Watching Manchester United is a horrible experience at the moment. There are no two ways about it. It is nothing but a chore.
And that all starts at the very top. Since the Glazer family - worth several billions - took over the club in 2005, disarray has gradually increased with debt only growing as more and more money is taken out from the club as opposed to being invested. The reality is that the money spent on means such as signings all comes directly from supporters. The owners’ input is near non-existent.
Against Brentford on Saturday, as United fell 4-0 down after only 35 minutes - the fastest that they have ever reached such a deficit in Premier League history - the picture of the mess at the club couldn’t have been clearer.
Events on the pitch were a visual representation of the snowball effect triggered by neglect higher up in the club (whether that be monetary misuse, thoughtless appointments throughout the hierarchy, or the increasingly out-dated state of Old Trafford).
United have grown more and more wayward during matches. At the Brentford Community Stadium on Saturday, there was a near-comedic display of shots flying high and wide and passes being strayed awry. It was an amateur display of football that many would say would suffice only at grassroots.
There was no sense of direction from those selected by Erik ten Hag, which is largely a reciprocation of much that goes on off the pitch in terms of the Glazers’ ownership. There is almost a sense that, ironically like the Glazer family, players are hiding, unable to make their mark and mostly making the wrong mark.
Similarly, the energy (or more aptly lack of it) shown by those at the top of the club’s hierarchy has often been lamentably replicated by those on the pitch. That was very much the case on Saturday evening, where the players’ exertion almost felt non-existent. And, while they can predominantly be held accountable for the mess on a wider scale, the blame in this regard cannot be centred at the owners. Plenty of onus has to be placed on the players for their own underperformance.
From the get-go at the weekend, Brentford out-ran, out-sprinted and out-pressed a United outfit devoid of desire. There is simply no excuse for the fact that those in United shirt ran 13.8 kilometres less and made 25 fewer sprints than Brentford, also completing a mere seven final third pressures compared to the 21 of their opposition across the 90 minutes.
The statistic that has done the rounds most prominently in the wake of Saturday’s affairs has been that suggesting United covered such a significantly lower amount of ground than Brentford throughout the match. So what did Ten Hag do on the players’ proposed day off on Sunday? He brought them all into training and, bar a few that were exempt for various reasons, made each player, including substitutes, run that exact 13.8km distance that was the gulf between the sides at the weekend.
It has become a continuous theme that United are inferior to most opponents in terms of work ethic so, given the emphasis Ten Hag places on this, you would imagine that the manager is desperate to do his utmost to ensure there isn’t such inferiority in the future. Let’s be frank, the punishment of running nearly 14km the day after a match in a running-only extra session should be enough to prevent such lapse from being allowed to occur again.
Then you have the aspect of the goals to touch on, too. And you can go into depth in critiquing each of them for their own reasons - a damning indictment of the mass of technical shortcomings within Ten Hag’s squad.
One of the biggest blunders of David de Gea’s career marked a disastrous start for United, with his usually high echelon shot-stopping letting him down. The move started as Cristiano Ronaldo, who started for the first time this season, lost the ball under high pressure as he dropped deep in attempt to link play. Ultimately, Josh Dasilva’s effort from the edge of the box, which was relatively tame and should have been routinely saved, was fumbled by De Gea in attempt to scoop up the attempt.
“I cost three points to my team today and it was a poor performance from myself,” De Gea said, fronting up after admirably personally opting to speak to the media post-match. “It was a horrible day.”
The day got more horrible for De Gea and United only eight minutes after their first concession, yet again showing a failure to respond to adversity. De Gea played his part in influencing the goal again, further showing deficiencies when it comes to playing out from the back.
United were often too slow in build-up, and this was an example of such invitation of pressure as De Gea opted to pass to Christian Eriksen, who found himself under duress from multiple opposing players. Eriksen had started in a deeper midfield role with Ronaldo starting and Scott McTominay dropped to the bench, here finding himself caught out and dispossessed inside his own box by Mathias Jensen, who converted to double his side’s advantage.
The last time United actually won a match after falling 1-0 down was in early December last year.
Any hopes of a comeback wilted near enough out of existence as United once again showed more woeful set-piece defending to concede a third. De Gea was caught in no man’s land scrambling across his goal-line as runners weren’t picked up, with a deep corner ultimately played back across for Ben Mee to make his mark on his home debut for Brentford.
United were disorganised and second-best in their aerial challenges when attempting to defend the corner. The case of losing out in duels was a feature far to common throughout.
By the 35th minute, Bryan Mbeumo made it four goals in a 25 minute period for Brentford. Luke Shaw was out-run by Mbeumo, who received a perfectly-weighted through ball from Ivan Toney. United found themselves undone by a counter attack that commenced from the opposing penalty area - just as against Brighton. Too many players had been committed forward during a phase of possession and didn’t retreat far enough and in time, thus United were left back-pedalling.
“It's rubbish, it's poor,” Ten Hag said post-match, reflecting on the display. “We need higher standards than that, that's clear.”
“I asked them to play with belief and take responsibility,” he added. “That is what they didn't do.”
There was no excuse given from Ten Hag, who didn’t give any leeway for the sweltering London heat to have become an excuse before the match. It is blatant that he is aware of the reality - that being that his job is getting more and more sizeable as the weeks pass.
And, as days go by without any further additions to his squad, the job on his hands only grows further. “We need new players and quality players,” Ten Hag insisted. “We will try and convince them to join.”
It is clear that Ten Hag has entered and inherited a mess, with the ill-functioning higher-ups contributing to the mess that he has entered, hardly equipping him with the correct resources heading into the season. Meanwhile, other clubs have already wrapped up the majority of their necessary transfer deals.
The current state of affairs gives a sense that the situation is beyond anything within the realms of a manager being able to rectify. In terms of the squad, they are a group that have grown mentally frail with their confidence on the floor. Against Brentford, it even seemed that a massive effort was required to complete the simplest of passes, with bravery to invent almost wholly absent.
Thomas Frank’s side were supremely well-drilled, with the lack of top-end coaching that Ten Hag’s side have received in recent years shown by their opposition’s dominance. And it is already seeming that the players are struggling to respond to Ten Hag’s coaching and adapt to fit his philosophy.
The hallmarks of Ten Hag’s management have been nowhere across the opening two weekends of the season, further displaying the necessity that a number of players that better align with the profiles that the manager desires still need to be brought in.
Even with Ronaldo starting and offering a focal point and Eriksen dropping into a deeper midfield role, it still felt like a team of misfits; realistically, Eriksen shouldn’t be relied on to often operate as the deepest midfielder, but, despite naturally being an attack-minded midfielder, he is damningly arguably the best-suited to that role in the squad.
But United are within a torrid rut whereby it is proving tough to acquire attractive transfer targets. The reality has become that their allure for possible signings has drastically diminished. This serves as one reason why the likes of Scott McTominay, who was regarded by many as United’s worst performer against Brighton the weekend prior, are relied upon to try and turn games around off the bench. There is a glaring lack of game-changing depth.
It ultimately comes a full circle back to the Glazers, who have the responsibility to, and have failed to, put the correct structure in place for the club to operate effectively in areas such as scouting and recruitment. In recent times, the lack of genuine strategy within hierarchy has reflected on pitch, with many of the wrong personnel put in place.
Adding to this, with footballing success at the club spiralling downwards, funds are growing increasingly restricted as the Glazers continue to take dividends from the club rather than investing their own money as they should be duty-bound to as owners.
And when money is spent, it has often become the case that it is misspent. For example, hundreds of millions of pounds have been spent on the defence since Sir Alex Ferguson’s retirement, yet United have now conceded four or more goals in six of their last 20 away matches; for comparison, in their first 557 Premier League games on the road, this only happened 13 times. It beggars belief that United have conceded four goals in 30% of their away games since start of last season.
Yet, at the moment, it is very much coming to attention that the footballing aspect of things has long been irrelevant to those that own the club. And for fans, it is tough to say much other than to just render the situation on the pitch (in addition to off-field) an absolute, complete and utter mess that is beyond the realms of analysing with much structure.
Things have to return to football being number one because, right now, that is not the case.
The fact that United have now lost their last seven matches on the road, with their most recent four league matches also defeats (for the first time since February 1979), speaks volumes about the wretched demise of the club.
The reality is that Manchester United are in a sad state. From the very top to the very bottom. And right now, the club quite literally are bottom of the Premier League table - albeit after only two matches.
Over the past few years, there have been many suggestions that a new low has been hit. This time, it is certainly fair to say that rock bottom has been struck.
Unfortunately, no stark change will be observed until the Glazer family budge. Until then, the likelihood is that everyone involved with United will have to keep enduring the occasional peak along with now-inevitable troughs.
The players have responsibility to represent the club with pride, of course. But there is only so much that can be done when the backing given by the higher-ups is insufficient. At present, Ten Hag is set up to fail. And that is purely down to the domino effect that commences with the Glazer family.
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