Manchester United fans are angry and confused – they’re right to be

Manchester United are a confused, cursed and conflicted football club. Erik ten Hag’s side are out of form, out of confidence and out of ideas. Morale is low among players and staff. The results are almost as bad as the injury list.

Fans have been hoping it would get better all season. Instead, it has got worse.

The team which would have been deemed to have failed had they not qualified for next season’s Champions League, now look in serious danger of missing out on any European football, which would not be acceptable.

United are eighth in the Premier League, with two league wins in 10. Monday’s 4-0 defeat at Crystal Palace was the nadir in a season of consistent lows, even worse than United’s minus-three goal difference after 35 games, or Casemiro’s drop in form. The Brazilian made 1.44 successful interceptions per game last season; this term, that figure has shrunk to 0.84. He lost 1.86 challenges per match last term against 2.73 this year.

Do you want more? He was dispossessed 0.59 times per game last term, 0.79 this, and he won possession back 4.61 times in 2022-23 against 2.52 in 2023-24. It is one reason you see a hole as wide as the Amazon in United’s midfield. That’s the river — not the broadcasters who are releasing a film next week celebrating the 1999 treble.

Casemiro has been a shadow of his old self (Adrian Dennis/AFP via Getty Images)

Wallowing in history feels a lot better than engaging with what is awaiting United, in the short term at least. The final three league games are against Arsenal and Newcastle United at Old Trafford, then Brighton away the week before the FA Cup final against Manchester City. Ominous, as in six games against those opponents this season in league and cups, United have lost every single one.

These are sobering times at the end of a flat season which has fallen so far below expectations that fans can’t quite believe what they are seeing. Yet still they travel, filling every away end with songs of support and defiance as they did on the shallow rake of Selhurst Park’s Arthur Wait Stand on Monday. They fill Old Trafford to its vast capacity despite knowing that teams at the bottom of the table are likely to have more possession and more chances than someone who finds a bag of unused lottery tickets.

Ten Hag gives a good interview and there’s still a huge body of fans — myself included — who want him to succeed at Old Trafford, to get a chance as part of the new structure. But that becomes harder when you watch his team. Few were surprised that Palace beat United for the second time this season. They were in September, but not now — not given Palace’s recent form and with Adam Wharton, a lad born 20 miles from Manchester, impressing.

The same was true the last time United visited London for a league game. Then, against Chelsea in March, Cole Palmer, a childhood United fan from Wythenshawe, Manchester, stole the show. They lost that one too. United have played…