Michael Carrick on the brink after Manchester United are humiliated by Bournemouth

Strikes from Rayan, Marcus Tavernier and Evanilson gave Bournemouth a 3-0 win at Old Trafford, a defeat which looks likely to signal the end for another Manchester United manager After Bruno Fernandes was dropped for “pure football” reasons – according to Michael Carrick – could Manchester United actually win a game of football? The answer, again, was a resounding, humiliating no, and if the manager’s job remains in real peril, you have to wonder, too, if this beleaguered team should steel themselves for a relegation dogfight. They lack imagination, cohesion, fight, confidence and anything resembling joy, and so, now they hover a point above the drop zone, survival cannot be taken for granted.

Goals from Rayan, Marcus Tavernier and Evanilson downed United this afternoon yet what has killed Carrick and side in the past fortnight is the insubordination of Bruno Fernandes and Lisandro Martínez plus the deeper malaise of a club that is riven by factions. The Sir Jim Ratcliffe-led football department may issue Carrick the bullet but the next man – Eddie Howe is