Michael Carrick has held his first press conference as Man Utd head coach and he responded to some criticism of his wife from Roy Keane.
14:30, 16 Jan 2026Updated 14:47, 16 Jan 2026
Michael Carrick’s wife was the subject of some personal criticism from Roy Keane(Image: OLI SCARFF/AFP via Getty Images)
Manchester United head coach Michael Carrick said he wasn’t bothered by Roy Keane’s criticism of his wife and insisted he can shrug off the opinions of former teammates at Old Trafford. Keane used his role on The Overlap podcast to take a potshot at Carrick’s wife, saying she had a “big mouth” in comments that seemed to recall Lisa’s response to some criticism from Keane to her husband back in the 2013/14 season.
Carrick gave the TV interview after United lost 2-0 to Olympiakos in the first leg of a Champions League last-16 tie and in his role as a pundit, Keane turned his ire on the midfielder who inherited his No.16 shirt at United. “That interview was just like the performance: flat. He should say a bit more, have a bit more urgency, even in the interview,” said Keane.
Lisa took to social media to blast: “Roy Keane what a **** will say anything to provoke a reaction.” That post was later deleted, but Keane clearly remembers it, judging by his dig this week. He added that Carrick’s wife is “probably doing the team talk”.
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Carrick held his first press conference since being appointed as head coach until the end of the season and was asked about the personal nature of those comments, but insisted it wasn’t an issue for him.
“It didn’t bother me,” he said, before insisting the army of former United players now talking about the club in the media weren’t making his job harder.
“They’re not putting more pressure on me, I don’t feel that,” he said. “I think it’s just part of it, I understand the role, there’s plenty of opinions around, some are positive, some aren’t so much.
“I think in some ways for me, in terms of you saying about putting pressure, for me it’s totally relevant in terms of how I go to work and what I focus on. I kind of know already what we want to improve on and how we want to work with the players and I’ve already said about improving things.
“There’s a lot of opinions, a lot can be said. It is the way of the world, I’m not going to pay too much attention to most of that. It’s not for me to do that, I think for me and the players and the staff, it’s a focus on how we’re going to succeed, really. That’s our job, that’s our responsibility, that’s what our focus and our minds should be at, is doing what we can for this club.”