Michael Carrick’s five-minute monologue: Under-fire boss admits Man United have ‘lost our way’, demands ‘humility’ from Bruno Fernandes and Co and refuses to say if he’ll keep the captaincy

Under-pressure Manchester United boss Michael Carrick claimed that the club have lost their way in a five-minute opening speech to the media ahead of their crunch clash with Bournemouth.

There is increasing uncertainty surrounding Carrick’s future at Old Trafford following United’s humiliating 4-1 defeat away at Como in the Champions League on Wednesday evening.

The 45-year-old is set to take charge of the Red Devils as they take on the Cherries on Sunday, seeking their first win in all competitions since early September. And in his pre-match press conference ahead of the match, Carrick let his true feelings known regarding United’s struggles.

‘I’ll start today. I just want to say a few things, really,’ said Carrick. ‘Recently, we haven’t had a good time. I think that’s pretty obvious. So I totally accept what we’re going through at the moment.

‘We had five months of relative success in a spell where I was happy with a lot of things I was seeing and that we were doing as a team. We haven’t done well enough lately. We’ve had a spell that we’re really not happy with.

‘Wednesday was a bad night. It was a bad night for a lot of reasons. It hurt a lot.

‘It obviously hurt me to see us play that way, to see how the game panned out. As I said after the game, it was really unacceptable.

‘The supporters are a huge part of this football club. They have to make the effort and the time and money they spend, to feel how we all felt on Wednesday was a tough moment.’

More to follow.