When even the brutal humiliations become routine, you know it’s time up for Ten Hag
ASTRIKING aspect of Manchester United’s 4-0 defeat to Crystal Palace on Monday was just how little the scoreline registered — at least for me, anyway. There was a time when United’s humiliations still felt significant, like seismic disruptions to the established order, but over the course of Erik ten Hag’s unravelling tenure they have come to feel entirely routine.
In the past five weeks alone, there has also been the astonishing collapse at Chelsea and embarrassing win over Coventry in the FA Cup semi-final.
And really, there should have been nothing particularly surprising about a Palace side spearheaded by JeanPhilippe Mateta, Michael Olise and Eberechi Eze tearing through this version of United.
Shameful as it was for the visitors, the result was predicted by most bookmakers and the one-sided scoreline only reflected Palace’s natural authority at one end of the pitch.
Afterwards, Ten Hag insisted he remains the right man to take the club forward but the head coach has obviously run out of road, and his best chance of still being in the job next season is if every available alternative takes one look at United’s squad and runs for the hills. United could still win the FA Cup, but by every other measure they have had an historically-grim campaign.
They have slipped to eighth in the table, leaving them on course for their lowest league finish in 34 years, and without European football unless they beat Manchester City at Wembley or overhaul Newcastle or Chelsea.
Monday was their 13th defeat of the season, a club record in the Premier League and they are likely to concede more goals than in any previous campaign.
They have already endured their worst-ever showing in the Champions League, which featured another notable humilation at FC Copenhagen.
United’s first 4-0 defeat in London under Ten Hag, at Brentford in his second game in charge, was the catalyst for the head coach to shake up his squad. Harry Maguire and Cristiano Ronaldo dropped to the bench for the following match and United were excellent in a 2-1 win over Liverpool.
It felt like the start of a process of Ten Hag building a team in his image, based on modern principles of pressing, ball-playing defenders and quick wingers. But as United skulked away from Selhurst Park, they were no closer to being a top team as they were when Ten Hag took over, for which the manager must bear the lion’s share of the responsibility.
And if the Brentford defeat only demonstrated the problems Ten Hag inherited, the thrashing at Palace was largely of his own making.
Seven of his signings started the game and, with the notable exception of Rasmus Hojlund, they have been uniformly overpriced and underwhelming.
Antony, an £85 million addition, has scored one league goal this season, although the obnoxious forward is starting to look good value when compared to Casemiro, a £70 million signing from Real Madrid, who was atrocious against Palace and appears badly in need of being put out to pasture.
Jadon Sancho, meanwhile, who was cast out by Ten Hag is preparing for a Champions League Final with Borussia
Dortmund. Most damningly of all, United are still desperately lacking the identity that Ten Hag was presumably seeking to implement at the start of last season.
The contrast to Palace boss Oliver Glasner, who has quickly built a team reflecting his own ideals and secured buy-in from his players, is striking but there are many other examples of coaches who have developed teams more successfully than Ten Hag with less budget, outclassed him in an individual game or both.
The perennial debate with United remains whether any head coach can really succeed while the Glazers leach the soul from the club — even if Sir Jim Ratcliffe’s part-takeover has provided a buffer to the Americans — but for all the damage done by the owners, they cannot be blamed for how chronically under-coached United have appeared this season.
The defeat to Palace was remarkably shambolic but, again, the result should hardly be considered an anomaly because United have routined been beaten or outplayed by lower-midtable sides. Last month, 19th-placed Burnley had more possession than them for the second time this season on the way to a 1-1 draw.
Ten Hag can point to his absentee-list in mitigation but this excuse hardly washes, when the five clubs immediately above United in the table have all been similarly ravaged by injuries this term.
Ten Hag is not solely to blame for the club’s mess and like each of his predeccessors post-Sir Alex Ferguson he has been chewed up and spat out by an organisation riddled with dysfunction.
The Dutchman, though, has played his hand poorly and his legacy promises to be a squad which is a mess of unhappy compromises and expensive, preening and underperforming players.
• Dan Kilpatrick is chief football correspondent
Ten Hag can point to his absentee list in mitigation, but the five clubs above United have been similarly ravaged