United salvages draw at Fulham but performance raises concerns
United escaped Craven Cottage with a point. That was about the only thing they escaped with.
A late, deflected strike from Matheus Cunha salvaged a 1-1 draw against Fulham, sparing Michael Carrick from a third straight league defeat and masking, briefly, a performance that left Gary Neville seething on Sky Sports.
Lisandro Martinez’s early own goal had set the tone for a flat, disjointed display in west London. United were slow, second best and, in Neville’s eyes, unforgivably passive without the ball. Cunha’s equaliser changed the scoreline. It did nothing to change the verdict.
Neville turns on United’s work rate
Neville has never been shy about criticising his former club, but this was different. This was about effort.
"I've never seen a Man Utd team walk out of possession as much as that," he said, stunned by what he was watching. Fulham moved the ball, United watched them do it. For long spells, they barely pressed, barely harried, barely looked interested.
Neville’s anger sharpened when Carrick, in his post-match comments, pushed back on the idea that his side had lacked energy.
"Michael has just said there was nothing wrong with the team's energy," Neville said. "Both teams were the same. I called them mannequins. I've never seen a United team walk around as much as that. No alertness, no aliveness. No 'on your toes'. You should always be on your toes."
The word he kept coming back to was damning.
"In those first 15 minutes of that second half, Man Utd and generally for the first 60 minutes, were a genuine disgrace. Nowhere near good enough without the ball."
Carrick in the firing line
The draw at Fulham came on the back of a damaging run: defeat to Manchester City in the league and a Carabao Cup collapse against Brighton. Confidence is fragile. Patience, in the stands and on the punditry gantry, is thinning.
Neville aimed his frustration not just at the players but at Carrick’s public stance.
"Michael has got to stop defending them," he insisted. "I get why he's defending them; he's loyal, he wants his players to work for him, and obviously there's a long way to go in the season."
Neville accepted that what Carrick says privately will be very different to what he offers in front of the cameras, but that didn’t ease his concern.
"That would've really worried me," he said of the manager’s refusal to criticise the team’s intensity. "People will ask questions about him, but he knew that when he took the job. But there's no panic in that sense - no one is putting pressure on Carrick - but if those types of performances continue, he will find himself in a lot of trouble. They've got to work harder than that for him."
The message was clear. Results matter, but the way United are playing – especially out of possession – is what will ultimately decide Carrick’s fate.
A point gained, or another warning?
Fulham dominated long stretches of the game, enjoying time and space on the ball that previous United sides would never have allowed. Neville’s description of United as "mannequins" was not a throwaway line; it captured a team that too often stood still and watched.
For now, the late deflection off Cunha’s boot buys United time. It stops the losing streak. It keeps the table from looking even worse.
But the questions Neville posed cut deeper than a single result. How long can a club of United’s size tolerate a team that, in his words, "walks around" without the ball? And how long can a manager keep defending performances like this before the criticism lands at his own door?
