Andre Onana has shown qualities that should make Manchester United excited

Cast your mind back to just the second week of the Premier League season.

Manchester United had already lost their opening game under Erik ten Hag to Brighton and now they're 1-0 down at Brentford 18 minutes into the second. It was at this point that the manager's new directive became completely untenable.

David de Gea played a silly pass to a surrounded Christian Eriksen who had been given no warning about the player closing in behind him, who won the ball and then doubled the lead. The campaign was only 108 minutes old but already it was abundantly clear that United were not capable to build up from the back under pressure like Ten Hag wanted, as his Ajax teams had done with such success.

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The Dutchman was pragmatic and quickly abandoned that approach to try and minimise the risk of De Gea's dreadful distribution and that of his untechnical midfielder pair of Fred and Scott McTominay. A more direct style of play was implemented and Casemiro was brought in to form a dynamic duo with Eriksen.

It was to Ten Hag's immense credit that he quickly identified the shortcomings of his squad and was humble enough to steer away from his ideal football to the betterment of the side. United steadily improved and enjoyed a very good season, winning a trophy and securing Champions League football.

But it was not good enough, with Ten Hag the first to make that clear. United's weaknesses still proved costly and heavy, embarrassing defeats were suffered at the hands of great rivals. A whole lot more improvement was