
The former England international was then rather defensive when it was put to him that he could choose to walk away if he thought it was the best thing for the club and that conversations about his future would be held during the international break. "That's not going to happen, no," he said as he shot down suggestions he could resign. "Is there (going to be conversations about my future)? Would you (assume so)?
"You're telling me what you think, aren't you? I understand the situation, right? We haven't won enough games. But I expect to move forward and keep working on the things that we've been working on and showing a lot of the good in the game today, tighten up on a few mistakes, and win football matches."
Assessment of the Villa draw
Earlier in the interview, Carrick had insisted that he believed the Red Devils were the better side against Villa and deserved to win the game, though conceded they had not been good enough defensively. "Yeah, (I'm) disappointed that we haven't won the game," he said. "I thought we were the better team for large parts of the game.
"We've made it difficult for ourselves with the goals that we're giving away and not just giving away one, it's kind of two in succession that put us in such a difficult position. We did it the other night (against Roma), we did it again today (against Aston Villa), and then came back into the game and had a lot of the game and could have won it in the end. So, disappointing that we haven't won the game.
"It's just moments that we need to tighten up on. Different moments, individual moments that we're kind of giving teams goals that we don't normally get really and we tighten up on that. Again, there's a lot of good in that performance. I thought we were the better team. I thought we should have won the game.
"But conceding the goals that we have is not helping us at all. There's ones that you can do a bit more about. There's the ones we give away today. We've got to tighten them up. There's been too many, yeah. There's been too many, I think that's pretty clear. We know that. (It's) something we've got to put right.
"It's pretty obvious to say that and it's making it difficult for us and giving ourselves too much to do in games really, but I thought we did a lot and still feel that we should have won the game."
