ANALYSIS: Manchester United have been abject in all positions this season, with a failure in the transfer market leading to a shambles right across the pitch under Michael Carrick

Manchester United are a shambles once more - and it will cost Michael Carrick his job.

The 3-0 thrashing by Bournemouth at Old Trafford on Sunday was the last straw, putting the nail in the coffin for Carrick after the even worse performance that came in the 4-1 hammering by Como.

United are 16th in the Premier League. They've made their worst start to a league season since 1986/87 and won just two of 12 matches this season. Those wins came against Ipswich and Sabah.

After inspiring a revival in the wake of Ruben Amorim's sacking last season, Carrick has come unstuck immediately after getting the job on a full-time basis. So why have United been so awful this season? Here Mirror Football analyse their campaign so far to assess the wreckage.

Transfer neglect

The issues were obvious before a ball was even kicked. United decided to focus their attention on central midfield in the summer transfer window, splashing out £155million to sign Youri Tielemans, Andrey Santos and Carlos Baleba, to the neglect of other positions.

The failure to sign a left-back to provide back-up and competition for Luke Shaw was a glaring error. Everyone knew it, including Carrick himself, who has had to be diplomatic when asked about it since. When it became obvious that Lewis Hall was unattainable from Newcastle, the club should have looked elsewhere. Sunday's match ended with Diogo Dalot looking completely lost on that side of the pitch.

Similarly, the lack of a centre-forward to play in the absence of the injured Benjamin Sesko has been calamitous, with United lacking a focal point in attack.

Make sure you don't miss the best Man Utd coverage by making the Daily Mirror one of your Google preferred sources.

Lack of effort

Gary Neville was absolutely furious after United's 1-1 draw with Fulham last month, calling the players an "absolute disgrace" for walking around. "I've never seen such a lack of effort," he raged on Sky Sports post-match.

The perceived lack of effort is born out by the statistics: United have been outrun by their opponents in seven of their eight Premier League games this season. The only time they covered more distance was against Manchester City, who played with 10 men for over an hour after Phil Foden was sent off. They sit 18th for distance covered in the Premier League this season.

Carrick has pushed back against this narrative. "Pressing is one small part of football," he said before the Bournemouth thrashing. “There’s all sorts of different ways of what people class as a press. What actually is it? What are you doing it for? Is it to your strength? Is it covering up other spaces?

“You don’t necessarily need to press to win games of football. Sometimes you do, sometimes you don’t. It’s just a word that gets thrown about. We’ve got to be a bit careful with that. It’s not necessarily just running stats that define football games, either.”

He is right. Only four teams ran less than United after Carrick was appointed interim boss in January until the end of the season, yet they picked up 39 points from 17 games - the most of any side in the Premier League.

The narrative around a lack of running is nothing new, either. Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, Jose Mourinho, Erik ten Hag and Ruben Amorim were all forced to address the issue publicly. But the eyes don't lie and United are not running for their latest manager.

Ageing, under-par defence

Would any other traditionally elite side have been happy to rely so heavily upon experienced but over-the-hill defenders like Shaw, Harry Maguire and Matthijs de Ligt?

Shaw managed to go the whole of last season without picking up an injury, but it was never likely to last. The sight of him being skinned by Abdul Fatawu for Ipswich's opening goal back in August told a story. He's playing his 13th season for United.

Maguire's in his seventh year and is also well past his peak, as evidence by Thomas Tuchel's snubbing for England. His lack of sharpness has been obvious and only out-done by De Ligt, who returned from 11 months on the sidelines with a back injury to be embarrassed by a youthful Como last week.

United's solitary clean sheet this season came against Sabah, a team founded nine years ago.

Over-reliance on Fernandes

This is nothing new. In fact, United have leaned heavily on their Portuguese playmaker for inspiration almost ever since his arrival in 2020 - and generally he's been happy to deliver.

Fernandes has been remarkably consistent for United. He's been an almost ever present and has been a constant source of joy, with 111 goals and 109 assists in 338 appearances for the club. He broke the record for the most assists in a single Premier League campaign last season.

But the weight on his shoulders was always likely to overwhelm eventually and that has come back to bite United this season. His four goals and one assist all came in the wins over Ipswich and Sabah, with Fernandes blanking in the other nine matches this season.

What's worse, he decided to break rank and openly criticise his manager in Como, leading to his benching on Sunday. He's since turned into a moody teenager by liking a provocative post on Instagram.

Wasteful finishing

United have had the most shots of any side in the Premier League this season, with 155. That works out at an average of 19 per match, yet they've managed just 10 goals - five of which came in the 5-2 thrashing of Ipswich in August.

Their Expected Goals (xG) tally of 12.79 puts them seventh in the Premier League, yet their underperformance is obvious, with the difference between their goals tally and xG (-2.79) putting them fourth last, with only Nottingham Forest, Sunderland and Fulham below them. Similarly, United have converted just 6.45 per cent of their shots, a conversion rate with puts them 18th in the Premier League. For context, Man City lead the league on 17.09 per cent.

While Bryan Mbeumo leads the way for United with four league goals, he is guilty of missing chances: his conversion rate of 15.38 per cent is the worst of the top nine goalscorers in the Premier League. He is not the only culprit though: Marcus Rashford has attempted 13 shots without scoring and Tielemans has failed to find the back of the net with eight shots.

Disjointed midfield

United bet the bank on the midfield in the summer, with Tielemans, Santos and Baleba arriving in a major overhaul in the middle of the park. It is early days, but that gamble has not paid off.

The trio have started three games together, against Atletico Madrid, Leeds and Bournemouth - two defeats and a draw - and the balance so far is lacking. Baleba and Santos are holding midfielders, tasked with filling the gap left by Casemiro's exit, while Tielemans is supposed to provide the box-to-box drive of a No.8. None of those things have come true yet.

Rio Ferdinand's fawning over Manchester City's Ayyoub Bouaddi hinted at another misstep from United in the transfer market. "His transfer fee (£85m) is the same as Santos and Tielemans combined. Manchester United were in for him, 100 per cent, but the fee was just too much," Ferdinand said on his podcast last week.

"Just that little cameo against PSG makes you go, 'oh, I can’t believe we missed out on that. I can’t believe it.' I’m so gutted, so gutted."

So, so gutted just about sums up United this season.