Paul Pogba and Alexis Sanchez must "look at themselves" rather than Jose Mourinho to answer why they have not delivered for Manchester United, according to Jamie Carragher.
Mourinho was sacked on Tuesday morning following United's worst ever start to a Premier League season, with the Red Devils 19 points behind leaders Liverpool.
First-team coach Michael Carrick took training on Tuesday after Mourinho was told the news by executive vice-chairman Ed Woodward in a face-to-face meeting at the Aon Training Complex. He left in a car around 12:25pm.
Standard Sport understands that United's hierarchy were concerned by Mourinho's footballing philosophy, the lack of development of youth players, and an expensive, incoherent transfer strategy with the likes of Pogba and Sanchez struggling to impress at Old Trafford.
Both Sanchez and Pogba have been dropped by Mourinho this season for below-par performances, while the Portuguese coach took the captaincy off Pogba soon after awarding it to the midfielder after the pair fell out early on in the new campaign.
Asked about Pogba and Mourinho's impact at Old Trafford, Carragher told Sky Sports: "Those players are nothing in a Manchester United shirt. You say about letting the manager down, they are probably letting themselves down.
"I don't think they're deliberately not performing well, I don't think that's ever the case when people question if they are playing for the manager.
"There's a lot of players Jose Mourinho has brought in that have not delivered. Those two, rather than looking at the manager, I think they have got to look at themselves.
"Can a new manager get more out of them? That is a sad thing, often when a new manager comes in a player's performances are completely different."
Carragher also believes Pogba's decision to post a photo of himself to Instagram and Twitter looking at the camera with the words: "Caption this!" - before swiftly deleting it - was ill-timed.
That prompted former United captain Gary Neville to tweet: "'Caption This"' You do one as well!"
Carragher said of the incident: "I think the social media post from Paul Pogba after the announcement today was very ill-advised. Whoever it was [that posted it], it wasn't in keeping with the mood today.
"He should be respectful about what happened. This is a manager who brought him back after leaving the club initially under Sir Alex Ferguson.
"There will be players pleased in the dressing room but that's normal that's football, not everyone gets on with the manager. There was an obvious discord there but I think that was not the brightest thing to do."
