Successive defeats have left United at the wrong end of League Two and Keith Curle facing growing criticism. Jon Colman looks at the issues facing the Blues

1. United are in bad shape. There can be no denying it, tiptoeing around it, “bluffing or blagging,” to borrow Keith Curle’s words after Accrington.

The first step to improvement must be acceptance rather than denial. Those who believe the Blues are in a blip, rather than on a more serious slide, will need some evidence soon to back up their belief.

One of football’s oldest truths is that good form can be difficult to gain, but a rut can be found quickly and, once in it, a nightmare to escape.

Two scoreless defeats in four days have not shown Curle’s team in a good light.

Looked at coldly, they have just faced two of the early form teams in League Two, both away from home at grounds that are not obviously easy to gain results.

Accrington have long since proved that they should not be patronised as the poor relations of any division. Coventry boast the best defensive record in the fourth tier.

They are tricky fixtures at any time. Yet United did not do nearly enough in either. Accrington was a debacle while Coventry saw half a performance.

It has not been a good reflection of any of the work going on at Carlisle right now. They should be better than this, and more faith is being tested than should be the case after only seven games of a new campaign.

2. So why are they in such concerning nick? Right now many of the questions are being aimed at Curle: his signings, selections, tactics and all else.

It is striking, certainly, that after seven games so many different things have already been tried without much positive form being achieved.

In this, United may be in a chicken-and-egg situation. They know they need consistency, but haven’t pinpointed anything worth persisting with yet. Hence, weekly upheaval to some degree.

By any measure, expecting a side featuring three league debutants (as at Coventry) to instantly click is pushing it, especially when two are making their first league appearances anywhere.

Yet United had an overhaul last summer, too, and knitted together early enough to go on a record breaking unbeaten start.

Other conclusions, then, are tempting. Some of the senior figures who inspired that run have not returned to those standards so far.

Others are not living up to what the brochure said. Others, some are concluding, are simply not up to it.

It is a Curle squad, comprised almost entirely of Curle signings, yet it seems that nobody, at this stage, knows what United’s best team looks like - and indeed, accounting for the manager's liking for change depending on the nature of the opposition, whether that best team is capable of being good enough.

It does not look settled still, and so the sense of starting again will be apparent with Barnet’s visit on Saturday.

3. It cannot be pretended United are the rich men of League Two. Nor, though, are they the division’s paupers.

Whichever way one sits in the budget debate, the Blues ought to be higher than 19th after seven games. They are underperforming, punching below their weight.

Last year, their summer was their wealthiest for a while. Cup runs and player sales aided the signings of Mike Jones, Nicky Adams, Jamie Devitt, Shaun Miller and Shaun Brisley.

This year, Curle had less spending power, yet was still able to pay a fee for a striker (Richie Bennett, who signed a day after Notts County-bound Brisley left the wage bill) and commit to the signings of Hallam Hope, Kelvin Etuhu and Tom Parkes, with two loan keepers and the green Sam Cosgrove also coming in, James Brown more recently.

Of all those, only Parkes has been what could be described as a success at this point. Brown and Shamal George have only just started a league game, Etuhu has featured once after injury, while Hope has not yet looked like the No9 who can fill United’s goals void.

The January addition of Gary Liddle has also underwhelmed so far and while it is still early days, the league table shows an argument for other clubs having shopped smarter.

There is time to change that view, of course. There are many players in Brunton Park right now with something to prove.

There is always a case for more cash, and nobody would argue that United are football’s most vibrant and forward-thinking entity in certain departments. Nor is Curle wrong to push for more whenever possible. The free agent market can always be explored between now and January.

But hardship cannot be the only explanation for the Blues being sixth bottom in the fourth tier. Others, certainly, are much worse off and at some stage one has to expect what has been brought in to work.

4. Curle has told those fans eager to vent their frustrations to do so in his direction this weekend, as opposed to letting rip at the players.

Some are doing so already, and in certain quarters of the fanbase there is a growing appetite for change.

Plenty of others wish to see Curle given time to address the current problems and manage United out of their rut.

There is unlikely to be immediate danger for Curle. United are far from the most trigger-happy club in the EFL and things have been much worse than this before they have ejected previous bosses.

Yet things have also, in the past, escalated quickly. Graham Kavanagh, although struggling for wins, did not seem like a man heading for the gallows when Carlisle prepared for their trip to Cambridge in 2014. One sorry 5-0 defeat later, though, and he was toast.

Clearly, more displays such as we saw at Accrington would force any issue this term. Equally, a quick response from manager and players, and the prospect of change would recede.

Either way, this has the potential to become the first managerial judgement call at United since Nigel Clibbens has been in the chief executive’s chair, so it will be interesting to see how that affects the dynamic.

So far, Clibbens and his fellow directors have demurred over a new contract for Curle, whilst publicly talking of their happiness with the manager. A tightly-knit coaching staff, similarly contracted, would no doubt be part of any equation.

On strictly financial terms Carlisle could clearly do without compensating any sacked figure or figures, and one imagines they will give Curle every reasonable opportunity to sort things out.

5. Those with glasses half full will look at it this way: all cannot be lost after seven games. Carlisle have lost two in a row, not several. It’s a dip, not a crisis.

The more pessimistic look at the calendar year (eight league wins since January) and observe a deeper pattern.

While there is hope, it is possible to look for reasons to believe. Jason Kennedy, a top performer last season, has only just returned to 90-minute availability.

Etuhu, one of the summer signings, the same. In the first half at Coventry the midfielder looked capable. As did Brown at right-back.

Some of these players could change the feel of this United side, if they can stop the rot and generate some more upbeat feelings this weekend.

There is, too, surely enough individual quality in the squad that, if it can come to the fore, can lift the Blues.

Miller, up front, has scoring pedigree. Jamie Devitt and Nicky Adams have track-records for creating.

Is it beyond United to get these players into a system and a method that can inflict damage on opponents in a notoriously inconsistent league?

Some believe that it would have happened by now if it was still possible; others prefer to think it is only a matter of time.

Goalscoring, in particular, remains a particular problem, with Bennett not yet in his stride after climbing from non-league and the ideal partnership yet to emerge.

“Goals change games”, Curle said at Coventry, and Carlisle have simply not been supplying enough of them.

They must, on Saturday, in front of a hopeful but anxious and probably not huge crowd, if their issues are not to grow.