Manchester United is in another crisis

It seems that Manchester United has firmly taken the title of the main loser of the first part of the season in European football. After losing to Galatasaray in the second round of the Champions League group stage – 2:3 – they ended up in last place in Group A with zero points. The Manchester team are doing no better in the national championship, although in the summer it seemed that they were standing on on the verge of an impressive breakthrough.

“It’s a difficult period,” said host coach Erik ten Hag on a rainy English evening during the second round of the Champions League match between Manchester United and Galatasaray, describing what he believes is happening to the English team. And he was, of course, too soft in his assessment. Outside observers analyzing football in the leading British media – The Guardian, Sky Sports, The Times – used stronger and stronger terms: here there is “failure” and “catastrophe”… And they could be understood.

In fact, taken out of the general context, the defeat of Manchester United, even at home, even against an opponent who is not so highly rated, does not amount to a terrible tragedy. Well, in the end, all teams have bad days, when things don’t go well, when you lead twice, squander an advantage, and miss the decisive goal at the flag. And reminders that Manchester have never accelerated in the Champions League with two losses is, by and large, a stretch. The previous one happened in Munich, in an away match with the mighty Bayern, which the English club, after all, beat up pretty badly, losing too narrowly – 3:4. And zero points, the bottom line in the Group A table is definitely not a death sentence. There are four more rounds of the group stage ahead. And the closest opponent is the modest Copenhagen.

But the context is too stubborn, and there is no way to get rid of it. The Champions League misfire fits perfectly into an overall picture that truly feels like a nightmare, given the contrast with expectations for what Manchester United’s season should have been like this season. And he was supposed to be wonderful. Even last season, with bronze in the championship, with pleasant performances in most matches, hinted at a breakthrough, that the Manchester team, with ten Hag leading them in 2022, are ready to regain the positions they lost ten years ago, after the retirement of the legendary Alex Ferguson. But in the summer there were promising purchases – Andre Onana, Mason Mount, Sofyan Amrabat, Rasmus Hojlunn, which seemed to seriously add gloss and sparkle to the application.

But instead of a jerk, something completely opposite happened. It is better to judge what Manchester United is now not even by the Champions League, but by the English championship. In it he has tenth place, and for four losses there are three victories. And what kind of losses are these and what are these victories. Powerful Tottenham, Arsenal and Brighton beat Manchester without difficulty, beat Crystal Palace with difficulty, but that’s how they played last weekend against them away, and they themselves are classified next to the giant, in the middle. Manchester United coped exclusively with opponents who were vague in terms of ambitions and capabilities – Nottingham, Burnley, Wolverhampton. With everyone – with a minimal advantage. With Wolverhampton – solely thanks to luck in the form of a pure penalty against the favorite for some reason.

Statistics tell a good story about the current appearance of Manchester United. In ten official games of different tournaments, he managed to concede 18 goals: such teams are called “leaky”.

The match with Galatasaray cannot be put aside as some kind of crazy emergency also because it surprisingly showed all the symptoms of the disease that torments Manchester United in the fall and covers all the bright spots in its football with a thick shadow. for example, the unexpected persuasiveness of young forward Højlund, who scored a brace against Galatasaray. We are talking primarily about poor mutual understanding between the players, the strange twitchiness of some of them, and above all Andre Onana. Acquired for almost £50 million from Inter, the goalkeeper was positioned almost as a new key element of the club undergoing an upgrade – a reliable goalkeeper, who also played well with his feet and created attacks with passes. In just a few weeks at Manchester United, Onana has already managed to collect an impressive collection of blunders, missed an absurd and exceptionally important goal from Leroy Zane in the match with Bayern, and in the second half of the meeting with Galatasaray, with the score 2:2, he passed the ball to the Istanbul football player Dries Mertens, forcing him to foul and earn a penalty in a package with a penalty kick for Casemire. The visitors screwed up the penalty kick, but, whatever one may say, the episode was turning out to be key.

While Erik ten Hag and those who are against the version of a systemic crisis of his club have an argument at hand – the Manchester team’s personnel turmoil due to injuries to Luke Shaw and Lisandro Martinez, a conflict with the management of Jadon Sancho, a scandal with accusations of domestic violence, clearly spoiling Anthony’s tone. But the BBC, commenting on the outcome of the match between Manchester United and Galatasaray, still considered it necessary to recall the work at Manchester United of ten Hag’s predecessors, those mentors who were trusted by the great club after Ferguson. All of them – David Moyes, Louis van Gaal, Jose Mourinho, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer – for some time looked like successful finds that guaranteed take-off, but quite quickly inspiration gave way to disappointment and another club black streak, taxiing to the dismissal of a coach who had just inspired incredible optimism .

Alexey Dospehov