The postwar nadir for Manchester United, everybody has always said, was the 5–0 defeat to Crystal Palace in 1972, but that may have a challenger now. Saturday’s 4–0 defeat to Brentford was epochally bad.
It wasn’t just the scoreline—although letting in more goals against Brentford in a 25-minute spell than you’ve conceded against them in the previous 84 years is hard to avoid—but the nature of the performance. United was insipid, lacking confidence and conviction, and devoid of a functional game plan. And the fear must be that next week, when United faces Liverpool, it will get worse.
It was that defeat at Palace that prompted the dismissals of both the manager Frank O’Farrell and the wayward superstar George Best (although he subsequently returned to the club) and the appointment of the abrasive Tommy Docherty. There was a recognition then that, even four years after winning the European Cup, the task was enormous. Docherty’s first full season ended in relegation, but he was kept on and allowed to continue his rebuild, finishing third in 1976 and then lifting the FA Cup in 1977 before being sacked over his affair with the physio’s wife.
