Michael Carrick and Manchester United were outclassed by Tottenham on Saturday night - and failed to see out the game at Old Trafford as they shipped a stoppage time equaliser
Michael Carrick was, again, left looking for answers as Man Utd squandered a lead
Michael Carrick was, again, left looking for answers as Man Utd squandered a lead
View 2 Images
As technical area contrasts go. Michael Carrick and Roberto De Zerbi normally provide a whopper. One an arms-folded picture of watchfulness, the other a whirling dervish kicking every ball and making every tackle.
But midway through a first half monopolised by a team that arrived in search of a first Premier League victory of the season, Carrick stomped away from his post, a picture of animated anguish.
That his side maintained parity until half-time was part freakish, part down to Tottenham’s top-of-the-pitch inadequacy. It would not be stretching it to say it was one of the more important half-times in Carrick’s time as United manager. And when his side failed to significantly respond to his talk, he was decisive, making three substitutions before the hour mark.
The decisiveness paid dividends. There seemed little enthusiasm for including Joshua Zirkzee among Carrick’s three substitutions but the Dutchman’s enthusiasm and adventure appeared to change the contest's direction.
He was not involved in the Bryan Mbeumo goal that put Manchester United ahead but he changed the mood of this United performance. It put Spurs on the back foot, Rodrigo Bentacur lost his head and stuck it on Luke Shaw to earn a red card, and it should have been game over.
Instead, Dominic Solanke finally located the space between the posts and ten-man Spurs left Carrick in anguish again, a manager feeling the heat. Because there is no hiding place for Carrick this season, no mitigation if things go awry. This is a deep squad.
Carlos Baleba is £70million worth of central midfielder - albeit injured when purchased - but had to be content with a place on the bench. Likewise Marcus Rashford, the £350,000 a week man. It was certainly an interesting team selection from Carrick, and one that initially appeared to bemuse his chosen ones.
Even by their own recent indifferent standards, it was a remarkably slow start from United. If Spurs had anyone with any sort of scoring instinct, they might have been out of sight before 20 minutes had elapsed.
Over the past two or three seasons, one of the understated issues with this United team has been its fitness level. Well, what seems to be its fitness level. It is hard to highlight too many games in which they have physically out-duelled their opponents.
Tottenham were good value for their point
Tottenham were good value for their point
View 2 Images
For half of this match, they were beaten to every 50-50 challenge. Every single one. The Old Trafford crowd was jeering before the half-hour mark. United were initially so poor against a winless team, it was actually quite fascinating.
Equally fascinating was Tottenham’s inability to convert their vast superiority into goals. Before his late equaliser, Solanke was seriously lacking in confidence, that is for sure. And Spurs’ utter lack of penalty-area conviction was why there was always plenty of hope for a team struggling to find any sort of rhythm.
It was also the source of the frustration that, inevitably, began to creep into Spurs ranks. After all, everyone knows the Spurs script this season. Play some cracking stuff, fail to score, concede and collapse. Rinse and repeat. And when Solanke missed another glaringly easy chance, the travelling Tottenham fans probably feared the inevitable.
It was not as though Spurs’ failure to take a lead was down to any sort of stellar defensive work on United’s part. It is all well and good commending Spurs for their style under De Zerbi but the unavoidable truth is that his team rarely looks like scoring even when they enjoy lengthy dominant phases, as they did in this match.
And they did look like imploding, as they temporarily did in this match, giving Mbeumo far too much time to score and then having Bentancur - only recently introduced as a substitute - lose the plot. After the melee that followed, Carrick looked back to his serene self, until Solanke found a way to score. And make no mistake, this is a result and performance that puts the United manager under pressure already.