A wise man once opined the most memorable endings are “surprising, yet inevitable”. Galatasaray’s first away win in the Champions League for 10 years on Tuesday seemed to prove it, as Manchester United combined old tactical failings to create a whole new footballing implosion.
United are bottom of Group A and with an uphill climb to stay in a competition that requires so much effort to qualify for. Goals from Wilfried Zaha, Kerem Akturkoglu and Mauro Icardi consigned United to their sixth defeat in only 10 games this season. They have conceded 18 goals in all competitions in 2023-24, and at full-time Galatasaray manager Okan Buruk remarked that while his side were aware of the risks of going toe to toe against an opposition with so many counter-attacking threats, they could have won by more than a single goal. Had Icardi scored his 78th-minute penalty, this chastening defeat could have become something worse.
Two excellent goals from Rasmus Hojlund should have been the story for United on Tuesday. The 20-year-old’s headed goal in the 17th minute was the empathic full stop on an attacking move that Erik ten Hag is trying to make commonplace. A go-ahead goal in the 67th sent home fans at Old Trafford into a brief euphoria. He is young and is still nursing a back ailment but promising. Unfortunately, any flashes of joy conjured by Hojlund’s brace were lost in a haze of defensive apathy and naivety.
“The mental errors we make, you cannot allow them at this level,” said Ten Hag. “You get punished. This is difficult to control. We were twice up and in control of the game. We expect more together.”
United are a side lacking the accuracy in possession that made their previous campaign so successful. They are less intense when working off the ball. They are not as decisive in the final third as they used to be, and they are slower to react to essential tasks in the defensive third. Ten Hag’s first season in England asked a handful of talented individuals to soothe long-standing squad ailments, but those trusted lieutenants are either injured (Lisandro Martinez), at capacity (Raphael Varane) or underperforming.
An injury crisis has meant Sofyan Amrabat — a player envisioned as a midfield specialist — is having to moonlight at full-back. The Moroccan’s preference to get touch-tight to opposition players when tackling is useful in the centre of the pitch, but his aggression out wide gives away cheap free kicks in the final third. Amrabat’s attempts to push up from left-back and join Casemiro in midfield have not been as seamless as Ten Hag might have hoped, and the backline’s inconsistent attempts at shuffling over to cover gifts space for opposition players.
On Tuesday, United were employing not a box midfield but a cardboard box gone soggy in the Manchester rain. Diogo Dalot — the only fit right-back in the squad — will not want to look back on Galatasaray’s first goal, a long ball allowed to bounce before entering the penalty area. At the same time, he unsuccessfully tussled with Zaha before losing the duel and allowing the former United player to hit a shot into the turf and over his goalkeeper.
Things were compounded by Marcus Rashford’s second-half decision to try to square to Bruno Fernandes rather than shoot when gifted a gilt-edged opportunity. The confidence that yielded 30 goals last season is now largely absent, something encapsulated by that under-hit pass which prompted a groan from the Stretford End.
“That’s up to Marcus. In such a moment he has to make a decision,” was the manager’s assessment.
Rashford was not alone in that sloppiness. A hospital pass from Andre Onana to Casemiro led to a panicked challenge from the defensive midfielder, a second yellow yard, and that penalty for Icardi. Casemiro is not the defensive shield he was last season, but the rest of his side suffered a system failure without him.
Amrabat, unsure whether to continue to push into midfield or stay out wide, did not notice when Bans Yilmaz ran into space behind him before finding Akturkoglu to score Galatasaray’s equaliser. It is yet another goal that United have conceded so soon after a kick-off — be it at half-time or after a goal has been conceded or scored.
Ten Hag’s side are prone to eating “punches in bunches” — where one mistake leads to panic, opening up the door to further mistakes and punishment. Onana — signed primarily for his distribution skills — looks incapable of saving the many shots his defence allows and is kicking long rather than trusting teammates with short passes. His pass map underlines how often those long balls resulted in lost possession (black are successful passes, yellow unsuccessful).
Conversely, the defence appears unconvinced by his ability to protect his own goal, leading to errors. Icardi’s winner — assisted by a header from Davison Sanchez from inside the Galatasaray half — owed a debt to Amrabat for keeping the striker onside while Varane and Victor Lindelof were unaware of the unmarked striker.
The most memorable endings are surprising yet inevitable. United fans may have been shocked by a second home defeat in four games, but there is a growing sense that this is an unfortunate, inevitable byproduct of years of executive dysfunction.
Manchester United in 2023-24 are a team gripped by fear and devoid of trust. There are those who no longer trust themselves to make the right decisions at the right time and freeze at critical moments. There are those who do not adequately trust their teammates, causing further discord. Ten Hag does not appear to trust every player under his command, fielding lop-sided starting XIs in the hopes of conjuring… something. And off the field, an aggrieved fanbase has very little reason to trust their club owners after years of poor communication and care. They fear for the future of their club.
It is surprising that one of the wealthiest squads ever assembled in world football is currently without a specialist left-back, or someone capable of tracking late-arriving runners into their own penalty area. But it is inevitable that a team with such glaring issues would slump to defeat at such an important moment in the season.
Really good article, thanks for posting it.
Agreed, kudos to OP. We need more content like this here.
Aside, really well written piece as well. We have so many problems at the moment, its difficult to see how this does not end with the manager getting the sack. Something we've seen so many times before in the last 10 years.
The look on Marcus and Bruno's face when they missed that sitter says all we need to know about the confidence in this team today. Last year's Marcus would have scored that. Last year's Bruno would have gotten to the end of that squared pass as well. It was the right decision to square though I feel. It's just the level of passing of the whole squad that needs to improve a lot.