As Manchester United returned to the training ground after this week’s Champions League heroics, some there couldn’t help but repeat an old football truth: “Everything feels completely different after a win.”

That will be even more pronounced now, given that United have just ended their longest winless run in 40 years. The 3-2 win over Roma was their first victory since the 4-0 over Sabah, 10 games ago.

Amid the raucous celebrations from a vintage comeback, there was of course considerable relief. It at least, for now, puts off a huge call.

United have been racked by indecision over the future of Michael Carrick. Numerous sources say there is a sense that no one was actually willing to make a call on the manager, a problem compounded by the fact they have “little idea” over a replacement.

In fairness, there are questions and debates over all of the main alternatives.

United are understood to be much less sold on Eddie Howe than perception would have it. Sebastian Hoeness is highly rated, but his appointment would still involve a huge Ruben Amorim-like leap from Stuttgart. Fabian Hurzeler might struggle without Brighton’s structure amid higher stakes, and there are doubts over whether United can even afford the compensation. Cesc Fabregas is impressing at Como but isn’t going anywhere for now, and is viewed as Mikel Arteta’s eventual successor at Arsenal.

Julian Nagelsmann’s stock has significantly dropped, meanwhile. While United’s Christoph Vivell is said to be a fan, others in the hierarchy will be aware that Bayern Munich would not speak highly about his time there. The players didn’t respond well to his approach or personality, and the image persists of Nagelsmann arriving to training on a skateboard. It is hard not to think of a line from The Sopranos. In the same way “a don doesn’t wear shorts”, a Manchester United manager doesn’t have a skateboard.

You can’t imagine that of Antonio Conte, a title winner at four different clubs who is one of the very few to have done it at the required level. The question is whether United’s squad is of the level to ensure they would at least get the good season you usually do out of the Italian, before an inevitable blow-up.

If all of this sounds harsh on Carrick given he’s just won again, it’s of course about the reality that all of the same concerns could rush back after the next game.

And that next game is against Aston Villa’s Unai Emery, who looks set to stay Aston Villa's Unai Emery. As has been said on these pages many times, football has that extraordinary capacity to throw up a narratively fitting fixture at a moment when a story is huge.

So, on the 40th anniversary of Sir Alex Ferguson’s appointment, United welcome a coach who some in the hierarchy do see as a potential figurehead for the modern age.

And, up until Tuesday, this last game before the international break had been cast as an inevitable curtain closer – at least for Carrick.

A burgeoning Villa side were surely just going to expose and exploit United’s myriad problems, just before a lot of time to think.

Except, United finally got that win, just as Emery’s team endure a bump ahead of a trip to a stadium where they have a dismal record. Villa have only won one game at Old Trafford in 15 years, and Emery has never won there at all.

If this all sounds an overt focus on psychology and form, the truth is it especially matters to United right now.

One of a few reasons they haven’t yet made a call on Carrick – to go with indecision – is because of the underlying numbers.

The data shows that United haven’t been quite as bad as they’ve appeared, even if it still hasn’t been great. The numbers have been almost identical to last season.

One belief is that the team, this time, have found themselves on the wrong side of the margins, which are very thin, in a complete reversal of last season. A few key moments have gone against them, which has further affected confidence at a fragile moment.

The whole performance against Chelsea summed this up. United were good in the first half, only to fail to take some big chances, and then buckled as Lisandro Martinez was sent off.

That has come amid a sense they didn’t back Carrick to the extent they should have in the summer, which is why they are just trying to get through this period and then do more business in January.

The hope has been that the team just needed that one win, that break, to end this current spiral.

It’s entirely possible that’s what the Roma victory may represent.

United themselves have enough experience of this.

They’ve experienced almost this exact situation before, too. Back in October 2021, just a month before Ole Gunnar Solskjaer was sacked, United came back from 2-0 down in the Champions League to beat a Gian Piero Gasperini Serie A team 3-2. It was then Atalanta rather than Roma, but it was still the same problem: a temporary balm.

And, just like then, it’s entirely possible the Roma win may lull United into a thinking that other clubs constantly say is so damaging to them. That is that they are always just “a few tweaks” from being there, when they still ultimately need that deep overhaul. Even if they beat Villa and go on a better run, does anyone really believe there won’t eventually be a regression?

The Ineos leadership have admittedly attempted to start that process, but it’s so far only been an attempt. They’re trying. They’re not yet succeeding.

As one chief executive who has direct experience of this process says, “it’s not actually difficult to figure out, but it’s hard to execute. What is absolutely crucial is to get quality people in the right positions.”

Again, a vision around which everything works and the nerve to commit to it. Do United have any of that?

Another issue right now is that the entire place is said to be enduring extreme emotional swings. The performances are of course the main factor, but so is the media industrial complex around the club. There's this constant noise.

Sir Jim Ratcliffe is so conscious of what Gary Neville’s United empire says, for example, that he did an interview with him.

The events of the last week show Villa can be given to emotional swings themselves, but the action over Emery’s future – and anticipated new contract – also shows a decisiveness that has been missing at United.

For United’s part, it is riskier for them, given their scale, to do what Villa did with Emery and give a manager the keys to the club.

That is also a model they’ve long wanted to move away from. They really don’t need to get into yet another cycle that just goes around and around.

For now, an uncertainty remains, right up to what next for the team.