What is it like to be a caretaker manager?

Michael Carrick has been tasked with saving Manchester United's Premier League season after being named as caretaker manager for the rest of the campaign.

It is not uncharted territory for United or Carrick, with the former England midfielder having taken charge of three United games following the sacking of Ole Gunnar Solskjaer in 2021.

United have considerable experience of operating with an interim head coach. They turned to Solskjaer after sacking Jose Mourinho in December 2018, later offering the Norwegian the full-time position after he lost only once in 13 league games in charge.

The club also hired Ralf Rangnick to lead the team for six months after Solskjaer's dismissal and Carrick's brief stint, but the Austrian struggled to implement his gameplan and battled with the hierarchy over recruitment - winning 11 games, drawing 10 and losing eight as the Red Devils finished sixth in the Premier League and without a trophy.

United will be hoping Carrick can succeed in the same manner as Guus Hiddink, who delivered the FA Cup at Chelsea in 2009 as an interim, and Roberto di Matteo, who led the Blues to FA Cup and Champions League glory in 2012.

But what does an interim coach do? How is the job different to a full-time position? And is hiring an interim manager a good idea?

Neil Warnock has been no stranger to arriving at a team in crisis and steering them to safety. A 44-year coaching career has taken him to 17 different clubs.

The 77-year-old worked as a caretaker or short-term boss at Rotherham, QPR, Huddersfield and Aberdeen, and he says the key to success is identifying strengths from the off and weeding out players who do not want to be there.

"I go in and have a look at what they have got and straight away try and look at where the strengths are, where the weaknesses are, and try and work on the strengths," he told BBC Sport.

"When I've gone in the dressing room and I start talking, you can hear a pin drop. They're all thinking 'this is our best chance to stay up having a manager like him', and that is how I get everybody on board. With me having a record that I've got, they seem to believe in me."

Jobi McAnuff's situation was different.

He was club captain at League Two side Leyton Orient when manager Ross Embleton was sacked in February 2021 and the chairman approached him with the chance to take over until the end of the season.

Unlike Warnock, McAnuff already knew the club's issues, understood the dressing-room dynamic and knew the owner - much to his advantage.

But he also had to find ways to distance himself from his former team-mates, deciding to hang up his boots and even quit the team WhatsApp group.

"I was ready to step away from the pitch completely because I feel that you need to put your sole focus on management and coaching and it's incredibly demanding," he told BBC Sport. "I wouldn't recommend anybody try and play and manage in this day and age. It's impossible really.

"From my perspective it was quite tricky because a lot of the lads that I was in amongst were not just team-mates but good friends.

"I had a real clear focus on what I feel we needed to improve instantly, almost, what I felt we could do to change things slightly and being a captain and a coach at the football club anyway, it was almost a natural step for me."

When Ruben Amorim was sacked by Manchester United on 5 January, the club approached academy boss Darren Fletcher as a stopgap, giving the opportunity to a young coach at the start of his managerial career.

Former Hull City, Derby County and Preston North End boss Phil Brown was handed his first break in similar circumstances following the sudden departure of Colin Todd as Bolton manager in 1999.

The Bolton hierarchy offered him the caretaker job, but despite achieving an upturn on the pitch, the club had other ideas for a permanent appointment.

"Colin Todd decided to resign and that left the club sort of high and dry, because they weren't expecting it," Brown told BBC Sport. "I put my case forward that I wanted the job and I got the caretaker manager's job for five games. I won four of them.

"Unfortunately I walked into an emergency board meeting on a Sunday after the fifth game and I walked into the manager's office and there was Sam Allardyce sitting in my chair.

"I wasn't going to get the job, but I worked with Sam before and they were hoping that we would work together again. It was a difficult situation at the start having really pushed for my name to be the number one to actually drop back down to the number two."

Brown served as assistant to Allardyce for six years before being made manager at Derby County. After exiting Pride Park he was brought in to help Phil Parkinson as a first-team coach at Hull City.

Parkinson, then in his second full-time position, was later sacked with the Tigers 22nd in the Championship, and club owner Adam Pearson turned to Brown as the caretaker.

However, he initially refused the job after feeling he had failed Parkinson, who is now Wrexham's manager.

"I went in there to help him stay in the job and when he lost his job, I got the caretaker's role and I didn't want it," Brown said.

"I didn't want it because I failed in what I came to the football club for, which was to keep Phil Parkinson sitting in work, and I felt as if I'd let him down."

But after three wins and a draw in his first six matches as caretaker manager, results made it hard for the club's hierarchy not to offer Brown the full-time position, and in 2008 his team earned promotion to the Premier League.

With European places on the line, a growing hire-and-fire mentality and top-flight survival at stake, clubs are more frequently turning to caretaker appointments to revive their short-term fortunes.

Celtic have twice appointed 73-year-old Martin O'Neill as a caretaker this season, after sacking Brendan Rodgers and Wilfried Nancy - and the Bhoys have been rewarded by the veteran winning eight of his nine games in charge.

It is a scenario Warnock can relate to, having had short-term roles at Middlesbrough, Huddersfield and Aberdeen in recent times.

So, what is the secret to reviving a club in freefall? Warnock says going back to basics is key.

"I think because of my age people think you're a dinosaur," said Warnock. "But I laugh nowadays when I watch the long throws coming in.

"I watch these guys, I watch Amorim and the guy up at Celtic with the tactics board on the bench [Nancy] and I'm shaking my head watching the telly. What are they doing?

"I think you need a spark and that's where this caretaker comes in, a spark. I don't worry too much about anything else other than getting the lads on board.

"Players need a lead, they need they need telling what to do, they need encouraging, and you know that's been probably my biggest asset really."

While Carrick is no stranger to management after a three-year spell in charge of Middlesbrough, the United job is a different beast.

What would Carrick have to achieve to secure the full-time job?

"It ultimately starts with winning games of football," said Brown. "When I won four of five games at Bolton I thought no-one can deny me this, surely it is my job, and then there is always somebody bigger and better in the world of football.

"You've got to do a lot of things and conduct yourself in the right manner. You've got to be absolutely squeaky clean. Everything about you is going to be analysed and overanalysed by everybody."

Keith Millen has had six stints as a caretaker boss, including three spells in charge of Crystal Palace. He says that short-term managers have to be careful when dealing with the media.

"You don't really want to put it out there that you want the job," Millen told BBC Sport in 2021. "Because a new manager might come in and feel under threat and think 'you're not for me'. Then you're out of a job.

"Dealing with the press was probably the hardest part. You're going to get asked if you want the job.

"If you want to take the risk and put yourself out there, if you don't get it you're probably going to end up out of a job. For me, to stay at Crystal Palace was my dream job, so I had to be careful with what I said."

McAnuff was released by Orient at the end of his interim spell and retired from playing. He has no regrets about stepping up, even if the club decided to go in a different direction.

"It's a fantastic experience and one that I'm really pleased that I took on because you learn an awful lot," he said.

"Until you're there in that position, being the one that everything falls on, you have no idea of the pressure and how lonely it can be.

"I think sometimes maybe too much emphasis is placed on that man on the touchline and not enough at the group of players."

This article is the latest from BBC Sport's Ask Me Anything team.