Former Manchester United and England midfielder Michael Carrick has left his position as head coach of Championship side Middlesbrough after they failed to reach the play-offs.
The 43-year-old, who took over from Chris Wilder in 2022, led the club to the top six in his first season in charge but came up short against Coventry City in the semi-finals.
Carrick, for who this was his first senior head coach role, led the North East outfit to a 10th-placed finish in the 2024/25 campaign, missing out on the play-offs by four points, which led to the club’s announcement today that they had parted company with him.
Failure to gain promotion
When Carrick arrived at the Riverside Stadium in October 2022, Boro were 22nd in the table and only point above the relegation zone.
However, he quickly turned things around and won many plaudits as he guided them to the end-of-season play-offs.
After showing so much promise, it was hoped that he would take them one step further and gain promotion back to the Premier League for the first time since 2017, but it was not to be.
Although it was his first senior head coaching role, he ultimately failed to achieve the club’s aim, and his time with them has come to an end after 136 matches and a 46.32 win percentage.
Assistant coaches Jonathan Woodgate and Graeme Carrick, Michael’s younger brother, have also left the club.
His effect on the team
Almost immediately after arriving at the club, he implemented a possession-based approach and a focus on developing young players, with the likes of attackers Chuba Akpom and Cameron Archer excelling in the 2022/23 season and earning moves to Ajax and then-Premier League side Sheffield United respectively.
Perhaps his best success was the improvement of midfielder Hayden Hackney, who had spent the 2021/22 campaign at fourth-tier Scunthorpe United.
He went on to flourish in Carrick’s system as part of a two-man defensive midfield pairing and was also nominated for the division’s Young Player of the Season award in 2022/23.
The team finished the most recent season with the fourth-highest average possession (55.4%), third-most take-ons attempted and second-most touches in the attacking third.
However, the effectiveness of his system seemed to gradually fall apart towards the end of the season, as they picked up the fourth-lowest amount of points out of all sides in the final six games of the season and scored fewer goals than all but one team (Sunderland).
Did he deserve another chance?
The decision made between Carrick and the club may be confusing to people from outside the club’s environment, based on his clear ability to improve players and instil an attractive style of play into his team, but Boro fans will ultimately see his inability to get them out of the division as enough to see his time come to an end.
The former West Ham United and Tottenham Hotspur man, who earned 34 caps for England, could argue that his side’s campaign was derailed by the departure of striker Emmanuel Latte Lath to MLS club Atlanta United for a reported value of $22 million, but he still had the likes of Kelechi Iheanacho, Tommy Conway and Morgan Whittaker at his disposal, who scored a combined 34 Championship goals the previous season.
Whilst Middlesbrough fans may have wished for Carrick’s philosophy to have produced greater rewards, the decision made by both parties feels like the right move to give him an opportunity at another side and for Boro to bring in a promotion-winning replacement.
You can also read our five suggestions for who could replace him in the dugout at the Riverside Stadium here – https://thedeck.news/football/5-managers-replace-michael-carrick/
