Michael Carrick is expected to give his press conference ahead of Manchester United’s Premier League game against Bournemouth, with the club insisting it is business as usual.

United’s head coach is the focus of acute attention following his team’s 4-1 defeat by Como in the Champions League, which left this season’s results at two wins in 11 games.

But Carrick is set to be in charge for the visit by Bournemouth on Sunday, with club executives appreciating the difficult circumstances he is operating in.

Bruno Fernandes shone the spotlight on Carrick and his staff by revealing it was their pressing plan which made United look like they were not trying against Como.

A clearly irritated Carrick explained United tweaked their plan after the break and emphasised that players have to run whatever the system or they will not win matches.

The back-and-forth, a week in from Lisandro Martinez pointing the finger of blame at United’s hierarchy, only exacerbates the sense of tension at the club and on Carrick’s position, amid a poor start to the season.

The decision on Carrick’s future in the long-term will come down to co-owners Joel and Avram Glazer and Sir Jim Ratcliffe, with a recommendation from director of football Jason Wilcox, in conjunction with chief executive Omar Berrada.

That leadership team has already overseen the mid-season dismissals of Erik ten Hag and Ruben Amorim in the past two years.

Carrick’s run of 39 points from 17 games while in interim charge last season is the only sequence of genuine Premier League momentum since Ratcliffe’s investment into United in December 2023.

United are in 13th place in the Premier League, on seven points from seven games — the club’s worst start in 40 years — and next welcome a side to Old Trafford that they have not beaten in the last six matches. Bournemouth have twice beaten United 3-0 at Old Trafford in their last three visits, with a 4-4 draw the outcome last season.

Marco Rose’s side won their first match of the campaign last week, beating Sunderland 2-0, to sit on six points from seven games.

Carrick’s eyes appeared to burn with indignation when he was presented with what Fernandes had said about the Como performance. “We actually were half-pressed man-to-man the second half and then conceded a goal from that,” he said. “And there’s a little bit on whatever system you play, whatever tactics you play, if you don’t run, and you don’t run forward, and you don’t run back, you ain’t going to win.”

More detail about that specific instruction would be welcome — it implied a change at half-time — but the comment on players not running sufficiently cuts to the heart of what has been so alarming this campaign. Carrick has previously given short shrift to statistics showing United down the table for athletic output, but here he was raising the issue himself.

One crucial question is whether that lack of running is down to tactics, as Fernandes implied; a shortage of fitness, which goes back to pre-season work; a physical incapability of the players, which would be due to transfer policy; or a general disillusionment with the environment and ambitions of the club.

It could be an unholy combination of all those factors. Either way, amid a beautiful setting by Lake Como, this was an ugly night for United.

What it once again underlined was that even if there is to be a new head coach, the same problems will surface, stemming all the way to the top, where the mood has been set for 21 years by the Glazer family, who have governed United from across the Atlantic at a cost to the club of more than £1billion. They are the foundations of this crumbling skyscraper.