Harry Maguire said Manchester United paid the price for failing to take their chances in Sunday's 1-1 draw against Fulham.
United were fortunate to leave west London with a point after Matheus Cunha's late deflected goal deceived goalkeeper Bernd Leno and denied Alvaro Arbeloa a first Premier League win in charge.
Sky Sports pundit Gary Neville branded the first 15 minutes of the second half, which culminated in a comical own goal from Lisandro MartÃnez to put Fulham in front, the worst he had seen in more than 45 years of watching the team play.
United hit a post in the first half through Bruno Fernandes, while Leno produced fine saves from Cunha, Martinez and Bryan Mbeumo.
"We have got to take our chances and take our moments," Maguire said to club media. "When you come away in the Premier League it is tough and you have seen that in the results this year.
"When we had those moments in that first half, they are big moments in the Premier League and you have really got to take them."
Fulham's goal went down against Martinez's name, but the blame was shared with his goalkeeper, a botched effort by Senne Lammens to shovel away Calvin Bassey's shot with his legs rather than his gloves, then an equally inexplicable and muddled attempt at keeping the defender's pass back to him out of his net.
The result means United have collected their joint fewest number of points after five matches in Premier League history.
Not since the 2014-15 season under Lous van Gaal have United picked up only five points by this stage and Carrick's class of 2026 will spend the extended international break in the bottom half of the table.
The team 11 years ago recovered from their poor start to eventually finish fourth and Maguire believes the current crop can kick on despite more dropped points.
"Our reaction was so much better and positive than it was last week [against Manchester City] and to concede that goal with the week we have had, the boys showed great spirit and great reaction," he said.
"We pushed them right back and the pressure was relentless. We needed a ball to fall or drop for us.
"It was just unfortunate that the goal did not come earlier as we had the momentum to go and win the match."
- Carrick has an impossible job at Man United after transfer failures
- Michael Carrick keen to find Man United positives, but there aren't many right now
- Carrick quashes notion Manchester United are out of shape
Cunha's 89th-minute shot hit defender David Affengruber and span cruelly past the wrong-footed Leno, with Fulham just minutes from victory.
It was, however, a muted, lethargic display from Carrick's team, who are now three league matches without a victory.
But Maguire said: "You have got to ignore the noise and really believe and think about what we have done this year, along with what we need to work on and improve on, but we are not far away."
