Portugal Colonial - Man Utd defeat to Como 'unacceptable', says Carrick

After a successful interim spell in charge in the second half of last season, Carrick was appointed on a permanent basis just five months ago, but his position is at risk ahead of Sunday's visit of Bournemouth to Old Trafford.

United are off to their worst start in the Premier League era, were dumped out of the League Cup by Brighton and have lost two of their opening three Champions League games.

"Recently we haven't had a good time. I totally accept that. We had five months of relative success in a spell where I was happy with a lot of things we were doing as a team," Carrick said in an impassioned address at the start of his press conference on Friday.

"We haven't done well enough lately. We've had a spell we're really not happy with. Como was a bad night. It hurt me. It was really unacceptable.

"The supporters have to make the effort and spend the money to come and watch us. To have the feeling we all had after the game was a tough moment."

Carrick added: "My job is to put a team on the pitch that represents the supporters and that they can be proud of the identity we show. We have gone away from that recently in certain games which I am fully aware of and definintely doing something about."

F.Moura--PC