An appropriately spooky performance from Manchester United kicked-off Saturday’s Premier League fixtures on a Halloween day that will haunt Michael Carrick for some time to come.
It’s a result for which, unlike in recent games, United’s head coach was the last person you could blame, as his side slipped to 16th in the Premier League after nine matches.
Lisandro Martinez was the architect of United’s second-half collapse, with two yellow cards, separated by four minutes, leading to his sending off. A subsequent penalty slotted home by Cole Palmer only strengthened Chelsea’s hold on a game which was initially there for the taking for United.
The first-half performance at Stamford Bridge had actually given the visitors plenty of positives to cling on to, though a sickening second-half capitulation quickly undid any good work done earlier. Carrick’s side created more chances than the hosts in the opening 45 minutes, looked comfortable in possession and far more defensively robust than the Bournemouth and Como calamities had suggested.
The lack of professionalism, composure and maturity illustrated by Martinez throughout the second half demonstrated a level of selfishness that cannot be looked past. He had already played a part in Chelsea’s opener, allowing Morgan Rogers to breeze past him and Harry Maguire with little resistance before lifting the ball over Senne Lammens. His afternoon only deteriorated from there, as he was again bettered by Rogers out wide, resorting to snatching at the winger’s shirt before bringing him down and picking up a needless yellow card.
Barely two minutes later, he brought about his own dismissal in entirely avoidable circumstances. Contesting a corner taken by Chelsea’s Estevao, Martinez launched himself at Welsey Fofana elbows-up, making little to no attempt to play the ball and instead catching the Frenchman in the face. Having already been booked, it was an astonishingly reckless decision that left United a man down and handed Chelsea the opportunity to put the game beyond their reach from the penalty spot.
He is one of several players at Old Trafford who have overstayed their welcome and must be moved on at the first possible opportunity.
Martinez was outspoken in mid-October, voicing his criticisms of the club’s senior decision-makers, who he believed had sold Carrick short in the transfer window. Two weeks later, Martinez has let down the very same head coach he rallied in support of, as carelessly and selfishly as he accused Jason Wilcox of doing.
While Carrick insisted in his post-match media duties that he did not feel let down by Martinez, the lack of acknowledgement between the pair as the Argentine took his walk of shame off the pitch seemed to suggest otherwise.
Since joining from Ajax in the summer of 2022, the diminutive centre-half has missed 108 of 214 possible games through injury. A shocking 50.4% of games missed for someone relied upon as one of United’s first-choice senior defenders is enough to warrant a search for a replacement in the coming transfer windows.
A teenage defender could be forgiven for losing his head and making a reckless challenge out of frustration, with such a transgression put down to inexperience and emotion. Someone of Martinez’s stature in the game, however, as a World Cup winner, cannot be afforded the same understanding.
In the same bracket of disappointing performances was Bruno Fernandes, who has been uncharacteristically poor for the entirety of the season so far and continued to stick out like a sore thumb in United’s attack. His performance was only compounded by an unattractive petulance that you would not expect from a player of his experience, let alone the club’s captain.
Thirty times United’s skipper lost possession, completing just 68% of his passes and offering very little in an attacking sense. His skied effort after a sumptuous ball across the front of Chelsea’s back line from Mbeumo set the tone for a performance that only adds to the growing feeling that his time at Old Trafford is headed towards a bitter end.
The performances of Fernandes, Martinez and several others from whom much more is expected are symptomatic of a wider cultural plague at the club, where effort is treated as a commodity rather than a bare-minimum expectation.
Michael Carrick has claimed that he is “looking forward to getting the boys ready for midweek now”, and expects to remain in the dugout for United’s Champions League clash with Roma on Tuesday, but it’s no secret that the pressure on him to change the club’s fortunes is bordering on unbearable.
At any football club, the manager or head coach will always be on the chopping block when results aren’t favourable. But on days like this, when certain players are almost exclusively to blame, alongside a wider picture of negligent ownership, you cannot help but feel pity for Michael Carrick, who could well see his fate decided by factors entirely beyond his control.
