Doing it for the United Strand?! Michael Carrick reveals Man Utd squad's thoughts as long-suffering fan Frank Illet closes in on haircut

United went 11 months without winning back-to-back games although they won three games in a row in November, giving Ilett hope of his long-awaited trim. The run was halted with a draw at Nottingham Forest, denying Ilett his first haircut since October 2024. United have won all four of their matches since Carrick succeeded Ruben Amorim.

Some United players have said privately they would like to personally cut Illet's hair and Carrick spoke about the matter for the first time ahead of the game against West Ham at the London Stadium.

Carrick told a press conference: "I can say I'm aware of it, yeah. My kids have made me aware of it, if anything, but it certainly won't go into the team talk from a professional level. I can understand what's going on with it, and it does make me smile, but it won't have an impact ultimately in the end." 

After United dispatched Tottenham 2-0 on Saturday, Illet said on Instagram: "Carrick is at the wheel, this hair is going soon, West Ham next, four out of five done – this is the first time it’s been four in a row since I started the challenge. This time it’s happening! Thank you so much to Carrick – thank you, thank you, thank you."

He also announced plans to live-stream a watch-along of the game against West Ham.

Carrick said it was important for United to not get carried away amid their longest winning streak for two years but he admitted he could not help enjoying the team's resurgence since he took charge. 

He said: "It's a really easy thing to say, and listen, part of it, you've got to enjoy the buzz of winning, right? You have to. That's what we're in it for. So you've got to manage the highs of it and you've got to enjoy initially the feeling of winning a game. You can't just be flat-lined the whole time but certainly going into the next game you've got to then regroup and prepare again for what's next. 

"But you definitely take the confidence and the feeling from the games that you've had knowing you can go into the next game with a little bit more feel-good factor about it, but I guess the big challenge is knowing what's got you there and all the hard work and the preparation and then what it takes to win a game of football at this level is tough, so never assuming the next one's just going to be alright. 

"But you've still got to allow yourself to feel the little bits and waves of emotion with it, because you're all a little bit boring and pointless if you didn't really. Winning games is what we're all strive for you know so the boys have been good with that though they've managed it really well and kind of had to hire the win come back into training and focused on the next one and we've got to keep that going." 

United have kept two clean sheets in their four games under Carrick and the coach is pleased about how the team have improved defensively.

"It's easier to win games without having to score so many goals every week, for sure," he said. "We do seem to be a team that can cause a lot of problems and create opportunities and score goals, so it's definitely getting the balance right. There's still things to improve on, it's definitely something we've focused on, trying to be better as a team collectively when we don't have the ball, but in three or four weeks we're going to fix, you're not going to fix everything and all of a sudden look perfect. So it's understanding that a little bit, but yeah, I think the boys have responded really well to what we've asked them and the clean sheet, as much as everything today, the clean sheet was important for us."