Michael Carrick's position as Man Utd head coach will come under review this week and there are reasons for concern at Old Trafford.
Michael Carrick
Michael Carrick could still be heading for the exit at Manchester United
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On the face of it, if Michael Carrick isn't being sacked by Manchester United after thrashings at the hands of Como and Bournemouth, then his position should be safe after a win against Roma and a draw against Aston Villa.
But there is reason to think it won't be as simple as that, and having dithered on Carrick's position two weeks ago, United's decision-makers will realise that this two-week international break is now the optimum moment to make a change.
The delirium of two wild, unforgettable games at Old Trafford can't cloud the reality that for at least two weeks, United will be in the relegation zone. They have won one of their first 10 league games and haven't won in the Premier League since August 30.
Those statistics make for grim reading for Carrick and while the club's co-owners, along with chief executive Omar Berrada and director of football Jason Wilcox, have tried to support him, they have their doubts as to whether he is the right man to lead the team forward.
Carrick insisted after the game that he wouldn't quit and he sounded like someone who thought he would be in charge at Anfield in two weeks. You can understand why. Having somehow survived a 4-1 defeat to Como and a 3-0 defeat to Bournemouth, there have been more positive signs recently.
United were masters of their own downfall at Chelsea after a strong first half, then they showed spirit and character to rescue themselves against Roma and twice fought back from two-goal deficits to earn a 4-4 draw against Villa.
But the flaws remain evident and alarming. United have conceded 15 goals in five games and in all of them they have conceded in clusters. Two in eight minutes at Como, two in five minutes against Bournemouth, two in 14 minutes at Chelsea, two in six minutes against Roma and then two in three minutes and two in five minutes against Villa.
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That hints at a mentally fragile team, but then on the flip side they have shown plenty of character this week to engineer those fightbacks from situations that looked dire. The contrast wasn't lost on Carrick on Sunday.
"There's definitely extremes to it, of course there is," he said. "The fact that it's moments and one-off moments, I think the bigger picture in terms of the generic football, everything else that's going into the game, that if we really tighten up on these moments - granted, it's what defines games, but it's moments that are really causing us the problems.
"So if we can deal with that, a little bit of concentration, a little bit of confidence, a little bit of belief, a little bit of mentality, all that comes into making the right decisions.
"Taking a lot of the rest of the game through this, I'd say the last three games or so, there's good things that give us a lot of encouragement that we can definitely win a lot of football matches with. I feel that we should have won today even though we still give too much away."
United have certainly been better over the past week, but when the head coach is talking about "extremes" to his team in November, alarm bells should be ringing upstairs.
Berrada and Wilcox leapt to their feet to celebrate Patrick Dorgu's 96th-minute equaliser against Villa. With five minutes to go in that game, they would have known they had little choice but to sack the man in charge, despite the crowd still showing their backing for him.
Any decision to remove Carrick should also signal the end for those executives, who have presided over three years of failure and look so far out of their depth trying to run Manchester United that they should be wearing armbands when sitting in the directors' box.
The problems at this club run deep. Absent co-owners who have used Manchester United as their own credit card for 21 years, a more hands-on co-owner wasting money on a vanity project that matchgoing supporters have no interest in, and appointing people to key roles who tell him what he wants to hear.
But unfortunately for Carrick, the easiest change to make is always the man in the dugout. The 45-year-old could make a reasonably strong argument that this week has shown signs he can turn it around, but those extremes he mentioned are just that, and when his team are flirting with a relegation battle, he will have to accept whatever decision the brains trust comes up with this week.