Things have not been going well for Erik Ten Hag and Manchester United so far this season in the Premier League. To add to the misery, the Red Devils picked up an unwanted record on their way after their 3-1 loss against Brighton at Old Trafford.
In the Premier League, United have never lost 3 of their opening 5 Premier League games, but for the first time since the inception of the league, Ten Hag’s team have broken that record.
On Saturday, a humiliating loss to De Zerbi’s team hit them. There were boos after full time and notably when Rasmus Højlund was taken off for Anthony Martial.
Losses against Spurs, Arsenal and now Brighton make up the triage of losses. United have not been any better in their 2 wins either, narrowly winning against Wolves on the opening weekend and coming back from behind to beat Nottingham Forest.
Things have not gone positively off the pitch either, which has clearly affected the team in the weekends. Even with the Mason Greenwood saga done with (for now), they’ve landed in the middle of a media circus with what has gone on with Antony and Jadon Sancho recently. To add to that, a cumulative loss of personnel through injury has not helped to build a rhythm with the team that had hoped to build on an impressive first season with Ten Hag – after securing Champions League football, winning the Carabao Cup and reaching the FA Cup final.
Speaking after the game, the manager had this to say in response to whether he believes a crisis is on the horizon:
"”No. But we have to be very disappointed and we have to be very annoyed with ourselves. Because at United the demand is you win games.”"
He added:
"“Sometimes you are in bad period, difficult periods, and you have to face that and deal with that. In this moment we don’t deal too well with it, but we can do like we showed last year.”"
United kick off their Champions League campaign this coming week. They face formidable opponents in Bayern Munich, who drew against Bayer Leverkusen in a 2-2 thriller in the Bundesliga on Friday.