Thursday marks five months exactly since Man Utd announced Michael Carrick would be staying on as head coach. There will be little mood for celebrating anniversaries the morning after his worst night in the role. The 4-1 thumping in Como left Carrick, in his own words, "angry".
It also ruptured open divisions in the camp, with club captain Bruno Fernandes criticising the tactical plan. United have made their worst-ever start to a Premier League season and that European humbling means they are now seven without a win across all competitions. It's a shocking collapse in form from the brilliant run at the back end of last season which convinced United to sign Carrick up until 2028.
This week, it was Fernandes. Last week, it was Lisandro Martinez hitting out at the hierarchy. The centre-back had technical director Jason Wilcox in his sights when he criticised the club for not strengthening the squad further in the summer transfer window.
United spent £163m - less than promoted pair Hull City and Ipswich Town, as well as seven other Premier League clubs. Midfield was the focus but left-back and centre-forward areas weren't bolstered. Reasons for the scale of United's summer outlay are multi-layered - stretching right back to the Glazer takeover - but crucially Carrick was not able to significantly upgrade this group to go from playing just 40 games last season to taking on Champions League football and trying to improve on a third-place Premier League finish this term.
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player The World Cup made it a draining summer for many players at elite clubs. But when concerns about this season's increased workload for United were combined with Youri Tielemans suggesting there had been a lighter load of pre-season running, alarm bells began to ring. United's intensity - or lack of - has proven to be a standout problem.
They have been out-run in six of their seven Premier League games. The only exception was when Man City played over an hour with a man less. On Wednesday, their out-of-possession failings were again exposed.
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