A week which started with a show of support for Louis van Gaal and optimism of a long Champions League run has ended with Manchester United embarrassed by little Bournemouth and staring down the barrel of a full-blown injury catastrophe.
In football parlance it is crisis time at Old Trafford, and the manager needs to accept that his approach is not working. Compared to some of its performances of late, United actually looked far more impressive as it went down to a 2-1 defeat at the Vitality Stadium.
The Red Devils looked to have more vibrancy in attack and showed greater energy on the ball. Perhaps that was a lesson learned from their narrow defeat to Wolfsburg on Tuesday, but it may also have been a direct consequence of Junior Stanislas’ freak second-minute goal which forced the visitors to take the game to Eddie Howe’s side.
In truth though, they always looked likely to be caught out at the back as their under-strength defensive line was exposed by a pacy Bournemouth counterattack.
Watching center back Simon Francis steam through United’s left-side seconds before Joshua King’s winner said it all about the current state of this Manchester United team.
As if Van Gaal hadn’t done enough to leave United fans scratching their heads in recent weeks, his substitution of goal-scorer Marouane Fellaini with 16 minutes to go – the Belgian was replaced by Nick Powell – left them as speechless as ever. And if anyone gives you the line about the club being luckless with injuries, remind them why United is in this state.
Jesse Lingard’s first-half injury took the tally of United absentees to 10, while Paddy McNair’s injury-time exit made it 11.
To an extent that shows that Van Gaal has been dealt a bum hand, but the decision by the Dutchman to trim back his squad in the summer has never looked more ill-judged.
On a day when Javier Hernandez netted a hat trick for Bayer Leverkusen and James Wilson found the net for Brighton, United finished with Powell – just returning from a year out with knee trouble – as a striker.
At the back his insistence on not needing anything more than a left-sided center back while sending away the likes Rafael and Jonny Evans also deserves further scrutiny.
The Red Devils’ fixture list in the run-up to Christmas could hardly have been more forgiving. Leicester City, West Ham United, Bournemouth and Norwich City are teams from whom United should be taking at least 10 of 12 points.
With the Canaries to come next week, United's current haul stands at two. The club's Champions League exit in Germany, it turns out, was only the beginning of its troubles. Perhaps the current malaise was summed up in the 90th minute. When McNair had to leave the field with only five minutes left to rescue a point, it was Phil Jones to whom Van Gaal turned in a like-for-like replacement.
Bournemouth has beaten Chelsea and Manchester United in the space of a week. The Cherries have never known days like these. But this is as bad as it has been at United since the days of David Moyes.
