For a decade and more, Manchester United had a player who could be sent out after a defeat to do a host of interviews, safe in the knowledge he would say nothing controversial or, at times, remotely memorable. That player, of course, was Michael Carrick.

So when there was an explosive assessment of United following Tuesday’s 2-0 loss to Atletico Madrid, it did not come from Carrick himself. The manager nevertheless had to deal with the fallout of Lisandro Martinez’s outburst at the Metropolitano. Talks at Carrington on Thursday were more conciliatory, the defender meeting Carrick and the United powerbrokers – including Jason Wilcox, the target of his criticisms about a lack of recruitment – and issuing a public apology, even if it seemed to be more for when and how he said it that the actual substance of his comments.

Carrick was nevertheless content. “He's released his statement, and he's realised he's made a mistake, and I think that's enough for all of us to move on with,” he said. “It's really not drama for us as a group.”

Certainly part of Carrick’s appeal to United lies in his capacity to take the drama out of anything. One of the charges levelled at him is that he can be too low-key, too calm. The simplistic accusation is that he needs to be more animated on the touchline. His explanation of Martinez’s reaction involved an understanding of more temperamental people’s characters.

“We're emotional, we're passionate, we care a lot,” he said. “Sometimes someone says something that maybe they shouldn't say it at a certain time, but that doesn't distract us from what we're creating here.”

But what are United creating? A team with a mere two wins in nine games this season, and those against promoted Ipswich and the Azeri side Sabah, could seem to have regressed. Martinez’s gripe with Wilcox involved was focused on insufficient investment in the squad, a lack of depth and, it was implied, not enough to show for their summer business. In that context, it was entirely unsurprising that Carrick did not react to Martinez’s rant by exiling him from first-team contention. With Benjamin Sesko and Patrick Dorgu out and Luke Shaw and Kobbie Mainoo doubts, Carrick is already short of players for Sunday’s trip to Leeds.

It could seem both the wrong time to visit Elland Road and a fixture with a certain symbolism. Carrick noted the consistency of a team who have only lost six of their last 31 league matches, with only champions Arsenal beating Daniel Farke’s side in the top flight this season. Leeds inflicted Carrick’s first defeat at Old Trafford since his January return; yet their more momentous clash last season came at Elland Road in January.

The previous brutal verbal attack on Wilcox came from Ruben Amorim and it was in the immediate aftermath of that draw. The Portuguese was sacked the next day even if the reality was that Wilcox had been the last man inside the corridors of power defending him. Whether the Martinez saga suggests Wilcox is a forgiving figure, the sporting director’s aversion to speaking to the outside world makes it harder to say. “I don't think that's for me to say of whether he should or not,” said Carrick. “I think I've got absolutely no problem with how that's for me sitting here and talking.”

He may be answerable to the publicity-shy Wilcox. If a trip to Leeds heightens the comparison with Amorim, Carrick rejected the suggestion he requires a win. “I don't need results, we all need results. It's not about me, you know?” he said. “It's not about me. Manchester United is a lot bigger than any individual, bigger than me, bigger than any player, anyone else who works at this football club. It always has done.”

That unity appeared broken as when United left Madrid; the implications were that Martinez was unimpressed by the summer business, which brought in Andrey Santos, Youri Tielemans, Carlos Baleba and Karl Darlow. Carrick nevertheless claimed his side were fired up by the events of the last few days. “Certain situations, it can galvanise the group, and it's certainly galvanised the group as this week's progressed, and the boys are in a really good place right now,” he insisted.

By a good place, he did not mean 13th position in two different league tables or out of the Carabao Cup. “Results-wise, it hasn't gone to plan of late, but the spirit, the togetherness is [there],” Carrick explained. “You can see there's a real sense and a feeling within the group that we want to do something about this situation, and we want to do something about it really quickly.”

The Martinez situation has certainly changed quickly, and twice in a week. Now United could do with altering the narrative of their season in similarly rapid and dramatic fashion.