Michael Carrick holds his hands up following Manchester United’s 4-1 defeat in northern Italy

Credit : Reuters/Alessandro Garofalo

There have been some dark days in the post-Sir Alex Ferguson era but this was up there with the very worst of them: the kind of performance that gets a manager sacked, the kind of display that points to a fundamental disconnect, the kind of occasion that leaves you thinking Manchester United are as far away as they have ever been.

When players seem so averse to doing the very basics, such as running, and the club habitually have such trouble attracting the right profiles and personalities, it is hard to escape the feeling that saying goodbye to another manager is going to do little more than paper over the many cracks at Old Trafford.

But, watching this, you had to think Michael Carrick will do well to limp on as far as Sunday, when United face Bournemouth at Old Trafford.

And that was before we had heard the United captain, Bruno Fernandes, appearing to call out the…