Man Utd Exposed: Michael Carrick’s dodgy calls in awful Hull defeat and problem position not solved for 20 years

MANCHESTER UNITED got their season off to a nightmare start as they suffered a shocking loss to newly promoted Hull City. Two set-piece goals sunk the Red Devils in Michael Carrick‘s first Premier League opener in the dugout for the outfit – and clearly he is still having teething problems. Michael Carrick had a difficult start to the season after suffering a 2-0 defeat to Hull City Credit: Shutterstock Editorial It is the first time the team have lost to a newly promoted side on opening weekend Credit: Alamy Familiar problems reared their heads to terrorise the side once more, while questionable decision making from the manager himself did not do his side any favours. SunSport’s Samuel Luckhurst gives you his view on where it all went so wrong for United on opening day… Sign up for the Man United newsletter Thank you! Carrick’s bad calls Unfortunately for United, Carrick just made far too many bad calls. When the team sheets dropped, there were a couple of issues. Whether it be playing Mateus Cunha through the middle, Patrick Dorgu on the left wing, and Ayden Heaven starting as well. Heaven’s the rawest defender United have got as a 19-year-old, but by virtue of being left-footed, he started by default, which I just found quite strange. Great teams since time immemorial have got by with two right-footed centre-backs. Leny Yoro costs considerably more than Heaven. That doesn’t mean that he’s a better defender than him. But I think interms of his actual ability and the potential there, he should be starting ahead of him. There are also questions to be asked of United’s ‘cumbersome’ midfield, especially given the obvious importance placed on finding a defensive midfielder this summer. Most read in Sport CASINO SPECIAL – BEST CASINO BONUSES FROM £10 DEPOSITS Ayden Heaven was given the nod in defence despite still being a raw teenage talent Credit: Shutterstock Editorial Tielemans isn’t an old player, he’s 29, but he made his debut at the age of 16. The fee that United have signed him for is a really good fee for £35 million. But there are a lot of miles on the clock there already. I felt sorry for Andrey Santos because he was exposed by Tielemans. He just looked unfit on Saturday. Belgium got to the World Cup quarter-finals, so he’s come into pre-season quite late. He made a couple of substitute appearances and then just the one start. So he is clearly lacking match fitness. But that’s been happening at the start of seasons when players have played at a World Cup or a European Championship or a Copa America. Clubs have got to be able to cope and deal with that. With Santos, he’s a 22-year-old. I think when United were looking at all these targets, Elliot Anderson, Mateus Fernandes, all these targets who were either too expensive or they took the money and ran to Tottenham. It was interesting that once you got down to Santos in this list of players aged between 22 and 26, which is United’s preferred age range of a target, and you filtered it to Premier League midfielders, Santos was probably 11th or 12th in the list. United have taken a squad player, a bit of a bench warmer at Chelsea, who was farmed out on loan three or four times in three and a half years, and all of a sudden they want to make him a starting player. That leap, that acid test, unfortunately for him, he failed it on Saturday. Right-back where they started At right-back, Diogo Dalot and Noussair Mazraoui are both decent right-backs, but they’re not optimum right-backs. Listen to the full episode of Manchester United Exposed here… Over the past 10 years, we’ve seen Trent Alexander-Arnold, a right-back, raise the bar – for an attacking right-back anyway. Kyle Walker, Reece James, Denzel Dumfries, who’s just gone to Real Madrid, impressed a hell of a lot at Inter Milan. You could go on. United haven’t had an optimum right-back for an awfully long time, probably since Gary Neville‘s playing days. So you’re talking about nearly 20 years ago there. It was always going to be the midfield that was prioritised this summer. But there is an argument to strengthen defence. They’ve got players in defence who are also injury-prone, includingLisandro Martinez, who was slower than a milk float when he came on against AC Milan and was outpaced by Ruben Loftus-Cheek. I think the issue I would have is that they’ve got five senior centre-backs, all of them are fit, but ultimately Carrick just did not play the strongest defence he had available to him. Dalot being on the bench is not headline team news, but Mazraoui started 11 games for United last season. As good a player as he is, he is a squad player. Andrey Santos could not keep up with the responsibilities of two players Credit: Shutterstock Editorial Ticket + hotel room for Man Utd games GET tickets to see Man Utd at Old Trafford with our hand-picked deals. The packages include an official match ticket and an overnight stay in a nearby hotel. Man United Home Games⚽ 30 Aug v Ipswich — BOOK HERE⚽ 13 Sep v Manchester City — BOOK HERE⚽ 10 Oct v Tottenham Hotspur — BOOK HERE⚽ 24 Oct v Bournemouth — BOOK HERE⚽ 7 Nov v Aston Villa — BOOK HERE More games available here. *If you click on a link in this article, we will earn affiliate revenue. Striker crisis It was a concern that Maguire was in their penalty area from what I think was the 75th, 76th minute. Needs must and all, but it still reflected badly on United. The word from the club a few weeks ago was that a new striker was not on the radar, which I just find totally perplexing, especially when you see Danny Welbeck going to Chelsea. I thought that made perfect sense – arranging a homecoming for him. He’d have been ideal in that support striker role for Benjamin Sesko, who has only just come back from a shin injury that’s kept him out for three and a half months. He didn’t get a kick in pre-season. So there’s got to be an element of understanding and patience with him, particularly as he did start to get going in the second half of last season. Cunha, Fernandes, Ahmad as well, that’s still a pretty good front four thatyou could potentially have. But ultimately, you look at that squad, it lacks a striker. Yeah, okay, Joshua Zirkzee is there, but he’s not a striker. United signed him a couple of years ago for two reasons – he had a release clause and he was Dutch, because Eric ten Haag was still in charge. Zirkzee is just not good enough for the Premier League, never mind for Manchester United. And I still wouldn’t be surprised if something happened there with him in terms of maybe going back to Italy. Youri Tielemans looked slow in United’s midfield Credit: Getty Joshua Zirkzee and Marcus Rashford both represent forward options that are not currently at the level required Credit: Reuters The sack race The United manager is always under pressure regardless of theresults, because there has to be that aspiration to achieve excellence, to make the team successful, to make the team a credible force again. When you lose away at Hull, that was their first ever top flight defeat against Hull City, first defeat to a newly promoted side on the opening game of the season. Those are the kind of records that put a Man Utd manager under pressure irrespective of what time of the year it is, what number game it is in the season. So going into the Ipswich game, yes, the pressure has been cranked up a bit because if they fail to beat Ipswich as well, it’s going to intensifyautomatically. Then it’s Everton away, which all of a sudden looks a bit trickier. And then there’s a Derby around the corner as well, which is at Old Trafford, and you’ve also got the midweek games kicking in. United didn’t have that lastseason. How are Michael Carrick‘s United going to cope with that? And I think theChampions League, their first game in that competition comes a few days before the Derby. Undeniably, he is under pressure, but it’s not in the sense of it’s his job on the line. Of course not. Nevertheless, I always felt it was telling when he did get his permanent contract back in May, United gave him a two-year deal. That essentially was United’s way of saying the results have been so good that ‘we’ve been railroaded into this decision, but we’re not going to give him an obscenely long contract because he’s still got to prove himself over the course of a full season’, if indeed he manages to see out the season. Comment now