Stop calling this a respectable loss. Manchester United went to the Metropolitano, conceded to Pablo Barrios inside the first minute, got down to ten men when Leny Yoro was sent off for denying a goalscoring opportunity on Jonathan David, and shipped a second to Ademola Lookman five minutes later. United were already losing the game before most fans had sat down, then fell apart once they went to ten.
The case for calm is obvious: a two-goal margin away from home, against a side that needed the points after dropping its opener to Liverpool, isn't a disaster on paper. United even got a break when Atlético had a goal chalked off for handball in the buildup before halftime. None of that changes the fact that this is now five games without a win across all competitions, following a home draw against Tottenham where they conceded in stoppage time and got booed off their own pitch for it. It's a pattern, and the name on it is Carrick's.
The pushback that Atlético were just cruising doesn't help Carrick's case. It indicts him further. If a team that didn't need to get out of second gear still walked over you by two goals and a man advantage, you're simply not competitive at this level right now. Domestically this is already United's worst start in four decades, with the club sitting on its lowest points total after six league games since the 1986-87 season, the campaign that eventually cost Ron Atkinson his job. That comparison existing at all in 2026 should embarrass everyone connected to the club.
The red card is the sticking point. VAR sent the referee to the monitor, and plenty will say the call was soft. The review process happened, the officials looked again, and United still ended up with ten men for denying a clear goalscoring chance. You can be furious about officiating in general and still accept that your centre-back put himself in that position. Blaming the whistle is easier than blaming the manager who set the team up to be exposed on that ball over the top in the first place.
Carrick signed a two-year contract to take this job permanently, running through 2028, on the back of an interim spell everyone praised. That contract is exactly why this is on him now. You don't get credit for stability and then get a pass when the results look like relegation form. Six games, six points domestically, a European night where his team conceded before the crowd had settled and then fell apart with a man sent off. That's a manager who hasn't fixed anything he was hired to fix.
United travel to Leeds next with the lowest points total after six league games the club has posted since the mid-1980s hanging over them. If that trip goes wrong too, the people defending Carrick tonight because "it was only 2-0" will have run out of road. He already has. The scoreline flattered him, but the table didn't.
