For Manchester United fans, the 2023-24 season is becoming their worst nightmare. What they thought would be their turnaround year is now the club’s worst possible year.
Fans with Man UTD tickets are left to wonder if the good times will ever come. At the start of the year, the change of ownership to Sir Jim Ratcliff was a sign of hope.
But this hasn’t been the case with the momentum on the field. The inconsistency in play has worsened as United continue to drop points.
The encounter with Bournemouth was a clear depiction of their pitfalls.
A warm and bright sunny evening on England’s south coast isn’t a typical backdrop for hedonism, but that is what Bournemouth and United served up in a reckless 2-2 draw, with only a tight VAR decision preventing the home side an opportunity to complete the double over Erik ten Hag’s team this season.
United has drifted wildly in the last five games. Fans with Man UTD tickets have had heartbreaks with late goals, erasing all the hard work in the 90 minutes.
The defeat to Chelsea was a clear example. A game United had won drifted away to a loss during injury time.
A trip to the seaside to face Andoni Iraola’s resurgent Bournemouth seemed ripe for more calamity, and tellingly, the home side was the bookies’ favourites before kickoff.
Ten Hag’s side had faced 162 shots (an average of 27 per match) before the game, and only Sheffield United had weathered more in the Premier League.
Bournemouth added another 20 here. Not even the Vaseline slathered on André Onana’s gloves could save them.
Ten Hag is adamant that “transitions” of attack and counterattack are all part of the plan and will yield results.
But this has been his philosophy throughout the season, and everything has remained the same.
His tactics were vindicated when Bruno Fernandes volleyed in an equaliser from a couple of yards out following a determined surge forward by the United attack. However, the madness to his method raised its head again just five minutes later when Justin Kluivert flummoxed the United defence by standing still in a dangerous position on the left wing.
He duly received the ball, cut inside, and fired beyond Onana to score his fourth goal in his past six games.
“[That goal was] related to the organisation,” Ten Hag said. You need some coaching there. Then you stop that at the source, and then in the second phase, it was too easy over the right side.
“There was a big gap, and Kluivert should never have gotten that ball there. But then we have to close it, so yeah, that’s clear.”
Still, the shots kept coming. Milos Kerkez hit the crossbar from a header, Onana denied Kluivert as he slid in at the back post, Harry Maguire hacked one over the bar from 30 yards, and Fernandes hit the woodwork with an exquisite effort, all in the space of 10 minutes to finish the first half.
No matter how you look at this year’s season, United has no chance of it ending positively. The Red Devils fans with Man Utd tickets have six more games to play in the Premier League.
The team is 10 points behind Aston Villa and Tottenham to qualify for the Champions League.
With UEFA opening up a fifth spot for the Premier League, there was a bit of positivity from the fans with Man UTD tickets that their team can grab.
But now, it feels impossible.
No matter how you try to spin United’s Premier League season, the chances of it ending positively are over. With six games to go, they are 10 points behind Aston Villa and Tottenham in the race for Champions League qualification.
While the FA Cup still offers hope of silverware, United has been leapfrogged by Newcastle and is looking nervously over its shoulder at West Ham, Newcastle, and even Chelsea, who suddenly are just six points behind them with two games in hand.
Future Plans
The wave of revival came with the Jim Ratcliffe acquisition. Fans with Man UTD tickets were hoping for a turnaround, but the new management is planning for the future, not the current season.
With this in mind, it would be sensible for Ten Haag to also consider his future, as United will look to salvage whatever’s left in this campaign.
There were gaping holes in the United midfield. Still, Kobbie Mainoo comfortably upstaged his midfield partner Casemiro as he skated across the lime green pitch, receiving the ball under pressure here and turning away from trouble there.
Ten Hag deserves credit for using United’s injury crisis to the team’s benefit by providing an opportunity to young players. With Marcus Rashford passed fit for the game, eight members of the United squad were products of the club’s youth system.
There was also a place for 18-year-old forward Ethan Wheatley, who took his place on the bench for the first time following his hat trick in the youth team’s 9-1 win over the Liverpool Under-18 side last week.
Regression Under Ten Haag
The evidence of United’s regression under ten Hag is unarguable. After 32 games last season, they were 13 points adrift from then-Premier League leaders Arsenal and were considered to be closing the gap to the best sides in the division.
But things are way different this season.
United are currently 23 points behind the league leaders, and they are watching from a distance as the best sides in Europe went toe-to-toe in midweek.
In addition, their utter disaster in the UEFA Champions League group stage was a tough pill to swallow.
It is easy to sympathise with Ten Hag, who behaves like anyone who knows their job is at risk would. He is caught between trying to be seen as doing the right thing—bringing Harry Maguire back from exile after United’s shaky start to the season and nurturing the likes of Mainoo and Rasmus Højlund.
Unsurprisingly, the team has looked at odds with itself and needs more cohesive principles.