Manchester United, three games in: the Bruno dependency, the Baleba bet, and a defence that still leaks.

Start with the ugly one, because it set the tone. United went to the MKM Stadium on August 22 to face a Hull side that had started last season as favourites to go down from the Championship under a transfer embargo. Semi Ajayi poked in a loose ball in the 17th minute. Nobel Mendy, on his Premier League debut, powered a header past Senne Lammens in the 38th. United's only real chance of the second half was a Bryan Mbeumo shot that Konstantinos Tzolakis saved. Marcus Rashford came on at half-time for his first competitive United appearance in 618 days and changed nothing. Hull won 2-0. It was their first Premier League win over Manchester United, ever.

Bruno Fernandes said the quiet part afterwards: "Same mistakes as we did last season, every away game we give too much of the ball to them. In the first 20 minutes, the goalkeeper was the one with the most touches." He also pointed out that Hull played a back four all pre-season and switched to a five with extra height specifically for United's set-piece weakness. They saw it coming. United didn't.

Sky's readers were calling for Carrick's job before the coach had even reached the tunnel. That's the internet. The more useful reaction was the one from inside the building, which was to change four players for the next match and hope the captain bailed them out.

The captain bailed them out

Ipswich, another promoted side, came to Old Trafford eight days later and took the lead too. Abdul Fatawu ran past Luke Shaw like he was a training cone and Leif Davis swept the cross in. Julio Enciso had already been through one-on-one and been denied by Lammens. For 15 minutes it looked like Hull again with a different badge.

Then Marcelino Nunez slipped, Matheus Cunha pounced, and Fernandes finished on his weaker left foot to level before the break. Eleven minutes into the second half a Harry Maguire shot deflected in off Jacob Greaves for a goal that only stood because the original effort was heading off target. Greaves then chopped Cunha down for a penalty, Fernandes converted, and a few minutes later he was in the right place to turn in Mbeumo's deflected shot for the hat-trick. He capped it with a pass over the top for Mbeumo to loop one over Kjell Scherpen. Five to one. Lisandro Martinez then got caught in possession in stoppage time and Chuba Akpom tapped into an empty net, because of course.

Read that stat box again. Fernandes scored nine league goals last season and was still the PFA players' player of the year, because he set up 21. He has three after two games. That is fantastic news if you're a United fan and terrible news if you're a United defender, because the pattern from last season hasn't changed: the team's floor is wherever Bruno's form is, and the ceiling is wherever the back line decides to put it.

Everton: two leads, no win

Sunday at Hill Dickinson Stadium was the first game this season where United didn't concede first, which is not a sentence you should have to write about a Champions League club in September. Carrick named the same eleven that beat Ipswich: Lammens; Dalot, Maguire, Martinez, Shaw; Mainoo, Tielemans; Mbeumo, Fernandes, Rashford; Cunha. Mason Mount made the bench for the first time since his foot injury against PSG in pre-season.

The first half was United's without being decisive. Cunha fired one just wide after Dalot dummied a Rashford cut-back, Fernandes hit the crossbar just before the interval, and Jarrad Branthwaite had to make a last-ditch challenge on Rashford and then block the follow-up. Everton's best moment was a Thierno Barry header from a Merlin Rohl cross that flashed over. Kobbie Mainoo was the best player on the pitch for long stretches, which given who else was on it, matters.

Two minutes into the second half Mbeumo picked the ball up on the right, drove towards the edge of the box and curled a low one past Jordan Pickford. United then had to hold on, which is the part of the game they've been worst at, and for half an hour they did. Then Tyrique George rifled one in at Lammens' near post in the 83rd minute. Benjamin Sesko, on as a sub for his first minutes of the season, headed United back in front from a Shaw cross in the 88th. Five minutes of stoppage time were shown. In the sixth, Ainsley Maitland-Niles, on as a substitute for his Everton debut, curled a first-time 25-yarder into the top corner. 2-2. David Moyes, who has lost more Premier League games to United than any manager bar Harry Redknapp, got a point off the man who played for him in 2013-14.

The window: three midfielders and a hole where the defender should be

Here's the full ledger. Judge it yourself.

Add the loans and expiring contracts and 24 players left. Net spend is somewhere around £100m, which for this club is restraint. The logic is clear enough: Carrick is a midfielder who built his reputation on controlling games from the middle, Casemiro was leaving, Ugarte blew out his knee at the World Cup, and the club had wanted Baleba for a year. Santos and Baleba are both 22. Tielemans is the grown-up. On paper it's the most coherent midfield United have had since Carrick himself was in it.

The problem is everything around it. Hojlund left and nobody came in to replace him, which means the number nine options are Sesko, who hasn't been fit since May, and Cunha, who is a brilliant second striker and a merely willing first one. Malacia left, no left-back arrived, and Shaw, who is 31 and has the injury history he has, got run by Fatawu on the first attack Ipswich built. And the defence that Fernandes publicly described as making "the same mistakes as last season" got no new bodies at all, with De Ligt still on his way back from back surgery.

Deadline day was, by every account, quiet. NBC's phrasing was that both Everton and United "expected a little more" from the window. The local verdicts were harsher. One rated the Baleba deal an eight out of ten and called the failure to land a striker a blunder Carrick has every right to be furious about. Stretty News called the deadline uneventful and noted that United go into a Champions League season without a new left-back or striker. All of that is fair.

That's a reader comment on Sky Sports after the Hull game, and it's more honest than most of the paid analysis. The club spent £150m on the part of the team that was closest to being fixed.

The treatment room

• Benjamin Sesko. Shin injury since the end of last season, missed all of pre-season, came off the bench at Everton and scored with his first real involvement of the campaign. United's only true centre-forward. If he starts against City, the Cunha-as-striker experiment ends.
• Mason Mount. Foot injury against PSG in pre-season. Named on the bench at Everton for the first time. A month behind everyone else.
• Manuel Ugarte. Serious knee injury with Uruguay at the World Cup. Out for a significant period. The Baleba signing is, in part, his replacement.
• Matthijs de Ligt. Hasn't played since the end of 2025. Back injury, then surgery, now back in training and targeting the first half of the season. When he's fit, he starts. Until he is, it's Maguire and Martinez, who between them were caught out for both Hull goals and the Ipswich consolation.
• Amad Diallo. Missed the Hull game in circumstances Carrick called "disappointing, unfortunate" without elaborating. Worth keeping an eye on.
• Tom Heaton. Hamstring in pre-season. Only matters because it's why Darlow was signed.

The Carrick question

He took the job on an interim basis in January, beat City 2-0 in his first match, finished third, and got a two-year permanent contract in May. He has earned the season. He has also been given a squad with an obvious flaw that he presumably signed off on, and Sky readers were asking for Eddie Howe after 90 minutes. That is what managing Manchester United is now.

Two things about him are worth holding onto. The first is that he changes things: four changes after Hull, Rashford and Mainoo back in, and the side that resulted won at home and led twice away. The second is his own honesty after the opener. He called it "a typical one of those games, with a newly-promoted team at home," said "we didn't have the spark," and said "it was never going to be perfect." None of that is spin. It's also not a plan. The derby will tell us if there is one.

Champions League: back, with a hard draw

United's first Champions League campaign since 2023-24 opens at home to Sabah of Azerbaijan on September 10. Then it gets serious. The full league-phase draw:

• Bayern Munich (home)
• Atletico Madrid (away, October 13)
• Roma (home, early November)
• Sporting CP (away, late November)
• RB Leipzig (home)
• Villarreal (away)
• Sabah (home, September 10)
• Como (away, October 21)

Two pot-one heavyweights, a Roma side that's usually a nightmare to play in November, a trip to Lisbon, and a Como game that will be more awkward than it looks. Eight games, four at home. Twelve points was roughly the safe line for the top 24 in the first two seasons of this format. With this defence and this striker situation, Sabah, Leipzig and Como at home are the games United absolutely have to win.

What's next, and what to watch for

Thursday, September 10: Sabah (H), Champions League. The gentlest possible way to reintroduce the anthem at Old Trafford. Expect rotation, expect Sesko to get minutes if he's anywhere near fit, expect a comfortable scoreline that tells you nothing.

Saturday, September 12: Manchester City (H), Premier League. City are three from three and top of the table. This is the one. Carrick beat Guardiola in his first game in charge back in January. Doing it again, with a midfield that has had three games together and a defence that hasn't kept a clean sheet all season, would change the mood around the club for a month. Losing badly would restart every conversation Hull started.

Week of September 14: Brighton (A), Carabao Cup third round. The tie that gets Baleba a reunion with his old club and gets the squad players a game. It also lands in the same week as the derby, which is the fixture list being unkind.

Saturday, September 19: Fulham (A), Premier League. Then Tottenham at home on October 10 after the international break.

Three things we're actually watching

1. Who plays the six against City. Mainoo and Tielemans started the last two. Baleba was bought to be the destroyer. Santos was bought to be the engine. If all three of the new signings sit for the derby, the window looks even stranger.

2. Closing games. Both Hull goals came from crosses; Ipswich's consolation came from a Martinez giveaway; Everton's two came in the 83rd and 96th minutes with United ahead. That's three different ways to concede in three games. City don't need help, but everyone after them will use whichever route is open.

3. Whether Bruno's numbers keep the story off the defence. They did against Ipswich. They won't every week. The week they don't is the week this squad's design gets tested in public.