With Carrick's position increasingly uncertain following United's disastrous start to the season, Mauricio Pochettino has emerged as the leading candidate to replace him. But former United striker Saha believes changing the man in the dugout will achieve little unless the club addresses the structural problems that have undermined its progress.
Manchester United are in the relegation zone after winning just one of their opening 10 Premier League matches, with a 4-4 draw against Aston Villa following a 3-2 Champions League comeback against Roma offering brief encouragement but doing little to ease the pressure on Carrick.
United's failure to start games with intensity
Saha sees a team capable of producing impressive reactions but lacking the consistency and conviction to impose itself from the beginning.
“I'm not sure, but there is definitely something about the approach," he told Football Presse on behalf of FootballPredictions.com.
"The kind of urgency comes with the obligation to react, and this is where they're good. It's like they have that in them, but they need to have their backs against the wall to actually react, when they have nothing to lose. They should be doing that from the first second.
“I think there is a naivety, and at some moments you realise that they accept that they're not going to actually force their way or ask the difficult questions of themselves or of the opposition. They are very passive, and then when it comes to an obligation, they do react, and they have the talent to do it.
“I think there is sometimes – I'm not saying a lack of courage, but a lack of belief that they can take the game away.”
Recruitment has left Carrick exposed
For Saha, however, the bigger question concerns the quality of the squad and the decisions made by those responsible for building it. He believes Carrick inherited problems that the club's recruitment strategy has failed to resolve.
“It's a hard question, because you can say from the start that he has been let down in the transfer market. There is definitely a big, big question mark in midfield, and I don't think that has been answered. A question mark in defence – I don't think it's been answered. A question mark in attack – I don't think it's been answered.
“The defence is changing every week. The midfield is missing the kind of power or dominance that you need, physically first and tactically. So regardless of who can attack and join the attack going forward, it's inconsistent. You have a bit of a threat, but you don't have the player that every defence is scared of.”
He also questions the club's reliance on younger forwards to carry the responsibility of delivering results at one of the world's biggest clubs.
“With no disrespect to other teams, it's a special club, with the Champions League. I don't think a striker should be young at the top of this team. For me, it doesn't make sense. It's a lot of pressure, especially when you come from another country. You have too many of those who don't have the experience to be the solution, and I think that's a big mistake.”
The cracks were already there last season
Saha does not believe Carrick's positive impact after taking over last season should have been mistaken for a permanent solution to United's difficulties.
“Yeah, it's a bit of both. I think you definitely had cracks last year, even with the results. Some games were – I'm not going to say scrappy, but it was like, okay, they played okay. They were very professional. It happens to the best teams, so we could be happy with this. But when we say, okay, we have the Champions League – we used to play only one game a week – all this has to be managed differently, and I think they made a big mistake.
“The effort of Michael, in some ways, in some games, [was] to put the players in front of their responsibility, in terms of their approach to the games and their dedication. He had this very simple way to manage last year, and it was working, but you know how humans work. We get comfortable, and that's what happened.”
Carrick was not given the right tools
Nevertheless, Saha is reluctant to conclude that Carrick was the wrong appointment, particularly given the lack of support he believes the former midfielder has received.
“As an interim, he was a great choice. It proved to be right. It could be a great solution if he had been given the right opportunity, for a team that is competing not only in the Premier League, for a foundation – a stable foundation – but also in the Champions League.
“At this moment in time, no one knows if he was the wrong choice, because he hasn't been given the right tools to operate in this situation. It's a very specific one.”
That leaves a difficult question for United if they turn to Pochettino. Saha believes the club has placed too much responsibility on too few players, with Bruno Fernandes among those expected to provide answers regardless of the wider team's shortcomings.
“It's the role of the board to understand that they have put too much pressure on one or two players, and those players just can't make it. It's just not magic. It's not going to work.
“I think the teams that have, I would say, five top players can be stable, because one week it's going to be those guys, and another week it's going to be those three, and so on. If it's one or two, I'm telling you, it's not going to work. You're going to get draws and defeats, and maybe sometimes you're going to be lucky, win games and feel like you have sorted everything. That's not the truth.”
Saha's warning is clear: Manchester United cannot keep changing managers while expecting the same squad and recruitment structure to deliver a different outcome.