How Man United have been turned into Premier League also-rans

Manchester United have made their worst-ever start to a Premier League season and go into the international break in 14th place. With just two wins from seven games, manager Erik ten Hag’s position is under ever-growing threat.

United’s new powerbrokers, the team of executives built by Sir Jim Ratcliffe since his Ineos Group become minority shareholders in February, are due to hold a regular board meeting on Tuesday, and Ten Hag’s future could be on the agenda.

But the people charged with running the club’s football operations — Ratcliffe, Dave Brailsford (Ineos head of sport), Omar Berrada (United’s CEO), Dan Ashworth (United’s sporting director) and Jason Wilcox (United’s technical director) — are unlikely to make the decision they surely need to.

Although Ten Hag has now overseen United’s two worst starts to a Premier League campaign, in back-to-back seasons, how much of the blame is down to the 54-year-old former Ajax coach?

Bad decisions, on and off the pitch, have left United trailing in the wake of title-contending rivals Manchester City, Liverpool and Arsenal, and placed Ten Hag in the firing line.

Where has it gone wrong for English football’s biggest club, and 20-time league champions?

Keeping Ten Hag as manager

Ten Hag’s position has been the subject of intense speculation for over a year, with bad results and performances pre-dating Ratcliffe’s £1.25 billion investment. Last season, the team finished eighth, with a negative goal difference, and Ineos had plans to replace Ten Hag.

Thomas Tuchel, Roberto de Zerbi, Kieran McKenna and Mauricio Pochettino were all spoken to by Ratcliffe’s team, with Gareth Southgate, Gary O’Neil and Graham Potter also considered, but United’s surprise FA Cup final win against Man City in May effectively kept Ten Hag in a job.

It took 2½ weeks for the club to confirm that Ten Hag would be given not only a stay of execution, but also one-year contract extension. Ratcliffe’s team had taken the easy option, and the start to this season has only proved how ill-judged it was.

In mitigation, Ratcliffe didn’t want to fire a manager without Berrada and Ashworth in place at Old Trafford, with both men serving a period of notice following the departure from their previous roles at Man City and Newcastle United, respectively.

But the decision to keep Ten Hag has led to performances which have produced United’s worst start for 25 years.

Signing Højlund over Watkins

Man United’s recruitment failures go back more than a decade and even into the final years of Sir Alex Ferguson’s reign as manager, but Ten Hag has been culpable for some of the worst decisions.

He pushed for the £85 million signing of Antony from Ajax in August 2022, and the Brazilian winger has been hopelessly ineffective. Ten Hag also sanctioned the £55m signing of the injury-prone Mason Mount from Chelsea a year later.

But Ten Hag’s decision to sign the then-20-year-old Rasmus Højlund in the summer of 2023 as the solution to the team’s scoring problems has proved critical. It was a mistake because of the players United rejected in favour of the Denmark forward.

Harry Kane was a target but was dismissed as lacking the pressing game required by Ten Hag. In reality, however, persuading Kane to sign for United over Bayern Munich was always unlikely to succeed.

Victor Osimhen and Ivan Toney were also ruled out, but sources have told ESPN that Aston Villa‘s Ollie Watkins was seriously under consideration. It was decided that Højlund, who was seven years younger at the time, represented better value for money and was a long-term prospect.

Ten Hag said after United’s 0-0 draw at Villa on Sunday that Højlund is United’s “best goal scorer,” yet he has netted only 17 goals in 48 appearances and finished 25th in the Premier League scoring charts last season with 10 goals.

In comparison, Watkins scored 19 goals to power Villa into the Champions League, and he won the playmaker of the season award for providing the most assists (13), two more than Chelsea‘s Cole Palmer. Bruno Fernandes set up eight goals for United, while no other player created more than four.

Højlund might still yet prove to be one for the future, but Ten Hag should have pushed for a proven goal scorer and not just a youngster with unproven potential.

Or maybe that will prove to be Netherlands international Joshua Zirkzee, who cost £36.5m from Bologna in the summer but has, so far, also flattered to deceive.

The mishandling of Rashford’s career

Coaxing the best out of players is probably the most important job of any manager, and Ten Hag has failed to do that with Marcus Rashford.

It shouldn’t be forgotten that Rashford actually scored 17 goals in 2022-23, Ten Hag’s first season at the helm. That saw him win back his place in the England squad, yet last season he reverted back to the stuttering form which had seen him fall out of favour with Gareth Southgate in the first place, and he failed to make it to Euro 2024.

Sources have told ESPN that Ten Hag was urged by senior figures at the club last season to show a softer side when dealing with players. The manager’s blunt comments about Jadon Sancho, Casemiro and Raphaël Varane had created issues with those players, and he was also openly critical of Rashford.

While sources have said that Rashford created problems for himself on more than one occasion, including a birthday party in Manchester after a 3-0 derby defeat and a night out in Belfast which meant he missed training, Ten Hag’s unforgiving public comments about the England international did little to help soothe the situation.

And although Rashford has shown some signs this season of returning to form, Ten Hag has criticised him for his defending, and dropped him after scoring three goals in two games. Ten Hag then cited “rotation” for substituting Rashford at half-time during the 3-3 Europa League draw against FC Porto last week, despite the striker having scored one and creating another in the first half in Estadio do Dragao.

Rashford can be a frustrating player, but he has the ability and Ten Hag has done little to help drag the 26-year-old out of his slump.

Ten Hag’s game management

One significant area of concern for United, and a key factor in their poor results, has been Ten Hag’s failure to address tactical flaws in his team.

Since the start of last season, United have conceded two goals in a game on 31 occasions. In their past five European away games, dating back to the 2022-23 season, they have conceded 17 goals.

Yet more than two years into his reign as manager, the problems persist and Ten Hag continues to search for a solution with regular changes at centre-back and also in central midfield.

On Sunday at Villa, United started the game with Harry Maguire and the 36-year-old Jonny Evans as his centre-back pairing: two players who were starting for Leicester City five years ago.

Under Ten Hag, United have become an easy team for opponents to play against but the manager has remained rigidly loyal to his tactical approach.

That mistake is on him, but equally, responsibility lies with his bosses, who have allowed him to continue in post despite an obvious recurring flaw.

Failure to solve the left-back problem

Manchester United went into the season without a fit left-back and even now, in early October, neither Luke Shaw nor Tyrell Malacia has made a single appearance.

Malacia didn’t play at all last season due to a persistent knee injury, while Shaw made just 15 appearances in all competitions and has not pulled on a United shirt since being injured at Luton in February. Despite his chequered fitness record, Shaw declared himself fit to play for England at Euro 2024.

Since signing from Southampton 10 years ago, Shaw made just 191 Premier League appearances for United. In that time, United have played 387 league games, so the 29-year-old has managed to feature in less than 50%.

Yet despite Malacia’s ongoing problems and Shaw’s unreliability, United and Ten Hag went into this season without a solution, leaving right-back Diogo Dalot to fill the position.

It has left United with an imbalanced team and without adequate defensive cover, which has exposed Rashford’s defensive shortcomings and diminished his attacking threat.

Waiting too long to sign Ugarte

In 2022, United paid Real Madrid an initial £60m, plus £10m in add-ons, for Casemiro. By 2024, the Brazil international already looked a spent force and needed to be replaced.

So United, eventually, completed the £42.1m signing of Manuel Ugarte from Paris Saint-Germain … on Aug 30, just as the transfer window was about to close. Two days later, with Ugarte ineligible to play, Ten Hag’s team were completely overrun in midfield during a humiliating 3-0 home defeat to archrivals Liverpool.

Ugarte has so far struggled to make an impact, with the 23-year-old still building up his fitness after a disrupted pre-season and Ten Hag unable to find a way to fit the midfielder into his system.

United’s financial situation and battle to comply with the Premier League’s profit and sustainability rules (PSR) forced the club to delay a move for Ugarte until Scott McTominay had moved to Napoli. That strict housekeeping denied the Uruguay international the chance to accelerate his return to fitness and work with his new midfield teammates before the season began.

Had the deal been done sooner, the midfield problems that continue to blight United could have been avoided or diminished.

Waiting for history to repeat itself

United have a history of standing by struggling managers. The reputation that dates back to resisting calls to sack Sir Alex Ferguson when his team was seemingly going nowhere in 1989-90 after three uninspiring years in charge. This is United’s worst start since that campaign, and they must be hoping Ten Hag will enjoy the same dramatic transformation.

Ferguson survived and delivered two decades of success, turning United into the biggest and most successful team in England.

The Ferguson story arguably helped keep David Moyes, Louis van Gaal, Jose Mourinho and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer in a job at United. Their demise had become inevitable long before they were eventually removed.

But if United are waiting for the Ferguson story to repeat itself, they are heading for another mistake and one which will keep the team drifting along for years.