Man United looked horrible in Carabao Cup exit vs. Newcastle

MANCHESTER, England – Midway through the first half, with Manchester United already trailing 1-0, Newcastle’s 9,000 fans at Old Trafford began chanting at United manager Erik ten Hag: “You’ll be sacked tomorrow morning.

With the score at 2-0 before the end of the first half, fans cheered every pass as their team walked around like it was a training session.

When Newcastle’s third and final goal came after 60 minutes, they were chanting “We can see you sneaking” – this was aimed at the Man United supporters who were trying to save themselves further humiliation by escaping early of Old Trafford. And who could blame them?

Man United’s start to the season was full of damaging defeats, but they were a worst contender of the lot. Four days after capitulating to neighbors Manchester City, Newcastle inflicted a second consecutive home defeat to knock the Ten Hag side out of the Carabao Cup.

– Stream on ESPN+: LaLiga, Bundesliga and more (US)
– Read on ESPN+: Reclassification of the 20 Premier League teams

There’s no shame in losing to Man City – widely recognized as the best club team in the world – but this was a Newcastle side deprived of their regulars as manager Eddie Howe rested key personnel ahead of crucial matches against Arsenal and Borussia Dortmund. Howe made eight changes, but Man United are playing so poorly that they could have picked an eleven from the away fans who spent the night singing and dancing and still won comfortably.

“It’s below the standards that everyone expects from Manchester United,” Ten Hag said afterwards. “It’s not enough, by far.

“We have to fix it. I take responsibility for it. It’s my team and they are not performing well. I have to share it with my players, but I am responsible. As a team, we are not enough good and whatever the reasons are, there is no room for excuses.

We need to do better and raise our standards, otherwise we will never achieve the right levels and performance. We must do it together and everyone must take responsibility for their own performance.”

Club bosses are desperate to stay with Ten Hag, but just six months after the end of a successful first season as manager, his reign has descended into chaos. Man United have lost eight of their 15 matches in all competitions, including five at home.

In 10 games at Old Trafford this season, they have conceded six early goals and scored 16 goals in total. In all competitions home and away, they have conceded 26 times, at a rate of 1.7 per game. Such an escape from their own goal wouldn’t matter so much if they could score regularly, but they can’t.

Ten Hag has had to deal with a long list of injuries that have robbed him of his first-choice defense, but this is a crisis across the board.

Coming out of the Carabao Cup, struggling in their Champions League group and already well adrift of the Premier League leaders, Man United are almost at the stage where they are playing for pride. But judging by another performance against Newcastle – lacking enthusiasm or direction – that may even be too much to ask.

If Man United were going to watch a horror show on Halloween, they would have been a day late.

“Right now we are in a bad place,” Ten Hag admitted. “I understand that the results are not there, it is a logical process and there are questions but I am confident. I take responsibility for it.

“I’m a fighter and I know it doesn’t always go up and we’ve had a lot of setbacks this season but you also have to face it. I said that before you know when there are setbacks, even in in this case, you have to do it. get results on Sunday [against Manchester City] and tonight it was far from it, so we have to do things well at a certain level, the minimum level to win games.

Some claim that although it has been a particularly poor start to the season, Man United have been going downhill since beating Newcastle in the Carabao Cup final in February. Up to and including lifting the trophy at Wembley – their first for six years – United had a winning percentage of 72.5%. Since then it has fallen to 54% and this season it has fallen below 50%.

Whether the club wants to admit it or not, Ten Hag is fighting for his position. For the first time since October 1962, Man United lost consecutive home games by three or more goals and for the first time in 93 years they lost five of their first 10 home games in a season.

It’s no coincidence that during the 90 minutes against Newcastle, the Dutchman went from 8-1 down to becoming the next sacked Premier League manager to second favorite by the bookmakers.

He still has enough support among Man United fans to be applauded in the tunnel by those who stayed until the final whistle, but that won’t last forever. He may not yet have to worry about Newcastle’s taunts that ‘he’ll get sacked in the morning’, but he faces a race against time to turn things around.