Struggling Ten Hag both architect and victim of Manchester United’s crisis

Manchester United have long been renowned as great telly. But where, under Alex Ferguson, they were the Sopranos – aggressive, full of attitude and surprisingly sensitive – in the Post-Fergie Wilderness YearsTM they are Casualty: catastrophe is inevitable, so the fun comes in predicting its outlandish specificity. Might André Onana befriend a murderous marmoset while looking to catch a cross, or will Harry Maguire collapse under the weight of his own property portfolio? Nope! Wrong again! It’s Aaron Wan-Bissaka, distracted by passing fresh air and tripping over Luke Shaw’s cough to score an own goal with his tongue! Football as Saturday night light entertainment, bloody hell.

As such and despite some encouraging Anfield moxie, Erik ten Hag is under pressure. But before we dismiss him as out of his depth – which he may be – it’s worth assessing whether United’s predicament is really his fault. Thanks to absent owners making bad decisions for the wrong reasons, Ten Hag inherited a squad lacking quality and mentality but rewarded like champions. To that load has been added takeover distraction, while serious leadership would have absorbed, not aggravated, the stress of “the Mason Greenwood situation”, later compounded by “the Antony situation”.

Given neither Pep Guardiola nor Jürgen Klopp enjoyed immediate success in England and neither inherited as multifaceted a mess, it’s fair that Ten Hag – director of football and chief scout as well as manager – be given time to master a uniquely impossible job in which he’s set up to fail.

Though their own consultant advised the Glazers that the squad needed an “operation of the open heart”, surgery has been hindered by their continuing pillage and the footballing illiteracy of the