Until Tuesday night, this Manchester United crisis did not rank with the final month of Ole Gunnar Solskjaer's tenure, the last tumultuous months of Jose Mourinho, Louis van Gaal's winter of discontent or the chides of March as David Moyes suffered 3-0 home defeats by Liverpool and Manchester City 11 days apart.
It does now. The last United manager to preside over six defeats in the opening 10 games of a season was Ron Atkinson in 1986-87.
Come November, Atkinson drove out of The Cliff with his sunbed. For the first time, Erik ten Hag was asked about his position as United manager in the wake of Galatasaray's win.
There was not a direct response. Read more: Sheikh Jassim's offer to buy United remains on the table Read more: United to assess risk element of Reguilon injury "Last season: brilliant, terrific, more than we could expect," he began, "but also when we went into this project we knew there would be common gaps and in this moment we are in a very difficult period, as everyone can see. "But we come out together, we are fighting together, we are sticking together, behind each other, it's me, the directors, the team, all together, we will fight and this is not us.