Alan Shearer has taken aim at Manchester United following their ‘dreadful’ performance at Hull City, with the Match of the Day pundit accusing Michael Carrick’s side of lacking fitness.

The Red Devils wilted at newly-promoted Hull on Saturday, with goals from Semi Ajayi and Nobel Mendy handing the newcomers a 2-0 victory. 

The manner of United’s defeat has caused alarm among supporters and pundits, with Shearer offering a withering verdict on the BBC’s flagship football show on Saturday night.

‘Man United were dreadful in all positions I thought, particularly upfront, they offered nothing,’ he said. ‘At times I struggled to work out what they were trying to do.

‘[There is] so much to work on, so much to improve, I know it was the first game of the season but there was without a doubt a lack of energy, they just didn’t look fit, Manchester United. 

‘There was only one team who were going to win that today from the very first minute, you saw the energy, you saw the intensity. 

Alan Shearer has torn into Man United’s opening day performance against Hull City

Man United put in a woeful display at Hull City to lose their opening game of the season

‘That would be the worrying thing – you know that as a team going away from home to a newly promoted team, you know what you’re going to get and you have to match them as a minimum and Man Utd didn’t today. They couldn’t live with them.’

The defeat at Hull was Carrick’s first match in charge since being given the first-team head coach role on a permanent basis – having impressed during his interim tenure following the sacking of Ruben Amorim.

Carrick has refused to hit the panic button following Saturday’s result.

‘We haven’t lost many games in six, seven months,’ the United boss said.

‘So again, I get it, we’ve lost today and I understand there’s questions to be asked, but it doesn’t mean everything’s wrong because we’ve lost a game.

‘We’ve done a lot of good things and we did some good things today, but it gets lost, and I understand it’ll get lost, but it doesn’t get lost from our point of view.

‘There’s definitely issues playing against different systems, so we have got to find the answers for that. But just because we lose one game it doesn’t mean that everything needs to be dissected and it’s wrong from our point of view.’

Carrick is rarely ruffled win, lose, or draw, but behind his calm demeanour here was a coach hurting at seeing his side totally outplayed.

Shearer claims United do not look fit as he sounded the alarm on Match of the Day

‘I’m talking to you quite calm, but I’m not exactly calm inside and enjoying the day, you know?

‘So there’s a big difference. I played here for a long time. You don’t get to play here for a long time without just going day by day, the results, the ups and downs, but you just carry on as normal. It’s 100% not that; trust me, it’s not that.

‘It just doesn’t mean that we all have to shout and scream and come out and create some chaos just because of it.

‘Inside we’re hurting. The boys know we need to get better, but the calmness doesn’t mean that there’s no emotion in it, for sure.’