Under-fire Michael Carrick rejected the suggestion that Manchester United are unmanageable and trusts the players to bounce back from their Como calamity with a vital win against Bournemouth.

Ruben Amorim’s successor not only steadied the ship after his January arrival but steered the club to a third-place finish, although the former midfielder now looks to be heading into the rocks.

United have recorded just two victories from their 11 matches this season, with Wednesday’s 4-1 humbling at the hands of Champions League upstarts Como extending their winless run to seventh match.

It was quite the slump having talked up their training performance ahead of earning a purposeful point at Leeds last Sunday that he felt marked a “fresh start”.

Asked if he can trust the players to deliver against Bournemouth at Old Trafford given the last week, under-pressure Carrick said: “I definitely trust them, yeah, 100 per cent I trust them.

“It wasn’t a very good night at all for so many reasons. We all know that. I think that’s pretty obvious.

“I definitely trust them, yeah. I trust them. We’ll be a different team on Sunday. We have to be a different team on Sunday.”

United’s current winless run in all competitions is the worst since 2015 and has been compounded by the contributions of outspoken players.

Lisandro Martinez was disciplined after his caustic criticism of the club hierarchy after the loss at Atletico Madrid, with frustrated skipper Bruno Fernandes appeared to question Carrick’s approach in Como.

United’s all-time top goalscorer Wayne Rooney lambasted the pair for acting like “babies” as questions over the culture at the club grow.

Asked if he felt that the team and club are unmanageable, as some have suggested, Carrick retorted: “No, no”.

It was the shortest answer of a wide-ranging, and at times emotional, press conference that he began with an impassioned five-and-a-half-minute monologue that leant heavily on United’s history.

Standards have certainly slipped since Sir Alex Ferguson’s trophy-laden time in charge, when Carrick was a key part of their success up until his retirement in 2013.

The former midfielder then helped oversaw the much-discussed cultural reset as part of the coaching staff of fan favourite Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, who he pipped to the role as Amorim’s replacement.

Carrick said of the former United managers: “I speak to both of them quite regularly, to be honest. There’s nothing in particular from that.

“I’m close to both of them and we do have regular conversations, so it’s nothing different this week.”

Carrick will be hoping the next chat he was with the pair does not come after a negative afternoon against Bournemouth given his role is under serious threat.

The 45-year-old is convinced he can turn things around and refused to blame the lack of signings cited by Martinez, plus downplayed talk over running statistics and the pressing mentioned by Fernandes.

“I think you’ve got to be careful with just saying ‘not running’,” he said. “As I said, we’ve won a lot of games over a period of time and this pressing thing, that suddenly everyone thinks about pressing.

“Pressing is one small part of football. There’s all sorts of different ways of what people are classed as a press.

“What actually is it? What you’re doing it for? Is it to your strength? Is it covering up other spaces? It’s just thrown about as a bit of a word at the minute of pressing.

“You don’t necessarily need to press to win games of football. Sometimes you do, sometimes you don’t.”