ROCK BOTTOM Erik Ten Hag and Team in Crisis just 2 Games into Season after Bees Hand Out Thrashing
- 2 years ago
There were still more than five minutes to go in surely the first half of football ever played by a United team, when the visiting fans struck up what is becoming an all-too-familiar chorus.
“You’re not fit to wear the shirt,” they sang. And when that shirt is the hideous new green one they were sporting for the first time, that’s saying something.
Back in the good old days, Sir Alex Ferguson ordered his team to ditch their hard-to-pick-out grey kit when they trailed 3-0 at half-time to Southampton.
But a game that ended in a 3-1 defeat back in April 1996 did not stop United going on to win the Double.
Only two games into this campaign, and you can be sure that won’t be happening this season or for the foreseeable future.
That is to take nothing away from Brentford.
The Bees were Thomas Frankly brilliant and ruthless in putting Ten Hag’s men to the sword.
Josh Dasilva, Mathias Jensen, Ben Mee and Bryan Mbeumo scored the four first-half goals for a home side that was superior in every department.
But United were the architects of their own downfall.
David De Gea was at fault for the opening two goals.
After letting Dasilva’s shot go through him for the first, he played Christian Eriksen into trouble for the second on a very unhappy return for the Dane to the club that helped his resurrect his career.
United teams of the past, when the heat was on, would have stayed cool and plotted a way back into the game.
This dismal crop wilted in the West London heat like a bouquet of cheap flowers from a garage.
The big difference being, of course, that United have spent hundreds of millions assembling this motley crew.
And they will have to spend hundreds of millions more to have any chance whatsoever of returning to where they believe they belong.
Of course, Ten Hag deserves time to try to succeed where everyone since Ferguson has failed.
But if he is having as much say in the transfer policy as is believed, then he has to take some responsibility for his predicament.
After the historic, limp home defeat by Brighton, the only significant change he could make was to restore Ronaldo to the starting line-up.
Ten Hag brought in the man who wants out for Scott McTominay.
“You’re not fit to wear the shirt,” they sang. And when that shirt is the hideous new green one they were sporting for the first time, that’s saying something.
Back in the good old days, Sir Alex Ferguson ordered his team to ditch their hard-to-pick-out grey kit when they trailed 3-0 at half-time to Southampton.
But a game that ended in a 3-1 defeat back in April 1996 did not stop United going on to win the Double.
Only two games into this campaign, and you can be sure that won’t be happening this season or for the foreseeable future.
That is to take nothing away from Brentford.
The Bees were Thomas Frankly brilliant and ruthless in putting Ten Hag’s men to the sword.
Josh Dasilva, Mathias Jensen, Ben Mee and Bryan Mbeumo scored the four first-half goals for a home side that was superior in every department.
But United were the architects of their own downfall.
David De Gea was at fault for the opening two goals.
After letting Dasilva’s shot go through him for the first, he played Christian Eriksen into trouble for the second on a very unhappy return for the Dane to the club that helped his resurrect his career.
United teams of the past, when the heat was on, would have stayed cool and plotted a way back into the game.
This dismal crop wilted in the West London heat like a bouquet of cheap flowers from a garage.
The big difference being, of course, that United have spent hundreds of millions assembling this motley crew.
And they will have to spend hundreds of millions more to have any chance whatsoever of returning to where they believe they belong.
Of course, Ten Hag deserves time to try to succeed where everyone since Ferguson has failed.
But if he is having as much say in the transfer policy as is believed, then he has to take some responsibility for his predicament.
After the historic, limp home defeat by Brighton, the only significant change he could make was to restore Ronaldo to the starting line-up.
Ten Hag brought in the man who wants out for Scott McTominay.