Three moments that symbolise Manchester United’s recurring ineptitude under Erik ten Hag

For the second successive Premier League game at Old Trafford, Manchester United were humiliated by faster, sharper, hungrier, better-organised opponents. Crushed 3-0 by Liverpool four weeks ago, now it was Tottenham’s turn to expose the shocking fault lines in Erik ten Hag’s miserable United team.

Telegraph Sport analyses three moments that highlighted United’s failings under Ten Hag.

Moment one: Twente failures repeated

“We can’t allow a situation where the right-back is dribbling past the whole midfield and isn’t stopped.”

This is what Ten Hag said on Wednesday after watching Bart van Rooij run 50 yards unchecked from deep in his own half past five United players in the lead-up to Twente’s equaliser in the Europa League at Old Trafford.

He could not have imagined that he would be repeating more or less the same words only four days later. And yet, just 156 seconds into his team’s very next outing, Tottenham centre-back Micky van de Ven was able to travel 80 yards upfield past four red shirts without so much as a snip at his heels to the byline, where he squared for the unmarked Brennan Johnson to tap home.

Ten Hag had questioned his team’s mentality and hunger against Twente and reiterated that message in his programme notes when he said hoped that the “nature of the second half on Wednesday provides us all with a reminder of what can happen without total focus – and what is always required at this club. I must be clear: only 100 per cent will do”.

Suffice to say whatever the manager said in the intervening period – or whatever he has been doing on the training pitch – his players have not been paying attention, despite his unconvincing attempts to claim he still has their ear. Against Twente, it was Marcus Rashford, Bruno Fernandes, Christian Eriksen, Lisandro Martínez and Harry Maguire who were bypassed with embarrassing ease by Van Rooij.

Here it was Fernandes, Manuel Ugarte, Noussair Mazraoui and Matthijs de Ligt who collectively failed to get close to stopping Van de Ven. The similarities between the two goals should trouble Ten Hag deeply.

Moment two: Casemiro’s pathetic clearance

If the first goal highlighted what a soft touch United are, the lead-up to Tottenham’s second only reinforced that point. United may have been reduced to 10 men with Fernandes’s dismissal late in the first period but that did little to excuse Casemiro’s pathetic attempt to deal with an aerial ball. You had to remind yourself this was a five-time Champions League winner, not a young schoolboy footballer naively rushing to the ball and watching it sail over his head.

Dominic Solanke barely needed to challenge the United midfielder before turning and heading the ball forward. Casemiro had barely been trusted since his shambolic showing in United’s previous home league game – also a 3-0 defeat, against Liverpool – and this latest sad episode underlined why.

The problem was Casemiro simply had to win that ball because United’s structure around him left the team instantly vulnerable. Diogo Dalot was upfield, ahead of Casemiro, in no-man’s land so the left-back area was left to Lisandro Martinez to cover alone with two players to mark – Johnson and Dejan Kulusevki – and the Argentine never looked like dealing with either as he lunged in aimlessly at Solanke’s headed pass.

Moment three: Ugarte offers no solutions

“Tell them I’ll fix it” Casemiro had told United via his agent before he signed from Real Madrid in 2022. Since then, United have spent £50 million on Ugarte in the hope he can help to fix the midfield void the £60 million Brazilian is no longer fit to fill. The sight then of Ugarte lunging in hopelessly at Kulusevski seconds after Casemiro had done exactly the same at the Spurs playmaker and the game’s outstanding performer will have made for grim viewing for United fans.

It was another moment that symbolised what a mess United’s midfield is and why the club’s board will be asking if Ten Hag really is the right man to lead them forward. There have been enough instances now for Ten Hag to know Casemiro is no longer cut out to play Premier League football for United but the difficulties Ugarte had coping with the pace and physicality of Tottenham and sluggishness in possession was alarming.

Having first brushed off Casemiro and then Ugarte, Kulusevski played a fine pass in behind United’s defence for Timo Werner who, for the second time in the game, was denied one-on-one by André Onana.