Manchester United do not have a football team, more a collection of adrenaline junkies. Over time, it will not be enough.

So deficient are Michael Carrick's players that they surely can't keep their manager in a job for much longer. For the most part United are shambolic, a mess. At times they play football so devoid of intelligence and competence that it's almost impossible to fathom. They look uncoached.

Yet here they were for the second night running at Old Trafford, completing a lap of honour at full-time while their supporters sang the name of Carrick as he completed his own journey in front of the Stretford End towards the tunnel.

United – it's worth pointing out – are third bottom of the Premier League. They haven't won in the league since August and have conceded more goals across all competitions – 30 – than any team bar Crystal Palace in Europe's top divisions.

But at Old Trafford they will cling to anything to help them look in the mirror without laughing and currently the currency is comebacks. There was one against Roma in the Champions League last Tuesday and here – quite remarkably – there were two in one game.

None of it should really mean anything in the grand scheme. United are rotten, capable of playing effectively only when something gives them an energy spike with which to roll. It makes for quite hypnotic theatre but has inadequacy and desperation at its core.

It won't sustain them or indeed their fumbling, failing manager. But for the moment it's what they have and what they are.

Here, they twice trailed by two, at the start of both halves. They were 2-0 down after only four minutes and 4-2 behind after 53. Somehow they managed not to lose.

The two goals United scored in added time at the end of the game came from absolutely nowhere. On the touchline Carrick – free from total humiliation for the second time in six days – raised a single finger to the sky. 

In the directors' box – where the TV companies seem to have a camera permanently trained these days – fist pumps were in evidence from those in United blazers.

This was another uncomfortable afternoon for Messrs Ratcliffe, Wilcox and Berrada. A collection of new banners in the crowd made feelings known.

For now, Carrick is being spared any of the blame. That is strange and wrong but tells us much about the confused nature of the modern United. If they blame one of their own then they really do have nowhere left to go in search of self-respect.

United's opening against Roma last week had been traumatic enough. This was even worse but the root of it was desperately familiar – incompetent football.

The hapless United full-back Diogo Dalot was to blame for the first goal as Villa's Brazilian Alysson blasted his shot through the Portuguese's limp challenge. Later – after conceding a second half penalty – Dalot was booed off by his own fans.

That was painful and unedifying but completely understandable. Dalot has played more than 250 games for United yet has never even been good enough.

For goal two, goalkeeper Senne Lammens was culpable as he pushed Alysson's shot into the path of Nicolas Jackson.

Once again United were in sink or swim territory. Once again, amazingly, they kept their heads above water – at least for a while.

Boubacar Kamara's 13th minute challenge on Matheus Cunha was stupid as the Brazilian was heading away from goal. But the Bruno Fernandes penalty that followed was calm and precise and the shot of belief United needed was theirs.

For the next 20 minutes or so, Carrick's team played well off the back of it. It was the only part of their game that will look good on the highlights. The United front four pressed and harried the Villa defence to the extent that Unai Emery's team couldn't get up the field.

Villa keeper Zion Suzuki saved well from a Cunha curler while subsequent shots from Fernandes, Kobbie Mainoo and Amad Diallo took deflections and narrowly missed the target.

At some stage it felt as though United's energy must drop. Over time it did. But then they equalised.

Moments after seeing Suzuki save one of his own efforts, Amad found space to pull the ball back for Youri Tielemans who placed his first United goal in from 18 yards against his old club. Carrick's team deserved to be level at that stage and had played some enterprising football to get there. But their self-harm gene surfaced again before long.

Alysson had almost scored with the last big moment of the first half and in the 47th minute he drew an utterly dumb foul from Dalot and John McGinn scored the penalty firmly.

United are beyond compare in the Premier League when it comes to this kind of thing. Who else in the top flight concedes the kind of goals they do? A case in point came in the 53rd minute.

McGinn's free-kick was heading across goal and away when United defender Leny Yoro inexplicably headed it towards his own goal. Lammens somehow touched the ball on to the bar but when it dropped Leon Goretzka poked it in.

That was the 16th goal United had conceded in the last five games and this time the attempt at a fightback was more muted.

There were some half chances – shots from Cunha and Fernandes – and some territory in which to play.

But this was a game Villa were now able to control rather better and they looked set to ease home until Patrick Dorgu crossed for Joshua Zirkzee to ease a goal in from out of nothing in the 2nd minute of added time.

Old Trafford was emptying fast by the time Dorgu headed in a 96th equaliser from a corner. But by then the collective blood was up once more and it was enough.

Villa appealed for a foul on goalkeeper Suzuki and it's true Lemmens had gone looking for him. Was the contact between the two 'keepers significant enough to warrant VAR intervention? Probably not. United had their draw and they had a point.

If the season ended today, they would be down. Yet they were cheered off. Some things you just can't make up.

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