Carrick takes full responsibility as United's 4-1 collapse at Como deepens his crisis

Michael Carrick admitted he bears full responsibility after Manchester United were dismantled 4-1 by Como at the Stadio Giuseppe Sinigaglia on Wednesday, a result that deepens a growing crisis at Old Trafford in only his first full season in charge.

Nico Paz scored twice, with Anastasios Douvikas and Jacobo Ramon also on target to leave United well beaten in Italy. Joshua Zirkzee’s late strike offered no consolation. The defeat follows a 2-0 loss to Atletico Madrid earlier in the same Champions League campaign, with United’s only group-stage win coming in a 4-0 rout of Sabah on matchday one.

“I 100 per cent take responsibility for the overall team and the performance. That’s where it stops,” Carrick said after the match. “I’m absolutely fine with that, I accept that totally. But as a supporter of this football club for so long, and I care a lot about this football club, to see a performance like that is unacceptable, I have to say.”

When pressed on whether the display reflected the true level of his squad, Carrick pushed back. “100 per cent that’s not [it] because we’ve shown it for six or seven months,” he said. “But you can’t turn it on and off and you can’t choose when you want to perform and when you don’t want to perform, or when you give absolutely everything or when you maybe don’t. So, until you do that, you’re not going to win football matches enough.”

The result leaves United in a precarious position on two fronts. In the Premier League, they sit 13th after winning just one of their opening seven matches — a stark contrast to the momentum Carrick generated during his interim spell between January and May, which earned him the permanent role over the summer.

The 45-year-old was widely praised for stabilising the club during that short-term stint, but the consistency he showed then has proven difficult to replicate with the weight of a full managerial appointment. United’s next Premier League fixture is at home to Bournemouth on Sunday, 25 October, a match that now carries significant weight given the pressure building around the manager.