A week after their victory against Chelsea at Stamford Bridge (1-2), the Mancuniens had a great opportunity to confirm last Saturday but Bournemouth decided otherwise, instead plunging the Red Devils into a new start of crisis. Lacking realism, the locals lost sharply (0–3) before hosting Bayern Munich (1st, 12 points) on Tuesday evening (9 p.m.) for the last day of the Champions League group stages.
A defeat against the Bavarian ogre and Erik Ten Hag’s players would be definitively eliminated from all European competitions. For now, they are last in their group (4 points). In the first leg, the English had already lost heavily (5-1) at the Allianz Arena to start their European campaign. Despite everything, qualification is still possible, if Manchester United win, at home this time, and if Galatasaray (3rd, 5 points) and Copenhagen (2nd, also 5 points) neutralize each other at the same time.
Elimination from the European scene without even passing the group stage would further darken the Mancunian season when it is already off to a bad start. Sixth in the championship, ten points behind leader Liverpool, and last in their group in the Champions League, the results are far from what was expected at the start of the season. But how did the Red Devils end up in such a position?
Erik Ten Hag seems less and less comfortable on his bench, the fault of a game plan and principles that do not work. His management of the locker room would also be problematic and his legitimacy more than ever called into question. Even if the main concerned already denied all these rumors before facing Chelsea a week earlier. On the pitch, the Dutch tactician is not really helped by his players who are supposed to be the most impactful. Thus, Bruno Fernandes is in more than mixed form and is struggling to string together good performances two weeks in a row (5 goals, 5 assists in all competitions).
Marcus Rashford (2 goals, 3 assists) is capable of high class actions as well as the worst, evidenced by his red card in the defeat against Copenhagen on November 8 (3–4), which weighs heavily on Mancunian’s record . Raphaël Varane is also having a lot of trouble getting back into shape after his various injuries and seems really overwhelmed in each opposing sprint. Anthony Martial struggles to find playing time and even more so to be effective. According to The Athletic, the Mancunian club should not activate the clause in his contract which kept the player until 2025. The French striker will therefore leave freely this summer if no interesting offer falls by the end of the winter transfer window. 2024. Finally, Sofyan Amrabat is struggling to find his place in midfield. The Moroccan seems very far from his level at the World Cup in Qatar where he shined with Morocco and is unable to compensate for the departure of Casemiro.
With only one victory in its last four matches, the challenge is significant against Bayern Munich who will also want to revive after their defeat on Saturday against Frankfurt (1–5). Manchester United therefore have their backs against the wall and must absolutely win, even if the mission seems impossible, anything is allowed in the theater of dreams.
