Superhead

Michael Carrick has to take his share of responsibility for the mess at Manchester United - and may pay the price with his job sooner or later - but he’s not the real problem there. Yes, there was some fighting spirit, the late rally and point against Aston Villa but still … shocking starts to both halves, four goals shipped, second bottom, humiliating, why not the fearless Shea Lacey on earlier? It can’t go on like this, stumbling, slip, sliding away, briefly regaining footing. International breaks are an obvious opportunity for a board to act and players may open up on United woes when away with their national teams. The Stretford End sang Carrick’s name. They know how much he cares about the Club, and how well he served them as a player with far more determination than the current woeful generation. Fans know their plight is as much on Ineos, the Glazers and the recruitment “experts”. No defence. Really, they have no defence. Whoever follows Carrick whenever he goes inherits a mess not of his making but of the club’s: a squad of signings long on cost but short on strength of character. They fought back against Roma and Villa but why start so sluggishly? It will take a few windows and proper focus on mindset as well as technical skill-set to sort out. The contrast with Villa’s smart recruitment under Unai Emery (Nicolas Jackson, Alysson and, earlier, Morgan Rogers etc) is very obvious. Villa lost good players (Rogers, Ollie Watkins etc) but replaced well. If they hadn't got a bit complacent, and hadn't sat off, Villa would have beaten United. United need a new defence before a new stadium. The back-four on the hour was Noussair Mazraoui, Leny Yoro, Ayden Heaven and Diogo Dalot. That's a rickety fence. At a club where they once had such warriors and talent as Gary Neville, Nemanja Vidic, Rio Ferdinand and Patrice Evra as a back-line. That's a wall. Dalot is an average right-back playing painfully out of position at left-back. He works hard but his decision-making is so suspect. His naive challenge on Alysson, and his presence at left-back, summed up the skewed recruitment at United. Every United fan said they needed a new left-back in pre-season. Dalot was replaced by Patrick Dorgu who rescued a point but has been injured and hardly impressed overall since joining in 2025. He's no Evra or Denis Irwin. Yoro is a 20-year-old centre-back who cost £50m in 2024 and he’s hardly trained on. Another 20-year-old, Heaven, has promise but still has so much to learn. Mazraoui is nothing special. The keeper Senne Lammens is left exposed by his defence too often but he, too, is culpable: he's pushing the ball out in front of him, still in traffic, rather than wide. And Harry Maguire should have left by now. The club has to make stronger decisions. Look at Arsenal who overhauled their squad, starting with paying off Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang with a reported £7m. Then rebuilt. United’s squad, added to over the years with no consistency of thought, needs clearing out. How many United players would get in Arsenal's starting XI? None. Money has been spent but so badly. And it will be Carrick who pays the price rather than underachieving players, detached owners and those responsible for such wretched recruitment. And the whole cycle of doom will begin again. #MUFC