Sir Jim Ratcliffe is no closer to answering Manchester United question all fans are asking

Who are the real Manchester United? The passive, passionless side who stuttered through the first half of this game at Old Trafford without laying a glove on Liverpool, or the team who suddenly found some intensity and some ambition after the break?

It's a question we've been asking all too often this season and it's not an easy one to answer, but it's one Sir Jim Ratcliffe is trying to find a solution to. Sat in the directors' box watching the team he now part-owns for the second time in four days, these two games will have done little to get him to a point where he knows what to do next.

In parts against Chelsea and Liverpool, United have been very good. They were sometimes electric on the break at Stamford Bridge and found a real desire to ruffle feathers in the second half on Sunday. But at other times they have been brittle and bewildering. Far too easy to play against and often their own worst enemy. And to misquote Basil Fawlty, given Erik ten Hag's increasing tetchiness on the subject, don't mention the shots, whatever you do.

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Ten Hag is insistent that getting rid of him would be to halt the progress he is making. "Don't interrupt the process," he told Ineos earlier this week. But what is the process? It can't remain this inconsistent and his team remain impossible to work out.

For the third game in a row, they conceded more than 28 shots on their goal. Somehow they drew two of them and only lost their third from a position of strength deep into stoppage time. It can't be sustainable, but Ten Hag keeps pulling rabbits out of the hat to suggest maybe, just maybe, he can find a way out of this malaise.

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