Manchester United Is Eating Itself Alive

In terms of things you simply do not want to see happening at the club you support within the first two months of the season, one of your star players blasting the entire organizational hierarchy has to be pretty high up there. That's exactly what's happening at Manchester United, though, following a brutal start (one win, three draws, two losses, and 13th place) to what was supposed to be an exemplary Premier League season and a listless and frustrating 2-0 defeat on Tuesday to Atlético Madrid in the second match day of the Champions League campaign. The locker room is now officially unsettled, as Lisandro Martínez made clear in his postgame interview on Tuesday.

That's Martínez, perhaps still in his feelings about a confrontation at the end of the match with his Argentine compatriots on Atleti, blasting United from top to bottom. Of particular note are his quotes directed at technical director Jason Wilcox, whom the center back feels did not do enough to allow United to build on last season's successes: "We did a fantastic season last season and now we expect more from the top, more players to compete because many teams bring many players as well." When asked if he expected more investment in order to bring United to the level of the Champions League and a side like Atlético, Martínez didn't hesitate:

I expect more. 100 percent. I expect more from our technical director. I have to be honest, as players we have to do more but it is also important when you make a strong squad to be ready for this kind of night [...] Last season we did everything, we created the base to create an amazing team. It is annoying, disappointing coming here and I am not seeing my team trying to get an amazing result here.

If anyone dodged Martínez's ire, it is actually interim-turned-permanent manager Michael Carrick, who has been taking the brunt of public criticism for the start. Martínez was asked about Carrick's standing, and his answer there was perhaps the most telling of all, as he said he felt Carrick wasn't backed enough and that it's not always the manager that's the problem: "You can't keep changing, changing, changing the manager. What about other areas? I can't say more. Tonight it is easy to say the coach, easy to say the players, but also we have to see other areas."

The fallout from Martínez's comments has been swift and predictably incendiary. The first to feel the shockwave was poor Youri Tielemans, one of only three marquee signings from this summer. Tielemans was asked about Martínez's suggestion that the investment in the squad this summer was not good enough, and the Belgian immediately hit back with the "no comment" and "I don't know" double. Smart to get out of the way there, Youri. I always admired your soccer IQ.

Outside of Tielemans, though, it seems that every corner of the Unitedverse has an opinion on whether Martínez is spot-on (Bruno Fernandes reportedly is similarly disgruntled and might be on his way out over it), disrespectful (from Wayne Rooney, who at least admitted he did the same thing when he played at United), or in need of a verbal ripping (as an unnamed teammate reportedly gave him on the flight back from the Spanish capital).

The Martínez conflagration is only the latest of many fires raging at Old Trafford this season. It comes only three days after the club blew a 1-0 lead in stoppage time to an even worse-off Tottenham, who saw Rodrigo Bentancur pick up a red card in the 78th minute before equalizing 14 minutes later. Save for a 4-0 win over Azerbaijani side Sabah FK in the first Champions League matchday, United has not won a game since beating newly promoted Ipswich Town 5-2 on August 30. That win came a week after losing to another newly promoted side, as Hull announced its arrival back in the top flight with a famous 2-0 victory.

Worse than the results has been the way that United has looked on the field. Whereas last year, Carrick got them to play with confidence on the ball, the side often looks lost for ideas on how to form any sort of rhythm. The two disappointing results this week illustrate that; both Tottenham and Atleti have upped their possession totals this season (roughly 59 percent in league matches for both), yet it was still shocking to see both completely dominate the ball at times against United.

Tottenham was all over the Manchester side in the first half (57-43 possession advantage for Spurs) before United clawed that back to about even, ending with a slight 50.4-49.6 advantage for Tottenham, aided by the red card to Bentancur. Atlético, on the other hand, never let off the throttle, winning the first half 66-34 and finishing the game with 58 percent of the total possession. Starved of the ball, United never looked particularly dangerous on Tuesday especially, and though the shot count was roughly even (11-9 in the Spanish hosts' favor), the match felt over in the first minute, when Pablo Barrios scored just 53 seconds in.

So, where does that leave United now? It's still early enough that this start can end up a blip by the end of the year; the club was not good in the first half of last season before climbing all the way to third on the table. However, that came with a managerial change, and as Martínez astutely noted, that is always an option again. Whether Carrick goes or not is irrelevant, though, because Martínez was also right that the side as constructed is just not good enough to truly compete with Europe's elite teams. I'd go as far as saying that it shouldn't necessarily try to do that, not when the domestic results are similarly terrible.

Martínez said what he felt needed to be said, and though he was not delicate in either tone or timing (it's important to note that Martínez was at least partly at fault for Tottenham's late equalizer, so perhaps some of this is personal frustration carrying over), the interview should serve as a slap to the face to the club's board room. It's too late to fix this now, and it's likely there won't be enough incoming signings to fix things in January. Those types of moves just don't happen midseason, at least at the volume that United seemingly needs, which proves Martínez right even further.

Martínez may not have made himself the most popular teammate, and he probably won't have the effect he wanted to have with his comments. After all, it's much easier to get rid of a disgruntled player than an incompetent executive. But his frustration boiling over might be looked at as a key turning point in United's fortunes, provided the club acts decisively to address the issues that are clear for everyone, including its best defender, to see.

Then again, the way United has operated over the last decade-plus, it might just be that Carrick gets the boot, someone else comes in anointed as a savior, and then the whole ugly cycle repeats again. It all looked so good just a few months ago, but this is just who Manchester United is now: A club constantly in crisis, always looking for the next person to blame.