Gary Neville's Warning to Michael Carrick After Late Draw

Gary Neville has warned Michael Carrick he is already flirting with the same mistakes that brought down Erik ten Hag and Ruben Amorim, after Manchester United let two points slip deep into stoppage time at Hill Dickinson Stadium.

United were almost home. Almost.

They had controlled long stretches, looked set for a professional away win, and then allowed Everton to drag them into chaos. Ainsley Maitland-Niles struck in the 96th minute, punishing United’s failure to kill the game and leaving them with just four points from their first three Premier League fixtures.

For Neville, the pattern felt uncomfortably familiar.

Neville’s warning for Carrick

Speaking on the Gary Neville Podcast, the former United captain zeroed in on what he sees as a chronic flaw.

"Teams think they've got a chance against them," he said. "I thought they were a little bit complacent and I was saying it after the first goal, they lacked that killer instinct before that period when Everton equalised and then they react again."

United’s inability to finish opponents off has become a recurring theme. The control is there in spells, the quality too, but the ruthlessness? Not yet. And when the pressure rose in the final minutes on Merseyside, the old fragility returned.

The pressure finally told in stoppage time, but Neville’s frustration started earlier – with Carrick’s changes at the back.

Defensive tinkering under the spotlight

One of the key flashpoints was Carrick’s late reshuffle of his defence. United were already wobbling, yet he altered a backline that had, until then, largely held firm. Neville simply could not understand it.

He was especially critical of the decision to take off Luke Shaw and Diogo Dalot, seeing echoes of the constant defensive tinkering that undermined previous managers.

"I don't think it's going to go away and that's my big fear," Neville said. "I think conceding goals is going to chase them and hunt them down the road and I don't know how Michael deals with it because he's got his best back four on the pitch. I don't know why Shaw went off with five minutes to go – hopefully he's not injured."

In Neville’s eyes, United invited Everton on. The substitutions disrupted rhythm, surrendered authority, and handed belief to a home side that had looked beaten.

Carrick accepts defensive reality

Carrick cut a calm figure afterwards, but he did not try to dress up the obvious. United concede too many goals, and they concede them at the worst possible times.

"Obviously, we can't ignore it," he admitted. "We need to concede fewer goals to give us a better chance of winning games. We'll certainly look at that and keep improving. There's obviously things we need to get better at as a team."

He pointed out the quality of Everton’s finishing, with both goals coming from distance.

"There's been two strikes from distance really, two really good strikes from their point of view," Carrick said. "Sometimes they fly in the top corner and more often than not they probably don't. Yeah, for sure, it is [on conceding late]."

Carrick’s message was clear enough: United have structural issues to fix, but they were also hit by low-percentage efforts finding the top corner. That might be true. It doesn’t make the dropped points any easier to swallow.

Rashford concern adds to United’s problems

As if the late equaliser wasn’t damaging enough, United now face an anxious wait over Marcus Rashford.

The forward, who had looked sharp down the left and combined well with Shaw, was withdrawn in the second half. Carrick later confirmed it was not tactical.

"He felt a little bit of something, so we had to change him," the United manager explained. "We had good connections pretty much all over the pitch at different times of the game, and Marcus and Shaw have played together for a long period of time and have a good understanding. And you can see that, they look really dangerous down that side, and there is obviously more to come."

United can ill afford to lose Rashford, especially when his partnership with Shaw was one of the brightest elements of the performance. Their threat on the left had pinned Everton back for long spells. Once both were off, United looked lighter, both in attack and defence.

Three games into the campaign, the table already tells a story: four points, late goals conceded, questions over game management, and now a fitness worry over their key forward. Carrick insists there is more to come. The real question is how long the club, and critics like Neville, will wait for that promise to turn into something more solid than another stoppage-time regret.