Geoff Maynard, a long-time columnist for the Daily Express, used his column the day after the match to argue that the humiliation in Lombardy was earned by the players, not the man in the dugout, and that the real failure sits one floor up.

“The performance put in by his players in the Como humiliation was a joke,” Maynard wrote.

“Carrick has been starved of funds to buy the top players his side desperately needs.”

He pointed specifically at the summer, when United walked away from a £120m valuation for Nottingham Forest midfielder Elliot Anderson, who eventually agreed to join Manchester City in July.

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“The guy is a midfield monster of the Roy Keane ilk that every top team needs,” Maynard wrote. The summer additions of Carlos Baleba, Youri Tielemans, and Andrey Santos, he said, were “decent” but did not fill that hole.

Up front, Maynard argued, the problem is the same shape. Benjamin Sesko is the only recognised striker, with Bruno Fernandes, Matheus Cunha and Bryan Mbeumo asked to play as forwards they are not.

‘Whatever tactics you play, if you don’t run back’

Inside the camp, the discipline is already breaking down. Como’s Nico Paz opened the scoring after two minutes and set the tone for a 4-1 win, and after the final whistle Fernandes, who had been substituted in the 67th minute, publicly questioned the setup to Sky Sports.

“It was a decision from the staff to not press man-to-man and sometimes leave space behind.”

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Carrick’s reply did not spare his captain.

“We half pressed man-to-man in the second half and ended up conceding a goal from that. Whatever tactics you play, if you don’t run back, you ain’t going to win.”

The exchange brought Jamie Carragher down on Fernandes within hours. The Sky pundit called the public criticism “a disgrace” on CBS Sports, noting that Fernandes had won United’s Player of the Year award under Carrick last season and would not have taken it without him.

“We said Lisandro Martinez was bang out of order for calling out the hierarchy. For Bruno Fernandes to do that, it is a disgrace,” Carragher said.

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The board’s quiet position

Lisandro Martinez’s intervention came the previous week, after a 2-0 defeat to Atlético Madrid, when the defender aimed his frustration at the hierarchy rather than the manager and said publicly that the squad is not strong enough to compete at the top level. Many supporters agree with him, according to Sky Sports.

The club’s directors do not. They believe the squad is stronger than the one Carrick guided to a third-placed Premier League finish last season, and that the current slump, which now stretches to seven matches without a win in all competitions, is the manager’s problem to fix.

Carrick will take charge for the visit of Bournemouth on Sunday, with no decision taken beyond that game. Kick-off at Old Trafford is at 2pm local time.

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