{"id":936542,"date":"2026-10-22T05:42:11","date_gmt":"2026-10-22T05:42:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/936542\/"},"modified":"2026-10-22T05:42:11","modified_gmt":"2026-10-22T05:42:11","slug":"champions-league-2026-news-manchester-united-vs-como-result-reaction-michael-carrick-future-bruno-fernandes-questions-managers-tactics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/936542\/","title":{"rendered":"Champions League 2026 news: Manchester United vs Como result, reaction; Michael Carrick future; Bruno Fernandes questions manager\u2019s tactics"},"content":{"rendered":"

Michael Carrick apologised to the fans and Bruno Fernandes questioned the manager\u2019s tactics after Manchester United\u2019s<\/a> embarrassing 4-1 Champions League<\/a> loss to Como on Thursday (AEDT).<\/p>\n

Club great Carrick\u2019s stocks soared last season after he improved United from sixth place to third in the Premier League<\/a> after replacing Ruben Amorim, initially on an interim basis.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Michael Carrick of Manchester United reacts towards the fans.\u00a0Getty Images<\/p>\n

That impressive run earned Carrick a permanent two-year contract, but the knives are out again after a dismal performance against Cesc F\u00e0bregas\u2019 Italians.<\/p>\n

Joshua Zirksee scored the hollowest of consolation goals in added time after Argentina gun Nico Paz carved the Red Devils up with two goals and an assist.<\/p>\n

Carrick walked over to the 700 travelling United fans and raised his hands seven times to say sorry for the abject display.<\/p>\n

In a season that kicked off with renewed hope, United are now 20th of 36 teams in the Champions League standings and 13th in the Premier League with just one win from seven games.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m bitterly disappointed, I\u2019m frustrated, more than frustrated, I\u2019m really angry, to be honest,\u201d Carrick said.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019ve got to deal with what\u2019s next and see what that looks like. There\u2019s a lot to do before that next game to get the team ready because that was a difficult night for everyone.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have to apologise to the supporters. I went over to them at the end because I care about this club as much as anyone, if not more. And for us to play in that way is not acceptable. Tonight was the total opposite of a performance, and it was tough to watch. There\u2019s a lot going through my mind watching that.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s difficult to understand… we can all have poor performances, but to do it in that manner is really not right at all.\u201d<\/p>\n

United set up in a 4-2-4 formation and influential captain Fernandes could not hide his frustrations.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a decision from the staff to not press man to man and sometimes leave space behind and try to get the ball, wait for them, but sometimes when you give space to these teams they get confidence,\u201d Fernandes said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not the first time, we started on the wrong foot, and they scored very early. Not much pressure on the ball, not many good movements with the ball, not many things going our way.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Bruno Fernandes of Manchester United reacts after Nico Paz of Como scores.\u00a0Getty Images<\/p>\n

\u201cConceding early (Paz scored in the second minute) makes us go into games with a mood of defeat. It\u2019s difficult to get out of that, trying to be brave, to have the ball and make something happen. If we are not able to do that, it is going to be very difficult to get out of this situation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fernandes was then asked specifically whether he felt Carrick got his tactics wrong.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s on the manager and staff to see, not me,\u201d the Portugal star replied.<\/p>\n

\u201cSometimes you have to be more brave under pressure, take the risk of pressing high and making them uncomfortable. As you saw with them (Como), the centre-back was coming to mark me in my own half. We need to do that as a team, but we were unable to.<\/p>\n

\u201cA team that plays through the middle with small connections, if you give them too much time and space, then they can hurt you out wide.\u201d<\/p>\n

Carrick then criticised United\u2019s workrate and effort before being quizzed about his job security.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not about me right now and my feelings in that regard,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t like what I have seen tonight though. I don\u2019t take it personally. It\u2019s everything\u2019s wrapped around the club. What you do, your behaviour, how you perform, how you go about it and, more importantly, it is the responsibility of representing this club.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt wasn\u2019t just the goals. It was the manner and the way we played at times, in the way we went about it, that was the difficult thing to watch.\u201d<\/p>\n

Elsewhere, Bayern Munich and Arsenal played out a 2-2 draw in the day\u2019s glamour fixture, with Declan Rice scoring the equaliser in the 82nd minute.<\/p>\n

Aston Villa were 3-1 winners over Viking FC and Real Madrid outclassed RB Leipzig 4-1. <\/p>\n

Football\u2019s\u00a0new home, Stan Sport<\/a>, is the only place to watch the Premier League, UEFA Champions League, FA Cup, WSL, J.League, NWSL and K League<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Michael Carrick apologised to the fans and Bruno Fernandes questioned the manager\u2019s tactics after Manchester United\u2019s embarrassing 4-1…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":936543,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[563],"tags":[64,63,596,85],"class_list":["post-936542","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-football","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-football","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/936542","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=936542"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/936542\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/936543"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=936542"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=936542"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=936542"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}