What Is Going On at Manchester United?

An injury-time equaliser from Patrick Dorgu brought the curtain down on one of the most ridiculous games of football played at Old Trafford.

Dorgu’s header clinched a 4-4 draw in a game that Manchester United had been two goals down in on two occasions.

It took just four minutes of the first half for the Reds to be 2-0 down, whilst they put up a marginally better fight in the second half, holding out for seven minutes before conceding two goals.

There is a serious problem defensively in Manchester United’s team, but the greater issue is the sheer indecisiveness going on within the technical department.

Once again, there is no indication that Michael Carrick will lose his job imminently. Late goals against Roma and Aston Villa appear to have granted him a stay of execution.

Make no mistake, that is exactly what this is. This isn’t Arsenal giving Mikel Arteta time and eventually things coming good; Manchester United’s brains trust aren’t capable of having an idea that big.

You can’t sustain a Premier League season where you defend so appallingly that your own fans chant ‘you’re not fit to wear the shirt’ and then keep miraculously staging comebacks to do just enough to eek by.

Eek by is perhaps being kind. Manchester United are in the relegation zone after 10 games, and they’re there on merit. There hasn’t been an injury crisis, although players have been missing, or extenuating circumstances which fully explain this poor points tally. They’ve just been that bad.

There is little doubt in my mind that had United not staged these comebacks against Roma or Villa, Michael Carrick would have been fired.

Instead, United’s hierarchy get out of making a tough decision, which makes them look even more incompetent than fans know them to be.

The international break proceeds with no bad results as the team aren’t playing… There may even be news about Manchester City’s charges, which take some focus off the red side of the city.

We’ll then see training photos from the pre-Liverpool sessions, with players saying they’re all pulling in the right direction and are determined to put things right… Then they’ll concede exactly the same kind of pathetic goals at Anfield. This is exactly what the last international break looked like.

Michael Carrick’s Popularity Shouldn’t Detract From His Coaching Shortcomings

Michael Carrick did an exceptional job last season. He brought that squad kicking and screaming into the Champions League, way ahead of schedule.

However, he wasn’t tested in the same way as this year. There have been fitness issues from a punctured pre-season due to the World Cup, and he has been forced to deal with two matches a week.

These are significant factors, but it’s precisely why Manchester United can’t keep allowing managers to learn on the job at the world’s biggest football club outside of Real Madrid.

There are obvious weaknesses in Carrick’s tactical approach, and ones which were perhaps not even exploited last season.

I maintain that it was correct to give him the job in the summer. Especially as the quality of available candidates wasn’t impressive, there was also the added bonus that Carrick’s contract would be far cheaper to rip up if this exact scenario played out.

However, retaining him on a game-by-game basis is doing nobody any favours. It’s clear he isn’t suited to the job when navigating tricky waters, and Manchester United genuinely need to have a world-class manager for the first time in years.

It seems incredible that a decision hasn’t been made yet. United are in a relegation battle, and their fixtures are about to get a lot harder.

Jason Wilcox is way out of his depth and should be going too, but the fact he seems to have the final say on this decision is a separate, harrowing worry.

Things won’t improve under Michael Carrick. He did a fantastic job last year, but has reached the end of the road. The delay in the inevitable at this stage is just more rank mismanagement from Wilcox and all the United hierarchy.