As he was applauded off in the most humiliating of fashions by Crystal Palace fans on Monday night, it wouldn’t have needed pointing out to Erik ten Hag that this was the nadir of his tenure.
There have been heavier defeats during his undulating spell in the Old Trafford hotseat — a 7-0 loss at Liverpool a year ago being one of them — but few proved to be as deflating and as galling as this 4-0 turnover at Selhurst Park.
The Dutchman’s future at Manchester United is now more precarious than ever and even some of his most ardent supporters are growing weary as calls for change grow louder.
Mail Sport looks at 10 reasons Ten Hag’s time at United has unravelled…
Erik ten Hag looks to be approaching the end of his time in charge of Manchester United
Monday night’s 4-0 defeat at Crystal Palace was the most humiliating loss of the season
PACKED MEDICAL ROOM
When Ten Hag is shown the door by United — rather than if — he will no doubt point to the injury crisis he has had to contend with as his lead defence.
Bruno Fernandes — so often Mr Reliable — missed Monday night’s game, making it 64 cases of injury or illness that have caused a United player to miss a match this season.
Ten Hag has had to cope without Lisandro Martinez (his best centre back) and Luke Shaw (his best left back) for much of the season, while Rasmus Hojlund was sidelined just when he was enjoying a purple patch in front of goal.
Harry Maguire has been integral this season and now he is facing a race against time to be fit for the FA Cup final against Manchester City. There is rotten luck and then there are 64 cases of injury and illness. Unprecedented numbers.
TERRIBLE TRANSFERS
What isn’t going to be a mitigating factor for the Dutchman is his recruitment which, if you are being unkind, has bordered on disastrous.
Nine of the starting XI at Palace were signed or promoted from the academy by Ten Hag, while Diogo Dalot has since been handed a new deal. Only Aaron Wan-Bissaka precedes his tenure.
Antony has been shockingly bad after arriving for £86million; Sofyan Amrabat’s loan move has proven a mis-step; Andre Onana’s form effectively cost United a Champions League campaign, while Mason Mount — who arrived as Ten Hag’s priority midfield signing for £60m — made his first Premier League start since October 7 on Monday.
Ten Hag spoke last week about how he had been unable to land his top target Harry Kane and called on the ownership to back him over the summer.
But after spending more than £400m over his four transfer windows, Ten Hag’s United side have never looked further from contending.
Antony (right) for £86million at Ten Hag’s request but he has proven to be a nightmare signing
Mason Mount has failed to see United score a Premier League goal in the games he’s started
LEAKY DEFENCE
Going into this season, on the back of a third-placed finish and a trophy in the cabinet, Ten Hag was bold in proclaiming how entertaining his side would go on to be.
‘We want to be the best transition team in the world,’ he said. ‘We want to surprise.’
Instead they have looked scarily vulnerable defending any sort of transition coming their way and look caught between philosophies in midfield — seemingly not knowing whether to press or drop, leaving gaping holes that are routinely exploited. United have already conceded 55 goals in the Premier League this season — two shy of their record high from 2021-22 — and still have three games to play, while the 618 shots faced is a record high for the club.
Ten Hag’s team are facing an average of 17.6 shots per game.
There is no structure, no rigidity to their set-up and they continue to invite opponents to score almost at will.
EURO TRASH
This remains one of the biggest black marks against Ten Hag and United’s players this season. To finish bottom in a Champions League group which included Turkish champions Galatasaray and FC Copenhagen, who finished second in the Danish Superliga — both with much smaller budgets — was humiliating.
United had budgeted to reach the quarter-finals — Arsenal and Manchester City both made it to that stage before suffering elimination — and yet Ten Hag and his players were booed off at home after going out as the worst team in their group.
It is United’s worst Champions League campaign ever with four points from six games, shipping a record 15 goals — more than any Premier League team had ever conceded in a Champions League group — in the process.
Historically bad.
Ten Hag’s inability to put a tactical blueprint on this team has caused a great deal of confusion
LACK OF BACKING
Those in Ten Hag’s corner will also point to the uncertainty above him.
Sir Jim Ratcliffe was largely non-committal when asked about the Dutchman’s future after securing his minority 25 per cent stake in the club.
That set the tone for what has followed and insiders have spoken about how the sense of uncertainty has since seeped into the dressing room and undermined the manager’s position as he approaches the final three Premier League games and FA Cup final.
If Ratcliffe and his Ineos executives were set on giving Ten Hag a better structure in which to work, they could have quelled speculation by going public with a statement of support.
Instead they have been happy to sit back and let United’s season play out, leaving Ten Hag in limbo amid links to Bayern Munich and his former club Ajax, all while he remains under contract.
Ten Hag deserves blame for the tactical set-up and recruitment but he has been hung out to dry with constant questions around his future beyond this season.
COMMUNICATION BREAKDOWN
Not every manager needs to be savvy with the media to be a success — but they have to be an effective communicator to players.
Mail Sport reported in this week’s Manchester United Confidential column that Ten Hag’s abrupt manner, coupled with having to get to grips with the English language, has rubbed some of the players up the wrong way and there is a feeling that he lacks empathy.
It doesn’t help that his Dutch No 2 Mitchell van der Gaag can be equally abrasive, turning players off.
Ten Hag was praised at the time for his tough stance over Cristiano Ronaldo, with whom he fell out spectacularly in his first season, and Jadon Sancho, who he refused to select until he apologised for calling him out on social media (no apology came and the England man joined Borussia Dortmund on loan).
Raphael Varane, Anthony Martial, Rashford and Antony have all had run-ins of varying degrees with their manager in his second campaign, while other players have grumbled about the training regime.
It has been claimed that the mood in the dressing room has dropped to the level it was before he took over two years ago, leaving him in an increasingly vulnerable position with players unlikely to vouch for him.
Tough love can work when you’re winning but do that when things go wrong — as they often have at United this season — and players will soon tune out.
Sir Jim Ratcliffe (right) and Sir Dave Brailsford (left) have not publicly ended speculation over Ten Hag’s future, instead opting to remain coy whenever asked about Ten Hag’s position
FORWARDS GOING BACKWARDS
It has spoken volumes that Ten Hag has grown to rely on Alejandro Garnacho to get results and if the academy graduate doesn’t show up, United’s attack is often null and void.
Marcus Rashford has gone from a 30-goal scorer in 2022-23 to one with just eight goals this season.
Sancho started the campaign but was soon banished away from the first team group and then shipped out on loan, where he is now in the Champions League semi-finals.
Facundo Pellistri had chances before he too was shipped out on loan; Amad Diallo struggles to get a game even with United at rock bottom; Mason Greenwood is not going to be reintegrated after his loan in Spain; all of these without any mention of the off-field problems.
Rashford hit the headlines after a boozy session in Belfast saw him miss training the next day, while Antony and Mason Greenwood both found themselves involved in separate legal battles on charges they denied.
On and off the pitch, United’s attackers have been a constant headache for the Dutchman.
Marcus Rashford has gone from a 30-goal scorer last season to having just eight this season
MID-TABLE MEDIOCRITY
If this season has proven anything it’s that United sure know how to make mid-table sides look absolutely brilliant.
A look at the table shows that United have lost to teams that are now10th, 11th, 13th and 14th in the Premier League table.
It said plenty heading to Old Trafford to face rock bottom Sheffield United that some Man United fans were foreboding another disastrous evening.
Wolves, who are 12th, deserved a result in the first game of the season while Everton have managed 47 shots against United this season, even with losing both games.
Bournemouth, 10th, took United to the cleaners at Old Trafford while Brentford, who are 16th, will still feel aggrieved they didn’t win in Manchester.
It’s not just the division’s best that have schooled Ten Hag this season.
United have had a propensity to make mid-table sides look far better than they actually are
NO PLAN B
There have been countless examples of stubbornness reigning supreme this season but it was perhaps best pronounced in the home defeat by Brighton.
United actually started that game well, better than Brighton boss Robert De Zerbi had anticipated and planned for, and so the Seagulls made a key adjustment.
Brighton players spoke that day about figuring out the United puzzle on the fly and once they did, spotting the gaping holes there to exploit, they were able to run away with a 3-1 win.
Too often fans’ biggest gripe has been Ten Hag’s lack of adaptability in game, leaving him to being out-coached by his counterparts on more than one occasion.
FANTASY FOOTBALL
United have played poorly a lot this season and nothing has irked fans that Mail Sport have spoken to more than some of Ten Hag’s remarks in light of losses.
Often speaking about entertainment and how happy he has been and how they have controlled games, Ten Hag has alienated some supporters with what they view as not truthful reflections on some incredibly poor performances.
Ten Hag was more cutting of his players after Palace but there have been too many occasions where journalists and fans have been left scratching their heads as to how they watched the same game as Ten Hag and came to such a wildly different conclusion.
