Sir Alex's former assistant believes Michael Carrick can fix Man Utd 'easily'

The former assistant to Sir Alex Ferguson believes United's problems are largely solvable and has backed Carrick, a former United player, to make the necessary changes.

However, Meulensteen was clear in his assessment that the defence is currently far too brittle and requires urgent attention if results are to improve.

"What I saw in both of the games [under Darren Fletcher], there's gaps all over the place and opposition will exploit that," he told the No Tippy Tappy Football podcast.

"He has to come in, especially in the games against City and Arsenal coming up, and make sure that's sorted.

"I trust him in his football ability and intelligence to get that right. I don't think it's too difficult to fix, in my opinion.

"If all the players are available I wouldn't know exactly what my best line-up would be because you would have to work with players and see what the best connections are at the back, we talked about the goalkeeper issue, in the midfield there's issues there, but front wise, there's plenty of power in terms of creating and scoring goals."

Carrick takes charge of a side that has won only one of its last seven matches, a run that has seen confidence drain away at Old Trafford. United's hopes of winning silverware this season were ended by Brighton in the FA Cup, compounding a disappointing campaign.

Defensive weaknesses have been exposed repeatedly in recent weeks. Nineteenth-placed Burnley scored twice against United in a draw at Turf Moor last week, while the match prior saw Bournemouth net four times at Old Trafford in an eight-goal encounter.

Overall, United have managed just one clean sheet in their last 15 games, underlining the scale of the problem facing the new interim boss.