Richard Arnold was in attendance for the Rugby World Cup final in Paris on Saturday. The chasm between Manchester United and Manchester City is so vast it is like watching a different sport.
Sunday’s derby will have stung more than any other for United supporters in the past 10 years. Every chant that emitted from the away section highlighted City’s superiority and one – ‘Champions of England, champions of Europe’ – was hollered verbatim by United fans 15 years ago. United’s following was often stumped.
Arnold is convinced United are making good progress. They have lost five of their first ten league games for the first time since 1986; such a sorry start to a season that a four-man delegation drove to Glasgow and sounded out Alexander Chapman Ferguson.
The fear now, from some, is Erik ten Hag has crossed the point of no return. The supportive chanting from the Stretford End that sustained until beyond the full-time whistle should not be dismissed and this season is still salvageable.
And where else would United go? There is no indication they are preparing to change manager for the fifth time in the past decade and the investment on Ten Hag’s watch has been so considerable a managerial change would be premature.
Only few have faith in United and relegation to the Europa League is possible. United are still as fragile as they were under Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and they have gone so far backwards that City’s supremacy at the weekend was reminiscent of their wins at Old Trafford against Solskjaer’s sides. United are mired in another identity crisis.
It now feels a stretch that Ten Hag will transform United into the genuine credible force they threatened to become last season. A different face in the dugout would require another rebuild and the current one is far from completion.There was no anti-Glazer chanting on Sunday, possibly out of respect for Sir Bobby Charlton. But maybe some of United matchgoers grudgingly concede Ten Hag has now become a problem.
Nobody but Ten Hag selected the 35-year-old Jonny Evans over Raphael Varane, picked a centre-back at left-back, started Christian Eriksen in central midfield and deployed Scott McTominay as an attacking midfielder in the first half and a defensive midfielder in the second.
Ten Hag is contradicting himself in front of 75,000 attendants and millions more tuning in weekly. It is well beyond the point where his half-time changes were decisive adjustments. Now they are desperate attempts at atonement.
Sofyan Amrabat started against City by default, with Casemiro still injured. Amrabat lasted only 45 minutes against Copenhagen on Tuesday and he did not re-emerge for the second half again against City.
Some at United foresaw this. One senior figure was dismissive of Morocco’s World Cup performances and emphasised minnows tend to overperform at major tournaments with their focus reinforced amid the pride of representing their nation. For some, there is also the possibility of a post-tournament transfer. The one player Ten Hag recommended that United vetoed in his first summer was Hakim Ziyech, Amrabat’s Morocco teammate.
Kees Vos is now a fixture in the Old Trafford directors’ box and has tunnel access. One of his underlings is buttering up United rookie Dan Gore.
Vos posted a photograph of himself in the Old Trafford tunnel in August: “My wife and I have a different meaning of the word ‘home’ these days.” Too close to home.
United have continued to recruit players for the manager, rather than the club. It is old-fashioned and undermines John Murtough’s status as football director, under increasing scrutiny ahead of impending investment from the Ineos Group.
Two of United’s most expensive additions in successive summers – Antony and Mason Mount – have been at the cost of an obscene £146.3million. As Sir Jim Ratcliffe would say, dumb money.
Antony was a disgrace in the derby; needlessly truculent and fortunate to avoid expulsion during his cameo. The referee would have done United a favour depriving them of the one-paced and one-dimensional winger for three matches.
Mount emerged at half-time; a logical entrant to energise the midfield. Only United got worse. In the last month, two colleagues sat in front of this correspondent in the press box have asked: “What does Mason Mount do?” A supporter asked similarly yesterday. We still do not know.
United cut corners with Mount, into the last year of his contract at Chelsea. In a summer they required a dynamic midfielder, they invested £60m in someone who is not a midfielder.
James Maddison, one of Mount’s peers, has been the best player in the Premier League this season, Declan Rice has been one of the best and Jude Bellingham is the best in the world. United did not go near any of those England midfielders.
Bellingham had his heart set on Real Madrid but Rice or Maddison were attainable. Senior United sources say Maddison was too identical to Bruno Fernandes. Mount started the majority of his Chelsea career in the attacking midfield role Fernandes regularly occupies for United.
United maintain they secured their first-choice targets in Mount and Rasmus Hojlund. That is not entirely true. Ten Hag told confidants that if he could sign anyone it would be Bellingham and United pursued Frenkie de Jong for 100 days. Ten Hag’s preferred striker target was Harry Kane.
A truly ambitious club would have tested the waters with Kane and United went cool on him. After a season where they found goals hard to come by, a proven goalscorer was essential and instead United plumped for an unknown quantity.
What you see is what you get with Hojlund. He is performing as expected of a 20-year-old with a mediocre goalscoring record in Denmark, Austria and Italy. He should not be leading the line for United at such a raw age.
During the pre-season tour, figures at United acknowledged Hojlund is a “rough diamond” and suggested he could alternate with Marcus Rashford up front when Rashford is not an adept centre forward.
Some issues are beyond Ten Hag’s control and Rashford’s regression is all on him. He has been playing in his optimum position since the third game of the campaign and has one goal in 13 club appearances. A demotion is overdue.
United supporters have got on Rashford’s case more than once this season and a section snapped on Sunday when they cheered him off. They see someone who was in the form of his life during negotiations for a new contract last season and whose form has fallen off a cliff since he secured a salary hike.
Ten Hag wanted a second forward, so unreliable is the nonentity Anthony Martial. United failed to facilitate sales to have the leverage to reinvest in their attack, so the burden on Hojlund is unfair.
At the other end, Ten Hag picked a defence that was asking for it. Evans performed respectably against Burnley, Brentford and Sheffield United but it was only Burnley, Brentford and Sheffield United. He was blowing against City.
Was Ten Hag repentant about that contentious call? Hardly. “They played very well, I think, the centre. With (Andre) Onana they played a very good game. Just what I expected.
“You know they will come pressures and no one can actually be surprised. I said it from the beginning, I need the players on the left side who can make angles and also to step in and, especially against City, with the side they press us you have to step in to get the press on them and I think they did this very well.”