Michael Carrick is under enormous pressure at Manchester United and desperately needs his side to secure a positive result against Bournemouth at Old Trafford on Sunday afternoon.

The Red Devils are winless in their last seven matches across all competitions and currently sit 15th in the Premier League table. Having been tipped by many at the start of the season to achieve Champions League qualification once again, this dire start to the campaign certainly won't be accepted by the north-west club's hierarchy, who are reportedly weighing up possible successors to Carrick already.

Antonio Conte is being linked with the potential vacancy, while Fabian Hurzeler isn't interested in the role despite being in the running.

It's not over for Carrick quite yet, though. The former midfielder can still reverse his team's fortunes, rebuild their confidence and win the support of his higher-ups and the fans back.

He'll need a win over Bournemouth to have a chance of doing that, however. Suffer defeat against the Cherries, and there is an, albeit unlikely, scenario where United end the weekend in the relegation zone. Being in the drop zone after eight matches would be unprecedented for the Red Devils, and would surely see Carrick dismissed.

On the other hand, beat Bournemouth and United could find themselves back in the top half, looking upwards towards the top four. With difficult games against Chelsea, Roma, Aston Villa and Liverpool to come, it's essential that Carrick secures this long-awaited victory against Marco Rose's side.

The United boss needs to ensure he gets both his tactics and team selection right against a competent Bournemouth team, and he has a number of hugely important decisions to make on these fronts, including who he starts in midfield.

Bruno Fernandes has borne the brunt of criticism from fans and pundits this season, but the playmaker has been shunted out wide in recent matches, meaning he hasn't been operating in a role conducive to his success.

Many are calling for Carrick to drop his captain, but the smarter move would be to move the player back into his natural role and sacrifice a different midfielder.

Youri Tielemans Should Lose His Place vs Bournemouth

Until the last three matches, Carrick has deployed a midfield which has included both Fernandes and Youri Tielemans this season. Unsurprisingly, the two haven't dovetailed particularly well, with the duo's lack of athleticism and defensive acumen leaving the Red Devils extremely vulnerable in the middle of the park, particularly in transition.

Carrick's response to this issue was to move Fernandes out of his natural position into a wide role, and then into a false nine role against Como, while Tielemans has been shifted forward, with a more defensively minded midfielder coming in. This has predictably hindered Fernandes, who has produced a few of his worst performances for some time in the last few matches.

While the popular discourse would suggest that the 32-year-old should lose his place, Tielemans has done far less to be guaranteed a spot over last year's Premier League player of the season. Fernandes contributed to 31 goals across all competitions last term, and thus, it makes sense to build a system that maximises his threat, even if he frustrates fans with some of his trigger-happy shooting from range.

The former Sporting man has proven that he is the fulcrum of United's attack; everything runs through him, and Carrick's best bet for eliciting dangerous offensive performances from his team is to make sure Fernandes is put in situations where he can thrive creatively, not drop the player.

As good a passer as Tielemans is, he's not mobile enough to co-exist in a midfield with a luxury number ten. The Belgian sitting next to one of Carlos Baleba, Andrey Santos or Kobbie Mainoo in a double pivot already leaves a lot of defensive burden on his midfield partner, and this problem is only exacerbated by Fernandes' presence ahead of them.

The solution for Carrick is clearly to drop Tielemans and reinstate Fernandes to his preferred role. The United manager should experiment with this new Tielemans-less midfield immediately, starting with the Bournemouth game on Sunday.

Bournemouth Are Well Set Up to Exploit Youri Tielemans

There may be a time and a place for Fernandes and Tielemans together in a midfield — it cannot be made extinct just yet.

In games against teams that sit in a low block and cede possession to United, the pair may work well together as the Red Devils look to unlock these settled defences.

However, Rose's Bournemouth are the exact profile of team that are well set up to exploit this defensively lightweight midfield.

The Cherries are a typical German heavy-metal side, pressing extremely aggressively and using their successful high turnovers to create chances. They have the ability to completely overpower a midfield that includes Fernandes and Tielemans, and thus, Carrick deploying the two of them together against the South Coast outfit could be disastrous.

*Pressed Sequences = The number of open-play sequences starting in their defensive third where the opposition has three or fewer passes, and the sequence ends in their own half.

It's not difficult to envisage Tielemans getting pressed by Tyler Adams or Alex Scott, losing the ball, and then him and Fernandes getting entirely by-passed as Bournemouth break up the pitch.

It's in Carrick's control to ensure this type of scenario doesn't play out. If it does, he might lose his job.