There have been varying stages of disappointment when it comes to the 2015-16 Manchester United campaign. A return to Europe marked a successful first year under Louis Van Gaal, but his encore has been the antithesis of the style of football the Red Devils cultivated for years under Sir Alex Ferguson. How the Dutchman has remained at his post for this long teeters between arrogance and ignorance as the storied club finds new ways to sink lower into football purgatory. However, they hit rock bottom Thursday afternoon in Herning, Denmark. A 2-1 loss to Danish side Midtjylland has set a floor for futility for the club. It can only go up from here, but that bar has been lowered substantially.
United have struggled to maintain an identity on either half of the pitch this season. They are not a attacking team as they were in yesteryear, yet they don’t have a particularly organized defensive structure either. Instead Manchester United are more than willing to play the ball laterally to the point of psychosis for supporters in the stands and at home. Making matters worse is that Van Gaal has spent over a quarter of a billion pounds for these middling results. He has also seen players deemed ill fitting, such as Javier Hernandez and Angel Di Maria, flourish in new surroundings as his men agonizingly trudge through each game as if it is a 90 minute root canal.
The Midtjylland game was a potluck dinner of everything wrong with Manchester United this year. It started off with the one thing that can’t be directly contributed to the beleaguered manager: injuries. Wayne Rooney was ruled out of the game beforehand and David De Gea injured his knee on a dive during warm-ups in net. Injuries are something that every team faces over a grueling football season, but United have had them crop up at the most inopportune times for them this year. De Gea’s was especially brutal for Thursday’s game as its last minute nature added an unforeseen weakness to an already weak starting XI.
Another staple of a 2015-16 Manchester United game is a slow start. United once again came out of the gates flat. Midtjylland may have been at home, but nobody expected them to be as bossy in the opening half an hour as they were. Midtjylland was a team created via a merger in 1999, a fact harped on throughout the game. The Danes hadn’t seen competition in two months. They had won just one of their last ten in the Danish Superliga before that. They had qualified for the Round of 32 in the Europa League despite boasting a -6 goal differential in the group stage, worst among the 32 remaining teams.
Despite the lethargic opening stretch for Man U, in which second choice Sergio Romero saved the visitors further blushes with some high quality saves, the Red Devils actually bucked one trend for this year as Memphis Depay bungled home the opening goal in the 38th minute. Jesse Lingard’s cross parted a sea of red to the underwhelming summer signing and the Dutch international three hopped it home off Midtjylland keeper Mikkel Andersen. However, as it has many a time this year, that feeling of euphoric relief was short lived.
Just seven minutes after scoring, Manchester United were pegged back by Pione Sisto. Once the 21 year old got the ball at his feet, only a back tracking Ander Herrera looked interested in doing anything resembling defense on him. He cut his dribble back, ran across the edge of the 18 yard box, and deftly slotted the ball past a diving Romero to make it 1-1. It was a well deserved goal for the home team, and one that United fans were sadly all but expecting.
They had gone up and given up the lead. Manchester United fans of yore would expect retribution while those of today only expect the other shoe to drop. It happened at the weekend at Sunderland and three straight times in a December to forget against Wolfsburg, Bournemouth, and Norwich City. And oh did it fall thirteen minutes from time at the hands of Paul Onuachu. After having his strong header put onto the bar in the 62nd minute, Onuachu played a frustratingly long bit of keep away from three United before firing the winner at the near post.
From there Manchester United’s spirit was dead. There was no hope of a “Fergie Time” comeback, or even hope of an equalizer. The hosts continued to burst forward at every opportunity and it took a couple of scuffs and more work from Romero to keep the deficit at just the one goal heading back to Old Trafford. It was an unacceptable defeat by a team of their magnitude. Credit to Midjtylland is due as they played on United’s frailties and weakness of character to perfection. Where do United go from here? One could only think up with the schedule ahead, but even that isn’t guaranteed.
The return leg against Midjtylland is next week at the Theatre of Dreams. Wedged between massive clashes with Arsenal and Manchester City are three very winnable games against equally scrambling sides Watford, West Brom, and Crystal Palace. They drew the lone League One representative left in the FA Cup, Shrewsbury Town, this weekend. I’ve said here that Manchester United have hit rock bottom, but if Manchester United go through this next cluster of fixtures with results akin to the rest of their 2015-16 season, it could easily be a false statement.