Man United's Erik ten Hag era begins with a defeat

BEGINNINGS: Manchester United manager Erik ten Hag. Photo: Ian Hodgson/PA Wire.

The Erik ten Hag era, one game in, looks depressingly like the Ole Gunnar Solskjaer or Ralf Rangnick versions of a once-dominant elite football club fallen on hard times and still not certain where rock bottom is.

Manchester United, soundly beaten here despite a narrow scoreline and a summer of positive noises from the new manager and new boardroom structure, may not yet have bottomed out.