Are Manchester United returning to relevance under Michael Carrick? | Jonathan Wilson

Manchester United finally seem to have something that resembles stability in the dressing room under Michael Carrick. I feel with quality signings in defence and midfield, they could mount a decent challenge for the Premier League next season. How do you feel they will fare? – Sterling.

There’s an odd sense that Michael Carrick’s level of achievement last season was at precisely the most awkward level for the board. United didn’t produce indisputably brilliant football under him but equally 12 wins and three draws in 17 games was good enough that they pretty much had to give him the job. But it’s one thing to turn out those kinds of results when the pressure’s off, you’re already out of both cup competitions and you don’t have any European football; it’s quite another to do it in the heat of a full season. United don’t have to have an especially amazing season to play 15 more games this season than they did in 2025-26.

That’s not to say that Carrick won’t be successful. There was much that he did last season that was very impressive. Andrey Santos and Youri Tielemans bolster an area of the squad that desperately needed to improve. A left-back seems almost certain to arrive before the end of the month and there’s probably the need for one more high-class experienced central defender. It’s not clear what Marcus Rashford’s future is after his return from loan at Barcelona, but he has two years left on his contract and could add dynamism and finishing to the left side of the attack. It’s probably not a title-winning squad, but it’s certainly one that should qualify for the Champions League.

Two questions remain that will only be answered as the season goes on. First, Carrick himself: can he cope with the churn of two games a week, and operating with a squad that is at least as fatigued as their opponents? And second, where is the club psychologically? Part of the problem for United, a familiar trait of big clubs who have fallen from grace, is that they have got into a routine of failure, that no success can ever quite be trusted, and every setback is seen as a further example of the terminal decline (although just as damaging would be suddenly believing everything is fine if United were to win, say, their first three games of the season). Retaining clarity of thought and making realistic assessments are perhaps the greatest challenges for a club that has known greatness but is struggling to return to those heights.

What do you see the broader impact of the VAR changes that Fifa made this year being? Do you think that other soccer leagues will see the increasingly automated, faster but less human approach taken by Fifa this summer and choose to adopt it? (I am aware that the Premier League has already chosen to reject much of it) – Dennis.

The most notable changes implemented before the World Cup allowed VAR to review and overturn incorrectly awarded corner kicks, certain attacking fouls and clear mistakes relating to red cards given from a second yellow. The only one of these adopted by the Premier League is to allow VAR to overturn a second yellow leading to a red (VAR cannot recommend that a referee should award a second yellow that would lead to a red). If we have to have VAR, that seems reasonable enough; nobody wants to see a team incorrectly reduced to 10 men.

At the World Cup, the corner issue only rarely came up, but it always seemed slightly odd that incorrectly awarded goal kicks could not be turned into corners. Personally, I would scrap VAR, or at least this form of it, but if incorrect decisions can be corrected quickly and unobtrusively then they probably should be. I understand, though, why the Premier League, aiming for a “light touch” – good luck with that – would be resistant.

Greater use of VAR, though, seemed to be the direction of travel. I suspect relatively soon offsides will be almost fully automated, which probably makes sense so long as it’s almost instantaneous. Whatever doubts there may be about margins of error and frame rates, it’s still going to be more accurate than a 40-year-old running the line 30 yards away, peering through a thicket of players.

More significant is probably the Premier League’s adoption of regulations against timewasting: speeded-up substitutions, players who receive treatment having to remain off the field for 60 rather than 30 seconds, an outfield player having to be withdrawn for 60 seconds after a goalkeeper receives treatment, and a five-second clock on throw-ins and goal kicks. All should speed up the game and improve the spectacle. It’ll be interesting as well to see the level of tolerance for grappling in the box, particularly by attacking players, which was an area in which the Premier League seemed out of step with the rest of Europe last season.

Which of the Premier League’s promoted sides have the best chance of staying up, and why? – Nicholas.

The achievements of Sunderland and Leeds last season, finishing seventh and 14th, will have heartened the promoted sides, but the truth is it will be extremely difficult for all three. Both those sides invested heavily in a way that is impossible for Coventry, Ipswich or Hull. It’s very hard to see how Hull, who were promoted unexpectedly, can survive. Coventry, perhaps, with the euphoria of their Premier League return and the Frank Lampard factor can give it a go, but their summer spending has been modest. Ipswich, with recent Premier League experience, have a chance and have made some intriguing signings in Daizen Maeda, Abdul Fatawu, Issa Diop and Chuba Akpom, but they’ve lost the manager who got them up, with Kieran McKenna opting for a break rather than another Premier League campaign. Gary O’Neil perhaps feels he has unfinished business, but if any of the promoted sides are to survive, they need another club to have a dreadful campaign.

• This is an extract from Soccer Desk, a newsletter from the Guardian US. Subscribe for free here.