Carrick tells how to beat Brighton as he emerges as frontrunner for manager role

Michael Carrick breaks down how Manchester United beat Brighton as he emerges as the frontrunner to become interim manager.

Darren Fletcher took over the side for two matches against Burnley in the Premier League and then the FA Cup exit at home to Brighton following the dismissal of Ruben Amorim.

With the club at a low ebb, it is Carrick who now appears best positioned to be given the job until the end of the season - ahead of Ole Gunnar Solskjaer.

United fans watched a disappointing exit on Sunday where the team started brightly but lost shape after conceding a goal.

It came after United did beat Brighton in the league last October 4-2 in one of their better games under Amorim which was analysed by Carrick on Match of the Day at the time.

In that clash United did have Amad Diallo and Bryan Mbeumo available, who are both currently at the African Cup of Nations, as well as Matthijs de Ligt who is currently injured.

"A lot has been said about the midfield two and the pairing and the space they have to cover over the past year or so and for me as an ex-midfielder it is something I am really interested in," said Carrick, with Bruno Fernandes and Casemiro in the middle for that game.

"You can't expect two midfielders against a good team to deal with three or four players, so how do you find the solution?

"They found the solution with the forwards dropping in to support the middle zone (...) to support Bruno and Casemiro. They found support with Luke Shaw jumping in on Rutter and staying in there to almost make a three midfield.

"In the end it is a numbers game and a space game and you have to fill the right spaces and Bruno, Luke Shaw and Casemiro fill that, just kept them solid, there's no way against the Brighton team that you could ask Bruno and Casemiro to do that (on their own).

Carrick also said that the formation "was quite fluid" with Cunha dropping in when Shaw was left midfield while he added that to get the advantage at times they had Cunha, Fernandes, Casemiro, Mbuemo and Shaw all in the middle to the pitch.