Just when United looked to have put together a rare complete performance, leading 3-0 after an hour, their underlying vulnerability and propensity for self-implosion reared its ugly head. Two Coventry goals in the space of eight minutes, followed by a 92nd-minute penalty, ensured what looked to be a stroll towards the final whistle turned into a full-blown struggle for Ten Hag and his clueless players. With such a lead and with their superior technical ability and experience, United should have seen this game out comfortably but were drawn into extra time and the lottery of a penalty shoot-out.
United may have scraped through on spot-kicks to set up a repeat of last season’s all-Manchester FA Cup final against City, but there was no pride or satisfaction to be taken in the way they made it there. This capitulation, in front of Sir Jim Ratcliffe and United’s new technical director Jason Wilcox, could prove to be the moment Ten Hag’s hopes of keeping his job evaporated, just like his side’s 3-0 lead. Even accounting for injuries, a constant backdrop to their season, United have fallen so far short of the standard expected this season that a change of manager this summer is the only logical next step.
The collective weak mentality of his players and their lack of game management is down to Ten Hag. Even with the mitigation of injuries and players deployed in unfamiliar roles, this was simply abject from United and their manager, who is now most certainly on borrowed time. With Champions League football next season all but gone, the FA Cup is the only target left for United this season, but if they are as insipid as they were here, Pep Guardiola and his formidable side will wipe the floor with them.
There may have been an element of fortune about Coventry’s second and third goals – a huge deflection and a contentious penalty – but United were culpable in affording them a way back from a game they had effectively won by the hour mark. In extra time, United survived an Ellis Simms shot crashing off the underside of the bar, followed by a VAR reprieve for offside, after sub Victor Torp looked to have scored the winner in the 121st minute. The most damning indictment of United is that their opponents, eighth in the Championship, played with more energy, enterprise and ebullience, and showed greater mental resilience and fortitude.
On May 25, United have the chance to atone for last season’s defeat to City in the final, but for Ten Hag, even victory is unlikely to be enough to keep his job. Just ask Louis van Gaal, sacked less than 24 hours after leading United to FA Cup glory in 2016. These are changing times at United under Ratcliffe, with a whole new raft of personnel on the football side, planning huge changes in the coming weeks and months, to take the club back to the top.
Time waits for no man and, for Ten Hag, after this latest shambolic offering, his time is surely now up at United.