Ten Hag's Man Utd produced another show after finding chaos against Coventry

From a position of comfort, Manchester United once again found chaos. From a nailed-on victory, they nearly suffered a defeat so calamitous you began to wonder if Erik ten Hag would get out of Wembley with his job intact.

Kevin Keegan once quit as England manager in the toilets here, and Ten Hag could have been forgiven for deciding that he has had enough of this United team and this basket case of a season if Sir Jim Ratcliffe and his Ineos cohorts didn’t take the decision out of his hands and end it right here.

Because although United lost control of this semi-final, Ten Hag’s hand was on the tiller again. His team, his tactics. Yes, he can talk about injuries and a ‘curse’ of penalty decisions, but this has happened too often on his watch this season to be a horrible coincidence.

The bonkers 4-3 results against FC Copenhagen, Wolves, Chelsea and Liverpool in the quarter-finals of the FA Cup stand out as prime examples of games that have descended into madness this season, but there have been more. In fact, save yourself some time and look up the games that United have won comfortably, because it would be a lot quicker.

Now we can make another addition to the list of freak shows after Coventry City incredibly came from three goals down with little more than half an hour left to force extra-time and penalties.

But for Ellis Simms’ shot hitting the underside of the bar in extra-time and Haji Wright straying a few inches offside when Victor Torp scored in the 121st minute, United wouldn’t have even got to a shoot-out.

In that moment, Ten Hag stood motionless as his world collapsed and Coventry celebrated what they thought was an FA Cup win for the ages until VAR threw the Dutchman a lifeline.

United won the toss to have the