As the rain poured through the leaky roof onto a sea of empty red seats a pensive and grimacing Erik ten Hag must have known what was coming, what was already being said into microphones above him.
The ex-Manchester United punditry pile-ons threaten to tip into caricature these days and although it might have been a performance of effervescent incompetence, of magnificent genre-defining passivity, you would have expected a little more appreciation for the context from Gary Neville et al.
“Disgusting” was the word that stood out from the tirade that rained down from the gantry, an interesting variation on the bread-and-butter “absolute disgrace” that went with it. He set the tone that others followed, starting in the Sky Sports studio and rippling out into op-eds and social media rants that declared not only a new nadir but Ten Hag’s endgame.
"It was a disgusting performance" 😤
— Sky Sports Premier League (@SkySportsPL) September 30, 2024
Gary Neville says something is going wrong in the Manchester United dressing room ❌ pic.twitter.com/nxRSRM3cDe
And it was bad. Very, very bad. But it comes with a caveat invariably rejected in favour of a more compelling urge to really stick the boot in. When Ange Postecoglou’s all-out attacking football clicks it makes everyone look hapless.
Ten Hag should have anticipated this of course and he is rightly criticised for his tactical game-plan. To pick a two-man midfield of Kobbie Mainoo and Manuel Ugarte against a team that packs at least four bodies in this area was suicidal, as was the absurdly incoherent pressing that ensured Spurs could pick holes at will.
Application and desire are harder to quantify and although the tactical nightmare definitely added to the sense of indiscipline this is partly just what happens when you play a Spurs team pressing and passing with such conviction. Every midfield in the Premier League would have been torn to pieces by Dejan Kulusevski and James Maddison on that kind of form.
This is not to excuse Man Utd from a disaster largely of their own making but simply to preface what is of greater concern to Ten Hag than one isolated game and the exaggerated fury it elicited. The real problem isn’t the game itself, but rather that perceptions of Ten Hag’s project can be shattered into fragments with a single poor performance.
A week ago their 0-0 draw with Crystal Palace was hesitantly praised for its coherence while a third clean sheet in five games was hailed as a clear sign of defensive improvement. A week ago those same ex-United pundits were encouraged by the progress being made. It has taken one match to erase their collective memory; one match for the PTSD to be triggered and a wave of anger to overtake them completely.
Herein lies the problem with keeping Ten Hag over the summer. You cannot draw a line under a campaign like the last. Those memories are always lingering just beneath the surface, meaning it only takes a small slip backwards for pressure to mount again as the pundit class takes pleasure – be it sadistic or masochistic – in hurling adjectives across the airwaves.
That doesn’t mean they are wrong to do so or that they are faking their response. Instead it reveals the depth of the wounds and the impossibility of Ten Hag recovering from the catastrophe of last season, a catastrophe that supporters haven’t been allowed to process because its architects remain in power.
Catastrophe, by the way, is not an exaggeration. There is an argument to be made that Ten Hag’s 2023/24 was the single worst performance by any manager in Premier League history.
Most ‘expected points’ models had United in the bottom five. They were extremely lucky to finish eighth last season. The eye test, and statistical modelling, suggests they were fortunate to avoid a relegation battle.
So it’s no surprise to see such a furious reaction to a 3-0 defeat against Spurs, even though the display was about par compared to United matches in 2023/24 and even though it followed six weeks of marked improvement. The ghosts still linger. The pain is still there. The self-righteous fury is all too easy to draw upon.
All of which was inevitable. You cannot actively search for a new manager at the end of a record-breakingly bad season and end up keeping the one you’ve got. To do that invites pressure the second things go wrong. The only real surprise is that it took until the end of September for that moment to arrive.
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