Carrick's emotional statement to reporters comes amid reports that the former England midfielder is under increasing pressure to retain his position with United in poor form.

The Red Devils have won twice in eleven games in all competitions so far, with those two victories coming against newly-promoted Ipswich Town and little known Sabah in the Champions League.

United fell to a 1-0 home loss against local rivals Manchester City, while they’ve also been beaten by newly-promoted Hull City with the latest defeat a damaging 4-1 thrashing at the hands of Italian minnows Como in Europe's elite club tournament.

The poor results have led to speculation that Carrick, who only signed as permanent head coach at the end of last season, could lose his job but he remained defiant when addressing reporters on Friday.

Carrick's statement in full: "I'll start today. Just want to say a few things, really. It's important.

"Recently we haven't had a good time, that's pretty obvious. I totally accept that, what we're going through at the moment. We had five months of relative success in a spell where I was happy with a lot of things that I was seeing and that we were doing as a team.

"We haven't done well enough lately, that's pretty obvious to say, and we've had a spell that we're really not happy with. Wednesday was a bad night, it was a bad night for a lot of reasons and it was a bad night that hurt a lot. It hurt me to see us play that way, to see how the game panned out.

"As I said, after the game it was really unacceptable for us to play like that and to be like that. The supporters are a huge part of this football club, for me to see the supporters have to make the effort and the time and spend the money to come and support us on Wednesday and have the feeling after the game, like we all felt, was a tough moment. That's pretty obvious.

"My responsibility is to get a team on a pitch that represents this football club, represents the supporters and they can be proud of it with the identity that we show. We have gone away from that just recently in certain games, which I'm totally fully aware of and definitely doing something about. It's important that we all recognise that, I certainly recognise it.

"Our supporters are the utmost of importance to me and this football club and for them to feel like they felt for five months at the start of the season, at the start of the year, for us to have that about us and that connection and that real vigour and intensity and enjoyment and passion that we all felt through that period was something that we need to get back to and we will get back to it. I fully believe that but it's important that we recognise that we haven't been doing that.

"The foundation of this football club and the values of this football club have been put down and etched for many years and I totally understand and I get every single one of them.

"It comes down to humility, it comes down to being humble, it comes down to being hard-working and being really proud to work hard and being proud to live up to their values. There's a resilience about this football club that's been shown for a long time. Whether that's bouncing back from adversity, comebacks, late goals, success, sustaining success, there's a resilience in this football club that runs very deep.

"I've seen it with my own eyes, I've felt it, I'm aware of some of the individuals and know them closely who have been a big part of that history. I said it after the game, Manchester United is always bigger and always has been, always will be bigger than any single individual. Bigger than me, bigger than any of the players and it always has been.

"I'm fortunate enough to know some players myself and play with some - Ryan Giggs, arguably one of the greatest to play for this football club. It was never about Ryan Giggs, it was about Manchester United. Wayne Rooney was the top goalscorer of this football club.

"His biggest thing was playing for the team, sacrificing for the team and what was good for Manchester United. Sir Alex Ferguson, the best manager of all time, the greatest for me and working with him and his main priority was Manchester United. Going back to Sir Matt [Busby, Sir Bobby [Charlton], the resilience was beyond belief of what they showed and the way they rebuilt this football club.

"Again, it was based on being humble, having humility and hard work and we can never lose that and I won't let us lose that. We've had it for a spell, I feel very strongly about that. It inspires me a lot to live up to that and keep driving that with the players and the group that we've shown for a good period of time and that we're capable of it.

"We're in a moment where it's not gone well so we need to show exactly what it means. Respect this football club, what it takes to be here, what it takes to win, what you have to do to win. I'm not entitled to be here, entitlement cannot be at this football club, we're not entitled to win.

"We've won in the past, we've got an incredible history but that doesn't mean that you're entitled to just win. I'm fully aware of that, it takes hard work, it takes a lot of sacrifice. You've got to invest yourself in the football club and you've got to do a lot of things that maybe aren't so nice but you've got to do it for each other and you've got to win.

"It's important we live up to that and it's important for me to push those values and it's important for our supporters to feel that. Moving forward, we've had it, we've kind of lost our way a little bit if I'm totally honest and we'll get it back. I'm totally confident we'll get it back.

"Respect this football club, respect what it takes because it's very, very important to me."

Erick Mathoho leaves Kaizer Chiefs after eleven seasons