THERE is increasing desperation in Erik ten Hag’s words.
He tries to convince us of certain things when the evidence in front of our own eyes suggests otherwise.
For example how his team showed “great character” in Saturday’s 2-1 home defeat by Fulham.
That was the last thing this observer could identify as the recent corner they had turned reverted back to square one.
Yes, they were missing their in-form striker Rasmus Hojlund.
But that was no excuse for United’s disjointed ramshackle display from which only Alejandro Garnacho emerged with any credit.
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At the final whistle, 19-year-old Garnacho whacked the ball into the advertising hoardings and stormed off straight down the tunnel.
That was more passion than the rest of his United team-mates had shown all game.
And it raised plenty more questions — or worryingly for Ten Hag maybe provided more answers — for new part-owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe.
He was not at Old Trafford but his stony-faced right-hand man Sir Dave Brailsford witnessed it all.
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United’s new governors can forget about getting into the top four. Absolutely no chance.
They are eight points behind Aston Villa now with 12 games to go — having lost their TENTH game of 26 this season.
Everton have lost only one more!
Only twice in the Premier League have United lost more games — 12 in both 2013-14 and 2021-22 — so expect that record to tumble.
They have got the derby with Manchester City to play at the Etihad — after the midweek FA Cup trip to Nottingham Forest — so you might as well make that 11 losses now.
Fulham had won only once on their travels in the Premier League this season but were easily the better team at Old Trafford where they hammered in 17 shots.
United have now conceded 417 shots in the Premier League this term — only three clubs in the Prem can vouch for more.
And 100 of those shots have come in the last five games, four of which Ten Hag uses to claim how far his team have come. They had been on a decent little run, but the wins at Aston Villa, Luton and Wolves had more than a bit of fortune about them.
Ten Hag had spent part of his pre-match press conference defending the £85million spent on Antony, claiming he would come good.
Well he was given a minute of injury-time to prove it on Saturday.
The attempt to blood 19-year-old winger Omari Forson into the Premier League with his first start backfired.
He will be good, but he is clearly not ready yet.
Not that he was helped by those around him.
Ten Hag tried to cling to the fact that his team did not give in after Calvin Bassey’s 65th-minute strike gave Fulham the lead.
It took until the 89th for United to draw level through Harry Maguire and then they poured forward believing they would get the winner in the nine minutes of injury time.
A big mistake.
Maguire said: “In hindsight now we can say we should have been more cautious, we were far too naive.
“In the end, we’ve probably just thrown too many bodies forward, left the middle of the pitch open, and they have punished us with a clinical counter-attack.”
Maguire regret
United and Maguire were caught on the break one last time and it proved decisive.
The centre-back wonders whether he should have stopped it in its tracks by taking one for the team as Adama Traore roared past him before Alex Iwobi ultimately found the net.
But Maguire was already on a yellow card.
He said: “In hindsight, maybe I should have just brought him down but then you miss next week. It is easy to say now.
“We can look back and assess it in terms of areas we can improve on but ultimately over the 90 minutes we didn’t do enough to win the game.”
Marcus Rashford ambled through the game as the No 9 in Hojlund’s absence.
Bruno Fernandes disappeared.
The moment he went down screaming and holding his ankle after a shot, before jumping back up when nobody took any notice, is embarrassing and doing the rounds on social media.
Victor Lindelof proved he is no left-back in the absence of Luke Shaw.
Casemiro failed to impose himself on the midfield before a clash of heads saw him withdrawn early in the second half.
Ten Hag will continue to lean on last season and the run they had before this setback as proof the trajectory is good.
To think this time last year he was lifting silverware in the form of the Carabao Cup at Wembley and all seemed well with the world.
A look at the league table now suggests otherwise.
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Still, Ten Hag claims: “The bigger picture looks very good.”
United fans just can’t see it. And Sir Jim is looking on.
Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
