Pressure piles on Carrick as 'game got away' from Man Utd but sacking will change nothing

Pressure is piling on Michael Carrick who admits the "game got away" from Manchester United but changing manager will change nothing.

Carrick admitted that the players must learn quickly from a familiar pattern.

United produced an encouraging first-half performance at Stamford Bridge, with Matheus Cunha having a goal ruled out by VAR and the visitors creating several opportunities to take the lead.

But they failed to make their pressure count and were punished after the break when Morgan Rogers ran through the heart of the defence to put Chelsea ahead.

United’s afternoon then deteriorated further when Lisandro Martinez was sent off after a VAR review upgraded his challenge to a second yellow card.

Cole Palmer converted the resulting penalty to make it 2-0, leaving Carrick’s side with too much to do.

Bryan Mbeumo struck the crossbar as United searched for a response, but the 10 men were unable to prevent another damaging defeat.

United have been desperately poor this season at taking their chances and that is the case whether Carrick is or isn't the manager.

With Benjamin Sesko out injured there isn't another recognised target man which shows an unbelievable lack of planning ahead of the campaign.

Bryan Mbeumo is more effective coming off the wing as he isn't a deadly finisher and neither is he a good target man who can hold the ball up effectively.

But with all likelihood Carrick will lose his job.

Speaking to MUTV and TNT Sports afterwards, Carrick felt the contrast between the two halves was stark, with United left to rue their failure to capitalise on a promising opening.

"Yes, that's exactly what it was," he said when asked if it had been a game of two halves.

"You know it was as good as we've played for some time in the first half, coming here and playing that way. Looking so dangerous and having chances and opportunities, and we could have created more chances with the spaces that we opened up.

"So, going in at half-time, there's a positive feeling but a little bit of disappointment, knowing that we hadn't capitalised on such a good performance.

"Then, the second half just kind of got away from us, the goal and then, after that, it kind of became a difficult afternoon really."

Carrick admitted United never recovered their momentum after the interval, with Rogers' goal changing the complexion of the contest.

"It started a little bit scrappy and then they score really quickly and the game changes completely after that," he added.

The United head coach was particularly frustrated by the way his side had allowed the match to slip away, suggesting it was an issue they could no longer afford to ignore.

"I think I take away a lot of the positives from the first half," Carrick said.

"I think we still take away, though, finding a way to let the game unravel and it get away from us. It's happened too often really so we've got to learn from that and we've got to do something about it pretty quickly."

Carrick also acknowledged the emotion surrounding the club and the disappointment of the supporters, who had travelled to London hoping to see a response.

"There is a lot of emotion, you know. We're a great football club and we want to win football matches," he said.

"The supporters come and, I've said many times, make a lot of effort, pay a lot of money to watch us play.

"You can see, from today, the boys had the game in the right place and things have gone against us and gone against us in a big way, unravelled quite quickly, so there is a lot of emotion running around right now."