When Micky van de Ven stole a loose ball from Marcus Rashford, Manchester United had committed only five players to the Tottenham half. At most three were taken out of play by the first touch of the Dutch center-back. There were enough bodies back to deal with even the most explosive of maraudings. It is just no one seemed minded to do so.
Manuel Ugarte, the man who was supposed to fill the chasm in front of United’s backline, watched on as if no one had provided him with a note saying “Van de Ven: quick”, let alone a scouting video. Matthijs De Ligt and Noussair Mazraoui closed the gap into the penalty area just as their opponent had reached the byline. Lisandro Martinez made a move for Dominic Solanke rather than the ball. Diogo Dalot allowed a two-yard gap to Brennan Johnson to become a five-yard one.
You’ve seen that goal conceded by United more times than you can count over the last two seasons and change. Genuinely this isn’t even the first time this week an Erik ten Hag midfield has allowed a defender to drive up the gut under no pressure. Even if the particulars might change, the broad sweep of United against high-level opposition is too familiar: a chronic refusal by anyone in their colors to take ownership of a situation.
At this rate, it may not be long before Ten Hag is assigned responsibility by owners who spent this summer trying to upgrade on him. Twelfth in the table, September bookended by 3-0 losses at home, there is still a tendency for one problem to beget half a dozen. United might have improved against the rest of the Premier League but this team keeps getting brushed aside any time they face their supposed equals.
When it rains at Old Trafford, it pours. Moments after Bruno Fernandes’ controversial red card, the overwhelmed Kobbie Mainoo came out with an injury. Before the final whistle, the substitute would also have to go off. Their misfortune, however, should not obscure just how poor they were, particularly with 11 against 11.
Fernandes typified the combination of mismanagement and mishaps. Steaming out of position to try to steal possession from James Maddison, the United captain lost his footing. Only he knows if the high-swinging right boot that follows was deliberate or not. Perhaps Chris Kavanagh has seen enough acts of petulance from Fernandes in the past to assume the worst.
United’s failings are familiar: an attack that doesn’t really press, a defense that keeps dropping towards its goalkeeper, their opponents afforded the run of midfield. James Maddison and Dejan Kulusevski have rarely had such space and time. Even before United were reduced to 10, Spurs had 12 shots, 1.85 xG. By the final whistle, they had the most expected goals of any Premier League team at Old Trafford.
If Heung-min Son hadn’t been injured they might well exceeded that xG mark. Certainly his finishing has the authority that his replacement emphatically lacks, Timo Werner delivering tame efforts when one on one with Andre Onana. Johnson might have had another when his shot bounced back off the post. Cristian Romero, Destiny Udogie, Maddison: all went close before Dejan Kulusevski doubled the lead early in the second half.
That goal spoke to how hard it is to really apportion blame when so much is going wrong. It is fair to assume that in replacing Joshua Zirkzee with Casemiro, Ten Hag was looking to tighten his side up, holding out in the early knockings of the second half so that there might be something to play for in the final 10 or 15 minutes. If so, his team was not inclined to follow the plan.
This time United had seven in the Tottenham half. Perhaps the all out defense Arsenal deployed seven days ago wouldn’t suit the personnel at Old Trafford but it is a basic failure of organization, discipline and game intelligence to allow so many players so high up the pitch in the circumstances the hosts found themselves in.
United rallied at two goals down. Of course they did. This was when it got easier. The hosts had nothing to lose, their opponents were content to cruise. Imagine that Casemiro’s stab at a Martinez clip had gone in. Would that merely have hastened the Spurs’ third, Solanke the only man attacking the ball after Pape Matar Sarr easily won the first header? Even a team defined in the neutral imagination by their inability to hold a lead against Manchester United — “lad’s, it’s Tottenham” — saw nothing to fear about the men in red.
Nor will Porto, nor Aston Villa. This is already looking bad for Ten Hag. Even by the standards of a manager who seems to have been on the brink for most of this year, it appears that an impressive act of escapology is going to be needed.
