Erik ten Hag has an advantage past Manchester United managers lacked during crises

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.

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"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. We know we have to do better and in togetherness we will come out."

Players railed against Moyes, briefed against Van Gaal, Mourinho was undermined by the board and Solskjaer was a soft touch. Ten Hag at least retains authority and has form for staving off mutinies. Ties were severed with Cristiano Ronaldo and Jadon Sancho was banished.

Ten Hag is coping better than others at United. At a truncated pre-match press conference on Monday where the translator spoke for almost as long as Ten Hag and Raphael Varane, a colleague was pettily admonished by a