A half-time speech, a retaken penalty - and a win to save Carrick's job?

We cannot know how important Bryan Cristante's foot touching the Roma penalty area as Bruno Fernandes took his initial spot-kick at Old Trafford will prove to be for Michael Carrick.

In the moment, as the Roma fans celebrated, and Manchester United trailed 2-0, it seemed catastrophic for the club and terminal for Carrick's position as head coach.

But the video assistant referee (VAR) Carlos del Cerro Grande stepped in, advised a retake was required - and at the very least changed the course of the night.

Fernandes kept his nerve to drive home his second attempt and then, in a frenzied atmosphere, Matheus Cunha scored twice in the final seven minutes. Even without the context of everything that came before the game, it was the most improbable of comebacks.

Even Cunha's sending off soon after, which ensured a nervy ending, would not deny United a first win in 10, bringing some respite after a dreadful few weeks.

How did Carrick feel when the penalty was saved? And what did he say at half-time in response to a desperate first-half display that brought condemnation from legendary United figures Wayne Rooney and Nicky Butt, who were covering the game for Amazon Prime?

In that moment, there was even a sense of deja vu.

"I knew at half-time against Watford," recalled Ole Gunnar Solskjaer in September 2023 of his own dismissal as United boss a couple of years earlier. "At half-time, I told the players it was probably going to be the last time we worked together."

United were two goals down at Vicarage Road at half-time that day. Carrick was on the bench as one of Solskjaer's coaches. They went on to lose 4-1.

Not this time.

Despite the bleakness of the situation, Carrick clearly has a more positive mindset.

"At half-time, I was wanting them to be more positive if anything, and not get too disappointed and frustrated," said Carrick.

"The easiest thing is when you keep trying to do something is feeling sorry for yourself. If something goes wrong, you get disappointed. That's not going to help anybody. We might as well all go home if that's the case. We've got to keep looking for the next moment, the next solution.

"I don't like to keep talking to the lads about what this place can do and the history and what's gone before too much, but it's there.

"This place does magical things, it's done it before and it'll do it over and over again at some point in the future. There's just something in this place that when we do have these types of nights, we do it the hard way.

"But one moment can flip the whole place in a different direction. I spoke about that with the boys. Let's have one moment that can trigger it. And we had that."

Rooney, who was almost pleading with United's players to "show some passion and desire" after a "nothing" first half, could only praise Carrick at the end.

"I think Michael Carrick deserves a lot of credit," said Rooney, "because if you were in his shoes you are thinking how can I change this around?

"Whatever he said to the team at half-time, that got them on the front foot and got that belief in them that they could win the game."

Carrick refused to be downcast - even when Fernandes missed that first penalty.

"I didn't chuckle, I didn't smile, I wasn't happy about it," he said. "But it felt almost like 'there's another moment'.

"But at the same time, I was quite calm because I had a feeling the boys were in a place leaving the changing room that they felt something could happen.

"I have to say, for Bruno to double take that penalty - to have the mentality and finish like that - he deserves a lot of credit."

While United's victory was certainly well received, it will not mask wider issues.

'Green and gold' protests against the ownership took place before kick-off and during a first-half when the home side were abysmal.

Chants against the Glazer family, minority owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe and director of football Jason Wilcox will not stop just because of this victory, no matter how thrilling.

The sober assessment should also recall United came from behind to beat Atalanta 3-2 at Old Trafford during Solskjaer's time. They lost 5-0 at home to Liverpool four days later. Within a month, the Norwegian had been sacked.

In October 2018, Jose Mourinho was on the brink of dismissal before a Premier League encounter with Newcastle. United trailed 2-0 after 10 minutes but fought back to win. Mourinho lasted 13 more games.

No-one can know how much time Carrick has bought himself with this victory.

"I don't have a crystal ball to know what happens next," he told Amazon Prime. "We move on to the weekend. We've got a really important game here against Aston Villa, which we need to prepare for."

Chief executive Omar Berrada and Wilcox certainly looked much happier at the final whistle than they had done midway through the first half.

Suddenly United look like they can qualify for the next phase of the Champions League. For the first time since September, Carrick's players are enjoying the winning feeling.

But it will mean little unless they can maintain the momentum against Villa, who were getting beaten heavily by Barcelona as Old Trafford was in tumult.

Asked if he will sleep better thanks to the win, Carrick was honest enough to admit that would not be the case.

"Genuinely, no. I don't. Really, I don't," he said. "Whether that's right or wrong, or normal or not, I don't know, but I didn't feel relief. It was more I was genuinely pleased for the players.

"I know how much they care, I know what they're giving. Sometimes it looks like that, sometimes it doesn't, sometimes we play well, sometimes we haven't, and I understand that.

"But I could feel their willingness to do well, and so for them to have to dig really deep, and to see everybody having that feeling that we all crave, that's why we're all here."

While the pundits were unanimous in their dismay at United's first-half performance, there was plenty of praise for the second-half revival.

"I said at half-time if you're going to go down, go down fighting. You can accept losing if you've given absolutely everything," said former Denmark goalkeeper Kasper Schmeichel. "They didn't do that in the first half, but they did in the second half.

"Things look a little bit better. Don't get me wrong, the second half is papering over the cracks from the first half, so now it's a case of using this as a benchmark and now having even more of those conversations.

"You have to put your differences aside because you aren't able to change your players now, so you need everyone on side. Everyone has to be on the same page right now."

Being on the same page has seemed like a challenge for Carrick and his players. Lisandro Martinez and Fernandes have both been publicly critical in recent weeks, the targets ranging from the club's hierarchy to the head coach's tactics.

Ex-England defender Stephen Warnock, however, says the narrative set from the win over Roma is "absolutely perfect" for Carrick.

"What's happened is Manchester United have gone in, a vulnerable team, a team lacking in confidence, they've gone 2-0 down - now what's the reaction?

"Now we've just seen the reaction, so we know it's in there. The team are fighting for the manager and they're fighting to turn results around. You've got to fight and show something. When you show fight and start to run for each other, you get more confident in each other and you start to believe that you can do something.

"The Old Trafford fans and that crowd will have turned it up a notch in the second half as soon as that first goal went in and helped the team believe that they could get something out of it.

"It's a perfect night for Michael Carrick."