'Michael Carrick sack talk is nonsense – Man Utd's players simply aren't doing enough'

Former Manchester United defender Phil Bardsley has played down suggestions manager Michael Carrick should be worried for his future. Instead, he has called on the players to step up and help recover from a tough start to the season.

United, who face Fulham on Sunday, have earned just four points from their first four league matches despite facing only one team who finished in the top half of the table last season. They got off to a winning start in Europe, beating Sabah 4-0 , but are out of the Carabao Cup after surrendering a 2-0 lead to lose at home to Brighton .

Back-to-back defeats against Manchester City in the league and Brighton in the cup have seen questions asked about what's next for Carrick, who only took the job on a permanent basis in the close-season. However, academy graduate Bardsley rubbished talk of a change in the dugout.

"I think that's a lot of nonsense," the Scotland international told Lyllo Casino. "That's a lot of outside noise, and it's always the way if you look at certain top clubs losing games or going on a bit of a losing run. It's never as big as when Man United go on a bit of a difficult losing streak.

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He continued: "So it is what it is, it's the magnitude of the club. You're always going to get criticism, and if you're not prepared to take the criticism, then you're at the wrong club because there's going to be highs and lows at that club, and it's how you bounce back.

"But as a collective, the players are just not doing enough for me. We can go back to say managers, Mourinho, Van Gaal, Amorim, Carrick, all these brilliant coaches.

"But the stoppage is with the players, and there's got to be some demand on each other to start getting results. Ultimately, it is what it is, and they find themselves where they are. It's the players that have got to dig themselves out of this little bit of a tricky situation."

Carrick has given minutes to new signings Youri Tielemans, Andrey Santos and Karl Darlow already this season but £70m arrival Carlos Baleba is still waiting for his United debut. Speaking ahead of Sunday's meeting with Fulham, the manager indicated the Cameroon international is getting closer to a debut for his new club.

"We're looking good. Everyone's up and running Over the last week or so, pretty much everyone has played and [been] fit and we're trying to get Carlos back in," Carrick told club media.

"Well, I say back in, actually introducing him into the group. So he's done a bit of training this week and, hopefully, we'll get Luke [Shaw] back in and around it this week and look forward to a strong game on the weekend."