Scale of Erik’s task laid bare in final debacle
MAYBE that beach in the Caribbean would have been a better option after all!
Erik ten Hag turned down a postseason tour to Curacao with Ajax and instead opted to begin work with United early and on this evidence he might not get a day off all summer.
The 52-year-old breezed into Selhurst Park in the hour before kick-off, dressed for summer in a cream jacket and a beaming smile, one that would be wiped off his face by events on the pitch.
Defeat to Crystal Palace was a 12th in the Premier League this season and this has been a truly wretched campaign.
It’s hard to believe that in September a title challenge looked realistic.
Instead, this team’s woeful fall from those heights meant the excellent away-dayers had to contend with celebrating City’s titleclinching third goal, while their own players huffed and puffed without ever looking like scoring.
United might have been one of eight teams with something to play for on the final day but whether they finished sixth or seventh and qualified for the Europa League or the Conference League was almost an irrelevance, given the standard of their ambitions.
They remain one of the biggest stories in town, however, and from just after 2pm a camera crew were stationed outside Selhurst Park’s main entrance waiting for the arrival of Ten Hag.
When the 52-year-old did arrive shortly after 3.15pm he managed to escape most of the attention. United used a little subterfuge to suggest he would be coming from one direction, when in the end he was shepherded through with security from another, accompanied by football director John Murtough, assistant Mitchell van der Gaag and Steve McClaren, whose return to United is imminent.
No doubt Murtough would have reassured Ten Hag that this was a meaningless game in what has turned into a meaningless season, but the depths to which United have continued to plummet are truly desperate.
They started off brightly enough in the south London sunshine and threatened through Edinson Cavani, but once Palace found their feet David de Gea had that familiar sinking feeling.
He saved twice in quick succession from Wilfried Zaha and Jeffrey Schlupp but was powerless to stop Zaha from finally scoring.
The unnecessary gamble of Bruno Fernandes no-look crossfield pass started the downfall, the kind
of high-risk decision no coach wants to see. It’s not the first time the Portuguese has done it and he needs to learn to curb those instincts under Ten Hag.
But in a week where Diogo Dalot’s status as first-choice right-back was confirmed, he only managed to alert the agents of Europe’s leading fullbacks to a potential vacancy.
He was too weak as Zaha was allowed to drift past him and Victor Lindelof before finding the bottom corner.
It was passive defending from a United side that have managed to concede 57 times this season end up with a goal difference of exactly zero.
Ten Hag had clearly been practising his neutral face this week. The cut to him in the stands failed to elicit any raised eyebrows or head in hands moments, even if inside he must have been feeling that.
There was little on the pitch to encourage him and it was probably for the best he was sitting next to Murtough. United’s football director will be leading on recruitment this summer and it feels as if the success or otherwise of Ten Hag’s first season will depend almost entirely on the transfer market.
Before this game Ralf Rangnick had pointed out that 10 of the 11 starters would be at the club next season. That he was probably right only makes matters worse. If this is close to being the best United have to offer then times are very bleak indeed.