Erik ten Hag must take Cristiano Ronaldo risk for Manchester United vs Brentford

It really wasn't supposed to go down like this.

The appointment of Erik ten Hag was supposed to usher in a new era at Manchester United. A fresh and exciting style of football was going to be played, the squad's fat was going to be trimmed and a grand rebuild was going to take place. Yet, the more things change the more they remain exactly the same.

No one sensible is writing off Ten Hag or believing he can't eventually turn United around but it's already clear how hamstrung he will be by a lack of proper structure at the club and the Glazer family's ownership. Instead of spending the summer assembling a squad for Ten Hag to mould into a competitive side, they have been slow, indecisive and unprepared in the transfer market.

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While Manchester City and Liverpool strengthened their already incredible sides with yet more world-class players and the likes of Spurs and Arsenal moved quickly to address troubled areas in their squads in the hope of improvement, United still have several positions that they desperately need to reinforce. With the season already underway and time running out, they are now scrambling through a random list of targets that betray the fact there is clearly no cohesive recruitment strategy from the club. Instead, they are just relying on Ten Hag to provide the names.

This meant that United went into the opening match of the season with the same maligned midfield pairing of Scott McTominay and Fred that has now proven not good enough under four separate coaches. As well as without an actual striker in the starting XI.

Anthony Martial had shown good signs of rejuvenation in pre-season and was going to start against Brighton as the central striker