Richard Arnold skulked down the gangway and approached the Newcastle United director Amanda Staveley to offer her a congratulatory handshake at full-time.
Staveley was hugging and kissing fellow attendants in the guest section of the directors’ box. This was only Newcastle’s second win at Old Trafford since 1972 and almost a decade on from the last.
The result that day in December 2013 also marked a second successive home defeat for Manchester United. Two days later, the club’s Twitter account posted the following:
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“David Moyes says #mufc must improve in a number of areas, including passing, creating chances and defending.”
It is a timeless tweet, retweeted 18,000 times and liked by 12,000 users. The current United side has gone so far backwards they are morphing into the Moyes tweet.
United’s regression is so stark it is not difficult to dissect. Their preparation for this season was misguided, dicey and they are still operating identically to the Ed Woodward error, doling out contracts that have left players demotivated and incapable of shifting expensive mistakes.
Here is why and where it has gone wrong:
Midfield malaise
Casemiro and Mason Mount is a midfield mismatch. Mount, a £60million recruit from Chelsea, is not even an out-and-out midfielder.
The 24-year-old primarily occupied an advanced role at Chelsea and is an aggressive presser, renowned for his work ethic off the ball. That doggedness has been noticeable but it has also left Casemiro isolated and he is performing how many feared he would after United signed Casemiro for a fee rising to £70m.
Last season, Casemiro was so influential he was the difference between a successful and average season for United. Casemiro also had the benefit of starting almost every game alongside Christian Eriksen or Fred. Eriksen assumed the deep-lying role with such ease that the defensive-minded Casemiro had a licence to venture forward.
If Eriksen was out, Fred was in. Casemiro and Fred were familiar with each other through their experiences with the Brazil national team and entrusted to start in both of last season’s cup finals. One never strayed far from the other.
Mount and Casemiro have only started six times together and United have lost half of them. Without a stable midfield axis, Ten Hag has turned to Sofyan Amrabat, signed on the back of a World Cup and from a league that has become a dumping ground for Premier League rejects. Amrabat has not got up to pace in England and members of the United recruitment department were sceptical of Amrabat.
Scott McTominay, available for transfer in the summer, was parachuted into the midfield last month but his impacts have come in moments. He is not a midfielder aligned with Ten Hag, who was phasing McTominay out of the club until Kobbie Mainoo suffered an ankle injury in pre-season.
Mainoo’s sliding doors
In retrospect, Mainoo’s three-month spell on the sidelines has been more significant than it seemed when he was helped off the pitch in Houston. Ten Hag was readying the 18-year-old for a key role not just in the first team squad but the first team. Mainoo started with Casemiro against the Real Madrid of Jude Bellingham, Aurelien Tchouameni, Eduardo Camavinga and Luka Modric.
The 18-year-old has only played 87 minutes of competitive football but his eagerness to collect the ball in the United third and build attacks would underpin a structured style that United are devoid of.
Mainoo, an academy graduate and starter in the same FA Youth Cup-winning side as Alejandro Garnacho, started for the Under-19s last week and the Under-21s on Tuesday night. It is a matter of time until he lines up for the senior side.
Firing blanks
Marcus Rashford is the only United forward who has scored in the Premier League this season and he has become a scapegoat for several matchgoers. Rashford has one goal in 14 club appearances this term and his removal against Manchester City was cheered by some.
Rashford plundered 30 goals last season and he gained United 30 points in the league. Amid his regression, United have lacked a goalscorer to step up and many saw this coming.
The choice of Rasmus Hojlund, a striker with a mediocre goalscoring record in Denmark, Austria and Italy, was always a risk. United found goals hard to come by last season and needed a proven goalscorer. Instead, they plumped for an unknown and callow quantity who arrived carrying an injury. Hojlund has three goals in 12 games and none in the league.
The burden on Hojlund, who has forged a quick connection with the matchgoers, has been unfair. During pre-season, senior United figures suggested Rashford would start certain games up front to give Hojlund a breather. Rashford has never convinced as a No.9 and his two-match stint there in August ended with him tossing his boot to the ground when he was substituted in the defeat to Tottenham.
Anthony Martial was not mentioned as an alternative No.9. Martial’s number is up at United, who can release him in the summer. The day after Halloween, Martial dressed up as The Invisible Man against Newcastle. The Frenchman has scored 18 goals for United in the last three years.
His namesake, Antony, is proof United are still prone to the excesses that Woodward was prone to. United committed to spending £86.3m on a one-paced and one-dimensional winger with one trick. There was not a market to sign Antony, either.
Garnacho has still not turned up as a starter and three of United’s wins this season have been secured through goals by a defender.
Defensive defects
United’s defence has borne the brunt of the injury crisis. Ten Hag was without a specialist left-back for over a month and the absences of left-footed duo Luke Shaw and Lisandro Martinez have been keenly felt. Ten Hag has inexplicably played Victor Lindelof as an auxiliary left-back.
Shaw suffered a hamstring tear in August and is not expected back until late November at the earliest. Martinez performed as though he was still troubled by a fractured metatarsal and he was. The Argentine went under the knife again and United could be without him for another month.
Martinez and Shaw provide balance for Ten Hag, whose preference is to have two right-footers and two-left-footers in his back four. That fastidiousness backfired against Manchester City when he accommodated Harry Maguire on the right but not Raphael Varane on the left. The 35-year-old Jonny Evans was pitted against Erling Haaland with predictably dire consequences.
Varane, 30, is still too brittle and he has missed five games already this season. Ten Hag wanted to sign an athletic centre half in the summer but United were unable to offload Maguire.
Diogo Dalot is enduring an annus horribilis after a fine start to last season and has lacked competition with Aaron Wan-Bissaka out injured for more than six weeks. Dalot seems certain to be dropped for Wan-Bissaka at Fulham on Saturday after his walking disaster of a first half against Newcastle. Loanee Reguilon has shown why he was deemed expendable by Tottenham.
Keeping calamities
Andre Onana has recovered in recent games but he has let in saveable goals. Leroy Sane and Mauro Icardi’s efforts were costly in the Champions League and, but for McTominay, Brentford would have been grateful for Onana’s flimsiness when Mathias Jensen put them 1-0 up at Old Trafford.
Having made standout stops in the win against Copenhagen and defeat to City, the issue United now have with Onana is his distribution. He is going long more often behind an ever-changing defence that is missing the line-breaking passing of Martinez and Shaw.
Olivia Martin is a dedicated sports journalist based in the UK. With a passion for various athletic disciplines, she covers everything from major league championships to local sports events, delivering up-to-the-minute updates and in-depth analysis.
