COMO, Italy — Where do Manchester United go from here?
It was never part of the plan for Sir Jim Ratcliffe and the board to be considering a change of head coach just 11 games into Michael Carrick’s permanent tenure. But after a horror show on the shores of Lake Como on Wednesday, the tide may well be turning.
In the driving Lombardy rain, United were initially outfought by Como and then outclassed. If you didn’t know any better, you would have thought it was the Italians — playing amateur football as recently as 2018-19 — who were supposed to be the European heavyweights rather than their visitors.
United looked like UEFA Champions League novices. Como, in just their third ever game in the competition, were better in every department. They also had the game’s outstanding player, Nico Paz, who scored twice and created another as Como ran out comprehensive 4-1 winners.
With 80 minutes on the clock, the stadium announcer told the United fans they had to stay in their seats at the end of the game. He was seemingly unaware that most of the 700 who made the trip from Manchester had already folded up their flags and gone.
Carrick didn’t have the luxury of a quiet exit, but his departure may be coming sooner rather than later.
It’s now seven games without a win, and ahead of AFC Bournemouth‘s visit to Old Trafford on Sunday, it’s difficult to see where the next one is coming from. The question, more than ever, is how much longer can Carrick survive?
“I’m really angry,” Carrick said after watching United concede four goals in a European match for the first time in 33 years. “There was a lot going through my mind, I have to say, watching that. It shouldn’t be like that, even if we don’t play well. We can all have poor performances, but to do it in that manner is really not right at all.
“It wasn’t just the goals. It was the manner and the way we played at times. The way we went about it was the difficult thing to watch for me.”
Carrick isn’t the type to turn fire on his squad, but he had every right to after this. And whether he limps on or goes now, these players need to take some responsibility.
Diogo Dalot has seen this situation play out with five different permanent United managers since arriving at the club in 2018. Harry Maguire is on his fourth in seven years.
Carrick said in his pre-match news conference on Tuesday that he was “sure” his players would have “100% focus and concentration.” He could not have been more wrong.
After conceding in the first minute against Atlético Madrid last week, he watched his team ship a goal inside two minutes here. It was a wonderful curling finish from Paz from the edge of the box, but he was first allowed to find space by a jogging Matheus Cunha and then given the time to turn and shoot by Maguire.
United were dire in the first half, and judging by the way they came out in the second, it’s easy to conclude that the players are no longer responding to their head coach.
A visibly frustrated Carrick made two changes at the break, swapping Cunha and Andrey Santos for Carlos Baleba and Amad Diallo, but there was no reaction. It took just three minutes and 14 seconds of the second half for Paz to again find the freedom of the Stadio Giuseppe Sinigaglia and slide a simple pass to Anastasios Douvikas to score Como’s second.
Afterward, Youri Tielemans called it a “non-performance,” but that was a kind assessment.
Paz made it 3-0 after taking advantage of a sloppy mistake from Baleba before Jacobo Ramón headed in a fourth. It could have been more, but Como had long since stopped playing by the time Joshua Zirkzee scored a meaningless consolation.
There were ironic cheers from the United fans who stayed to the end. Carrick, meanwhile, remained rooted to his seat on the bench.
He finally got up at the final whistle to first congratulate Como boss Cesc Fàbregas before marching across the pitch. He raised his hands in apology to the few United supporters who had decided against drifting off into the city to drink away their disappointment before disappearing down the tunnel without acknowledging any of his players.
“I want to apologize to the supporters,” Carrick said. “I went over at the end. I care about this football club as much as anyone, if not more. It’s not acceptable. It wasn’t a good performance at all. We wanted to build on what we brought to Leeds — that bit of intensity, that spirit, that aggression, that real willingness to give everything.
“Tonight was the totally opposite of a performance. I have to say, it was tough to watch.”
If the performance on the pitch wasn’t messy enough, it got even worse after the game.
Speaking in a TV interview, Bruno Fernandes, subbed off midway through the second half, appeared to question Carrick’s tactics by saying it was “a decision from the staff to not press man-to-man and sometimes leave space behind.”
When his captain’s comments were put to him, Carrick bit back in his post-match news conference.
“We actually were half pressed man-to-man in the second half, and then we conceded a goal from that,” he said. “Whatever system you play, whatever tactics you play, if you don’t run, and you don’t run forward, and you don’t run back, you’re not going to win.”
It was stinging criticism and summed up Carrick’s unhappiness, but he will know better than anyone that it’s his job that’s on the line.
The mood around the club could not be more different than five months ago when Carrick — fresh from finishing third in the Premier League and securing a return to the Champions League — was handed a two-year contract to continue his work. After a bruising night by Lake Como, it’s up to the board to decide whether he’s out of his depth.
