The inquest into Manchester United's poor start to the season is continuing following their abject Carabao Cup exit on Wednesday night.

United threw away a two-goal lead inside the opening 10 minutes to lose 3-2 to Brighton and Hove Albion at Old Trafford.

That loss compounded a tumultuous few days for the club on-and-off the pitch after losing the Manchester derby against 10-man Manchester City and seeing 15-year-old wonderkid JJ Gabriel wanting to leave.

United will look to allay some of their issues on Sunday afternoon when they travel to Fulham in the Premier League.

However, if they are to emerge from Craven Cottage with a win, head coach Michael Carrick will demand more from his side in a multitude of ways.

After four matches, Carrick's side sit 13th in the table on four points - already eight adrift of Arsenal and Manchester City who sit first and second.

Stats have emerged across from those four matches which will make for some worrying reading too for everyone associated with United.

In terms of running stats, their highest rank for a metric is 14th out of the 20 Premier League teams and that is distance covered. They've run 449.1km as a collective - although defenders of that stat will highlight that United have had more of the ball than opponents so in theory less running has been needed.

Even so the other stats aren't as defensible.

They rank 18th in sprints (379) and the same position for sprints per km covered (0.84km).

United's critics have accused them of a lack of intensity and they will fairly point to their high speed runs where they are 19th having made 1,364 so far. Furthermore they are 19th in high speed runs per km too at 3.04.

Many United fans on social media are pointing to club legend Rio Ferdinand's interview with summer signing Youri Tielemans as a worrying indicator.

During an appearance on Rio Meets during pre-season, Tielemans was asked about what training had been like under Michael Carrick.

'Was it hard sessions this morning. Sharp? Not loads of running?' Ferdinand asked.

'Yeah, just sharp. That's what it's been like. No, not a lot of running,' replied Tielemans. 'When you come back from the World Cup, you just chill.'

To which a shocked Ferdinand replied: 'What?'.

If United fail to emerge from west London with three points on Sunday, then Carrick and his players will face a lengthy inquest going into the international break before hosting Tottenham in the Premier League on October 10.