One of the top candidates to replace Michael Carrick as Manchester United boss insists the “dressing room is out of control”, while another says “the players talk too much”.

Carrick is on thin ice as Man Utd have lose five of their opening 11 games in all competitions this season, with the 4-1 defeat to Como on Wednesday particularly damaging given what happened on the pitch and in the aftermath.

The Red Devils were embarrassed by their Serie A hosts, who were competing in the Champions League for the very first time, and captain Bruno Fernandes broke ranks after the game to take aim at Carrick’s tactics.

Fernandes has been destroyed by pundits in the wake of his comments, with Wayne Rooney branding him and teammate Lisandro Martinez – who hit out at technical director Jason Wilcox last week – “selfish babies”.

Carrick delivered a passionate speech to start his press conference ahead of the visit of Bournemouth on Sunday, before promising to “pick a team to represent the club” rather than revealing if Fernandes would be dropped or stripped of the captaincy.

A report from The Athletic on Friday revealed that while Wilcox is still backing Carrick as thing stand, co-owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe could step in and overrule the director of football to send the former midfielder packing as he leans on AI to select the next Red Devils boss.

Eddie Howe, Unai Emery and Julian Nagelsmann are all preferred choices or leading candidates according to multiple often contradictory sources.

The Telegraph has now revealed that at least two candidates for the job agree that one of the biggest priorities will be to toughen up on a squad that now apparently feels as though it’s fine for dirty laundry to be aired in public.

A source close to one of United’s managerial candidates said: “It’s clear they need order and discipline. The dressing room is out of control and that is the first thing to fix.”

A friend of a second candidate said: “The players talk too much. United is one of the biggest clubs in the world and that has to be respected.”