@scope (#mos-5f4b0ab5-fdbf-437d-aaa5-beaeb7efccac) { @font-face {
font-family: “Independent Serif”;
src: url(“https://assets.the-independent.com/fonts/Independent-Serif-Medium.woff2”) format(“woff2”);
font-weight: 500;
font-style: normal;
font-display: swap;
}
@font-face {
font-family: “Independent Serif”;
src: url(“https://assets.the-independent.com/fonts/Independent-Serif-Regular.woff2”) format(“woff2”);
font-weight: 400;
font-style: normal;
font-display: swap;
}
@font-face {
font-family: “Independent Sans”;
src: url(“https://assets.the-independent.com/fonts/Independent-Sans-Regular.woff2”) format(“woff2”);
font-weight: 400;
font-style: normal;
font-display: swap;
}
@font-face {
font-family: “Independent Sans”;
src: url(“https://assets.the-independent.com/fonts/Independent-Sans-Medium.woff2”) format(“woff2”);
font-weight: 500;
font-style: normal;
font-display: swap;
}
.bookmark-experience {
box-sizing: border-box;
display: flex;
align-items: center;
justify-content: center;
position: fixed;
top: 0;
left: 0;
right: 0;
bottom: 0;
inset: 0;
width: 100%;
height: 100%;
background-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.55);
z-index: 10000;
padding: 12px;
margin: 0;
}
.bookmark-experience,
.bookmark-experience * {
box-sizing: border-box;
}
.bookmark-experience .modal {
position: relative;
width: 100%;
max-width: 400px;
margin: 0;
padding: 32px 24px 28px;
text-align: center;
color: #ffffff;
background: linear-gradient(90deg, #3b030f 0%, #3b030f 27%, #76071f 52%, #3b030f 100%);
box-shadow: 2px -2px 8px rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.5);
}
.bookmark-experience .close-btn {
position: absolute;
top: 12px;
right: 12px;
width: 16px;
height: 16px;
cursor: pointer;
background: none;
border: none;
padding: 0;
}
.bookmark-experience .close-btn__icon,
.bookmark-experience .close-btn__icon::before,
.bookmark-experience .close-btn__icon::after {
display: block;
}
.bookmark-experience .close-btn__icon {
position: relative;
width: 16px;
height: 16px;
}
.bookmark-experience .close-btn__icon::before,
.bookmark-experience .close-btn__icon::after {
content: “”;
position: absolute;
top: 50%;
left: 0;
width: 16px;
height: 1.5px;
background: #ffffff;
}
.bookmark-experience .close-btn__icon::before { transform: translateY(-50%) rotate(45deg); }
.bookmark-experience .close-btn__icon::after { transform: translateY(-50%) rotate(-45deg); }
.bookmark-experience .logo-row {
display: flex;
align-items: center;
justify-content: center;
margin: 0 0 24px;
}
.bookmark-experience .logo-premium-image {
display: block;
height: 24px;
width: 272px;
max-width: 86%;
object-fit: contain;
}
.bookmark-experience .headline {
font-family: “Independent Serif”, Georgia, serif;
font-weight: 500;
font-size: 28px;
line-height: 32px;
letter-spacing: -0.5px;
color: #ffffff;
margin: 0 0 16px;
}
.bookmark-experience .body-text {
font-family: “Independent Serif”, Georgia, serif;
font-weight: 400;
font-size: 16px;
line-height: 22px;
letter-spacing: -0.3px;
color: #ffffff;
margin: 0 0 24px;
}
.bookmark-experience .subscribe-link {
display: flex;
align-items: center;
justify-content: center;
width: 100%;
height: 42px;
padding: 12px 16px;
background: #ffffff;
color: #76071f;
border-radius: 4px;
font-family: “Independent Sans”, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, “Segoe UI”, Roboto, sans-serif;
font-size: 14px;
font-weight: 500;
line-height: 16px;
letter-spacing: -0.5px;
text-transform: uppercase;
text-decoration: none;
}
.bookmark-experience .subscribe-link:hover,
.bookmark-experience .subscribe-link:focus {
background: #f0e6e8;
color: #76071f;
}
.bookmark-experience .login-copy {
margin: 12px 0 0;
font-family: “Independent Sans”, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, “Segoe UI”, Roboto, sans-serif;
font-size: 14px;
line-height: 18px;
letter-spacing: -0.5px;
color: #ffffff;
}
.bookmark-experience .login-link {
color: #ffffff;
text-decoration: underline;
cursor: pointer;
}
@media screen and (min-width: 600px) {
.bookmark-experience {
padding: 16px;
}
.bookmark-experience .modal {
max-width: 520px;
padding: 40px 48px 32px;
}
.bookmark-experience .close-btn,
.bookmark-experience .close-btn__icon,
.bookmark-experience .close-btn__icon::before,
.bookmark-experience .close-btn__icon::after {
width: 16px;
}
.bookmark-experience .close-btn {
top: 16px;
right: 16px;
}
.bookmark-experience .logo-premium-image {
height: 28px;
width: 320px;
}
.bookmark-experience .headline {
font-size: 32px;
line-height: 36px;
letter-spacing: -0.75px;
margin-bottom: 16px;
}
.bookmark-experience .body-text {
font-size: 16px;
line-height: 22px;
margin-bottom: 28px;
}
}
}
Want to bookmark your favourite articles and stories to read or reference later? Start your Independent Membership today.
Already a member?
Log in
html:not(.mos-bookmark-open) .bookmark-experience { display: none !important; }
For Michael Carrick, it is now a question of when, not if. When the axe falls, when he reverts from being head coach of Manchester United to a season-ticket holder, presumably despairing of the next manager, when he pays the price for a calamity of a start to this season.
“It wasn’t a farewell from me,” he said. But it certainly looked that way as he walked down the tunnel, patting the badge on his club blazer, the Stretford End singing the song about him they coined when he was in the midfield, not the firing line. They showed sympathy, based on his 12 years and 464 games as a player, on the dignity he has brought to what looks the impossible job. They had chorused “Jason Wilcox is a w***er”. They had booed the United players at half-time and seconds after Carrick disappeared from view after the end.
It was an indication that responsibility stretches from the boardroom to the dressing room. But, as Bournemouth eviscerated United with embarrassing ease, their buoyant supporters in a corner of Old Trafford targeted Carrick. “Sacked in the morning,” came the predictable chant. Whether or not they have got the timing right, the outcome appears inevitable.
United are in meltdown. Their worst start to a campaign for 40 years has just got worse. Humiliated by Como, hammered by Bournemouth, they have produced successive shocking displays. On the day Carrick, the nice guy of the dugout, tried to show his tough side by dropping captain Bruno Fernandes, the players he did select were a hapless rabble.
That should not detract from the excellence of Bournemouth. If United’s is a chastening fall from grace, theirs is a wonderful rise. Remarkably, ridiculously, Bournemouth have three 3-0 wins at Old Trafford against three different United managers in their last four visits. For good measure, they have a 3-0 victory against Ruben Amorim this week, since his move to AC Milan.
In 2008, when a United team with Carrick in the midfield were champions of Europe, Bournemouth had a 17-point deduction in League Two. Now they have beaten clubs with a combined 10 European Cups in the last four days. For the second time in four days, their fans sang: “It’s happening again.”
It happened again to Carrick, too. This was another shambolic performance, United’s second in five days and fifth in a season that is only 12 matches old. Their winless run has extended to eight games. Their clueless run arguably stretches back for 13 years.
After Carrick came out fighting in his press conference on Friday, his team did not. They subsided meekly. Carrick had delivered a five-and-a-half minute monologue two days earlier. In five-and-a-half first-half minutes United conceded twice to condemn themselves to a defeat that left them in 16th.
The supporters backed Carrick. “That meant an awful lot,” he said. They chanted against the Glazers and against Wilcox, the sporting director who has put together this increasingly wretched team. As is his wont, Carrick defended his players. “There’s a lot of the boys quite hurt,” he said. “It’s not like they don’t care. The ones I’ve spoken to, it’s affecting them a lot.”
But even in that, it was notable he had not talked to them all after the final whistle. And probably not to one in particular after the biggest call of his reign backfired. After Fernandes turned on Carrick in his post-match interview in Italy, the manager dispensed with his captain. Carrick called it a “pure football” decision but it felt more personal when Mason Mount and Youri Tielemans started instead of him and Matheus Cunha, Joshua Zirkzee and Shea Lacey were brought on ahead of him.
Fernandes was snubbed. “He’s fit and available,” confirmed Carrick. Without the reigning Footballer of the Year, United were terrible at football.
Take the one man out of the one-man team and United were even more abject. A team without goals, creativity or pace also had clear defensive deficiencies.
This was all too simple for Bournemouth. Carrick had told United’s players to learn from the club’s most famous Ryan – Giggs – on Friday. Instead, they conceded to Rayan, the Brazilian volleying in a free kick taken by Justin Kluivert and conceded by Ayden Heaven, with a ludicrous lunge at Evanilson.
Bryan Mbeumo almost equalised straight away, Djordje Petrovic making a fine save. Instead, United were soon breached again. Marcus Tavernier was left with a tap in when Adrien Truffert centred after Leny Yoro first dallied and then slipped. That was United, failing at the basics, making their own problems. Carrick argued Yoro was unlucky, Heaven too. That was being generous.
Evanilson scored the third, brilliantly, from an acute angle after Senne Lammens charged out of his box and missed the ball, which in turn came because Harry Maguire lacked the speed to chase Lewis Cook’s long ball. United lacked a forward of the dynamism of Evanilson. They could not halt Rayan, precisely the sort of player they ought to have signed in recent years.
But Bournemouth are far better at recruitment than United these days. Most clubs are. And Marco Rose, who had made a stuttering start after replacing Andoni Iraola, could instead take on the role of the magnanimous victor. “I feel with Michael, yes,” he said. The United fanbase do, too. But that might not be enough to save him.
