Manchester United took a step forward and two steps back this season, as Erik ten Hag’s team followed their exciting comeback against Aston Villa with another defeat, this time at the hands of Nottingham Forest, threatened by relegation.
Once again, one of the most defining characteristics of United’s season to date was the unfortunate defense that granted Argentine international Nicolás Domínguez ample spaces in the area to overtake the Forest at 64 minutes.
Marcus Rashford drew 12 minutes from the end, after a mistake by Matt Turner, Forest goalkeeper, but Ten Hag’s fragile defense broke again only four minutes later, when Morgan Gibbs-White completed a skillful counterattack to secure the 2-1 victory and three crucial points in the fight against relegation.
It was United’s second game since British billionaire Jim Ratcliffe closed an agreement to buy a 25% stake in the club, and if United’s comeback on Boxing Day against Villa gave him some optimism for the future, this Saturday’s defeat quickly revealed the enormity of the task ahead.
David Brailsford, British cycling coach and sports director of the INEOS company in Ratcliffe, was present at the City Ground with the legendary United coach Alex Ferguson. Undoubtedly, both will have left very disappointed.
United has lost nine of its first 20 league games in a season for the first time since 1989-90, according to Opta, adding as many league losses as they suffered in the entire last season.
After the match, United legend Gary Neville said that Manchester United “returned to the worst.”
“Manchester United is once again what it is: inconsistent and horrible,” he told Sky Sports. “They leave the field like a defeated group. United fans behind the goal will be very disappointed.”
“I’m not very sure what this Manchester United is,” he added. “It’s very difficult to see. I think everyone accepted that Erik ten Hag did a very good job in his first season.”
“With the new owner, Sir Dave Brailsford will be in the spotlight week after week. We are going to see him appear in the directors’ box.
“You’re going to see what this club is, on and off the field. You won’t like what you’re seeing right now.”
Neville added that United’s season has been “more of a downhill than an uphill” and that some of the performances under Ten Hag’s command this season have been “far below what should be demanded at this level.”
United has only scored 4 points out of 15 possible in its last five league matches, which has fallen to the seventh position in the table and is nine points behind Arsenal, fourth and last classified for the Champions League.
In addition, the team is already out of the current Champions League, finishing last of a group that was not especially difficult, and of the League Cup, which leaves the FA Cup as the only chance left for the team to win a trophy this season.
United is the only team in the first half of the Premier League with a negative goal difference and only Burnley and Sheffield United, the last two teams in the league, have scored fewer goals than United (22) this season.
The club has spent large sums of money on players that Ten Hag wanted on his team, including André Onana and Antony, but the Dutch coach is no closer to implementing a demanding style than when he took the reins at the beginning of last season.
After being replaced 10 minutes after the second half against Forest after another weak performance, Brazilian winger Antony finishes 2023 with a total of one goal in 33 Premier League games.
In 21 games and more than 900 minutes of play in the Premier League this season, Antony adds zero goals and zero assists. According to rumors, Manchester United paid US$ 109 million for its services.
Neville said that that result and performance mean that Ten Hag is now “under pressure.”
“There is no doubt about that. It is obvious that they are going to appoint those three positions – general manager, sports director and head of hiring -, they will all enter and the rest will leave,” he said.
“The coach is the one who will be his greatest deliberation, he always is in a soccer club, because a coach is not easily fired. They are out of Europe and the Carabao Cup. They need to put their players in shape and somehow try to move towards the Champions League and see where it leads them,” he said.
“But at the moment, it seems that they are far from it and there are six or seven teams that are in better shape than them. It seems to be a million kilometers away.”
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