How bad are this United side?
This is as bad as it gets unless you were watching Man Utd in the 1970s when they were relegated.
Here’s the thing, though, United fans who were there have great memories of that 1974/75 season in the Second Division. Tommy Docherty was in charge and there were new grounds to visit.
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The team still had players you could look up to like Stuart Pearson, Lou Macari, Sammy McIlroy and Brian Greenhoff. Despite playing in the second tier United still had the highest average home attendance in England.
After an instant return to the First Division, United also denied Liverpool the Treble a year later by beating Bob Paisley’s side in the 1977 FA Cup final.
Even in the 1980s when United went through long dark periods, they still had teams full of club legends like Bryan Robson, Norman Whiteside, Mark Hughes and Paul McGrath.
In recent years there have been so many changes at every level of the club that it’s difficult to put your finger on what makes United that special anymore.
Of course, there is the history and the trophies and the fans. More than 2.2m of them watched games at Old Trafford last season. There wasn’t much to celebrate with United finishing 15th in the Premier League, but that made them the best supported team in Europe.
Many of those fans will not have been around in the 1970s and 1980s so for them this is definitely as bad as it gets. And that’s a view that would probably be shared by at least some of the older fans who were there in those days.
Where do United go from here?
Ruben Amorim was defiant in Sunday’s post-match press conference after his side’s 3-0 defeat to Man City, and made it clear, again, that he is not going to change his philosophy.
No matter how bad things get, it seems he will carry on playing three at the back even though it is pretty obvious to everyone that the system is not working and it does not suit his players.
If nobody at United can convince him to be more flexible, then they just have to hope the players will eventually look at home playing the way Amorim wants them to play.
The only other option is to replace the head coach, but that it is a road United have been down too often since Sir Alex Ferguson stepped down 12 years ago.
You could make a pretty good case that United would be in a better state if they had stuck with any of the managers who followed Ferguson: David Moyes, Louis van Gaal, Jose Mourinho, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and Erik ten Hag.
Although, judging by the fact that they wasted so much money in the transfer market when Ten Hag was in charge, perhaps it was the right decision to sack him nine months ago, when United were 14th – exactly where did they are today.
Even Ten Hag, though, could point out that since Amorim’s first game in charge, no ever-present Premier League team have performed worse than United – 31 points from 31 games means United are bottom of the table.
Is Amorim the right man for the job?
Not if he only has one way of playing.
The Premier League is ferociously competitive and United are too easy to play against at the moment. Opponents know exactly what to expect when they face United and the fear factor has totally disappeared.
It used to be a shock when United lost; now it is a shock when they win. So-called smaller clubs are better run, have better balanced squads and can spend tens of millions of pounds on players every summer.
United have been left behind and Amorim has a massive job on his hands. He is a man who wears his heart on his sleeve and comes across as extremely honest and transparent in all his dealings with the media. That is a breath of fresh in one sense, but it can also diminish his status as a strong leader.
Managing Manchester United is like managing Real Madrid. Everything you say is going to be a headline. United are back-page news every day.
Perhaps the ideal United head coach is someone who wears a suit and tie and gives little away. It worked in the old days, but these are not the old days any more.
Was the summer window another missed opportunity?
It is too early to answer that question properly because the window closed only two weeks ago.
United focused their spending on buying a new forward line when many outside observers would have thought that the money would have been better spent on a new spine for the team. They also had the option of selling Bruno Fernandes for a big transfer fee to Al Hilal in Saudi Arabia.
The captain stayed and his new team-mates Benjamin Sesko, Matheus Cunha and Bryan Mbeumo need to be given more time to show what they can do. Senne Lammens could also turn out to be an exceptional goalkeeper if he lives up to expectations and adapts to English football.
There is a nagging feeling, though, that a club the size and stature of United should be going all out to buy the best players in the world – players like Gianluigi Donnarumma.
Not being in the Champions League and cutting the wage bill means United fans have to get used to a new reality, a new reality which means the very best players going to their rivals for the time being.
Even the fact that United managed to move out so many players this summer who were surplus to requirements was not a cause for celebration. United have taken a big financial hit on the transfer fees paid for the likes of Rasmus Hojlund, Jadon Sancho and Antony but at least they were able to get their wages off their books.
Have INEOS made things better or worse?
United were sixth in the table when INEOS completed their deal to buy their minority stake and take over sporting control in February last year.
There has been very little to get excited about on the pitch, apart from a shock FA Cup final win against Manchester City, which earned Ten Hag a new contract but left United counting the cost – some £13m – when they fired him just five months later.
There’s no point going through all the statistics and defeats here – there are too many losses – but it is safe to say that this has been one of the worst periods in the history of the club.
INEOS have put their own money in and are making big changes off the pitch, including redeveloping the training ground, but there have been just as many mistakes as good decisions. With the benefit of hindsight, flying to Ibiza to give Ten Hag a new deal was absolutely the wrong decision and hiring and firing Dan Ashworth was another costly mistake.
At least INEOS have a plan. The plan changes from time to time as all plans do, but they do have a plan and they have put their own money on the table. It is just extremely unfortunate that the plan has also meant so many people losing their jobs and a new controversial ticketing policy.
The Glazer family also had a plan and if you wanted to start an argument, you could whisper very quietly that the results, league tables and trophies, taken in isolation, show that United were better off when the Glazers and executives like Ed Woodward and Richard Arnold were in charge.
What would success look like for United this season?
The priority has to be getting back into the Champions League or any European competition at the very least.
The League Cup is already gone thanks to that calamitous night in Grimsby and you can get odds of 100/1 on United to win the title so, trophy wise, the FA Cup is all United realistically have to play for.
Winning the FA Cup would mean a place in the Europa League, but the Champions League is where United have to be. The commercial benefits of being back in the expanded top-tier European tournament are huge and it would make it easier to sign the best players in the world.
Finishing in the top five is likely to mean Champions League qualification but United are a long way off that standard at the moment. At least the lack of European competition this season means Amorim has more time to work with his players in between league games. It is not much of a silver lining, but it is something at least.
Are United in a relegation fight?
United’s next game is against Chelsea next weekend. Luckily for them, Chelsea have a terrible record at Old Trafford – no league win for 12 years – and they were not particularly convincing in their 2-2 draw with Brentford on Saturday night.
Chelsea also have a midweek game away at Bayern Munich whereas United have almost a whole week to prepare for the 5.30pm game next Saturday, live on Sky Sports.
The six teams below United at the moment are all capable of beating them but that is not to say United are in a relegation fight – yet.
If they carry on the way they have started, they will probably end up where they finished last season – in the middle of the bottom half of the table.
And if that is the case, it is likely that INEOS will make a change at the top – just as they did last October when United were 14th.
