Michael Carrick is under serious pressure at Man United ahead of Sunday's Premier League clash with AFC Bournemouth

Five months and a day after being handed the job on a permanent basis, Michael Carrick sits perilously close to being sacked as Manchester United head coach. Nobody could have envisaged his tenure turning so sour so quickly after his appointment in May.

Somehow, Carrick is failing to get the same tune out of his players as he managed in the second half of last season. The players are not reacting to his methods and when the captain, rightly or wrongly, questions a manager's tactics publicly, the writing is usually on the wall.

While many predicted the thumping at Como to be Carrick's final act as United head coach, the Reds' hierarchy have given him a reprieve. But United's form cannot continue like this, without action being taken. Already, Sunday's clash with Bournemouth feels like a must-win.

Thoughts are already starting to turn to who could come next. One name popular among the bookmakers is Antonio Conte. The former Chelsea boss is a winner who seems to be keen on the United project. "There are many clubs that have somewhat lost sight of their history," he said in a recent interview. "I'd like to go to one of these clubs to dust off that history and make it shine once more."

If United aren't 'one of those clubs', they are very close to it. But while Conte has a Premier League and five Serie A titles to his name, he also comes with plenty of baggage. During his time at Tottenham, the Italian did not shy away from calling out the players who he deemed to be 'selfish'. He left the club a little over a week later.

Even the players who achieved success with him have their reservations. Just this week, Ashley Young, who won Serie A under Conte at Inter, warned that hiring the 57-year-old might not be right for United.

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"I’ve worked underneath him at Milan. He’s crazy, by the way. Like, he is crazy," Young told The Overlap. "He’s a bit like Diego Simeone on the sidelines. Like, you hear him non-stop.

"Meetings were long. When I say long, I’m talking, if we lost the game, we could go in and do the meeting after the game and it stops literally everything and you could be there for three, four hours.

"I think that’s one of the reasons why he doesn’t last long at places because [it's] not just the players he tries to test mentally, but the board as well and the owners. There has been a lot of talk about Man United’s running stats. If they’re not going to run and Antonio Conte goes in there, it’s going to be a disaster."

Some will argue that Conte might be able to demand more of the players than Carrick. There could be an issue with communication between Carrick and the team if his players are putting in such limp performances like the one at Como.

But would appointing a firebrand like Conte work? As Young points out, Conte does not last long at any club because the players grow weary of his methods. His longest stint at one team was at Juventus, where he managed them for 133 matches over three years. He left them for the Italian national team but even where he has done well he has not stayed long.

Ineos have previously spoken about a long-term project. Win the league by 2028 is the mantra, but there are no guarantees Conte would remain in charge until then. There are more similarities with this group of players to the Tottenham squad he failed with than Inter or Napoli or Chelsea.

And that's the issue with sacking Carrick. Results are unlikely to change long-term until United complete the 'open heart surgery' that Ralf Rangnick prescribed. But that requires the ownership to change or to back the manager to make sweeping changes in both January and next summer. Unfortunately for United, there are no signs the owners are willing to sign off on that work - particularly on this summer's evidence.

If results continue as they are, Carrick's exit will become inevitable. But if United are to replace him with Conte or even Eddie Howe or Julian Nagelsmann, the board need to be prepared to make significant investment in the transfer market to back their new hire.

Simply put, this group of players alone is not good enough and no manager will be able to change that.