'Critical' - What Manchester United did in transfer window might have fixed Sir Jim Ratcliffe's biggest issue

Erik ten Hag felt there were positives to be taken away from Manchester United's defeat to Liverpool on Sunday, but he rightly decided that the immediate aftermath of that humbling wasn't the time to talk about them.

Even a few days on, finding anything particularly uplifting from the 90 minutes of football is difficult, but amid all the negativity that two defeats in the first three Premier League have unleashed, there are positives around the club. One is the state of the squad after what has to go down as a successful transfer window.

If Ten Hag is unable to turn it around, the next United head coach will inherit a much better, much more streamlined squad than the Dutchman did in 2022. That is partly down to the work done in what was a busy summer for United, with five players coming in, eight sold, four released and one sent on loan with obligation to buy. It has certainly improved Ten Hag's squad and fulfilled the objectives laid out at the start of the season.

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As sporting director Dan Ashworth said at the weekend, "I like the squad, I have to say." He played a part in overhauling it, along with the football structure put in place by Ineos, which also includes technical director Jason Wilcox and interim director of recruitment Christopher Vivell, with Omar Berrada now in place as chief executive.

"I’ve probably done 25 windows now and been doing this for a fair period of time," said Ashworth. "I don’t think there’s ever been a window where we’ve gone, ‘Oh God, it’s gone absolutely perfectly, we’ve done every single in, we’ve done every