If it can go wrong for Manchester United at the moment, then it's a fair assumption that it will. After a dreadful week for the club and its supporters, the football actually looked to be going well against Middlesbrough, but soon the klaxons were sounding.
The first alarm bell signalled the inability of food and drink to be served at half-time. With United 1-0 up and in control, it was almost a humorous interlude, but by the end of another wretched night in a miserable season, it just felt like part of the script.
Things have got so bad that United can’t even make any money at half-time. They handed what hot food remained to supporters as they left the stadium close to 11pm, having seen their team dumped out of another cup competition. The Champions League is United’s last hope of avoiding a five-year trophy drought, but on this evidence that’s pie in the sky.
On the pitch, the humiliations have just kept coming this season. Leicester, Liverpool, Manchester City, Watford, Wolves and now Middlesbrough. Just when it looked like a corner had been turned, United lost control of the steering wheel once again.
Ralf Rangnick was bullish in his programme notes. Talking about the improvement since the FA Cup third-round win against Aston Villa, he boldly declared: “I am hopeful that we can put on a more dominant performance this evening.”
Bold decorations from United managers this season have tended to end with egg on the face. Seven points from nine before the break had looked positive, if not always convincing. But a good 55 minutes against Middlesbrough gave way to another crisis of confidence and a struggle to regain control against a Championship team.
There was almost a perverse inevitability to the fact that the player to miss the penalty would be the youngest player on the pitch and someone who has actually been a positive this season. United’s senior players have had their confidence eroded, but Anthony Elanga had looked unencumbered by that. As he watched his penalty sail into the Stretford End he might, for the first time, have felt the burden that this football club can cast when things aren’t going well. And things really aren’t going well.
There has been plenty of talk of division within the camp this season, but dressing room sources have insisted morale rather than unity has been the biggest issue. The glare of the spotlight at United can be blinding. When momentum builds it can feel unstoppable but when seasons became as chaotic as this one it can weigh you down and feel impossible to escape from. At the moment the punches just keep on coming.
Rangnick is probably an unwitting accomplice in the dispute with Jesse Lingard, a breakdown in communication from player to manager when the message was passed through the football director, but it’s the second time in less than a month a player has publicly questioned the manager’s version of events.
That could only happen to United this season. They have an interim manager who has made small strides in terms of playing style but looks unlikely to ever fully implement the philosophies he was brought in to introduce. Rangnick is still trying to exert his authority over a squad that is full of character and personality, for good and bad.
But United certainly need their leaders now. They had Raphael Varane, Bruno Fernandes, Paul Pogba and Cristiano Ronaldo on the pitch for most of last night and still couldn’t win.
Pogba might find himself back amongst the substitutes at Turf Moor on Tuesday, but it’s the hours at Carrington before then that the leaders need to be seen and heard.
Harry Maguire has been hailed as a good captain behind the scenes, Varane and Ronaldo have won almost everything there is to win and Fernandes’ attitude to success is relentless. That quartet have to play a role in trying to restore confidence and morale to a group that looks fragile now. They played quite well against Middlesbrough until the sucker punch of the equaliser and then struggled to stagger back up off the canvas.
It’s an issue Rangnick has generally avoided but he did make the point that players had probably been talking about the allegations surrounding Mason Greenwood last week. It’s hardly a surprise given the nature of a football squad and it’s going to be unsettling.
If a return to football was supposed to provide some comfort, then Friday night offered the opposite. Rangnick is an experienced coach but he’s never managed a club of the size and stature of United, nor one with the scrutiny that is attached to that.
Right now he needs help from the likes of Maguire, Varane, Fernandes and Ronaldo to steer the ship. These are crucial weeks ahead for United at at some point things will have to stop going wrong.
