Manchester United still lack the mentality Erik ten Hag demands after Bayern Munich mistakes

This is the stage to which Manchester United insist they belong. Midweek nights in the Champions League, the most star-studded competition in the world, where the football is billed as unpredictable.

Unless, that is, you are Manchester United, when it is so depressingly predictable at the moment. This could have been Tottenham 2 United 0. It could have United 1 Brighton 3. The script was the same, bar the threat of a late rally, which you could at least mark down as an improvement.

These two clubs used to be comparable. The giants of Germany and the kings of England. Not anymore. Bayern are always in the Champions League. They are always still there in springtime.

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United are now guests in this competition, dropping down occasionally to the Europa League before rousing themselves. But they can't really compete with Bayern as equals. Will they be back next year? They've got a fight on their hands to achieve that and it's only September.

Maybe we're being too harsh. Erik ten Hag could field a team of first-team players unavailable to him, including some substitutes. His 10-man subs bench on Wednesday night included three goalkeepers and four players who had never played for the club before.

But this isn't a question of talent. It's in the head. United don't have the mentality of serial Champions League participants, never mind contenders. They feel mentally weak and a soft touch for the opposition at times.

Perhaps the way they almost rescued this game will spur them into life, but in truth, they made a fist of it because Bayern kept missing chances to make life easier for themselves. When Casemiro brought it