The surreptitious appeals for any spares are part of the match-day soundtrack at Old Trafford. Except on Sunday, 48 hours before the transfer window closed, it was not tickets the touts were sourcing but left-backs on behalf of the club.

Decent pay and conditions. Immediate start. Preferably, you will be left-footed, capable of tackling, overlapping and tracking back. Applications to Messrs Wilcox and Berrada, Sir Matt Busby Way, M16.

Despite trawling through the sale rail trying to solve a problem that has beset Manchester United for years, the window slammed shut leaving Michael Carrick to rearrange the deckchairs should misfortune befall Luke Shaw, a player whose United career is premised on absence.

Since the arrival of Shaw in 2014, a trio of understudies have been and gone: Alex Telles, Tyrell Malacia and Sergio Reguilón (loan). Patrick Dorgu does at least kick with his left foot, but is a hybrid figure. Ditto recent addition, 19-year-old Diego Leon. That leaves Harry Amass, for whom the club had been looking for a new home, although he did not move on deadline day.

So, despite being linked with a raft of candidates, including Myles Lewis-Skelly, Lewis Hall, Racing Santander’s Jorge Salinas, Barcelona’s Alejandro Balde, RB Leipzig’s David Raum and most recently Aston Villa’s Ian Maatsen, it remains Shaw or bust.

For Ipswich’s opening goal at Old Trafford on Sunday, it appeared Shaw was indeed bust as Abdul Fatawu ran straight through him en route to the byline. The sight of Fatawu disappearing and the lethal finish of Leif Davis exposed the flaws not only in Shaw on that occasion but the football directorship, who have left Carrick ridiculously exposed.

Carrick cannot expect of Shaw another season like the last, when he appeared in every Premier League fixture. The pattern prior was dominated by an estimated 29 injury episodes, not least the double fracture of his left leg in 2015.

The left-back issue feels emblematic of United under Ineos, a period of creeping contraction during which the club have shrunk from brand leaders to budget operators. Massive job cuts, petty savings, attacks on staff perks and season ticket-holders sit alongside a revised transfer policy that leaves them unable to compete for marquee signings.

A further measure of the club’s strategic instability and confusion is the retention of Marcus Rashford after exhaustive attempts to get rid. It is one thing to accept the reality of the failed policy regarding Rashford, another to celebrate it as some kind of victory.

The midfield additions of Youri Tielemans, Andrey Santos and just-in-time Carlos Baleba were presented as astute interventions: Tielemans, a fast-twitch acquisition from Aston Villa; Santos, a long-term investment and Baleba, a long time coming.

This ignores the failed pursuit of first-choice target Mateus Fernandes, which was sold as United’s refusal to pay Old Trafford tax as opposed to a rival’s greater ambition. While United are smart to recoil from the knee-jerk transfer behaviours that have characterised the post-Fergie era, this felt like the consequence or reduced buying power, forcing them to pivot back to Baleba, who is unlikely to appear this side of the international break.

On the evidence thus far, Tielemans looks short of rhythm and out of position in the deeper Casemiro role. Though the measured introduction of the inexperienced Santos is understandable, it leaves Carrick no nearer an immediate solution to the structural failings the summer window was intended to fix, despite the encouraging form of Kobbie Mainoo on his first start of the season.

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Carrick was relieved at United finally coming alive in the second half against Ipswich but not before the windy midfield competed with a disconnected defence to invite the opponents on. United conceded a third goal of the season before registering their first. And this against a second promoted team.

Ultimately Carrick was saved by that big moment magnet, Bruno Fernandes, and Mainoo, who made a nonsense of Thomas Tuchel’s weird World Cup snub. Pity neither can take a turn at left-back. That said, it might come to that.