Man U’s crisis deepens with loss to newcomer

Manchester United head coach Michael Carrick’s job could be in jeopardy after a tough Champions League opening included a loss to Como. (Antonio Calanni / The Associated Press files)

ROME — Manchester United is hardly putting up a fight in the Champions League these days.

Michael Carrick’s struggling team was beaten 4-1 at competition newcomer Como on Wednesday and United has now been outscored 6-1 in its last two European matches.

Nico Paz scored twice and set up another for Cesc Fabregas’ Como, which was playing in the fourth division of Italian soccer seven years ago.

“We got outplayed for most of the game so it was a very disappointing night,” United midfielder Youri Tielemans said. “It’s everything. You can be good tactically but if the effort is not good (then it won’t work) and vice versa. You need to be good at everything and tonight we were poor. It comes down to that.”

United was already in turmoil, with defender Lisandro Martinez last week calling out the club’s hierarchy over its off-season recruitment, with director of football Jason Wilcox the apparent target of his criticism.

In January, Ruben Amorim had a fallout with Wilcox which swiftly led to the manager being fired after 14 months in the job.

Now Carrick appears at risk.

In the other early game, Galatasaray won 4-2 at Lille with Victor Osimhen scoring against one of his former clubs.

The 19-year-old Soriba Diaoune scored twice for Lille in the first half but it was 2-2 at the break before an own goal and a strike from Osimhen put Galatasaray in control.

It was Galatasaray’s first win of this season’s competition, while Lille has now lost all three of its matches.