United’s Fulham point leaves Cunha demanding earlier improvement

Matheus Cunha’s deflected 89th-minute effort rescued a 1-1 draw for Manchester United at Craven Cottage, and the Brazilian used his post-match media duties to push back against the growing chorus of criticism surrounding Michael Carrick’s side.

Lisandro Martinez’s own goal in the 63rd minute had threatened to hand United a third successive defeat before Cunha’s shot took a wicked deflection and squirmed past Bernd Leno. Speaking afterwards, Cunha made clear he was unmoved by suggestions that United’s stuttering start defines where this team is heading.

A point salvaged, a performance questioned

United’s poor start to the season was extended rather than ended by the draw in West London, with the Reds looking short of ideas for long spells before Cunha’s intervention. Broader coverage of the Fulham draw has focused on United’s lack of tempo and urgency, a theme that shaped much of the post-match discussion.

Carrick, for his part, firmly rejected the idea that his players lacked energy, even disagreeing publicly with Cunha’s own admission that something wasn’t quite right about the performance. There was also debate around a contentious VAR call involving Calvin Bassey that added another layer to an already fractious afternoon at Craven Cottage.

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What Cunha’s message actually says about United

Speaking to Steven Railston of the Manchester Evening News, Cunha drew a direct line back to last season, reminding United’s doubters that the club had been written off – with some even predicting a fight against relegation – before finishing third in the Premier League. He insisted the group still carries genuine belief in what it’s doing, describing that trust as something built from within rather than manufactured for public consumption.

Crucially, though, Cunha didn’t simply lean on last season’s recovery as a shield. He was explicit that United improved too late in that campaign and that the challenge now is to find that same upward curve far earlier in the season, rather than banking on a repeat of last term’s late surge.

That framing sits alongside, rather than in direct alignment with, Carrick’s own version of events – the manager maintaining United did enough to win at Fulham and rejecting any suggestion of passivity, while his forward was willing to concede the performance level wasn’t where it needs to be.

Table: the numbers from Craven Cottage

A familiar comparison to last season

Cunha was careful to frame last season, his first at Old Trafford, as an even noisier period than the current one – a campaign played without Champions League football and under constant external pressure, yet one that still ended with United securing a third-place finish. He pointed to that context as evidence that this squad has already shown it can respond when written off.

The distinction he drew, though, was about timing. Last season’s revival came late; this time, in his words, the aim has to be doing the improving earlier rather than leaving it until the closing months of the campaign.

What happens next for Carrick’s side

United now head into an extended international break before returning to host Tottenham Hotspur at Old Trafford on 10 October. Cunha admitted the pause is an awkward one given his eagerness to get back out and put things right immediately, but he also framed it as a chance for the squad to reset and reorganise its thinking calmly rather than react to results in the heat of the moment.

He described the month ahead as potentially significant for United, expressing hope that results will turn and that the team can show, through performances rather than words, exactly how it works for the shirt. Whether that earlier improvement he spoke of actually materialises against Spurs will go a long way to determining whether his defiance was justified or simply wishful thinking.