Time for Ten Hag to prove his worth as troubles mount for Manchester United

Erik ten Hag's Manchester United career started with a 2-1 Premier League defeat at home to Brighton and a 4-0 thumping at Brentford, with all four of the Bees' goals coming in the first 35 minutes.

Some football club owners may well have decided they'd seen enough to sack Ten Hag at half-time in the Brentford game but, fortunately for the Dutchman, the Glazers felt he merited more than 135 minutes in the job.

That rare show of patience was rewarded by a surprise home win over Liverpool next time out, sparking an impressive run of form in the league, Europa League and domestic cup competitions.

A 2-1 derby victory against Manchester City on January 14 saw United briefly enter the title-race conversation although they were swiftly forced to shut up after conceding damaging late goals in a 1-1 draw at Crystal Palace and a 3-2 defeat at Arsenal.

Still, Ten Hag's maiden campaign in Old Trafford seemed to be going well. United romped to a 5-0 aggregate win over Nottingham Forest – their opponents in the league on Sunday – in the EFL Cup semi-finals, knocked Barcelona out of the Europa League, and beat Newcastle comfortably to lift the League Cup at Wembley.

But, having been slowly away before picking up well and travelling sweetly for much of the campaign, United are in danger of being outpaced in the run-in.

After losing just once in 22 games – courtesy of Eddie Nketiah's 90th-minute winner for league leaders Arsenal – the Red Devils were dismantled 7-0 by Liverpool at Anfield on March 5.

They needed a meltdown from Fulham to avoid a home FA Cup quarter-final defeat, had Casemiro sent off in a 0-0 league draw with bottom club Southampton, and lost 2-0 at top-four rivals Newcastle at the start of April.

It's still more of a wobble than a crisis but, having been 1-20 to finish in the top four in January, the Red Devils will drop down to fifth place if Tottenham beat Bournemouth on Saturday.

Ten Hag is unlikely to be fretting about the league table just yet. His priority is to boost morale after a physically and mentally bruising 2-2 draw with Sevilla in Thursday's Europa League quarter-final first leg.

United blew a 2-0 lead in the final ten minutes at Old Trafford as own goals from Tyrell Malacia and Harry Maguire hauled Sevilla back into the tie in dramatic fashion.

First-choice centre-backs Raphael Varane and Lisandro Martinez were injured during Thursday's game and key forward Marcus Rashford, who has scored the decisive goal in ten of United's 17 league victories this season, was already on the sidelines.

Asked on Friday about the absence of Varane and Martinez, Ten Hag responded: "We have four or five very good centre-halves who can do the job" – a claim which sounds about as convincing as Frank Lampard's assertion that Chelsea can overturn a 2-0 Champions League deficit against Real Madrid because "special things can happen at Stamford Bridge".

So the depleted Red Devils now face a tricky Europa League second leg in Sevilla, an FA Cup semi-final against highflying Brighton, and a tense scrap with Newcastle and Tottenham for a top-four finish in the league. 

It's time for Ten Hag to prove his worth otherwise United may regret not sacking him at the break at Brentford.

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