Carrick accepts blame as Como's speed in transition overwhelms Manchester United
Nico Paz inspired a 4-1 rout of Manchester United at Stadio Giuseppe Sinigaglia, with Michael Carrick calling the display unacceptable while insisting responsibility for it stops with him.
Manchester United's Champions League trip to Lake Como produced the heaviest defeat the club have suffered in European competition since 1994, according to Jamie Jackson of Guardian Football, who described Cesc Fàbregas's side inflicting a humiliation on their continental-debutant opponents.
The scoreline told its own story: 4-1, with Nico Paz scoring twice and setting up a third, Tasos Douvikas and Jacobo Ramón also on target, and Joshua Zirkzee's stoppage-time header merely softening the margin, as detailed by Opta's The Analyst.
A two-minute start United never recovered from
Paz needed only the second minute to put Como ahead, and the pattern of the night was set almost immediately afterwards: Diogo Dalot mis-controlled and then shot wide of the far post with 84 seconds on the clock, and 34 seconds later Como were up the other end, Paz curling the opener into the corner, per The Analyst's data.
That sequence is the kind of moment analysts look at when judging a team's transition defending — the speed with which a side can turn a missed chance of its own into an exposed back line at the other end. Como needed barely half a minute to do it, and United's defensive shape was nowhere near reset when Paz struck.
It set the tone for a half in which Como finished on top, with United failing to generate a meaningful response before the break.
Build-up play repeatedly broken open
The second half brought no respite. Paz teed up Douvikas in the 49th minute after Matthijs de Ligt, playing his first game in 325 days, stumbled, and the Greek striker finished smartly past Senne Lammens, The Analyst reported.
Eight minutes later Paz struck again, this time pouncing on a blind pass from Carlos Baleba in United's own build-up and sprinting clear to finish into the bottom-left corner. A loose pass in possession, deep in a team's own build-up phase, is precisely the kind of error a well-organised press is designed to punish, and Como's front line converted it instantly into a third goal.
Douvikas had also gone close earlier in the half, beating De Ligt for pace before Lammens brought him down; the goalkeeper escaped a penalty only because the offside flag was raised, per the same report.
Across the match United were second-best in every underlying metric that typically decides these games — behind in possession share, in passes attempted and completed, in pass accuracy, and in both shots and shots on target, as reported by Football Italia. Those are not marginal gaps; a team outpassed and outshot so comprehensively away from home had no platform to control tempo or relieve pressure.
Carrick's apology and the mounting pressure
Michael Carrick had said before kick-off that he wanted his side to dictate the game, but admitted afterwards that the opposite had happened. Speaking to reporters, he said: "It was more than disappointing."
He went further in accepting personal culpability, telling reporters: "I think everybody has got to take responsibility for that. I 100% take responsibility for the overall team and the performance – that's where it stops. It stops with me and I'm absolutely fine with that. I accept that totally."
Carrick also addressed the travelling support directly, many of whom had left the Stadio Giuseppe Sinigaglia by the time it reached 4-0, saying: "But as a supporter of this football club for so long, to see a performance like that is unacceptable, I have to say."
The defeat leaves United winless in seven matches in all competitions, according to The Analyst, a run that, combined with the scale of this loss, has intensified scrutiny of Carrick's position, as Guardian Football's report on his job security makes clear.
There is little room left to absorb another result like this one. A side that cannot control possession, cannot protect its back line in transition, and concedes from its own build-up errors has three clear problems to solve before its next continental outing, and Carrick's own words suggest he knows the responsibility for fixing them rests with him.