ERIK’S REDS Bees go on rampage against IN TATTERS
ERIK TEN HAG and Manchester United suffered complete and utter meltdown yesterday – leaving the Dutchman’s revolution in tatters after just two games.
Battered at home by Brighton last weekend, the fallen Premier League giants were roasted alive in baking west London by Thomas Frank’s sizzling Brentford.
Ten Hag recalled wantaway Cristiano Ronaldo to lead the line in an attempt to resuscitate his team following a dreadful few days of farce, on and off the pitch.
But the Portuguese striker’s presence proved a waste of time.
All he could do was watch on in horror while the visitors’ defence gifted goal after goal in an extraordinary opening 45 minutes.
Spanish keeper David de Gea had an appalling, error-strewn game with two howlers – and those in front of him performed equally badly.
By the break the Reds, who were actually wearing a ghastly lime green strip, were drained of life having conceded four times.
It’s hard to recall when the once biggest club in the country last suffered a humiliation quite so embarrassing.
Yes, they lost 4-0 at Brighton near the end of last season. Yes, there have been other bad days at the office during their ongoing 10-year title drought.
But you would probably have to rewind to 1973-74, when they were relegated out of the top flight, to find anything on a par.
And the really bad news for United, rock-bottom of the table with zero points and a minus five goal difference, there is no sight of any respite around the corner.
Quite the opposite. A week tomorrow they entertain
Liverpool. On the evidence of how they succumbed to the Bees, that clash with their bitter rivals could get genuinely ugly.
The temperature was boiling over even before the moralesapping 2-1 reverse to the Seagulls – with fans fighting one another and protesting against the Glazer family overseeing their fall from grace.
News of an absurd swoop for veteran Austrian striker Marko Arnautovic – abandoned amid a supporters’ backlash – merely deepened the crisis.
All of which meant Christian Eriksen’s return to the stadium he lit up for three months last term
went under the radar somewhat. However, if he was not already wondering the wisdom of swapping Brentford for the Manchester madhouse, then he must have been by the break.
Josh Dasilva could not believe his luck when he broke the deadlock in the 10th-minute.
Bursting forward, his low 20-yard dribbler looked a doddle for De Gea only for it to slip through his grasp.
That set the pattern, with United’s rearguard becoming ever more jittery at the sight of Brentford pouring forward.
Dasilva almost set up Ivan Toney before all hell broke loose when De Gea, never great with ball at feet, tried to find Eriksen with a risky pass. The Dane was robbed by brilliant Mathias Jensen, who having narrowly missed with a free-kick seconds earlier, calmly rolled in from 10 yards.
“You’re getting sacked in the morning” mocked the ecstatic home fans at ex-ajax boss Ten Hag, while United’s travelling masses hung their heads in disbelief at the speed of capitulation.
Diogo Dalot at least got a shot on target after 24 minutes but David Raya saved comfortably.
That was not the case at the other end on the half-hour-mark when Ben Mee bundled in a third after new boy Lisandro Martinez failed to clear another Jensen set-piece.
Brentford were not finished for the half, either, as they then produced the best goal of the game to floor United again.
Christian Norgaard’s pin-point 50-yard pass to Toney led to the striker playing an equally perfect pass to Bryan Mbeumo, who held off Luke Shaw to drill in a fabulous fourth.
The only consolation for Ten Hag (right), who rang the changes for the rest of the game, was they did not concede again.
But the damage had long been done.