The obituaries were surely being written about Michael Carrick’s Manchester United tenure at halftime of Tuesday night’s Champions League clash with Roma.

The Red Devils, abject again, were staring down the barrel of a convincing defeat to stretch their winless run to 10 matches in all competitions. They’ve been historically bad at the start of the 2026–27 season, and their first half on Tuesday was some of their worst stuff to date.

A free-scoring Roma team merely needed to be competent to race into a 2–0 lead, and they could’ve been three or four up by the time Carrick’s players were greeted with a cacophony of discontent at the halftime whistle. There was absolutely no sense that the Red Devils were capable of revival.

But from somewhere deep within, United found something.…