Manchester United have endured a dismal start to the season, and pressure is rapidly growing on head coach Michael Carrick.

United have won just two out of 11 games this season and suffered a heavy defeat to Como on Wednesday night in the Champions League. United produced a lacklustre performance, both with and without the ball.

Various reports claim that Sunday's game against Bournemouth could be decisive for Carrick, with the Old Trafford hierarchy reportedly assessing potential replacements, should they indeed decide to part ways with the former United midfielder.

Rumours linking United to Eddie Howe are gaining momentum, and Julian Nagelsmann has also been strongly linked to the job at Old Trafford.

When Carrick took over at United last season, those who followed his time at Middlesbrough closely mentioned that he had shortcomings from a tactical perspective when his team did not have the ball.

Carrick has adopted a 4-2-4 high press at United, and it has not worked particularly well. It is structurally poor, but United also often press with little intensity, and that certainly does not help.

Carrick even opted for a back three against Leeds to go man-to-man, as United's 4-2-4 press often struggles to press teams that play in a back three.

Speaking in his pre-match press conference ahead of United's game against Bournemouth, Carrick spoke about United's press.

“I think you've got to be careful with just saying ‘not running',” Carrick 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 class 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. It's just a thing that gets thrown about.”

Carrick is right that you do not need to press to win games of football. However, United's problem is not that they do not press. United's problem is that they try to press, but the press is structurally poor, and the players don't cover spaces quickly enough. That is why teams find it so easy to play through the press.

Carrick needs to stop attempting to press and instead sit in a mid block. The zonal press Carrick has tried to coach is ineffective.

Bruno Fernandes implied that United should press man-to-man, but that is a terrible idea. United do not have the athletes, particularly in the back line, to press high. A good example of this is Como's second goal on Wednesday. Nico Paz and Anastasios Douvikas were left two-against-two against Matthijs de Ligt and Harry Maguire, and the defensive duo could not stop them.

By sitting in a mid block, United can regain some form of organisation out of possession. They need to be compact, make it difficult for the opponent to play through the middle and force them wide. When the opponent plays the ball to the flanks, United can try to win the ball back there.

In the long term, United will need to press if they want to dominate games of football and win major honours, but in the short term, Carrick needs to be pragmatic.