Erratic display shines light on Manchester United’s also-ran status

Deep into the 94th minute at Old Trafford, Manchester United swarmed forward for one last attack. As the famous red shirts massed ominously in the penalty area, the Stretford End rose as one, shouted as one, dreamed in vivid noise and colour of a classic United comeback. Meanwhile, surging forward with the ball at his feet, the messenger at the gates of glory, was Nemanja Matic.

Well, Matic carried on running. Slowed. Slowed a little more. Took a look up. Panicked. Remembered that he still had a football at his feet. Spotted Marcus Rashford on the right wing: the simplest and least threatening ball, but the only one that would not require him to stop, turn, swivel or twist. The moment passed, and a good deal more quickly than Matic.

In a weird way, it would have been fitting if Matic had belted the equaliser in from 30 yards. Such had been the nihilistic incoherence of United’s second-half strategy that it was about as likely a scenario as anything else. They had 11 shots in the whole game, of which Diogo Dalot had four and Raphaël Varane two. Six shots for the United defence. None for Cristiano Ronaldo. You probably needed to be a tactical genius on the Ralf Rangnick plane to work out the thinking behind that.

But you can’t really pin this one on Rangnick. This is simply United’s level now. They didn’t play within themselves, they didn’t disgrace themselves. They simply played like what they are: a wildly uneven team with great individual quality but without the composure to control games, the defensive quality to close them out, or the tactical quality to find their own solutions on the pitch. Up front they remain curiously dependent on a striker who has scored in two of his past 12 fixtures – the same as the Leeds