Man United’s five most humiliating moments since Alex Ferguson retired – but Monday night’s loss isn’t included

When you keep making the same tactical mistakes in the vain hope that somehow repetition will lead to fulfilment, such humiliations are to be expected.

Indeed, it says something of its routine nature that the performance at Selhurst Park does not even come close to making the list of the top five most embarrassing moments the club has endured since Alex Ferguson stepped down.

1. Liverpool 7-0 Manchester United, March 5, 2023

Record defeat to your bitterest rival; there can be no humiliation to touch it. Nor was there the excuse available at Selhurst Park − however lame it may be − of playing with an injury-afflicted, makeshift defence. This was a back four with Luke Shaw, Lisandro Martinez and Rafael Varane being torn apart by Mohammed Salah and crew. The oddity was, for 40 minutes at Anfield, Erik ten Hag’s side looked in contention.

Then, after conceding the first goal just before halftime, they crumpled like a damp paper bag. For the rest of the game, several of the hugely remunerated United players looked as if they would rather be anywhere, doing anything than actually putting in a tackle.

2. Brentford 4-0 Manchester United, August 13, 2022

Ten Hag had only just taken charge at Old Trafford and was given an immediate and stark demonstration of the task that awaited him. Thomas Frank’s well-organised side took full advantage of United’s hapless attempts to play out from the back and were four up by halftime.

Here was a well-run, properly controlled operation outsmarting a chaotic one: it was, for the many United fans making their way to the exits at the break, yet further evidence of the decline of their club after 17 years of Glazer ownership.

3. Manchester United 1-6 Tottenham, October 4, 2020

It was framed as Jose Mourinho’s revenge on the club that had sacked him in ignominy two years before. And for the United supporters, fortunately spared the misery of watching in person by the Covid restrictions, the fact their previous boss was now in charge at Tottenham made it even worse.

To lose by such a margin to a side coached by the manager who had built a career out of a preference for 1-0 victories was more than telling. For Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, an unequivocal United hero on the pitch, it marked the beginning of the end of his time in the dugout.

4. Watford 4-1 Manchester United, November 20, 2021

And when the end did finally arrive for Solskjaer, more than a year later, it was in the shape of as embarrassing a defeat as any. A couple of weeks after his side had lost 5-0 at home to Liverpool, Solskjaer was already a dead man walking. It was widely reckoned he had lost the respect of the dressing room, something that this hopeless performance did little to counteract.

It was, however, indicative of the lack of football nous in the Old Trafford hierarchy that two of Solskjaer’s coaches were allowed to leave with him. As Kieran McKenna and Michael Carrick have proven subsequently at Ipswich and Middlesbrough, they have been some loss to United’s strategic development.

5. Antony’s behaviour at the FA Cup semi-final, April 21, 2024

Victories should not figure in a list of ignominy. But little in the post-Fergie era has been as embarrassing as United’s performance at Wembley last month against Championship side Coventry. First, they contrived to let slip a three-goal advantage before requiring the intervention of VAR in the last minute to save them from a defeat that few, even in the United end, would have begrudged. But it was the reaction of Antony to the winning penalty in the shoot-out that summed up so much of what is cringe-making about today’s United.

While others, principally Harry Maguire, consoled the defeated Coventry players, Antony ran off on a celebratory whirl while cupping his ears in mockery. Given he had delivered absolutely nothing to United’s win, given he has been consistently the worst value signing among a litany of post-Fergie transfer mistakes, given he is probably the player who least epitomises the values for which United have long stood, it should have come as no surprise. Yet, as an embarrassment, it has little, even in the post-Fergie era riddled with disaster, to rival it.