Man Utd 0-3 Bournemouth: dropping Bruno changed nothing

Man Utd 0-3 Bournemouth, and the captain never got off the bench. Michael Carrick left Bruno Fernandes out to make a point after Como, and the point got made all right, just not the one he wanted. Rayan, Marcus Tavernier and Evanilson scored on 38, 43 and 71 minutes, and we finished the day 16th, one point above the relegation zone.

Eight without a win. Seven points from eight league games. That's not a blip any more, it's who we are.

Start with the decision everyone came to see. After the 4-1 at Como Bruno said it was the staff's call not to press, and Carrick answered by benching him, calling it a football decision and nothing else. Fine. If it's football, judge it on football. With Bruno sat down we had Youri Tielemans in the number 10 role, and he was hooked at half-time after a booking and 45 minutes nobody will remember. Bryan Mbeumo was stuck up front on his own with nothing coming to him. By Sofascore's numbers, quoted by Dave.sport, we had more of the ball and didn't create one big chance. Not one. At home. Whatever you think of Bruno's mouth, he's the only one in this squad who tries the pass that might open somebody up. Take him out and you get exactly what we got: a side passing sideways in front of a back line that never had to turn round.

Read more: Man Utd 1-1 Spurs: ten men and we still couldn't win

And here's the bit I can't get past. Joshua Zirkzee is our only fit striker. He scored off the bench at Como. He came on here on 72 minutes, a minute after the third went in. Carrick had a whole week to fix the one thing everybody could see was wrong, and he changed the captain instead.

Then the goals, and they were all ours to stop. The first came from a free-kick given away by Ayden Heaven's lunge, Justin Kluivert swung it to the far post and Rayan finished it. Five minutes later Leny Yoro slipped under pressure from Adrien Truffert, who squared it for Tavernier to tap in. Two-nil at the break, with three of our players already booked inside 40 minutes, which tells you how often we were chasing.

Evanilson had one ruled out for offside straight after half-time, which was the warning. Nobody listened. On 65 minutes Carrick took Heaven off for Lisandro Martínez, and six minutes later our defenders stood and waited for Senne Lammens to deal with a ball he never got to, and Evanilson beat him to it. Sky called Martínez's half-hour a "hapless cameo". Hard to argue.

Over on r/reddevils one fan summed up the afternoon: "Can't remember us creating a single clear cut chance the entire game". Another went after the substitution: "Carrick made a defensive substitution in the 65th minute losing 2-0, conceded 6 minutes later and lost the game 3-0." To be strict it was centre-half for centre-half, but the point stands. At 2-0 down at home you don't spend your second change on the back four while our only striker sits there in a bib.

Now Carrick. Afterwards he told Sky the players went into the game "being rocked", admitted there was "no hiding from it", and said he didn't know what comes next. He also said that applauding the fans at the end wasn't a farewell. Rocked by what, though? By his own captain, and by a week he let run away from him. A manager who has to drop the captain to win a dressing room argument has already lost the dressing room, and a side that loses 3-0 at home to Bournemouth without a big chance has lost the argument on the pitch as well. That's on him.

It isn't only on him. The anger in the ground was aimed at the owners as much as anyone, and Jason Wilcox and Omar Berrada were there to hear it. They built a squad with one fit striker. They gave Carrick the job. Lisandro Martínez said it about Wilcox earlier this month. And as I argued last week, sacking Carrick on its own fixes nothing if the same people pick the next one.

Next up is Chelsea away on Saturday, 12:30 kick-off. If Carrick is still in the dugout at Stamford Bridge, it'll be because the club hasn't decided who comes next, not because anyone believes he can turn it round. After today, I don't, and I don't think he does either.

Ratings out of 10

• Senne Lammens 3.5: one decent stop from Rayan, then beaten to a ball he had to win for the third.
• Diogo Dalot 4: busy, got nowhere, and Bournemouth were happy to let him have it.
• Leny Yoro 3: the slip that gave away the second. Unlucky, maybe. Costly, definitely.
• Harry Maguire 4.5: the senior centre-half on a day we conceded three at home. Again.
• Ayden Heaven 3: the lunge for the first goal, a booking, off on 65 minutes.
• Andrey Santos 4: booked on 22 minutes and spent the rest of it chasing.
• Carlos Baleba 4: ran about, gave us nothing on the ball. Off on 72.
• Amad Diallo 4.5: tried to run at them a couple of times, then faded. Off on 78.
• Youri Tielemans 3: the man picked to replace Bruno's ideas. Booked, anonymous, hooked at half-time.
• Mason Mount 5.5: the only one who looked like he knew where the next pass was going. Grudging pass mark.
• Bryan Mbeumo 4: up front on his own again with no service. Barely a sniff all afternoon.
• Matheus Cunha (sub) 5: on at half-time, more willing than Tielemans, no end product.
• Lisandro Martínez (sub) 3.5: on at 2-0, and the third went in six minutes later. A cameo to forget.
• Joshua Zirkzee (sub) 5: 18 minutes after the game was gone. Should have started.
• Shea Lacey (sub) 5: twelve minutes, nothing to judge.

I had this down as Man Utd 1-2 Bournemouth. Right result, and I was still too kind. It's settled on the scorecard, and these marks go on our player ratings tracker.