A complete FM26 tactical concept for Carrick’s United, covering build-up, pressing, player roles and tested results.
Midway through the 25/26 season, Manchester United were, again, in turmoil, sacking their head coach after a rampant rant in a post-match press conference.
In the darkness of the shadows, Michael Carrick emerged with a salvatory light that promised to guide the way, and he commandingly guided United toward UEFA Champions League qualification.
Along the way to this impressive feat, Carrick’s United topped the league table for points accrued in the 17 Premier League games Michael Carrick was in charge for: a testament to the fantastic work by Carrick & co.
Now, with United’s potential beginning to be realised and the likes of Andrey Santos and Youri Tielemans arriving to bolster the side’s midfield, United look primed and ready to properly challenge for the Premier League title for the first time since Sir Alex Ferguson retired.
De Zerbi-inspired Build-Up
Across his 17 games in charge of United last season, Michael Carrick immediately planted the seed of building up play in a safe, sustainable, and yet progressive manner.
Under the previous management of Rúben Amorim, United struggled in this department as the Portuguese’s game plan was, simply put, suboptimal.
With Carrick in charge, United began to build-up with a 4-2 base, akin to that of De Zerbi’s Brighton side, with similar third-man-based automatisms occurring to allow for easier progression through the thirds.
In pre-season so far, Carrick has further improved and refined this approach: the 4-2 base remains, however, United are now a lot more ball-secure, insisting on short build-up no matter how high the opposition are pressing.
Additionally, above the 4-2 base, United’s front four are incredibly fluid, constantly roaming, swapping positions, and moving in tandem through opposite movements to create, move into, and attack space - United's number of solutions in build-up are endless, and Carrick is quickly gaining the reputation of being one of Europe’s finest tacticians.
An example of this enhanced strategy can be seen in the image below:
Multidirectional Football
Carrick’s United are really well-coached, as they have a multitude of solutions across every phase of the game.
One of the hallmarks of Carrick’s United, in this respect, is the sheer coverage of the pitch they have, and how they occupy and exploit space.
Additionally, the varied distances between players in certain moments give the Red Devils scope to attack in a wealth of ways - hence the term ‘multidirectional football’.
When every deeper player receives the ball, Carrick’s system ensures that every ball-receiver has at least three different avenues to go down: a shorter pass to a player in close proximity, a medium-range pass (like a line-breaker) to find a player in between the lines, and a more direct, searching pass to find a runner in-behind.
An example of this in-game can be seen below, with added necessary annotations and accompanying lines:
Carrick’s Defensive Evolution
Last season, to maximise the defensive quality of Casemiro in midfield and to accommodate for United’s lack of energy in the centre of the park, Carrick implemented a strictly compact, 4-4-2 mid-block approach that would look to funnel play wide.
With Casemiro sadly, but rightly departing, Carrick has taken his opportunity to evolve United’s strategy without the ball: now, United will look to engage any opponent they face (even Luis Enrique’s PSG!) high up the pitch during their build-up, all from a narrow 4-2-4 high-block.
Within this approach, the striker and the ‘10’ will block passing lanes into the centre, whilst the two wingers close down the centre-backs to force them wide - when the ball is passed wide, the full-back on that side will aggressively step up to close down the full-back receiving the ball, as United situationally go man-to-man.
An example of this can be seen in the image below:
An example of this 4-2-4 in-game can be seen in the image below:
Let’s Break Down the Tactic
In Possession
In build-up, Carrick’s United will now look to build up play short as often as possible, whilst also looking to consistently play through the press with a multitude of short passes.
I added the ‘Play Through Middle’ instruction as I felt it was best to feed the central attackers as much as possible.
In the final third, United are patient in working the ball into the penalty area.
In general, United will look to converge narrowly to supplement their close-proximity game, using short passes to keep play moving.
Finally, Carrick gives his players a lot of freedom to roam and play with flair.
Out of Possession
Without the ball, United will predominantly set up in a high-block - to compact the space in the midfield, they hold a higher line.
Finally, when they lose the ball, United will instantly counter-press to try and regain the ball as soon as possible.
Opposition Instructions
Player Roles
Goalkeeper | Sweeper Keeper
In this system, the ‘keeper will largely remain deeper as a secondary, backwards passing option.
Upon receiving the ball, the ‘keeper will mainly focus on distributing the ball short.
Without the ball, the ‘keeper is very active in sweeping and cross-claiming.
Inside Full-Back | Pressing Full-Back
On this side, the right-back will mainly remain deeper to form a back-three with the two centre-backs, whilst pushing wider to support the right-winger.
From here, he will frequently make runs beyond and in behind the opposition’s defence, aiming to reach the byline for crosses and/or cut-backs.
Without the ball, both full-backs are very aggressive in closing down opposition wide players.
(DCR) Ball-Playing Centre-Back | Centre-Back
Both centre-backs, in this system, will regularly break the lines to find dropping attackers and runners in-behind.
The right-sided centre-back, however, will rarely carry forward and will largely focus on his passing.
(DCL) Ball-Playing Centre-Back | Centre-Back
No additional instructions.
Wing-Back | Pressing Full-Back
On the other side of defence, the left-back will move slightly higher and wider.
From here, upon receiving the ball, he will often look to carry forward.
Box-To-Box Playmaker | Defensive Midfielder
Of the two deeper midfielders in this system, the right-sided deep midfielder is usually the more adventurous of the two, drifting higher than his midfield partner and penetrating the right half-space from an initial, narrow position.
Deep Lying Playmaker | Screening Defensive Midfielder
On the other hand, the left-sided deeper midfielder will predominantly remain deep, circulating the ball with the centre-backs and deeper full-back, knitting play with quick, short passes.
However, he will also tend to drift wider to supplement the left-side play.
Without the ball, this deeper midfielder will largely look to screen the defence.
Free Role | Attacking Midfielder
Bruno Fernandes’ role, in this system, epitomises the ‘Free Role’ in FM26, as he’ll constantly drift from his position to receive the ball in threatening pockets.
Upon receiving the ball, both the ‘10’ and the striker will hold up play before knitting play together with team-mates in close proximity - however, of course, he does have the scope to creatively find teammates in threatening positions.
Finally, Bruno - like the other three attackers - will regularly make runs in-behind.
(AMR) Inside Forward | Tracking Winger
On the right, in this particular set-up, the right-winger will initially position himself narrower before ultimately moving wide - however, like the other three attackers, he will regularly roam from his position and move in tandem with his team-mates.
Upon receiving the ball, the right-winger is quite direct and will run at his man regularly.
Finally, without the ball, both wingers will initially press high and close down often - however, as the opposition advances, both wingers will drop deeper to double up with the full-back against opposition wide players.
(AML) Inside Forward | Tracking Winger
On the opposite side, to complement the width held by the left-back, the left-winger will predominantly move narrower, whilst still possessing the initiative and scope to roam like his attacking team-mates.
Upon receiving the ball, like the right-winger, the left-winger will directly take on his man.
False Nine | Attacking Midfielder
The striker, in this system, is very positionally fluid, often dropping into midfield or drifting into wide positions to receive the ball.
Upon receiving the ball, the striker will usually hold up play.
Results
Premier League
In testing, we managed to win Manchester United their first Premier League title since 2013, winning 31 of our 38 league games to secure the league title with a staggering 99 points.
In fact, we only lost once across the entire league season.
Across our 38 league games, we scored 98 goals (2.57 goals per game) and conceded just 27 goals (0.71 goals per game) - the league-best for each statistic.
Domestic Cups
We managed to make it a domestic double in the Carabao Cup, defeating Arsenal 2-1 at Wembley to win our second piece of silverware of the season.
On our way to Wembley, we overcame the likes of Everton (5-3 AGG) and Chelsea (3-1).
Unfortunately, Arsenal would go on to avenge their Carabao Cup Final defeat by winning the FA Cup after beating us 0-1 in the Final.
On our way to the Final, we overcame the likes of Spurs (2-1) and Crystal Palace (2-1).
UEFA Champions League
After defeating Inter Milan 2-1 in the Final, we ended up winning the UEFA Champions League to secure a treble - not the treble, but a treble nonetheless!
On our way to European glory, we beat PSG (4-1 AGG), Liverpool (5-1), and Slavia Prague (0-5 AGG) after finishing 5th in the League Phase.
Conclusion
Following a vastly successful second half of the 25/26 season, and a strong transfer window thus far, Manchester United look set to finally, properly challenge for the Premier League title this season under the iconic, former midfielder, Michael Carrick.
Whether United can sustain a Premier League title challenge is a different question, but the tactical strategy and squad quality is certainly there to compete.
If you want a taste of this thrilling tactic, make sure to download the tactic using the link attached to this article and make sure to follow FM Blog (@fmbIog) and myself (@AshtonGgmu) on our respective socials.
I hope you have enjoyed this article, and I wish you much success with this tactic on your saves! Thanks for reading!
