Senior Manchester United player share Lisandro Martínez’s concerns about the club’s ambition and direction, Telegraph Sport understands.

Martínez’s extraordinary attack on United director of football Jason Wilcox and the Old Trafford board in the wake of Tuesday’s 2-0 Champions League defeat at Atlético Madrid has sent shockwaves through the club.

Sir Jim Ratcliffe, the United co-owner who was at Estadio Metropolitano as United slumped to a fourth loss in nine matches, and other executives have been left angered by the outburst and consider it extremely unhelpful after the club’s worst start to a season for 40 years. Yet it is understood that some of the complaints publicly aired by Martínez in his lacerating interview with Amazon Prime reflect the wider frustrations of the dressing room over transfers and squad depth.

A number of players believe head coach Michael Carrick deserved more backing in the summer window after leading the club back into the Champions League and that some areas where the squad was obviously short went unaddressed and are already being exposed.

With Carrick under growing pressure as United prepare to head to Elland Road on Sunday to face Leeds United, there is also thought to be a desire for more accountability from the top of the club over how key decisions are made, according to dressing room sources.

Carrick is the third manager since Ratcliffe took over the day-to-day running of the club two-and-a-half years ago. Ruben Amorim lasted just 14 months and Erik ten Hag was sacked 116 days after having his contract extended.

Martínez, whose United future was already in doubt even before his outburst, is facing the threat of disciplinary action.

Sources have likened the Argentina defender’s outburst to his compatriot Cristian Romero’s tirade at Tottenham Hotspur executives in January.

Martínez is out of contract next summer and there had been little indication before his rant of the club triggering an option to extend the deal by a year or negotiate new terms.

Players and football staff are said to be keen to see how Wilcox responds to being publicly singled out and questioned in such fashion.

One well-placed source at the club said Wilcox’s handling of the situation would provide more insight into his power and values as director of football and asked whether he and the club’s leaders would have the “bottle” to take action.

United’s players were on a day off on Wednesday but the situation is expected to be tackled when the squad report back to Carrington on Thursday morning.

Carrick, who is said to have remained characteristically level-headed since the storm flared, is believed to have been in contact with club executives on Wednesday.

While many fans have praised Martínez for speaking out and giving a voice to what they have been saying publicly and privately, Telegraph Sport understands there has been a mixed reaction inside the club.

Although Martínez’s remarks have gone down badly with the powers that be, some on the football side feel the “madness” could be helpful in directing some of the attention away from Carrick and the players and on to the executives at a pressure point.

Most agree Martínez should not have lashed out in public like he did and that such behaviour warrants punishment. Some felt his comments could be construed as an attack on his team-mates and not just the executives.

But several sources spoken to by Telegraph Sport believe it was clear the defender was referring to the number of signings rather than the quality of them and that his overriding message was that the squad needed more reinforcements than it got.

There have been misgivings internally as well as anger from fans that United failed to bring in a left-back to replace an ageing, injury prone Luke Shaw or cover for the injured Benjamin Sesko in attack. United would argue they did not have the financial means after £155m spent on Youri Tielemans, Andrey Santos and Carlos Baleba.

United missed out on their two leading transfer targets this year, with Antoine Semenyo and Elliot Anderson both joining Manchester City on contracts United were unwilling or unable to match.

Yet Old Trafford sources said missing out on those two players had to be viewed now through the prism of the cheating scandal that has engulfed City, who were ruled by an independent Premier League commission to have inflated revenues and reduced costs to the tune of £920m.

Still, United players had been calling for the club to go big in the window. In April, Harry Maguire told reporters that United face a “really, really big” summer and needed the right signings to be in a position to compete for the title as the challenged the club hierarchy to deliver.

United captain Bruno Fernandes has repeatedly challenged the club to match his ambition in recent years.

Wayne Rooney, the former United captain, claimed before the Atlético game that Fernandes looked “fed up” and sources told Telegraph Sport the Portugal midfielder did “not seem himself” at the moment and that “something’s going on”. Fernandes is currently in contract negotiations but has yet to agree a new deal.

In an interview with Steven Bartlett on the Diary of a CEO podcast in May, Fernandes also hinted at the frustration at the constant cycle of managerial change at Old Trafford as he discussed Amorim’s sacking in January following a bust-up with Wilcox.

“We didn’t change managers because of results,” Fernandes said. “There was something different with the club, that they felt that the trust between them was broken. And they decided to start a new process.

“And that was bad because for us, when Ruben came what was passed from the club was: ‘This is gonna be a process, we’re gonna go through this. There’s gonna be good and bad times, but we’re gonna go through this.’ Then the club decided it was time to part and we started from zero with Michael.”

Attention now turns to Leeds. Santos, one of United’s summer signings, apologised to supporters on behalf of the squad after the Atlético match.

“We just want to say sorry to everyone who has travelled to Spain, we want to win every single game but now it’s time to work hard and come back with a victory,” the Brazil midfielder said.

But he insisted the players were behind Carrick as they bid to claim just a third win of the season at Leeds. “Yeah, of course, we believe in the manager, we believe in the whole staff, we believe in [ourselves as] players,” he said. “We are in a bad moment but we have to work to change this result.”