This was not the kind of finish Manchester United wanted to their preseason. Not only did Milan beat them 4-2 in Breslavia, but the rossoneri also left behind a fairly brutal reminder that a closing friendly can still tell you plenty about a squad’s current state. The scoreline was uncomfortable enough. The performance, by Michael Carrick’s own admission, was worse.
Gonçalo Ramos, Samuel Chukwueze, Alphadjo Cissé and Ruben Loftus-Cheek were on target for Milan, and the pattern was hard to ignore: United were too open, too easy to play through and too reliant on patches of individual quality to make the evening look respectable. Bruno Fernandes did at least score from the penalty spot, but that only softened the optics. It did not change the overall story.
No excuses, and Carrick knew it
After the match, Carrick did not reach for cover. He said there were no excuses for the performance, even if he stressed that some players were getting their first minutes and that the preseason as a whole had included a lot of positive work. That may all be true. It still does not make a 4-2 defeat in the closing fixture of the summer any easier to dress up.
His comments were straightforward: United were disappointed, they did not play well, they need to learn from it and improve. He also made the practical point that the minutes would help some players and that there are decisions still to be made because the squad is not settled in any meaningful sense. That is the real issue here. A team heading into its Premier League opener at Hull City does not want to be discovering so many loose ends this late in the schedule.
The underlying numbers make the concern harder to wave away. Milan generated 3.21 expected goals from 13 shots, while United managed 1.78 expected goals from 10 shots. That is not a freak result. That is a match in which Milan created more, threatened more and looked far more convincing where it mattered. For a preseason outing, that should still matter. It is the last chance to calibrate, not the place to pretend the problems are imaginary.
There is also a wider context that makes this result sting a little more. Ruben Amorim left Manchester United in January when the Red Devils were sixth in the Premier League, and there was already a sense that the club’s direction needed clearer answers. Marcus Rashford’s return after Barcellona did not redeem his loan at the end of the spell only adds another layer to a group that is still trying to find a stable identity. The pieces are there, but the picture is not.
Milan, meanwhile, can take the small revenge for Ruben Amorim over Manchester United and move on with a result that actually means something in terms of momentum. For United, the takeaway is less flattering. The closing match of preseason has left them with work to do, choices to make and very little time to make them before the real tests begin. That is not panic territory. But it is definitely a warning sign.
