Jason Wilcox has decided on his preferred replacement for Michael Carrick at Manchester United as two alternatives who also ‘fit the criteria’ have been ruled out.

Carrick is on thin ice as Man Utd have lose five of their opening 11 games in all competitions this season, with the 4-1 defeat to Como on Wednesday particularly damaging given what happened on the pitch and in the aftermath.

The Red Devils were embarrassed by their Serie A hosts, who were competing in the Champions League for the very first time, and captain Bruno Fernandes broke ranks after the game to take aim at Carrick’s tactics.

Fernandes has been destroyed by pundits in the wake of his comments, with Wayne Rooney branding him and teammate Lisandro Martinez – who hit out at technical director Jason Wilcox last week – “selfish babies”.

Despite suggestions that Carrick might not make it to the weekend, it’s been confirmed that he will take charge of the clash with Bournemouth on Sunday and face the media at 1.30pm on Friday.

A report from The Athletic on Friday revealed that while Wilcox is still backing Carrick as thing stand, co-owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe could step in and overrule the director of football to send the former midfielder packing as he leans on AI to select the next Red Devils boss.

But Wilcox is doing his due diligence in case Carrick’s position becomes untenable and according to talkSPORT’s chief football correspondent Alex Crook, he is now ‘leaning towards Eddie Howe’.

Howe was very much on the United radar to replace Erik ten Hag as former sporting director Dan Ashworth pushed for the then Newcastle boss to take the helm before Wilcox plumped for Ruben Amorim.

Director of recruitment Christopher Vivell is said to be pushing for Julian Nagelsmann’s appointment but Wilcox ‘prefers Howe due to his experience in the Premier League’ and his ‘opinion is likely to hold more weight in the eyes of Sir Jim Ratcliffe and the Glazer family’.

Howe has been out of a job after parting ways with Newcastle in the summer and while reports have suggested he would ideally have liked an extended break from management, ‘the feeling is he would be interested if the United vacancy came his way’.

The report adds that while both Unai Emery and Fabian Hürzeler ‘fit Wilcox’s criteria’, the former would be too expensive to prise away from Aston Villa and the latter is happy at Brighton and wouldn’t leave for United at this time.