Carrick vows to stay on for Roma despite United's worst run since 1988

Michael Carrick says he will still be Manchester United's manager when they travel to face Roma in the Champions League on Tuesday, despite a 2-0 defeat at Chelsea that extended his side's winless run to nine matches, according to Guardian Football.

That sequence is United's worst since 1988, and Carrick is understood to be clinging to his job as pressure mounts following the loss at Stamford Bridge.

United had chances to settle the contest in the first half but could not take them, before Morgan Rogers put Chelsea ahead in the 59th minute, Yahoo Sports reported.

The game turned further against United when Lisandro Martínez was sent off for a second yellow card after a collision with Wesley, and Cole Palmer converted the resulting penalty to make it 2-0.

Carrick declined to single out Martínez despite the costly dismissal. "It was a major part of the game," he said. "The second goal and losing the man at that stage had a big influence on it."

He was similarly measured on Rogers' opener. "It's never a good goal to concede," Carrick said. "Morgan went through the middle of us and at that point the game was right in the balance. To concede like that was a big moment. I'm just looking forward to getting the boys ready for midweek now."

The defeat has pushed United to within touching distance of the relegation zone. Yahoo Sports reported, citing the Manchester Evening News, that United went into the fixture just one point above the bottom three and risked being overtaken altogether depending on how Saturday's other results fell.

Carrick was unwilling to dwell on the table position. "We have got to keep moving forward and winning games, simple as that," he said. "There's no words that I'm going to explain to you now that makes it any difference; it's not going to change it. We've got to move forward and win football matches, it's as simple as that."

Asked whether there would be a stigma attached to one of the sport's biggest clubs dropping into the bottom three, he replied simply: "Not from me, no."

Saturday's fixture carried additional significance as the first meeting between Carrick and Chelsea's Xabi Alonso as opposing coaches, a dynamic explored by Independent Sport's Miguel Delaney, who noted it could also prove their last such encounter given the uncertainty hanging over Carrick's position.

The pair were midfield rivals and contemporaries during a period from around 2006 to 2013, and Alonso once described Carrick in terms that read differently given United's current plight. "Somebody who knows how to be in the right place at the right time," Alonso said of him back in 2010, according to Independent Sport.

Delaney's reporting framed the defeat against that backdrop, suggesting a widespread belief exists that United erred in retaining Carrick even before this latest reverse extended the winless sequence.

Attention now turns to the Champions League, where United face Roma on Tuesday with Carrick having staked his immediate future on steadying a team low on confidence and short on positive results.

Any further slip in the Premier League table before that fixture, or after it, will keep the question of his position firmly open, even as he insists he intends to be the one picking the side in Italy.