playRob DawsonSep 20, 2026, 03:00 PM ETMultiple AuthorsOpen Extended ReactionsLONDON — For Michael Carrick, the international break won’t feel like much of a break at all.The games will stop, but after Manchester United’s 1-1 draw with Fulham on Sunday, the spotlight and the scrutiny will remain. It’s going to be a long three weeks for United’s coach.It could have been even worse. Matheus Cunha’s 89th-minute equalizer prevented a first defeat at Craven Cottage in 17 years and stopped the pressure on Carrick ramping up to another level.After back-to-back home defeats to Manchester City and Brighton, three consecutive losses would have left United’s decision-makers with some thinking to do while the players jet off to join their national teams.As it is, a point at Fulham will at least stop the bleeding — there’s not much to shout about. Five points from five games is United’s worst start to a Premier League season for more than a decade.
And that’s after a run of fixtures that appeared on paper to be relatively manageable.”It’s not been ideal,” Carrick admitted. “I know we can do better, we need to do better at certain things. But at the same time, I’m not despondent and down because I think we’re showing some good signs as well.”I’m not playing it down. We wanted more points from it.”Though Carrick was keen to find the positives, the most damning part of the day was perhaps the assessment of his former United teammate Gary Neville.
The pair played together at Old Trafford for four years, but when Fulham went ahead midway through the second half, Neville did not hold back.”I’ve watched Manchester United since the age of 5,” he said. “That’s the worst 15 minutes I’ve ever seen them play.”Given some of the disastrous displays over the past decade, it was quite a statement. Neville’s outburst — during which he branded parts of the performance as “pathetic” — was prompted by a calamitous Fulham goal.Kobbie Mainoo’s pass into midfield was telegraphed by Calvin Bassey, who was too strong for Cunha. Then the Fulham defender was allowed to advance unchallenged into the penalty area before firing a tame shot at Senne Lammens.But when things aren’t going well, even the most innocuous situations can turn into something else.
This time, Bassey’s shot hit Lammens before rebounding back toward the goal off Lisandro Martínez.A scrambling Lammens chose to use his feet rather than his hands to stop the ball and succeeded only in booting it into the net. It was either bad luck or symptomatic of a United team struggling with the confidence to make decisive decisions.Self-belief, or lack of it, is not the only issue for Carrick to address. There’s a feeling among some fans that United have not looked fit enough during the early part of the season.play1:49Leboeuf: Man United can’t be happy with a point vs. FulhamRunning stats aren’t everything, but at the end of the 90 minutes, Fulham’s players had covered an extra 6 kilometers more than United’s players.
There were certainly times during the game when it appeared obvious that the home side was quicker, faster and sharper.Cunha appeared to back it up afterward by saying Fulham “put in more energy” at the beginning of the second half.Carrick, though, insists it’s not a problem.”It didn’t look like that for me,” he argued. “I was quite happy with the way we finished the game. I thought we finished the game really strong actually, and kept pushing. So I don’t think that’s an issue, no.”With Fulham ahead and sensing a first league win of the season, United finally started playing.Cunha, again almost invisible as a No. 9, looked far more comfortable when he was shifted out to the left.
It was the Brazilian’s shot from outside the penalty area that took a huge deflection off David Affengruber and wrong-footed Bernd Leno.It was a crucial piece of luck for United when they needed it most. Carrick can at least be happy that his players eventually showed the character to drag themselves out of the mess they created.”That’s a big thing, but without getting carried away with it because we’ve taken a point and we wanted to win,” he said. “Definitely today it could have gone in a different direction — 100% it could have. I was really pleased with the response, and I think that’ll help us a lot moving forward.”The trouble for Carrick is that fans want to see something more sustainable.When the international break is over, there are games against Tottenham, Atletico Madrid, Leeds and Como.
The last three are away from home, all in the space of nine days in October. After that it’s Bournemouth, Chelsea, AS Roma, Aston Villa and Liverpool. It doesn’t get any easier.Cunha’s equalizer should ensure Carrick gets a little more time to turn things around. It does, though, seem like the season is already at a tipping point.Either the break allows for a reset and United find a way to rediscover the form that won Carrick the permanent job … or the slide since the start of the season continues.As the opening run of fixtures draws to a close, there are more questions than answers.
