From Jose Mourinho's Sevilla disaster to Erik ten Hag's dismal group stage exit: Man United's litany of Champions League humiliations since Sir Alex Ferguson - as Michael Carrick fights for his job ahead of Roma clash

Michael Carrick and Manchester United are enduring the club's worst start to a league season in 40 years, with the Red Devils languishing in 17th place.

Their woes in recent years have been well documented, with the club seemingly incapable of finding anyone to match the glory days under Sir Alex Ferguson.

Since his departure in 2013, they have had eight managers – seven of whom have managed them in Europe's biggest competition.

The three-time champions of Europe have performed particularly poorly in the Champions League in that time, not making it past the quarter-finals once in seven attempts.

They have won less than half of their Champions League fixtures since Ferguson left – and only 34 per cent in the current decade.

Carrick brought United back into the Champions League last season but since being given the permanent role has hit shocking form

And they will be lucky to even reach that stage this season if they continue to play as they have been in the competition, losing to Atletico Madrid away and being embarrassed by Champions League debutants Como.

With United set to take on Roma on Tuesday in their fourth game of the competition, Daily Mail Sport takes a look at how each manager on United's carousel has fared in the Champions League... and where it unravelled for all of them.

It feels as if it has been an age since David Moyes took the reins at Old Trafford. The Scotsman had a torrid time in his ten-month spell at United.

His tenure was characterised by embarrassing losses, a lack of consistency and an inability to transition from the old regime.

Moyes was sacked in April after a 2-0 loss to his old Everton side that ended United's hopes of a top-four finish for that season. He was already under serious pressure having been dumped out of the Champions League in the quarter-finals by Bayern Munich.

Moyes was handpicked by Ferguson to replace him but didn't even last a season at United

The current Everton manager oversaw a 1-1 draw at home in the first leg, with Nemanja Matic's goal being cancelled out by Bastian Schweinsteiger – who moved to Old Trafford a year later. But Bayern – managed by Pep Guardiola – quickly responded to Patrice Evra's goal in the second leg to win it 3-1.

They had to battle to even get that far, with a comfortable group stage – four wins and two draws – being followed by an embarrassing 2-0 defeat at Olympiacos in the first leg of the last 16. A Robin van Persie hat-trick in the second leg spared their blushes.

The big Dutchman came to United with a stellar CV having won both the Champions League and UEFA Cup with Ajax in the 90s, as well as league titles in Spain and Germany.

And he seemed the exact kind of serial winner who would be the perfect replacement for Ferguson, but it just didn't work out. Van Gaal spent heavily in the market when he arrived - most notably breaking the British transfer record to secure the services of Angel Di Maria for £59.7million - but he simply couldn't find his feet in England.

Van Gaal had just the one season in the Champions League with United before leaving, and it was possibly the most disastrous since Ferguson's departure.

They were placed in a group with Wolfsburg, PSV and CSKA Moscow, and were dumped out at the earliest possible stage, finishing third in the group with just eight points. They fell into the Europa League and - after overturning a disastrous 2-1 defeat by Danish side Midtjylland in the first leg of their last-32 game - were sent packing by Liverpool.

Joining in 2016 after being sacked by Chelsea, Jose Mourinho immediately got busy in the market.

And initially it seemed as if he was going to make it work. Paul Pogba and Zlatan Ibrahimovic arrived and United won their first three games. Although their league form dipped, they did go on to win the League Cup and the Europa League in that first season.

But then it all began to fall away. Like Van Gaal and Moyes before him, Mourinho only got one try at his favourite competition with United, and exited in a less than graceful manner.

Jose won the Europa League whilst in Manchester but never really found success in the big competition

He may have won it with Porto in 2004 and Inter six years later but at United he only got as far as the round of 16, and crashed out after a 2-1 home defeat by Sevilla following a 0-0 draw in the first leg.

Recently Jose revealed that his relationship with the Red Devils was very nearly different. In his new Netflix biopic, Mourinho, he said that he had agreed to take over straight after Ferguson - only to be lured back to Chelsea by Roman Abramovich instead. Who knows how he would have fared at Old Trafford if he had joined three years earlier.

Mourinho's successor also had an excellent start to life in the United dugout but ended up being hounded out after a tumultuous three years.

When Ole was at the wheel, at first it seemed like United were on course to return to the big time however, slowly but surely, it became clear that it wasn't going to work out.

Solskjaer is one of two men on this list to have won the Champions League with United as a player and the Norwegian scored arguably the most historic goal in United's European history, getting the dramatic winner in the 1999 final.

And he is probably the only gaffer since Ferguson to have had a positive memorable moment in the competition. It came in Paris in March of 2019, shortly after he took over. After losing 2-0 at home in the first leg of the tie they looked like they were already out but miraculously Ole masterminded a 3-1 victory and won on away goals.

Unfortunately that is where the good times as a manager in the Champions League end. After the PSG win United were beaten 4-0 on aggregate by Barcelona and then didn't make it into the competition for the 2019-20 season.

They did return with Ole in 2020-21 - only to be knocked out in the group stage, finishing third in a group with PSG, RB Leipzig and Turkish side Basaksehir. They went on to reach the Europa League final that year - losing to Villarreal on penalties - and Solskjaer was gone in November, before the end of next season's group stage.

Taking over as interim manager until the end of the 2021-22 campaign - following a caretaker spell from a certain Michael Carrick - Austrian Rangnick was in charge for just three European games.

The final game of the group stage saw a 1-1 draw with Swiss side Young Boys, with Mason Greenwood scoring United's goal.

Then they took on Atletico Madrid in the last-16, and after a 1-1 draw away, were sent packing with a 1-0 second-leg defeat at Old Trafford.

Renan Lodi's header for Atletico Madrid sent United crashing out under Ralf Rangnick

Rangnick's spell at United is best remembered for his forthright assessments of the club's dire situation, and he famously likened their situation to that of a patient needing open-heart surgery.

'You don’t even need glasses to see and analyse where the problems are,' he said. 'Now it’s about how do we solve them? It’s not enough to do some minor amendments. In medicine you would say that this is an operation of the open heart.

'If this happens and everyone has realised that this has to happen and if people want to work together then it makes sense and I believe it doesn’t take two or three years to change those things. This can happen within one year.'

More than four years on, the fans are still waiting.

Erik ten Hag came in nine years after Ferguson's exit, and while he brought a League Cup and an FA Cup to Old Trafford it was not enough to stop him being sacked.

Like Van Gaal and Solskjaer, Ten Hag's United failed to make it past the group stage of the Champions League. He actually fared even worse than his predecessors by finishing rock bottom of the group in the 2023-24 season, after particularly rough losses away to Copenhagen and Galatasaray.

Like Van Gaal and Solskjaer, Ten Hag's United failed to make it past the group stage of the Champions League

After a dismal eighth-placed finish in the Premier League the FA Cup win over Manchester City ended that season on a high - and saved Ten Hag's job.

He even signed a contract extension that summer, but was ditched by October with United 14th.

Ruben Amorim, who replaced Ten Hag, did not manage United in the Champions League - though he did reach the Europa League final with them in 2025.

His sacking in January this year paved the way for Michael Carrick to join as interim and, in steering them to third place, ensured United were back at Europe's top table after two seasons away.

That also won him the permanent role, but Carrick has had a torrid start to the new campaign - winning just two of his side's 13 games in all competitions and setting a new club record for the longest winless streak in the Premier League era (nine).

One of those wins was in the Champions League against Azerbaijani minnows Sabah, but they followed that with the defeats by Atletico Madrid and Como.

Carrick will hope United can finally arrest this run of form at home to Roma on Tuesday, but it will not be easy with the Italians enjoying an excellent start to the season and currently sitting third in Serie A.

A win, however, could keep Carrick in a job and breathe some life into a United team that desperately needs it.