Asked directly in his post-match press conference whether the INEOS co-owners who run football at Manchester United still had faith in him, Michael Carrick refused to engage.

“It’s not about me. It’s about digesting the game and how it went,” he told reporters after Como’s 4-1 win in the Champions League league phase on Wednesday.

The non-answer landed differently from the message he had delivered earlier in the day. Before kick-off, Carrick had been emphatic to Al Jazeera when asked whether he needed assurances from above.

“I don’t need any reassurance. It’s pretty clear.”

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Within hours, pressed on the same subject after the heaviest result of his short tenure, he would not say the owners were still with him.

Como’s four punish a United no-show

Nico Paz struck inside two minutes at the Stadio Sinigaglia. Anastasios Douvikas made it 2-0 four minutes into the second half, Paz added his second on 57, and Jacobo Ramón headed in a fourth on 76 as Cesc Fabregas’s side cut United open at will. Joshua Zirkzee’s stoppage-time goal was the only answer.

Carrick held his hands up to the United end at the final whistle and apologised again at the microphone.

“There are no excuses at all. It is not acceptable,” he said.

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“I care an unbelievable amount about the supporters. They are the heartbeat of this football club and they always will be.”

Fernandes puts the tactics on his manager

The sharpest intervention came from his captain. Deployed as the lone striker, Bruno Fernandes turned on the plan on live television once the whistle had gone.

“Sometimes you have to be more brave under pressure, trying to take a risk of pressing high,” Fernandes told TNT Sports.

Asked whether Carrick had got the tactics wrong, he refused to carry it.

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“That’s on the manager and on the staff to see, it is not me.”

Carrick’s own verdict was that his players had not covered the ground.

“You can’t choose when you want to perform. If you don’t run, and you don’t run forward, and you don’t run back, you aren’t going to win.”

The names already in circulation

Lists of possible successors were already being drawn up before full time in Como. Bleacher Report named Antonio Conte, Julian Nagelsmann, Eddie Howe, Kieran McKenna and Fabian Hürzeler as the most-discussed candidates for the job if INEOS move on from Carrick.

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