Ranking Erik ten Hag’s most humiliating moments as Man Utd boss after Tottenham loss

Perhaps the most damning thing about Manchester United’s awful 3-0 defeat to Tottenham on Sunday was how familiar it felt. Erik ten Hag loves pointing out that he’s won two trophies since taking over at Old Trafford in 2022, but in reality, provided things do not change quickly, his United legacy is far more likely to be defined by the various, humiliating results he’s overseen.

The Spurs defeat was the latest of these, but throughout his two-and-a-half seasons in charge, these embarrassing moments have been far more regular that the Dutchman would have liked. Even when things appeared to be looking up, there was always a harsh reality check lying in wait around the corner.

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  12Newcastle 1-0 Man Utd – December 2, 2023

  It only finished 1-0 but it should have been more and there was no hiding from another dismal away display. United were trapped in their own half for much of the game and Marcus Rashford and Anthony Martial were utterly lifeless in attack.

  Newcastle legend Alan Shearer summed up United’s woeful performance after the game with an uncharacteristically brutal assessment of the Red Devils. “For me, there are too many bad eggs in that Man Utd team. Too many bad attitudes,” he said.

  “It’s alright when things are going well for you, you can get your feet on the ball, play and pick your head up when things are nice and rosy. But, when it’s not going for you, when you’re a bit tired and you’ve got to roll your sleeves up, there’s not enough characters in that team.” Few United fans could disagree with him.

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    11Man Utd 2-3 Galatasaray – October 3, 2023

    Ten Hag’s first Champions League group stage game at Old Trafford should have been a great occasion but it soon unravelled into a nightmare. Rasmus Hojlund twice gave United the lead but each time they threw it away with diabolical defending and a shambolic display from Andre Onana, who gave the ball straight to Dries Mertens, leading to Casemiro giving away a penalty and getting sent off.

    Mauro Icardi missed the spot kick but made amends to sink United and hundreds of Galatasaray fans rubbed salt into the Red Devils wounds by wildly celebrating the winner from the home section of the stadium. And no wonder: it was the Turkish giants’ first win on English soil in 11 attempts. United’s ludicrous defending made it possible and the defeat led to them finishing bottom of their group.

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      10Man Utd 0-3 Liverpool – September 2, 2024

      After United went unbeaten against their fiercest rivals during the 2023-24 season – including a famous victory in the FA Cup – Arne Slot reasserted Liverpool’s recent dominance when the two old enemies met at Old Trafford in September 2024.

      Casemiro was the arch-villain of the piece, making two heinous errors in the first 45 minutes before being gratefully hooked by Ten Hag at the break with his reputation further diminished. The Red Devils weren’t much better in the second period, either.

      Although Casemiro rightly took the bulk of the criticism, every United player was pretty hopeless. It was very difficult to recognise what Ten Hag’s plan was and the fact that the humbling took place on home turf made it all the more difficult for the supporters to swallow.

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      9Chelsea 4-3 Man Utd – April 4, 2024

      A few days after United had leaked bucketloads of chances to Brentford and finally been punished for it in added time, they did the exact same thing against Chelsea and got burned twice.

      It was the most entertaining game of the season, with United fighting their way back from two goals down to lead 3-2, only to undo all their good work by switching off yet again deep into added time.

      A clumsy foul by Diogo Dalot gifted Cole Palmer a penalty which he netted. Less than a minute later he scored again after several United defenders had pointed at him but not gone over to block his shot.

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        8Sevilla 3-0 Man Utd – April 20, 2023

        United had been unbeaten in their three trips to Spain in 2022-23 but they fell victim to Sevilla’s mystique in the Europa League. In a scorching cauldron of noise at the Sanchez Pizjuan in this quarter-final second leg, Sevilla crushed United with targeted pressing and David de Gea had his worst performance in a United shirt.

        A suspect ball from the goalkeeper to Harry Maguire allowed World Cup hero Youssef En-Nesyri to score the first, while De Gea was badly caught out of position for goal number two. The worst was still to come for the Spaniard, who badly mis-controlled a long ball, sending it straight to the feet of En-Nesyri, of all people.

        Although they went on to win the Europa League for a record-extending seventh time, this was far from a vintage Sevilla – they had been battling against relegation and were on their third manager of the season.

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        7Man City 6-3 Man Utd – October 2, 2022

        Ten Hag got the worst possible introduction to the Manchester derby as his side came up against an insatiable Erling Haaland. The Norwegian, whose father Alfie has a well-known disdain for United, had said at his presentation that the game he was most looking forward to was the derby. And he did not disappoint.

        Haaland hit a hat-trick and got two assists in a one-sided derby while local boy Phil Foden also got a treble as City looked set to repeat the 6-1 scoreline from 11 years previously at Old Trafford, until Martial struck twice to make the result slightly more dignified.

        A lot of United fans were not there to see the last two goals as they had already left early, leaving a sea of empty blue seats in the away end.

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          6Man Utd 3-3 Coventry City – April 21, 2024

          It must be the only occasion when the team that had reached an FA Cup final felt worse than the team that had lost the semi-final. Even after their dire season on every front, United were expected to be able to beat Coventry, who had been in the fourth tier of English football as recently as 2018.

          And they were making light work of the game, leading 3-0 with 20 minutes to go, until they let their foot slip off the pedal and allowed the Championship side to stage an astonishing comeback. Coventry thought they had snatched a winner in the last minute of extra-time but a ‘toenail’ offside ruled it out. United eventually won on penalties but, with the exception of Antony, few people were celebrating what was an embarrassing end to the game.

        • 5Brentford 4-0 Man Utd – August 13, 2022

          After the pre-season optimism surrounding Ten Hag’s arrival had been deflated by the opening-day defeat at home to Brighton, the scale of the task on the Dutchman’s hands was laid bare by a crushing loss at the hands of Brentford.

          The Red Devils played their part in their own downfall as David de Gea let a tame shot from Josh Dasilva slip through his fingers for the opening goal and then gifted the second to Mathias Jensen as he tried to play out from his own area. Ben Mee and Bryan Mbuemo then scored in quick succession to give Brentford an unbelievable 4-0 lead after only 35 minutes.

          Cristiano Ronaldo, making one of his few starts this season before leaving the club in November, refused to acknowledge the away fans as he left the pitch. The defeat signalled the first time United had lost their two opening games of the season in 30 years but this was not just any old loss. It was one of the club’s worst away performances in the Premier League, against a team that had spent most of their history in the lower leagues.

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            4Man Utd 0-3 Bournemouth – January 3, 2023

            Just when United thought they were turning a corner last season after beating Chelsea, they reverted to their very worst version of themselves three days later and were blown apart by Bournemouth, who had never previously won at Old Trafford.

            The Red Devils looked shaky from start to finish and were played off the park by Andoni Iraola’s brave and dynamic side

             

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              2Crystal Palace 4-0 Man Utd – May 6, 2024

              To be fair to Ten Hag, his side had travelled to south London with a squad that was down to its bare bones. The substitutes’ bench comprised five unproven teenagers and two goalkeepers while the back four featured a right-back playing at left-back and a 14th different centre-back pairing of the season – one of whom was a midfielder and the other a 36-year-old who had spent last summer training with the youth team. And Bruno Fernandes missed a match through injury for the first time in his career.

              But even given the makeshift team out there, United committed basic errors in their worst display of the campaign and their second worst of the Ten Hag era. They let in the first goal following a throw-in, leaving acres of space in midfield for the second, while Casemiro rounded off a harrowing night by gifting Michael Olise a fourth.

              It was the heaviest defeat of the season and saw United set an unwanted record of 13 Premier League defeats in one campaign. But it was exactly what Ten Hag deserved for persisting with the team’s open style despite having so many veterans on the pitch.

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              1Liverpool 7-0 Man Utd – May 5, 2023

              After winning the Carabao Cup and beating Barcelona, the more optimistic of United fans – including Gary Neville – felt confident of a first win at Anfield since 2016. Instead, they witnessed the team’s worst loss in the fixture since the 19th century, when the club were still called Newton Heath.

              Bizarrely, United actually made a strong start to the game but everything changed when Cody Gakpo pounced just before half-time. After the interval, the Red Devils simply fell apart. Usually robust characters like Casemiro and Lisandro Martinez melted as Liverpool smelt blood, and Bruno Fernandes was at his petulant worst.

              Gakpo, Darwin Nunez and Mohamed Salah all scored twice, while Roberto Firmino completed the rout, sealing United’s heaviest defeat since 1931 and their joint-worst result of all time.

             

            . Dominic Solanke tapped the visitors into an early lead following a lightning quick break before Philip Billing and Marcos Senesi scored headers in the second half. Dango Ouattara added a fourth in added time, but VAR took mercy on United. Most home fans had already left Old Trafford by then, fed up with the shockingly bad performance they had just witnessed.

            Bruno Fernandes admitted United had been too complacent against the Cherries: “Everything was lower than the levels in the game before and that’s why when you play teams like Bournemouth, who are really aggressive and on the front foot, and you think it’s going to be easy, you get these kinds of results.”

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            3Man Utd 0-3 Tottenham – September 29, 2024

            The tone was set in this one with less than three minutes on the clock. Marcus Rashford took a lazy touch and Micky van der Ven was on it like a flash, somehow making it all the way to the byline before crossing to Brennan Johnson for a tap-in. It was a piece of technical brilliance and quick thinking from the Dutchman, but what truly made the goal was desire – something United sorely lacked all afternoon.

            Somehow, by the time that Bruno Fernandes was sent off for a petulant swipe at James Maddison, Spurs were still only 1-0 up. But by the time that referee chimed his final whistle, Tottenham had scored twice more. It should have been more too, with Ange Postecoglou’s side generating an xG of 4.59, as per FotMob.

            Sky Sports pundit Gary Neville summed it up nicely when he said: “It was an absolutely disgusting performance in that first half in effort, quality, everything you would want in a football team.” he said. “There will be a lot of questions to answer for that group (of players) and the manager.”