Who will protect Old Trafford's dreams from the men in the red shirt?
Manchester United's thrilling comeback against Aston Villa could not mask the flaws haunting the team. If anything, it exposed a deeper problem that now threatens their ambitions. Time and again the players became their own worst enemy, individual errors squandering the effort the team pours into regaining its balance and returning to contention.
The Red Devils showed strong character and an ability to come from behind in Sunday evening's thrilling 4-4 draw with Aston Villa at Old Trafford, the closing fixture of the Premier League's tenth round. Yet the naive mistakes raised the most important question about the team's future once again. Is fighting spirit enough to salvage Michael Carrick's project, or has change become a necessity that can no longer be postponed?
Borrow the famous saying "the bear that killed its master" and you have a fitting description of what is happening inside Manchester United. The team has the attacking potential and character to compete with its rivals and come back in the toughest circumstances. Yet it suffers painful blows from its own players, from rash decisions and individual errors that turn the collective effort into a futile exercise.
Mistakes themselves are not the problem. They are a natural part of football. The issue is their timing, their nature and their repetition, along with the way some players demolish what their teammates are trying to build on the pitch.
3 minutes of hell: Manchester United's goalkeeper wrecks the start
Aston Villa did not need long to expose Manchester United's gaps. The visitors scored twice inside the first 3 minutes and 40 seconds, a shocking opening for the Old Trafford crowd that piled early pressure on the hosts.
Alisson opened the scoring after just 59 seconds. He collected the ball on the right-hand side and drilled a low effort through the legs of goalkeeper Lammens, turning Villa's first dangerous attack into an early goal.
That strike was more than an early blow. It offered a fresh example of the errors costing United dearly, with the goalkeeper failing to deal with a shot that should have carried far less threat.
Only a few minutes passed before the Red Devils were breached again. Alisson rejoined the attack and fired a powerful shot towards the near post, Lammens failed to clear it cleanly, and the ball dropped to Jackson, who slotted into the empty net with ease.
The second goal only sharpened the anger in the stands. United fans let rip with chants of "You don't deserve to wear that shirt", a scene that laid bare the frustration at a disastrous start.
Sky Sports correspondent Pete Gill pinned both goals on two errors from the goalkeeper. Adam Bate, the network's man at Old Trafford, reckoned talk of the Roma match as a turning point in United's season had become laughable, given the disarray the players showed against Villa.
Lammens, he added, did not perform well on either goal, and United's players looked consistently late to the ball. Villa, meanwhile, imposed their control to the encouragement of their fans and the jeers of the hosts.
Carrick now faces an early crisis. The momentum from the comeback against Roma has evaporated, undone by errors that could have been avoided, and fresh doubts have surfaced over this group's ability to hold its focus for a full match.
A naive penalty: Dalot revives Aston Villa
Manchester United had clawed their way back into the game, but they learned nothing from their mistakes. The deficit cut, they promptly handed Aston Villa a fresh chance to restore their lead at the start of the second half.
On 47 minutes, the referee pointed to the spot. Diogo Dalot had caught Alisson inside the box, a challenge that once again laid bare the lack of concentration and poor judgement from the Red Devils' defender.
John McGinn stepped up for the visitors. The Villa captain sent Lammens the wrong way, rolling the ball into the opposite corner to put his side back in front after the hosts had battled their way level.
Pete Gill tore into Dalot's decision-making, saying: "Don't dive in, don't dive in.. oh, he's dived in. Very foolish from Dalot." The penalty itself was only half the problem. United had come out for the second half needing to hold their shape and build on the comeback, only to gift their opponent another leg-up through one reckless act.
Adam Bate revealed that the half-time chatter in the press box had all been about Carrick. The staff needed to intervene and move Dalot away from Alisson, Bate argued, perhaps by switching the two full-backs, with the Brazilian winger having so clearly got the better of his marker.
The mistakes did not stop there. Minutes later came another blow. Yoro rose to clear, only to head the ball towards his own crossbar, and it dropped to Goretzka, who tapped home for Villa's fourth.
Seven minutes and fifteen seconds. That was all it took the visitors to grab two second-half goals, a carbon copy of the opening to the match. The problem was not a fleeting moment. It was repeated errors that kept striking United at the worst possible times.
Alan Smith summed it up on Sky Sports: "Once again, you can't believe what you're watching." Gill agreed that the defence could not have performed any worse.
Shocking numbers: Manchester United's defence hands opponents gifts
Defensive errors have stopped being technical footnotes to be shrugged off after each match. They have become a phenomenon that dictates Manchester United's results, laying bare just how much work the defence needs.
No team in Europe's top five leagues has conceded more goals than United this season across all competitions. Their net has been breached 30 times.
That figure captures the scale of the crisis. These are not goals that always stem from superior opponents or the quality of the chances they carve out. They keep arriving through direct mistakes by United's own players.
Adam Bate called the situation extremely chaotic. He pointed out that the team has players capable of hurting opponents, but also a large number who do damage to its own ambitions.
Here lies the paradox haunting Manchester United. They can create danger and score goals, yet they never give themselves a real chance to cash in on that attacking threat. A defensive fragility hangs over every lead, leaving it one slip from collapse.
Lisandro MartÃnez: when the defender becomes a burden on his team
Aston Villa were not the only side to punish Manchester United for reckless individual actions. The Red Devils had been here before against Chelsea, when Argentine defender Lisandro Martinez became one of the main reasons their task turned so complicated.
United slumped to a 2-0 defeat in the ninth round of the Premier League, and Martinez made costly mistakes before a red card in the 63rd minute. Two bookings in quick succession ended his afternoon.
The harshest blow came when the Argentine challenged Wesley Fofana inside the penalty area. The referee pointed to the spot, and Cole Palmer rolled in Chelsea's second.
His troubles did not end there. Martinez also shouldered part of the blame for the first goal, letting Morgan Rogers burst through the United defence to score at the start of the second half.
Down to ten men, United were left chasing the game when they needed every player to mount a comeback. Martinez's actions turned into an extra burden on his teammates and the coaching staff.
Is spirit enough to save Carrick, or has the time for change come?
Manchester United showed fight against Aston Villa. Twice they trailed by two goals, twice they refused to buckle, and they clawed their way back to a thrilling 4-4 draw.
Spirit alone, though, does not make a side capable of competing, and a comeback does not wipe away the errors that dug the hole in the first place. This is Michael Carrick's dilemma. He wants a team with character that never gives up, yet he also needs players who protect the collective effort rather than throw it away with reckless individual moments.
What is the point of scoring four goals if the team cannot keep a clean sheet? Coming back from a deficit counts for little when naive mistakes invite the opposition straight back in. And how can anyone speak of a competitive project while goals keep leaking in this fashion?
United proved they have attacking quality and the will to fight to the final whistle. They also proved that some of their own players threaten their ambitions as much as any opponent does.
That is exactly why the old proverb about the bear that killed its owner fits the scene. Rather than lifting the team, the ability and experience of these players turns into blows that knock down everything the coaching staff are trying to build.
Fighting spirit may buy Carrick some time, and the comeback against Villa may prove the team has not entirely lost its character. But keep making the same mistakes and any technical project is left exposed to collapse.
Inside Old Trafford, the question no longer concerns United's ability to come back in matches. It concerns their ability to stop tearing themselves apart.
So can Carrick fix what his players ruin? Or has change become inevitable before these individual errors deliver a final verdict on another season of suffering?