Carrick and Bruno Fernandes meet one on one to calm Manchester United crisis

A closed-door conversation at Carrington can be worth more than a thousand press conferences. That is essentially what Michael Carrick and Bruno Fernandes just did: sit down, speak plainly and try to put out a fire that had been building inside Manchester United for days.

The meeting between the manager and his captain took place at the club's training ground, separate from the broader squad meeting held to try to find a way out of the current crisis. It is no small detail that it was a separate conversation: it makes clear there was something specific to sort out between the two of them.

The root of the problem goes back a week. After the harsh 4-1 defeat to Como in the Champions League, Fernandes appeared to publicly question Carrick's tactical decisions. The manager's response was blunt: he left him out of the squad entirely for Sunday's match against Bournemouth at Old Trafford, where the Portuguese midfielder did not play a single minute as United sank to a stunning 3-0 defeat that ramped up the pressure on the manager.

The good news, at least for the team's interests, is that following this conversation Fernandes is now available for Saturday's crucial match at Stamford Bridge against Chelsea. And according to sources inside the club, the captain has looked over the past 48 hours like the best version of himself, after a difficult stretch both on and off the pitch. It is worth remembering this is the same player who won the PFA Player of the Year award last season, a level he had clearly fallen short of in recent weeks.

Sunday's result left United in 16th place in the Premier League, with just one league win so far this season, and that came against newly promoted Ipswich. Many had assumed Carrick's exit was only a matter of hours away, but the 45-year-old manager ran Tuesday's training session as normal, and the club decided to give him more time to turn things around.

Fernandes, for his part, was not the only one to speak out of turn after a match. Just two weeks earlier, Lisandro Martinez had pointed directly at the club's hierarchy in strongly worded comments following the 2-0 Champions League defeat to Atletico Madrid on October 13.

Carrick took over in January and brought stability to a locker room coming off a turbulent spell under Ruben Amorim. Under him, the team put together a notable run that ended in a third-place finish and a return to the Champions League, which earned him a two-year contract extension over the summer. Yet barely five months after signing that deal, the former midfielder, who is well liked by the fanbase, is under enormous scrutiny: United have won just two of their last 12 matches across all competitions, both against modest opposition in Ipswich and Sabah in the Champions League.

While Carrick absorbs much of the focus simply by being the man in the dugout, Martinez's criticism was aimed further up the chain of command. Sporting director Jason Wilcox and chief executive Omar Berrada are also under public scrutiny over what is seen as a failure to reinforce the squad in the last transfer window: the club focused all its efforts on midfield and ended up signing neither a left back nor a forward.

Sunday at Old Trafford produced a curious contrast: fans kept chanting Carrick's name while directing their anger upward. The manager was applauded as he greeted the stands after the final whistle, but as soon as he headed down the tunnel, the players left on the pitch were met with a chorus of boos.