CHRIS WHEELER: Man United were insipid, lifeless and downright ugly in tame Como surrender. How much longer can Michael Carrick and his team sleepwalk through this wretched season?

DAILYMAIL.COM • 1h ago

By CHRIS WHEELER, NORTHERN SPORTS WRITER 20:00 21 Oct 2026, updated 20:02 21 Oct 2026

At full-time, Michael Carrick walked straight over to the few Manchester United fans who were left at the Giuseppe Sinigaglia Stadium and held up his hands in apology.

They had stood drenched through the wind and rain that whipped off Lake Como and witnessed one of their club’s worst nights in Europe. It has to be the most picturesque venue in the Champions League by some distance, but on a night like this it was downright ugly and so were United.

How much longer can this go on? How much longer can United sleepwalk through this wretched season as Carrick continues to grasp hopelessly for positives? If this turns out to be his last stand, it was a tame surrender.

A fifth defeat in 11 games against a Como side inspired by the excellent Nico Paz hardly begins to tell the story of one of United’s biggest embarrassments. They were insipid. Lifeless. The confidence and self-belief has been sucked out of this team.

It’s eight games since United last won, beating Sabah of Azerbaijan in this competition and recording their only clean sheet of the season. The 700 fans who made the journey to Lombardy stood in one of the areas of this stadium exposed to the elements beneath Giuseppe Terragni’s Monumento ai Caduti that sits at the head of the lake. It means monument to the fallen, and how much further can United keep falling from here?

This was meant to be the biggest game in Como’s history and they played like it. Cesc Fabregas’ team are a credit to the former Arsenal midfielder and it’s not by chance that they lie fifth in Serie A.

I was sitting next to Taylor Swift when she 'snapped' at a fan28.7K viewing now Manchester United were completely outplayed by Como as they lost 4-1 to the Italian side The dreadful result heaps further pressure on under-fire Red Devils boss Michael Carrick This was an incredible night for Como, but one of the worst in United’s European history Como 4-1 Man United: MATCH FACTS Como 1907 (4-2-3-1): Butez 6; Couto 7 (Smolcic 80, 6), Ramon 7, Kempf 6, Valle 6; Milla 7, Perrone 8 (Dossena 80, 6); Da Cunha 7, Paz 9 (Ricci 80), Baturina 7 (Caqueret 64, 7); Douvikas 8

Goals: Paz (2, 57), Douvikas (49), Ramon (76)

Manchester United (4-2-3-1): Lammens 4; Dalot 3, De Ligt 3 (Amass 79, 5), Maguire 4, Mazraoui 3; Mount 3, Santos 4 (Baleba 46, 5); Mbeumo 4 (Lacey 86), Tielemans 4, Cunha 3 (Amad 46, 6); Fernandes 4 (Zirkzee 67, 6)

But Manchester United coming to town is no longer what it was. This is a pathetic imitation of the teams that have represented this great club down the years.

Shortly after the half hour mark, their supporters broke into a chorus of ‘attack, attack, attack’ which is never a good sign for any United manager.

From the chance that fell to Diogo Dalot in the opening seconds to Matheus Cunha’s tame effort on the stroke of half-time, they didn’t have another effort on goal in the first half.

Yes, Carrick was without nine senior players, forcing him to put Matthijs De Ligt into the starting line-up without playing a minute of football in the last 325 days due to a back injury, and name Jack Fletcher and Tynan Thompson on the bench even though both players had featured in the UEFA Youth League defeat to Como earlier in the day.

But that was no excuse for another performance that left you wondering just what these United players are doing on the training pitch all week – and what Carrick is saying to them.

If there was concrete evidence that they simply aren’t learning or progressing, it came after two minutes here. A week after United conceded after 50 seconds to Atletico Madrid in Spain, they were behind again.

‘Coming away from home in Europe, you want to see the ball and try to control the game,’ Carrick told TNT Sports before kick-off, and yet his team did the exact opposite.

No sooner had Dalot curled an effort wide after mistakenly creating the opportunity for himself by miscontrolling Cunha’s pass than Paz converted a similar chance at the other end.

United had been warned about the gifted Argentine, but you wouldn’t have known it by the way Harry Maguire stood off the 22-year-old when he received a pass from Lucas Da Cunha inside the box with Como’s first attack of the game. Paz looked up, picked his spot and guided the ball beyond Senne Lammens.

He was simply too much for United to handle. Andrey Santos was booked for hacking him down on the near touchline with a crude challenge, and Cunha resorted to similar tactics.

When Paz raced through in the 41st minute and Lammens pulled him down, the United goalkeeper was relieved to see the flag go up for offside before parrying another goalbound attempt from him after Noussair Mazraoui gave the ball away with a wayward pass.

Carrick made changes at half-time, sending on Amad Diallo and Carlos Baleba for Cunha and Santos so that Bryan Mbeumo could play through the middle. He also asked his full-backs, Dalot and Mazraoui, to switch sides.

It’s another sign of the growing crisis around Carrick that it only made things worse as United conceded another early goal.

Martin Baturina had gone close to a goal twice before half-time, so it was no surprise to see him extend Como’s lead. Paz was the architect this time with a fine pass to Baturina who got away from De Ligt and powered a shot past Lammens.

United were three down eight minutes later and staring at a humiliation. Baleba gave the ball away to Paz close to halfway and no United player looked like getting near him as he surged downfield and finished clinically.

Carrick’s misery was complete in the 76th minute when Jacobo Ramon, one of the rising stars of this team and best young defenders in Serie A, got the fourth.

It was a measure of the brimming confidence in Fabregas’ side that his centre-back felt able to charge forward in open play and meet a left-wing cross from substitute Kaiki Bruno. No-one had tracked Ramon and he beat Lammens with a thumping header.

Carrick sent on teenagers Harry Amass and Shea Lacey which felt like a pathetic response to a pathetic performance. Joshua Zirkzee scored from close-range in the 91st minute but the damage was done.

As Carrick and his players fly home on Wednesday night, Sir Jim Ratcliffe and the United board have to decide where they go from here.

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