Manchester United's players, not Michael Carrick, should shoulder the blame after embarrassing loss to Chelsea

Senior players have complained about tactics and recruitment, but a self-inflicted collapse at Chelsea showed the squad only has itself to blame Oct 31, 2026 at 12:09 pm ET • 5 min read LONDON -- Manchester United players have been at great pains in recent weeks to point out how they have been failed by the powers that be, by those with supposedly more influence than the 11 lads on the field. On occasion, you could argue they had the measure of the situation. There's just one little note for Lisandro Martinez, Bruno Fernandes and anyone else who counts themselves among the Old Trafford mutineers.If you're going to start demanding greater professional standards from your employers, you would be well advised to hold yourself to the same level. It would be a real problem if, for instance, you earned yourself two yellow cards in the space of 210 seconds, handing your opponents the penalty from which they win the game. Sympathy will be in quite short supply for those who complain about the head coach's tactics or the sporting director's recruitment but then, when the circumstances are right, fail to exploit prime opportunities.Lisandro Martinez was right when he intimated a fortnight ago that Jason Wilcox had bungled recruitment this summer, an assessment that seemed to be supported by Amad Diallo. Bruno Fernandes had a point in Como. Michael Carrick had picked the wrong tactics for the occasion. One of the most significant problems at Old Trafford is that the wrong executives, appointed by the wrong owners, are not exploiting the financial heft that United, even loaded with debt, still have. Another is that Carrick is not a good enough coach to paper over the cracks.Those weren't the problems at Stamford Bridge on Saturday. This was a game lost for United by senior players. Fernandes and Amad, who is now 24 and has played over 100 games for the club, partly number among them. It is rarely wise to over-index on anyone missing chances; perhaps only Amad's last shot of the first half could reasonably have been termed one he should have scored. Then again, if you've got notes about tactics, you had best exploit the mismatches that come your way. Whether through Chelsea's early disorganization or Carrick's adjustments -- which included center forward Bryan Mbeumo peeling off to the right and taking center backs with him -- Amad and Fernandes were afforded space and time to excel. Had they exploited them in the first half, United would have been firmly in the ascendancy. CBS Sports Perhaps United heads would have melted anyway. It does not seem to take much to unleash a chain reaction of mental anguish on this team. One clumsy error begets two or three more, typified by Morgan Rogers' opener. Thirty percent individual brilliance, his clipped finish was as much a function of no one defending the space he was running into. Peter Bankes had the best view of proceedings as Andrey Santos went steaming in on fresh air."When you concede a goal it's never a good goal to concede. Morgan went through the middle of us. The game was in the balance, and to concede like that was," said Carrick, pausing as if catching himself before he said something he regretted. "Yeah it was a big moment for sure. I'm just looking forward to getting the boys ready for midweek now." From there the task fell to Martinez to escort Chelsea across the finishing line. An arm on the midriff was not enough to slow Rogers' advance, so the next time their paths crossed, the Argentine went altogether more physical, rugby-tackling the attacker as he was making his way away from goal. It wasn't just that it was a clear yellow-card tackle; Martinez didn't even stop the attack.It took two more hacks from Martinez and Diogo Dalot before the ball ran away from Rogers. The resulting free kick was cleared for a corner, at which the man they call The Butcher thought it was wiser to start carving up Wesley Fofana than defend the delivery into the box. CBS Sports Martinez was the most obvious culprit, but right across the field United flatlined the moment Chelsea scored their first. Even the 13 minutes between Rogers' goal and the contest effectively ending with a Cole Palmer penalty saw a string of players lose the run of themselves. Carlos Baleba had hardly excelled beforehand, but passes he was clipping with a pitching wedge before were now being smacked around with a driver. United could not pass their way out of the pressure that Chelsea applied to them in their own half. Free kicks flew to no one in particular, although perhaps it shouldn't have been surprising that no one was connecting with balls in the air when all their heads were on Mars. What follows will be the usual psychodrama of Manchester United, all the more so if results go against them and they find themselves in the bottom three at the end of the weekend. At the time Carrick was asked about it, that was the position United occupied, with Nottingham Forest drawing at Brentford. "You've got to keep moving forward and winning games, it's as simple as that. There's no words that make it any different. You've got to move forward and win football matches, it's as simple as that."It does not look simple. Their nine-game winless run is United's longest since 1988. With games against Roma and Aston Villa to come, double figures seems a real risk. Carrick confirmed he will be in charge for the first of those games on Tuesday night, but the two-week sacking window that is a November international break looms large. And yet, if the United hierarchy has backed its manager after he did bungle the tactics against Como, how could his sacking be justified when his players took events out of the coach's control?Carrick certainly had the backing of the traveling fans, who went through the full repertoire of chants against the Glazers, Sir Jim Ratcliffe, Wilcox and the new stadium. All those grievances are well merited, but this was only a game lost by the executives in the sense that they should long ago have dispensed with some of the underperformers, with or without the offer of a transfer fee. There will be the next round of the familiar debates on ownership and on how long Carrick might last. All of those will start from what these players did wrong. They are a constant through line in the perma-crisis, garlanded with individual awards, bedecked with honors for their international side and chronically incapable of delivering to the standards that they demand of others at United.