In the shadow of the Alps, a boat ride from George Clooney’s villa, Manchester United’s torrid season plunged into chaos and infighting just 11 games in.
Michael Carrick’s status as United manager is now precarious because witnessed here by Lake Como was a humiliation of the three-time European champions by Cesc Fàbregas’s competition debutants.
At the end about 200 of United’s 700 travelling fans remained. Carrick walked over to say sorry, raising his hands three or four times in supplication. But, markedly, he ignored his players, the manager later admitting to “anger” at what was witnessed.
He was then embroiled in a wrangle with his captain after Bruno Fernandes stated “the staff” decided on a tactic not to press. Carrick’s riposte, deep in the stadium at the post-game media conference, was pithy.
“We actually half-pressed man-to-man the second half and then conceded a goal from that,” he said.
And so, after Lisandro Martínez called out Jason Wilcox last week following the 2-0 defeat at Atletico Madrid (for the director of football’s recruitment; the defender later apologised), we now have the spectacle of the manager and his captain at loggerheads.
Whether the 45-year-old will be in place for the visit of Bournemouth on Sunday is the searing question because Carrick was unable to rouse his players when 1-0 down at half‑time after a dire start, and if he has a tactical plan this is a mystery. Carrick brushed away questions about quitting and fearing for his job, but the executive will surely discuss this.
The manner of the defeat will be top of the agenda because by 57 minutes this was over: Como were 3-0 ahead, and Nico Paz had destroyed Carrick’s men with a scintillating display featuring two goals and the assist for Tasos Douvikas’s strike.
When the Italian side attacked and defended it was as a unit drilled supremely by Fàbregas. Carrick, on this and the evidence of only two wins all term, is a coach struggling to match this. Como’s supremacy in the most famous victory of their 119 years came with only 62 total Champions League appearances by their players to United’s 242.
Or, more simply, this was the Italians’ men against United’s boys at a sold-out Stadio Giuseppe Sinigaglia, where the visitors went down to a club whose tagline is “the most beautiful football in the most beautiful location”. For United, though, this was an ugly night in Lombardy.
Disaster struck two minutes in. Carrick’s men snoozed, allowing a Paz curler from the right to beat Senne Lammens. This was a whole 60 seconds longer than Atlético were kept out, as United became the first English team to concede inside two minutes in consecutive major European matches.
The opener came moments after Diogo Dalot spurned a simple opening to dizzy the hosts, so here was United, in microcosm, at each end of the pitch: a basic lack of quality.
Mason Mount lined up alongside Andrey Santos in a midfield that had Matheus Cunha, Youri Tielemans and Bryan Mbeumo ahead, with Fernandes a false-ish 9. As Como hogged possession throughout, any United foray needed to threaten Jean Butez’s goal: Mbeumo’s corner from the right patently did not when failing to clear a first defender.
After a near 24-hour deluge the rain finally stopped but Como’s blue wave continued relentlessly. United’s press was piecemeal, as Fernandes identified, maybe involving one or two, but never a group act.
At the interval, Carrick had to earn his corn. In missing nine players because of injury, suspension or illness, there was mitigation. Matthijs de Ligt, partnering Harry Maguire in central defence, being thrown straight in for a first appearance in 325 days after a serious back injury illustrated Carrick’s straitened resources.
Carrick’s move was to take off Cunha and Santos for Carlos Baleba and Amad Diallo in a reshuffle that took Tielemans into central midfield, Fernandes to No 10, and Mbeumo leading the line. The net result: Como’s second. Paz enjoyed a universe of time to thread in Douvikas, and he powered past Lammens. This was a mere four minutes into the second half and thoughts turned to the clock ticking on Carrick’s tenure, before Como scored twice more.
First came Paz’s second, the Argentinian skating along the right and beating Lammens for 3-0. Then, on 76 minutes, Como waltzed through for a fourth time. Up rose Jacobo Ramón to head in Kaiki Bruno’s cross from the left and United’s disintegration was complete – Joshua Zirkzee’s stoppage-time goal not even a consolation.
By the end Carrick seemed as broken as his team. Even if Carrick survives until Sunday, who knows how much longer he will remain after Bournemouth’s visit. He was let down in the summer market but at this club the manager usually pays, not the hierarchy.
