📅 November 4, 2026
Carrick Backs Cunha After Roma Comeback: ‘That’s Why We Want Him Here’
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Michael Carrick was proud, careful and protective of the man who won the game for him. The morning after United came from 2-0 down to beat Roma 3-2, the reaction has centred on Matheus Cunha: two goals, a red card, and a full-time moment with his manager that looked worse than it was.
Cunha will miss the trip to Sporting on 25 November. UEFA won’t add to his ban. And Carrick, who needed this win more than anyone, isn’t pretending it fixes everything.
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Carrick: “That’s why we want him here”
Carrick backed Cunha at his press conference. “Disappointed with how it finished but, again, it just shows how much he cares and he’s willing to do,” he said, as Goal and SPORTbible reported. “When he’s in that frame of mind and he’s in that mood, that’s why we want him here.”
Part of the turnaround was tactical. Carrick told reporters, per SPORTbible, that United “swapped him with Bryan [Mbeumo] at half-time to try and get him into the middle of the pitch”. Both of Cunha’s goals came from inside the box in the last ten minutes.
He didn’t get carried away. “I am not getting too carried away with things, but it is an important night,” Carrick said, as Sky Sports reported. “Proud of a lot of people actually, proud of the players.” The Mirror quoted him adding: “It’s one game, so it depends on what happens next.”
The full-time exchange
The clip doing the rounds this morning shows Carrick firmly sending Cunha down the tunnel at the final whistle as the forward tried to come back onto the pitch. Goal and SPORTbible both explain it the same way: a player who’s been sent off isn’t allowed back on, and Carrick was keeping him out of further trouble.
Fabrizio Romano said the same on his YouTube channel, per SPORTbible: “According to my sources, Michael Carrick just wanted Matheus Cunha not to get involved in any more trouble. He already got a red card, and he didn’t want the situation to get worse.” Romano also says there were no problems between the two.
It worked. UEFA told the Mirror that “the UEFA official reports did not mention anything about this incident” and that the automatic one-match ban “should not be extended for this reason.” Goal reports the ban covers European games only, so Cunha misses Sporting in Lisbon but is available for Aston Villa on Sunday.
Cunha’s own verdict, to CBS Sports Golazo via Goal: “What a magic day. Of course, apart from the red card.” He called his celebration “too Brazilian”.
Bruno: “We’re all frustrated”
Bruno Fernandes, who scored the retaken penalty that started the comeback, spoke to Amazon Prime about the season around this result. “We’re all frustrated with the situation at the moment and we all want to get out of this,” he said, as Sky Sports reported. On being dropped for Bournemouth: “The manager is the one that makes the decisions. I have to accept them.”
Gasperini: the penalty turned it
Roma’s manager pointed at two moments. “The momentum of the match changed with the penalty and the incident for 2-2,” Gian Piero Gasperini told Sky Sport Italia, as Goal reported. “This time, after the penalty, Manchester United had this sudden surge of enthusiasm, and we were unable to keep up with it.”
He also credited Carrick’s half-time changes: “They made modifications at half-time and had nothing left to lose, so they pressed high.” Roma’s own site carries the same account of the game.
Our view
Carrick handled the night well. He backed his match-winner in public, dealt with the red card at the tunnel rather than in the press conference, and said nothing that will look silly if Villa goes wrong.
Cunha needs a word in private, though. The shirt booking was avoidable, and the second yellow came with United a goal up in stoppage time. Losing him for Sporting matters in a league phase where United had three points from three games before last night.
The bigger point is what Gasperini noticed: United pressed high in the second half and Roma couldn’t cope. That’s the version of this team Carrick needs on Sunday, when the second of his two reported games comes round. Our match report from last night has how the comeback happened.
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Sources: Carrick’s Cunha quotes from Goal and SPORTbible, 4 November, with CaughtOffside carrying the same quote; the half-time switch and Romano from SPORTbible. “Not getting too carried away”, “proud of the players” and Fernandes’s Amazon Prime interview from Sky Sports (Adam Bate). UEFA’s statement and “It’s one game” from the Mirror via AOL (Nathan Ridley). The Sporting date and Cunha’s CBS quotes from Goal. Gasperini from Goal via Yahoo Sports and AS Roma. Quotes from a single outlet are credited to it in the text. Our view is our own.