Leaving Bruno Fernandes out against Bournemouth was "pure football," Michael Carrick told Sky Sports (via ESPN's Rob Dawson). Then he kept our captain on the bench at 1-0 down, at 2-0 and at 3-0, while four other players went on. United had 62.6% of the ball at Old Trafford on Sunday and nobody out there who could do anything with it. Dropping Bruno for a match was defensible. Not using him at 3-0 down turned a selection call into a statement, and of everything that went wrong this week, that one is Carrick's alone.
Premier League, Matchweek 8: Manchester United 0, Bournemouth 3. As of Monday evening the club hasn't said a word about Carrick's future. More on that at the bottom.
Grading the preview
Our preview said start Bruno at No. 10 and give Harry Maguire the armband. Carrick did the second part. Maguire captained the side, per ESPN's Rob Dawson, and Bruno sat.
We picked United 2-1. That's as wrong as a pick gets. Our "what would make us wrong" line was an early goal against or Bruno drifting out of the middle. Bournemouth didn't score until the 38th minute, and Bruno never got on the pitch to drift anywhere. The preview didn't see the real risk: a team with plenty of the ball and nobody to make it count.
All that ball, and nothing to do with it
ESPN's match stats have United on 62.6% possession, with 619 passes to Bournemouth's 367 and 17 shots to 10. Bournemouth scored with three of their four shots on target. We passed it around them for most of the match and still lost by three.
A side that can't create is exactly the side that needs Bruno. In Carrick's defense, Bruno hasn't been good. Our preview noted that all four of his league goal involvements this season came against Ipswich. But at Como, once he moved to No. 10 after the break, United finally got shots on target (our recap). Bournemouth were happy to give us the ball on Sunday. That's the kind of match you want your best passer in.
Carrick's half-time change was Matheus Cunha for Youri Tielemans. At 2-0 down on 65 minutes he sent on Lisandro Martínez for Ayden Heaven, who'd been booked for a two-footed lunge (ESPN's referee analyst Andy Davies says yellow was the right card, since there was no contact). Joshua Zirkzee replaced Carlos Baleba on 72, a minute after the third goal, and Shea Lacey replaced Amad Diallo on 78. Bruno warmed up, and Football365 has him still at it as Zirkzee got ready to come on. He never came on.
"There are always times in games when you try to make decisions to try and change the course of play, to try to make a difference. These were the decisions that we made today," Carrick told Sky Sports about the bench (via ESPN's match report). Jamie Carragher, on Sky Sports, wasn't buying it: "Can you imagine going into the training ground tomorrow with Bruno Fernandes after not bringing him on? It's a rancid dressing room." We'd put it less colorfully. Benching a captain who criticized the plan on TV at Como is a manager drawing a line, and we can live with that for one match. Keeping him there at 3-0 down, at home, with the ball and no ideas, is what makes "pure football" so hard to believe.
How the goals came
Heaven gave away the free kick, Justin Kluivert delivered it, and Rayan finished at the far post on 38 minutes. Five minutes later Leny Yoro slipped and Marcus Tavernier scored from Adrien Truffert's pass (Sky Sports' report has the slip). On 71, Evanilson beat Senne Lammens to the ball and scored from a tight angle on the right. We had four yellow cards by half-time: Andrey Santos, Heaven, Tielemans and Maguire.
Marco Rose, to Sky: "We wanted to be front-footed. We wanted to be brave and we played brave." He added: "I feel empathy for Michael."
The crowd picked its targets
Sky reports that the Stretford End went after the Glazers, Sir Jim Ratcliffe and Jason Wilcox, sang Carrick's name as he walked down the tunnel, and then booed the players. Gary Neville, on Sky: "Michael Carrick is popular. But the owners, the sporting department and the players are not popular. They have badly let the club down." Maguire told BBC Sport, "We're fully behind Michael," and then, "As individuals, we're not playing well enough" (via ESPN).
The crowd is right about the owners. Ashley Young put the summer on INEOS when he spoke to Sky: "They haven't got the players in" (reported by PA, via ESPN). The owners still didn't pick Sunday's bench, and that's the part Carrick has to answer for.
At his news conference he said: "I totally understand the situation. I'm not expecting anything in particular, to be honest" (per ESPN's Dawson). Sky Sports wrote that his long applause for the fans after the final whistle "was immediately interpreted as a farewell gesture." To Sky, he sounded like a man who wants to stay and knows it isn't his call: "I'll always do what's best for this football club. I don't change that now. I love what I do. I love the responsibility. But we'll have to wait and see" (Sky Sports' match report).
Where it stands Monday night
Nothing official yet. The Press Association reports (via ESPN) that chief executive Omar Berrada and Wilcox held talks on Carrick's future at Carrington on Monday, and that Carrick left just before 5 p.m. UK time after about three hours there. On his podcast, Neville said: "They are probably going to sack him." ESPN's Dawson reports, citing sources, that Eddie Howe and Julian Nagelsmann are among the contenders. That's a rumor until the club says otherwise, and the club is saying nothing. Our odds Carrick is in the dugout at Stamford Bridge on Saturday: one in four.
The numbers he'd be defending: 16th, 7 points from eight matches, a point clear of Nottingham Forest in 18th (the table). ESPN says seven points is United's lowest at this stage of a league season since 1986-87. It's eight without a win in all competitions since the 4-0 over Sabah on Sept. 10, six league matches without a win since Ipswich on Aug. 30, and two wins from 12 competitive matches.
Next up is Chelsea, fifth on 13 points, away on Saturday, Oct. 31, Premier League Matchweek 9, at 8:30 a.m. ET (5:30 a.m. PT) (full schedule). Whoever's in charge, the first question is the same: does Bruno start? If Carrick is still there and Bruno isn't in the XI, the Como row has followed us to Stamford Bridge.
Lineups
Confirmed lineups
Official team sheets from ESPN, fetched .
| No. | Player |
|---|---|
| Goalkeeper | |
| 1 | Senne Lammens |
| Defense | |
| 15 | Leny Yoro |
| 5 | Harry Maguire |
| 26 | Ayden Heaven Off |
| 2 | Diogo Dalot |
| Midfield | |
| 17 | Andrey Santos |
| 20 | Carlos Baleba Off |
| 16 | Amad Diallo Off |
| 18 | Youri Tielemans Off |
| 7 | Mason Mount |
| Attack | |
| 19 | Bryan Mbeumo |
Bench: 12 Karl Darlow, 39 Tyler Fletcher, 8 Bruno Fernandes, 10 Matheus Cunha (on), 4 Matthijs de Ligt, 3 Noussair Mazraoui, 6 Lisandro Martínez (on), 31 Shea Lacey (on), 11 Joshua Zirkzee (on)
| No. | Player |
|---|---|
| Goalkeeper | |
| 1 | Djordje Petrovic |
| Defense | |
| 15 | Adam Smith Off |
| 5 | James Hill |
| 14 | António Silva |
| 3 | Adrien Truffert |
| Midfield | |
| 12 | Tyler Adams |
| 4 | Lewis Cook Off |
| 37 | Rayan |
| 19 | Justin Kluivert Off |
| 16 | Marcus Tavernier Off |
| Attack | |
| 9 | Evanilson Off |
Bench: 7 David Brooks, 30 Álvaro Rodríguez, 11 Ben Gannon-Doak (on), 18 Bafodé Diakité (on), 21 Amine Adli (on), 20 Michele Di Gregorio, 10 Ryan Christie (on), 22 Junior Kroupi (on), 6 Julio Soler
"Off" and "(on)" mark substitutions.
Alarm's set. Coffee's on. Come on, United.
Sources: ESPN (match, match stats, report, Rob Dawson on Carrick's future, Bruno left out and the shortlist, Jamie Barton on Maguire, Andy Davies' VAR review, worst league starts); Press Association via ESPN (Neville and Young, Monday at Carrington); Sky Sports (match report, Carrick on the brink); Football365. Team sheets from ESPN. Numbers from our schedule and table data and ESPN.