Manchester United stick with Michael Carrick ahead of Chelsea matchup as dressing-room discord fuels crisis

To the surprise of many, Michael Carrick will continue to be in the dugout for Manchester United as they face Chelsea on Saturday. During their eight-game winless run in all competitions, United have allowed 15 goals while scoring six, and off the pitch, everything is unraveling, with players and fans alike questioning the direction of the club. United have been in this position before, and it has usually led to a change of manager and a rebuild of the club from the ground up.

But what's different is that during this rut, players are publicly speaking out. While things will sometimes leak via undisclosed sources, players saying the quiet part out loud about what's going on with the club is not a good look. Defender Lisandro Martinez spoke about the need for the club to have higher standards and claimed that it's lacking ambition after a poor loss to Atletico Madrid in Champions League play, but it went from bad to worse as captain Bruno Fernandes spoke out after a humbling loss to Como, questioning the team's tactics.

How to watch Chelsea vs. Manchester United, odds

Date: Saturday, Oct. 31 | Time: 8:30 a.m. ET
Location: Stamford Bridge  -- London
TV: USA Network
Odds: Chelsea -105; Draw +270; Manchester United +270

That led to Fernandes being benched and United failing yet again to pick up a victory. While the public view is that Fernandes will retain his captaincy, the episode has to strip away at least some of Carrick's authority within the club.

"There is no decision to be made on [the captaincy]," Carrick said. "It will be Bruno. Listen, we're clear with the situation of the team and as a football club at the moment. He's an important player for this group. He has been and he will be."

Ahead of a match where both teams are struggling, the slightest lack of balance could lead to yet another United loss. With no clear sign that authority lies with the manager rather than the captain, especially after Carrick held meetings about the future of his job, this could get worse before it gets better.

What do you do if United concede an early goal and the match goes off the rails? On the evidence we've seen, it's tough to say Carrick will be able to get the club out of that spiral, and if he can't, there's no reason why he should be the manager. On paper, while too much money was invested in the midfield instead of defense, this isn't a bad squad, but United find themselves in the relegation race only one season after qualifying for Champions League play. Even their numbers scream midtable, not doomed to relegation. 

That's where the mentality of the squad comes in. It's been a persistent issue since Sir Alex Ferguson left, and it's not an issue that seems to be going away anytime soon. At times, it will lie dormant for a season during which you think United are righting the ship, only to come back at the worst time possible. Carrick is only a symptom of a larger issue at Manchester United, and the club has gone through eight permanent managers since Ferguson without sustained success. It's not for lack of spending, and even though there are questions around who is recruited, for the most part, the squads have been fine. They just can never perform to the sum of their parts.

Since Jim Ratcliffe took over, the club has been more focused on profits off the pitch than actual success on it, and that's catching up with United. Turning that around is going to be quite a challenge. Fan protests have been seen, but they aren't igniting real change, and we may be in a situation where United need a sustained spell in the bottom half of the table to lead to anything different. In short, this is already dire, and every day with Carrick at the helm delays the start of that turnaround, even if that isn't his fault. United have become a club without a direction, and that's something Chelsea can take advantage of as the Xabi Alonso era at Stamford Bridge has signs of success but needs a result to get back on the right track. 

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