Wednesday night’s Carabao Cup second round exit at the hands of League Two’s Grimsby Town really did feel like a new low in the Shakespearean Tragedy that is Manchester United post Sir Alex Ferguson.

A seemingly broken Ruben Amorim, once full of positivity and enthusiasm for his task (even after last season and the Arsenal defeat just ten days ago), could hardly bring himself to speak about his team’s ‘efforts’ in post-match interviews, his words about the players ‘speaking loudly’ raising questions over his future.

But how can a team that, by most metrics, outplayed Arsenal on the opening day, be so disgustingly abject against a team three leagues below them less than a fortnight later? Grimsby were great – they worked their socks off and were brave, all credit to them – but even so, how is it possible that they looked the better footballing unit?

There are multiple answers and nearly all of them can be traced to the same place – upstairs. And not just the upstairs you’re thinking about.

Let me explain.

1 – Them upstairs.

Of course I’m talking about the owners, the executives, the tone setters and the decision makers. It’s a given that ten years of mismanagement, ten years of no strategy, ten years of neglect have landed Manchester United in the position the club currently finds itself. It’s a subject we don’t need to go over again; we all know the background.

Even ignoring all the time before Amorim’s reign, there have still been some appalling decisions made, and still a real lack of the support required for the manager to succeed.

Amorim has always been extremely clear as to how he wants his team to play – the shape, the style, the required attributes and values – the board signed him up knowing this. It was equally clear after just a few short months that the playing staff Amorim had at his disposal would not be able to carry out his instructions long-term. He said as much himself. For all his flaws, Amorim is sharp as a tack and is correct about a lot around the club.

Therefore, those at the head of the organisation had months to formulate a plan, a plan B, plan C, plan D etc., all in order to provide the manager they aggressively targeted and hired, the manager they persuaded to leave Sporting six months earlier than he wanted to, the tools required to be successful. To back their man.

Make no mistake here – all that means that Ruben Amorim leaving Manchester United would be a colossal failure for all those above him, all those who were involved in his hiring and the club as a whole.

The major holes in the playing squad at the end of last season were as clear as day – the Goalkeepers were not good enough and made far too many disastrous errors destroying confidence, the midfield was not physical enough and could not cover ground effectively, there were not enough specialist wing backs (key in Amorim’s system) and the front line did not contribute enough goals.

So far this summer, United’s top brass has spent £200m on three attackers, Matheus Cunha, Bryan Mbeumo and Benjamin Šeško – great in isolation, but what they’ve done, in effect, is hang some swanky curtains in a house with severe structural problems. Looks good from the outside but remains dangerously unstable when you look behind the façade.

Outside of the front three, it’s the same squad that finished 15th in the Premier League last season, so why on earth would you expect drastically different results? Most of the same deficiencies, same mistakes, same holes.

Unless Amorim is furnished with a sturdy, reliable goalkeeper and an imposing midfielder with physical qualities who can cover ground easily, he is quite simply being hung out to dry.

Look at how other ‘top teams’ have operated in the summer market from positions of strength – Arsenal have signed eight players, Liverpool five (with more to come), Chelsea have signed somewhere close to 14 million give or take, as usual.

Jokes aside, signing just three players in one area of the pitch to a squad that clearly needed radical overhaul throughout is quite simply malpractice.

And that’s all without mentioning the outgoings that were necessary for playing style and attitude purposes – which brings me to my second ‘upstairs’.

2 – Psychology.

The human brain is a wildly powerful tool, and we do not yet know its full level of capacity. It can cause people to hallucinate things that seem so real, it’s hard to believe they’re not, it can process huge amounts of information in an incredibly short space of time, and it can allow us to philosophise about intangible matters of the universe.

But what the brain can also do is create panic, stress, feelings of dread, react badly to trauma, and it can also short circuit under pressure.

Manchester United is a club very much afflicted by the latter. Goings on ‘upstairs’ are clearly affecting the performance of those on the pitch and you can see the pattern even in the three games this season:

Arsenal (H) – no recent trauma over losing, a positive summer with hope and promise instilled in the squad. A positive performance that proved the system can work, that the players can perform, marred only by a goalkeeping error which led to a loss. Doubt and memories of last season’s trauma begin to sneak in despite positive coverage in the media.

Fulham (A) – A strong start to the game but a failure to convert chances lead to those memories and trauma of last season flooding back once again. Take the lead (perhaps fortunately on that occasion) but panic was already starting to set in, it mentally tires players, poor decisions and loss of concentration leads to Fulham equaliser. Stress and panic until the end, confidence low again.

Grimsby (A) – A game the players know they should win and will be pilloried if they don’t. Leads to mental implosion in first half, uncompetitive, tentative, unsure, connections disintegrate. Goalkeeper, again... It’s full stress and panic trauma response at this point. HT changes help and tiring Grimsby legs allow us to scrap back into the game. But penalties, more stress. Not helped by a goalkeeper who gets a hand to six penalties and saves just one, dives the same way, and early, multiple times. Lose. INITIATE FULL SOCIAL MEDIA HUMILIATION MODE. AGAIN.

The slippery slope back to chaos and depression took just three games – ten days between abundant promise and a building confidence to full-blown panic stations and despair.

The players and staff looked shellshocked, a familiar disbelief from the bench and an all-too common acceptance from those on the pitch. But this is the nature of trauma response – the brain protects itself from things that made it stressed, it retreats into self-preservation mode.

Until the manager and players can find a way to manage this, to cope with setbacks and mistakes, United’s fortunes are tied to the most fragile of confidence, a mood that can change with the wind.

But, before we disappear too far down that depressive rabbit hole, let’s all take a breath, take a step back and look at what has happened so far this season in the cold light of day:

Goals conceded: 4
Goalkeeping errors: 2 (possibly 3)
Lack of concentration from midfielders or wing backs: 1 (possibly 2)

I’ll take you back to an earlier paragraph – “Outside of the front three, it’s the same squad that finished 15th in the Premier League last season, so why on earth would you expect drastically different results? Most of the same deficiencies, same mistakes, same holes.”

So, this situation, while frustratingly predictable, is still fixable and this is where the treatment must start, where we began, with those in positions of power.

The owners, Berrada, Wilcox and Vivell MUST act now to give Amorim the tools he needs to turn this around – they MUST fix the foundations or the last nine months under Amorim have been for naught. The noises around the club suggest they are still committed to their man for now.

There’s obviously limited cash available to the club, so it must start with cutting out some of the scar tissue, players who react poorly to setbacks, players that need a new start, players whose bridges have been burned.

As we speak now, Garnacho, Hojlund and Antony seem very close to the exit door, Jadon Sancho is still turning teams down because no-one will pay him the moronic wages United gave him, and Tyrell Malacia, well, he’s somewhere too.

Those five need to be offloaded now, take a financial hit if you have to, within reason, it’s about more than money. Add Onana to that list – he inspires nothing but terror in his teammates and can lay claim to being one of our worst signings of all time, Turkey or Saudi Arabia might suit nicely, but he surely cannot play for the club again. If he does, it’s a huge question mark over Amorim’s decision making.

There are others I would add to the list (Bayindir, Ugarte and Dalot chief among them) but are very unlikely to be offered up to leave, so are not worth thinking about in any detail now – potentially worth revisiting in January and next summer.

I’m no accountant, but the sale of those players should net the club somewhere in the region of £120-£150m in total (after loans & obligation clauses etc.) – in the world of FFP, that’s a significant number.

It would allow the club to go and get the goalkeeper and midfielder that could well save the job of their Head Coach – Lammens looks like the goalkeeper in question, while the midfielder will be last-minute and Baleba looks prohibitively expensive at this point, so it could be another name.

Still, that’s just five players in and maybe six out – not quite the squad revolution that Amorim desperately requires – but there is still time and it’s a start that gives him a chance.

And before you come at me with; “it’s not Football Manager, you moron”, look again at the business done by Chelsea (9 in, 13 out), Arsenal (8 in), Liverpool (8 in, 8 out), City (6 in, 10 out). It is more than do-able, it’s actually commonplace now. And Manchester United must wheel and deal with the best of them.

From there, Amorim’s work starts in earnest, and it must happen very, very quickly.

His biggest job is to fast-track the new culture he desires, and a new mindset must permeate the whole club. A mindset where bravery and desire are the cornerstones and resilience can grow. It’s an issue that genuinely may need psychologists, if they are not already employed, and one that they must work harder than ever on during their now abundant free weeks of training up until Christmas.

Compared to that, tactics pale in significance. The Grimsby game, amongst others, proves the very basics of football transcend systems. How much do you want it? What are you willing to do to get it? Does every player know their job? Are they committed to it? A great team often beats a collection of great players and great Manchester United teams of the past were just that.

It’s high time that Manchester United stayed the course, stuck with the man the brains trust chose, and equipped him with the tools he needs to succeed because the issues are ‘upstairs’.

We, and they, know the problems that must be solved – it’s bigger than just the head coach or the players – but there must be consistency of message and personnel at the top now in order to effect the root and branch change spoken about, to set a culture and mindset that can break the club from the invisible shackles that seem to weigh so heavily.

I won’t go as far as to say that the fan base needs to do the same – you pay your money, you’re entitled to your opinion, whatever that may be – but there certainly needs to be less attention given to the sensationalism that drags so many views in, the criticism for clicks. It’s exhausting, and that’s just for the fans, so it must weigh even heavier on the players and staff.

So, please, support your club, its manager and its players – they need it – let’s show a United Front.

See you next week for the fallout from Amorim leaving the club.

Dear god, I hope not…

Note: For clarity, this article is in no way intended to make light of, or make a comparison to those suffering with mental trauma – the term is used in a ‘sports psychology’ context.

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