Ancelotti Corrects World Cup Mistake as Carrick Faces Forward Dilemma

Carlo Ancelotti has already corrected one World Cup mistake. Michael Carrick might be about to make his own, in reverse.

The Brazil coach has recalled Chelsea forward Joao Pedro after his inexplicable omission from the summer squad, a decision that looked worse with every passing week of his electric debut season at Stamford Bridge. Brazil’s limp last-16 exit and Pedro’s blistering start to the new Premier League campaign left Ancelotti with nowhere to hide. The 22-year-old is back in the Selecao for friendlies against Australia at the end of the month.

Neymar is out, his controversial inclusion at the World Cup now a memory rather than a problem. Matheus Cunha is out too. He shone for Brazil in the summer and impressed for Manchester United last season, but his second year at Old Trafford has stalled badly.

Carrick has persisted with him as United’s centre-forward – just as Brazil did at the World Cup and as United often did in his debut campaign. The experiment is starting to grate.

Scholes: ‘Watching United without a No.9 is a struggle’

Paul Scholes didn’t bother sugar-coating it after United’s win over Everton, when Benjamin Sesko came off the bench – as a classic No.9 – and promptly scored.

“I felt it was really timid against Everton,” Scholes said on The Good, The Bad and The Football podcast. “There was no aggression, and Everton were there for the taking. There was so much space, and they never went for the throat.

“The centre-forward position is a bit of an issue because he is not playing Sesko. He is a focal point. It is very difficult to watch a Manchester United team without a centre forward.

“With Cunha, we don’t really know what he is, a No.10 or a wide player but he’s definitely not a No.9 and watching United without a No.9 is a struggle.”

Scholes’ frustration mirrors what many in the stands have felt for weeks. United move the ball, they probe, they threaten. Then the move reaches the penalty area and the picture blurs. Cunha drops off, drifts wide, looks for combinations. What they lack is the blunt instrument, the fixed reference point, the striker who lives between the posts.

Sesko offered exactly that in a brief but telling cameo at the weekend. One chance, one goal, and a performance that sharpened the debate around Carrick’s forward pecking order.

‘Total zero’ – Slovenian media savage Cunha

If the noise around Old Trafford is growing, the volume in Slovenia is already at full blast.

Local outlet Ekira, with the inevitable bias towards their national hero, made no attempt to hide where they stand on the matter. Their verdict on Cunha’s latest display was brutal.

‘Sesko flies on the shameful numbers of the Brazilian – fans firmly against Carrick,’ ran the headline.

They didn’t stop there. Cunha, they wrote, ‘completely failed, showing a catastrophic performance. A total zero. Cunha ended with zero shots on target, zero assists, zero dribbles. He lost the ball 11 times and was beaten in every aerial duel.’

For a player who only months ago looked like a key piece for both club and country, it is a savage comedown. The statistics back up the criticism: no threat, no penetration, no hold-up play. Just turnovers and frustration.

Yet Carrick has kept faith. Ekira underlined exactly how that is going down among Sesko’s compatriots: ‘But Carrick insisting that Sesko is still more effective on the bench, while the Brazilian plays up front, is driving fans crazy. Sesko has to play from the first minute, they’re yelling.’

Carrick’s call before Europe

The tactical jigsaw around United’s front line is not complicated. Bryan Mbeumo has nailed down the right flank. Marcus Rashford, back at his boyhood club and playing like a man with a point to prove, owns the left.

That leaves one slot. One decision.

If Sesko returns to the starting XI, Cunha almost certainly drops to the bench when United resume their Champions League campaign against Sabah on Thursday night. For the 27-year-old, it would cap a bruising few days: discarded by Brazil, demoted by United, his status as a central striker openly questioned by one of the club’s greatest midfielders.

Ancelotti has already shown he is willing to correct a mistake and back form over reputation. Carrick now faces his own test of conviction. Does he double down on Cunha as a false nine, or hand the shirt to the natural finisher already banging on the door?