Manchester United manager Erik ten Hag wore the haunted, hunted expression of someone reaching the end of the road after Tottenham Hotspur inflicted abject embarrassment at Old Trafford.
Since United co-owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe and the club’s restructured hierarchy eventually chose to keep faith with Ten Hag in the summer, he has been placed in a position where he is only one bad defeat away from a crisis and unforgiving scrutiny.
By that measure, the 54-year-old is running out of time after a United performance that was as shambolic, incompetent and indisciplined as any he has presided over in his tenure.
Winning the EFL Cup 18 months ago and last season’s dramatic FA Cup final victory against Manchester City, which effectively kept Ten Hag in a job, have been the highs among many lows – but it does not get much lower than this.
Ten Hag’s Spurs counterpart Ange Postecoglou has been under the microscope himself after an indifferent start to the season, but Sunday’s 3-0 rout was another outstanding step on the road to rehabilitation, a fourth straight win since losing the north London derby at home to Arsenal.
United, in the sharpest of contrasts, were a shambles – a rabble.
The big question looming over Old Trafford as the rain lashed down on thousands of red seats vacated by supporters who had stuck admirably by their side was this: can Ten Hag survive? And if so for how long?
This is a manager who is looking increasingly out of his depth. He has pulled back from the precipice before, most notably in the summer, but is back there again.
If there had been small signs of improvement defensively this campaign, that felt a distance away at Old Trafford on Sunday. This felt very much like the end – if not now, then very soon.
From the first whistle, Spurs were all over United like a rash, the tone set in the third minute when the magnificent Micky van de Ven raced like a white flash from inside his own half, leaving a succession of United players in his slipstream before setting up Brennan Johnson’s simple finish.
United started dreadfully and went into a rapid decline, somehow surviving until half-time as Spurs carved them open on countless occasions but could not add a second.
Talk about Bruno can’t mask United’s sorry truth
Ten Hag claimed the red card shown to captain Bruno Fernandes three minutes before half-time “changed the game”. It did not. United’s manager is deluding only himself if he believes this. It made United’s task even harder, but Spurs were threatening to run riot even before Fernandes’ dismissal.
If it was decided to stage a world straw-clutching championship, Ten Hag would have a good chance of winning with that one.
And let’s not forget this was a Spurs side stripped of their injured talisman Son Heung-min. Son’s replacement Timo Werner actually spared United further punishment, confirming he remains a willing trier but a thoroughly unreliable finisher, twice shooting lamely at United keeper Andre Onana when clean through.
It was a tough day for Ten Hag’s latest signing, Manuel Ugarte, who got nowhere near the Spurs midfield, while Joshua Zirkzee, hooked at half-time, as yet shows no sign of adding any of the cutting edge he was bought for at a cost of £36.54m.
United now lie in 12th in the Premier League having lost three of their first six games, the figures adding to the growing belief that the end game is looming into view for Ten Hag. They are ominous.
With memories of the 3-0 loss to Liverpool still fresh, United have now lost consecutive home league games without scoring a goal.
The last time this happened the manager, in that instance Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, was sacked soon after losing 5-0 to Liverpool and 2-0 to Manchester City in November 2021.
United were wide open on Sunday, failing to press Spurs to any effect. Dejan Kulusevski alone created nine chances, the most by a visiting player in a Premier League game at Old Trafford since records started in 2003-04.
And the general decline – not only in Ten Hag’s reign – can be underscored by the fact United have now lost 23 Premier League matches by three or more goals in the last 424 games. This is more than they did in 1,035 league games under Sir Alex Ferguson, when it happened on 22 occasions.
United’s current total of seven points is their joint fewest after six games of a Premier League season and they have only scored fewer goals once at this stage – four in 2007-08 – than they have so far this term.
These statistics lie like wreckage around Ten Hag’s feet.
Daunting week looming even if Ten Hag survives
One old manager once stated that you can smell a club in trouble when you walk into the stadium. There is certainly a very worrying stench around Old Trafford.
The brutal reality, or so it has seemed, is that Ten Hag is effectively manager by default after Ratcliffe and his sidekick Sir Dave Brailsford could not find a suitable successor in the summer. There are no signs of any discernible improvement, or evidence to make a case for further faith in Ten Hag.
It was not simply the fact Spurs were in a different class with quality, pace, intent and organisation. It was more troubling than that.
There was no shape to United. They lacked direction and leadership. There is no identity, nothing to clarify what strategy Ten Hag has and, as telling as everything else, there was a desperate lack of discipline within the team. At times they looked out of control.
Fernandes had just been sent off when Mason Mount emerged as a substitute just before half-time. His first contribution was a senseless challenge that flattened Rodrigo Bentancur, earning him a yellow card that put him under immediate pressure.
Lisandro Martinez was no better when he cynically scythed down the excellent James Maddison as United unravelled.
If Ten Hag emerges unscathed from this humiliation, one that will test the patience of United’s leadership, the task does not get any easier with a trip to Porto in the Europa League on Thursday before a visit to Aston Villa on Sunday.
Spurs fans taunted Ten Hag with the time-honoured “You’re getting sacked in the morning” chant. This remains to be seen.
This was a dark, desperate day for Erik ten Hag, one that had all the feeling that the credits might soon be rolling on his time in charge at Manchester United.