Carrick demands more ‘streetwise’ Man Utd after Spurs setback

Dominic Solanke rescued a 1-1 draw for 10-man Tottenham to ramp up the pressure on Manchester United boss Michael Carrick on Saturday. Solanke’s stoppage time header edged Spurs off the foot of the Premier League table after it seemed like they would pay a heavy price for not taking their chances in a dominant display at Old Trafford. Bryan Mbeumo put United in front against the run of play 17 minutes from time before Rodrigo Bentancur was shown a straight red card.

But not for the first time this season, Carrick’s men failed to make a man advantage count. Manchester City won 1-0 at Old Trafford last month despite playing for more than an hour with 10 men. Solanke stooped to head in Sandro Tonali’s cross to leave United with just six points from their opening six league games.

Not since 1986/87 have United taken fewer points from their opening six league games. “To not take all the points, everything looks and feels different,” said Carrick. “We’re making it a little bit more difficult for ourselves.

We can defend the whole phase a lot better as a team and be a lot more stubborn and ruthless to see the game out.” Tottenham had three weeks to fester on dropping to the bottom of the table during the international break after a disastrous start to their £300 million ($397 million) rebuild in the transfer window. Roberto De Zerbi’s men took until the closing stages of their fifth league game to even score a goal and a much improved performance was undone by a familiar lack of cutting edge up front. “For the first time in this season we showed we are a team,” said De Zerbi.

“We played for the team-mates, we played together. We believed until the end of the game.” Before kick-off, the United supporters took aim at local rivals City, who have been found guilty on more than 100 charges of breaking Premier League financial rules. But the home fans soon had their own troubles to concentrate on as Spurs penned United inside their own half.

Solanke should have opened the scoring when he fired too close to Senne Lammens before Mohammed Kudus blasted wide at the end of a flowing Tottenham move. Chances continued to come and go for the visitors after the break, much to the frustration of a visibly animated De Zerbi. Solanke spooned over and Destiny Udogie curled wide before the game appeared to run away from Spurs.