Well, that didn’t take long. All that positivity after a fine end to last season, to banish the ghosts of Ruben Amorim past, vanished into the dead of a wet and miserable mid-September’s night.
Brighton’s fifth win in six visits to Manchester United meant this fallen giant continues on its dizzying spiral of decline and decay, after the brief hiatus of Michael Carrick’s first few months in charge.
While there are plenty of naysayers who believed Carrick to be out of his depth from the outset, few envisaged things unravelling this quickly. There’s more to United’s woeful start to the season, however, than an unsuitable head coach.
Sensible but underwhelming window
After years of transfer profligacy, the club needed a more sensible transfer window. Splashing the cash around these parts has, in almost all cases, resulted in ill-fitting, highly paid flops not living up to the billing in the post-Sir Alex Ferguson wilderness years.
While bitter rivals Manchester City splurged £300m on an elite new midfield, United brought in Chelsea’s fourth-choice central option, Aston Villa’s weary Youri Tielemans, an injured Carlos Baleba and Leeds United’s understudy goalkeeper.
All careful acquisitions, but nothing to get the pulses racing. At a time when an uplift from a major marquee arrival could have done regenerative wonders.
Same defence as four years ago
With all the funds needed for the midfield revamp, one department particularly remains neglected. In two of United’s four league matches this season, they have deployed a back four of Luke Shaw, Harry Maguire, Lisandro Martinez and Diogo Dalot.
The sight of the four club veterans is the perfect microcosm for the perpetual crises United find themselves in, given it is the same quartet who started the opening day defeat to, ironically, Brighton in 2022.
Supporters’ Groundhog Day sums up a club that, despite a recent takeover that promised the dawn of a new era of growth, remain stuck just where they were four years ago, when a fresh-faced Erik ten Hag became the latest coach to be handed the poisoned chalice.
Full-backs just aren’t good enough. Still
Dalot rightly looked proud as punch as he celebrated reaching 250 appearances for United at the weekend – an impressive milestone in any footballing career. For United fans looking on, before their side lost 1-0 to the 10 men of City, having had one shot on target, it felt like someone, somewhere was laughing at them.
The full-back is a fine professional who gives his all every week. His will and application have never been in question, but he is not good enough. He wasn’t when he signed eight years ago, and he isn’t now.
Luke Shaw, if not asked to play every single game, is. But lack of investment in the left-back area this year ensures he is overworked, and thus susceptible to faster, younger, less weary wingers. Rinse and repeat.
A strike force full of square pegs
United’s forward line lacks plenty of depth in a certain type of attacker. Matheus Cunha, Bryan Mbeumo, Marcus Rashford and Amad Diallo all offer a similar threat, without any of the hallmarks a proper striker the team so desperately needs possesses.
Benjamin Sesko is the only recognised striker in the unit and looks anything but ready to lead the line every week. The fitness is not there after an injury-hit pre-season, yet it is his lack of confidence on the ball that should be of more concern.
Wilcox not up to the task
When Ineos and Sir Jim Ratcliffe took their minority stake in the club and assumed total control of football matters, it was rammed home that they would be bringing in the “best in the class” at the top of the hierarchical structure, something the club had previously neglected to do.
Yet, it is becoming alarmingly clear Ineos have failed in the main tenet of their manifesto. Dan Ashworth may well have been an elite director of football, but that didn’t work out. Jason Wilcox, who had previously only undertaken a similar role at Southampton, has done little to suggest he is up to the task.
Several sources The i Paper has spoken to have questioned Wilcox’s credentials and see him as a key reason for continued failings. One insider highlighted Wilcox’s failed attempts to offload Rashford as a prime example. He spent “years slagging Rashford off” to other sporting directors before then speaking to the same senior executives to try, unsuccessfully, to get the outcast off the books.
Lack of identity still a major concern
This so-called elite hierarchy was then to make creating a lasting identity their modus operandi.
What City did so successfully under Pep Guardiola was to create a way of doing things that would outlast players and coaches, one you could easily identify and say: “That’s Manchester City.” Ratcliffe was desperate for something similar.
Eighteen months later, other than persistent failure, what does Ineos’ United stand for? Amorim, for his flaws, was starting something on the pitch. But what sets Carrick’s style of play apart from the others? The jury is very much still out on that one.
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‘They never learn’: How Ineos finally broke Man Utd fans’ trust
Ownership who continue to anger supporters
While plenty of other fanbases turn toxic far more readily, Old Trafford is famed for getting behind its team when things turn sour. That unwavering loyalty is being severely tested by Ineos.
Another protest at the weekend was more targeted this time, in response to how supporters feel they are being treated by the club, in the aftermath of United’s controversial crackdown on ticket touting. The mood around M16 hardly instigates many rallying cries from the Stretford End. And the players will be feeling that.