Manchester United’s crumbling home is the perfect theatre for Erik ten Hag’s broken dreams
Erik ten Hag’s recurring excuse about injury problems is as tired as Old Trafford’s leaking roof, writes Richard Jolly, and it cannot explain away why United are nearing a historic low
The final ignominy came after the final whistle, Old Trafford’s famously leaking roof fashioning a waterfall. As tourist attractions go, it wasn’t supposed to be Manchester’s answer to the Niagara Falls. The Theatre of the Dreams has become the theatre of the drenched. Manchester United, though, is a club where everything can tumble quickly: fortunes, reputations, player values. A team who have slid down the table are now eighth, on course for their worst Premier League finish.
Even David Moyes bottomed out at seventh, Ralf Rangnick in sixth. For Erik ten Hag, the wrong kind of distinctions beckon. The manager trumpeting unprecedented achievements at Old Trafford was Mikel Arteta. “It’s 27 wins in the Premier League. It’s the most in the history of this club,” he said after that rarity, an Arsenal triumph at Old Trafford. “That is not progress, it is history.”
For Ten Hag, history comes in regression. United’s faulty roof may offer many a metaphor but there is numerical evidence of their travails. United are on 54 points; unless they get at least four more from their two remaining games, it will be their lowest return in the Premier League era. Concede another two goals and it will be their most in a campaign in the division; as it is, their defence has been breached 82 times in all competitions this season, the most in 53 seasons. United are on course to finish a league campaign with their worst goal difference since 1973-74, when they were relegated. They have suffered their most home defeats since that relegation campaign. Across the four competitions they have entered they have lost 19 times. They have not been beaten in 20 matches in a campaign since, once again, the relegation campaign.
Ten Hag’s ever-present explanation lies in United’s injury list. “You can’t progress a team in certain key areas with so many injuries,” he said. “It’s like swimming with your hands on your back and you have to keep your head above the water level.” And if keeping your head above water is altogether harder for anyone positioned below the Old Trafford roof, if Arsenal’s winner stemmed from a mistake by a midfielder operating as an emergency centre-back, in Casemiro, United’s past may negate his argument. In injury crises, Ferguson used Michael Carrick, Darren Fletcher and Roy Keane as centre-backs. Those injuries never produced such a shambles of a season.
And if the time since Sir Alex Ferguson retired has been filled with disappointing campaigns, it is quite an inverted achievement to muster the worst. It is a failure of planning, whether a blueprint that was unlocked on the opening day or a bizarrely open style of play that has seen them face absurd numbers of shots in 2024. It is a failure of recruitment over two summers: of the class of 2023, Mason Mount has been luckless but has had a negligible impact, Andre Onana has made a host of saves but far too many mistakes, Rasmus Hojlund has shown promise but has too few goals and Sofyan Amrabat is another mistake who can be attributed to Ten Hag’s fondness for Eredivisie old boys. But two 2022 decisions have had consequences that have reverberated: the undignified decline of the £63m Casemiro, the exorbitant cost and minimal returns of the £85m Antony – who was dropped for Amad Diallo against Arsenal and ended his cameo at left-back – indicate resources have been squandered.
They are other judgment calls that feel questionable, at best. Players have veered in and out of favour with Ten Hag’s erratic decision-making: just look at Scott McTominay, Harry Maguire, Raphael Varane or Christian Eriksen. The only beneficiaries of the Jadon Sancho saga have been Borussia Dortmund.
Alejandro Garnacho and Kobbie Mainoo have had breakthrough years but, beyond Diogo Dalot and Bruno Fernandes, the only qualified successes are players United tried to sell, in Maguire and McTominay, or who they re-signed as a favour by allowing Jonny Evans to train with their reserves. The team has looked disjointed, the tactics chaotic, the rhetoric delusional. United have lost a host of leads, lost to virtually every mid-table side and only won away at one of the top 10. They could miss out on Europe – “very damaging,” said Ten Hag – and they are now 32 points behind title-chasing Arsenal. “We wanted to open that box of dreams,” said Arteta. At least Old Trafford was a theatre of someone’s dreams.
A failing club had unwanted evidence of problems with their infrastructure. Sir Jim Ratcliffe watched on with Sir Keir Starmer, who may have been gathering evidence of the problems of running institutions that have been mismanaged for years. Andy Burnham and Lord Coe were there, too, members of the regeneration task force charged with working out whether to rebuild or redevelop Old Trafford. But other decisions beckon for Ratcliffe. Perhaps the roof can be patched up; yet if he has problems with the Manchester rain, he has others with Ten Hag’s reign.
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