Why these five Premier League managers need a result more than ever

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As Brighton tried to work their way back into Wednesday night’s Carabao Cup game at Old Trafford, a realisation spread through the team. Manchester United, despite their early burst, were really lacking in intensity. They were there to be got at.

United looked and felt slow. And if that could usually be written off as just what occasionally happens in the League Cup with a second-string team, the greater concern is how it has been so consistent with tepid performances so far.

United’s slowness has consequently resulted in something else coming rather quickly.

Here we are again, discussing another escalating crisis as early as September. Any optimistic notion of a title challenge is already over. Pressure on Michael Carrick is already growing.

Sunday’s visit to Craven Cottage is already huge.

That isn’t only about what has just happened, however, but also what is to come.

If United fail to win, it’s three weeks of dwelling on this, in this first extended international break.

Sources at multiple clubs have talked for a long time about how, depending on recent form and league position, it genuinely is a concern to strike the right emotional note before such disruptions to fixtures. That’s all the more pertinent in the social media age.

Otherwise, it’s the club being surrounded by the worst kind of noise when there is no immediate chance to rectify it.

An Arsenal in a very tense title race, for example, felt it was crucial to beat Everton 2-0 before the last big break in March.

And now that timescale is almost tripled, as national teams play four Nations League fixtures, multiplying the scrutiny.

Worse, it can get club hierarchies thinking. Could there even be a sacking over this period?

It all makes this fifth weekend of the Premier League season an unexpectedly important one, that may even serve as the first hinge moment of the season.

Duly, United are far from the only club in this situation.

So are around a third of the Premier League, including opponents Fulham.

They might have got a draw at Liverpool last week but it was their first point of the season. Talk has already grown about how Alvaro Arbeloa is playing an approach that just isn’t suited to this squad, and has so far only fostered a vulnerability that can quickly put a coach in a precarious position.

Liverpool have meanwhile found themselves in an even more frenetic back-and-forth than United, as they travel to Andoni Iraola’s old club.

Under the Basque, Bournemouth developed a surprising capacity for 2-2 draws, with 13 over his three Premier League seasons.

Something has evidently been ingrained, since the south-coast club have already had two in four this season… but so have Liverpool.

Is this to be the most nailed-on 2-2 ever seen?

Such anticipation will probably mean not, but either outcome would reflect the unpredictability of their campaigns so far.

Iraola, and to a lesser extent Bournemouth successor Marco Rose, could just do with that first Premier League victory to steady things, despite cup wins over Lincoln and Real Sociedad. Anfield has been a discontented place of late, where doubt has spread surprisingly quickly, which is partly why Iraola could do with the assurance.

Above all, or maybe below most of those, there’s Tottenham Hotspur. They just need a goal, to avoid a defeat.

Roberto De Zerbi has already admitted that there is a psychological “block” about scoring, admittedly among other issues, but that could become a proper barrier if it continues into the international break.

Like United, though, their opposition are just in need of a result. Aston Villa are enduring a similar slow start to last season, even if this is in the completely different context of a very different team.

The issue is that means you can’t quite bank on the same eventual uptick. Unai Emery is trying to build something new. Like so much with this subject, that requires confidence in an approach and that only comes with the evidence of performances, goals and points.

Again, three weeks of doubt greatly affects that.

Local rivals Coventry City meanwhile need all of this and more: a goal, a point, and just a performance to get Frank Lampard settled back into top flight management and fend off any consideration from the Sky Blues that they may need to change things in the battle to beat the drop.

If this feels like an unusually sizeable crop of teams, it is down to two factors on either side. One is, yes, that long break.

The other is something that has been discussed on these pages before. This was anticipated to be a chaotic Premier League season, primarily due to the amount of change – in both transfers and coaches – after the huge variable that is a longest ever World Cup. Some football figures do not expect anything like “normality”, or most teams properly finding themselves, until into the new year.

To illustrate, some of United’s struggles are part of this. Carrick didn’t get the left wing-back he wanted, which has meant his approach can’t work as it would. United push so much out wide, but the quality of crossing has been lacking.

You could admittedly say it’s a greater concern that is so emphasised in their play, and there is such a paucity of build-up and construction.

With so much uncertainty and unpredictability, though, this weekend will offer the first point where it feels like things are frozen; where the table and perceptions will stay as they are for a few weeks.

That might only be temporary but it can quickly become a bigger problem.