THE sight of Antony, for once, living up to his undoubted natural potential, was offset by a bizarre goal celebration and yet another disappointing result but such is life at Manchester United currently as we enter the dog days, possibly, of Erik ten Hag’s reign.
There are the considerable consolations to come in an FA Cup Final derby with City and the prospect of European qualification, although the Champions League is now mathematically beyond them.
Beyond that, there is precious else, aside from the obvious impressive development of a handful of youngsters - Kobbie Mainoo and Alejandro Garnacho, prime among them.
Instead, ten Hag is now lashing out with a predictable and growing list of excuses why this season has petered out in such disappointing fashion after his impressive debut campaign in charge 12 months ago.
Bemoaning United’s injury misfortune has been a familiar - and considering the club’s wretched fitness record - an appropriately-broken record for some time now.
It points to systemic problems in all sorts of areas of the club and is one of many which, hopefully, will be being looked at intently by new owners and senior management figures this summer. That injury record, although ten Hag’s employment of it is sounding increasingly desperate, is one key reason his supporters point to him deserving at least one more season in charge.
To that tired mantra, ten Hag is increasingly complaining about officiating, specifically penalties, and while he correctly conceded that Burnley’s equalising penalty, awarded after Andre Onana punched Zeki Amdouni in the face, was just, he could not resist a long list of recent penalty claims his side was denied.
He, conveniently, also failed to mention that Onana escaped an
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