Alarm bells ringing at Man Utd again – what is going wrong for Erik ten Hag?

Manchester United boss Erik ten Hag and his players are under the spotlight having wobbled following a promising return from the international break.

After Old Trafford witnessed a disappointing 1-1 draw with FC Twente in Wednesday’s Europa League opener, we have had a look at their start to the season.

A sense of positivity around performances, a revamped structure and smart-looking signings has quickly faded. United showed promise against Manchester City in the Community Shield and bounced back from that penalty shoot-out loss with a late 1-0 win against Fulham in the Premier League curtain raiser.

But things then went awry as a late 2-1 loss at Brighton was compounded by a 3-0 home hammering by Liverpool. Ten Hag’s side responded after an uncomfortable international break with a 3-0 win at promoted Southampton and 7-0 Carabao Cup thumping of third tier Barnsley, but momentum changes quickly at United.

Saturday’s 0-0 stalemate at Crystal Palace was frustrating and the Europa League draw with Twente – the lowest-ranked side in terms of UEFA coefficients that they are hosting – set alarm bells ringing again.

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Boyhood Twente fan Ten Hag said on the eve of the Old Trafford encounter that “it’s not nice to have to hurt something you love.” As it happens, they ended up damaging him as Christian Eriksen followed his thumping opener with an error that allowed Sam Lammers to seal a 1-1 draw for Twente.

United lost their way in the second half and have now won just one of their last nine European matches, which came at home to Copenhagen in last year’s Champions League and required Andre Onana’s stoppage-time penalty save.

Across all competitions this season they have three victories to