Carrick made 464 appearances for Manchester United in a playing career at the club that spanned 12 years.
As a consequence, he remains a popular figure among the fans, who chanted his song at full-time in the loss to Bournemouth as he did a lap of the pitch to applaud the supporters.
“It wasn’t a farewell from me,” Carrick said on Sky Sports.
“I’ve mixed emotions, I’m feeling it for my players, they’re going through a tough spell. Some of it we can help, some of it the situation unravels and the boys are feeling it at the moment.
“Mixed emotions for the supporters to respond in that way. To have that connection with the supporters it’s mixed emotions, it’ll take a bit of time to digest but I certainly appreciate their support.
“The situation is where we are and we haven’t had results or performances that have been good enough.”
Former Manchester United defender Gary Neville said on Sky Sports: “The Manchester United fans are singing the Michael Carrick song because I think they know what’s going to happen here. They’ve seen this before. He’s one of their own and he’s popular.
“But the owners, the sporting department and the players are not popular and they’ve badly let this football club down.
“Those two [Omar Berrada and Jason Wilcox] tomorrow are probably going to make a decision that will disgust Manchester United fans, but it’s probably necessary.
“It’s just an absolute mess.”
Those chants in support of Carrick turned to boos after he had left the pitch as supporters appeared to show their frustration with the club’s players and hierarchy.
“That says everything to me,” former Premier League striker Clinton Morrison said.
“They’re with Carrick the fans but they’re not with the players. Wow. That was alarming.
“Carrick got a big cheer but as soon it was just the players, they got booed. But they’ve not been good enough and they deserve to get booed. There’s only so much a manager can do.
“The players are not good enough, in my opinion, to win football matches.”
Ex-Manchester United full-back Ashley Young added: “Unfortunately for Michael Carrick, it’s so disappointing.
“The fans are behind him and backing him and of course they are, because he’s a legend of the football club. But the players on the pitch showed nothing. They didn’t run, they didn’t look like a team together.
“If you looked at the difference to the Bournemouth team, you’d swap every single player for that Manchester United team. It was a poor showing.”