Welcome to chaos: Manchester United pay for their startling incompetence

Drunken pirate ship of a Champions League campaign is mixing moments of high class with extraordinary weakness.

Manchester United's Luke Shaw (right) fouls Galatasaray's Hakim Ziyech during the UEFA Champions League Group A match at RAMS Park, Istanbul. Pic: Nick Potts/PA Wire.

Football clubs like to talk about culture, about DNA, about a coherent top-down philosophy. Well, there you have it. Welcome to Manchester United, a club in a state of chaos, that has at least found its authentic self in these midweek adventures. 

Not so much the steady accumulators of the league programme, but the drunken pirate ship of the Champions League campaign, a vessel of chaos that was present again in a thrilling, occasionally high-class performance in Istanbul, albeit one shot through with moments of startling incompetence.