Erik ten Hag has nowhere left to hide at Manchester United as Arne Slot adds to pressure on man without a plan

As the camera panned to a grim-faced Sir Jim Ratcliffe in the Old Trafford directors' box in the second half on Sunday, it was easy to imagine what he must have been thinking.

Ratcliffe, Manchester United's part-owner, was watching his side suffer another humiliation at the hands of their fiercest rivals Liverpool, raising the same old questions about the direction of the club and, particularly, the position of head coach Erik ten Hag.

This season was supposed to be a fresh start for United and Ten Hag, a new dawn with the Glazer family finally sidelined (at least as far as the football side of the business is concerned) and fresh impetus following the surprise FA Cup triumph against Manchester City in May.

Ratcliffe was minded to sack the Dutchman before that final but a 2-1 win over the champions at Wembley went a long way to saving his job, along with a depressed managerial market offering few compelling and interested alternatives.

Instead of a rebirth, however, just three games into the season, Ten Hag finds himself back in all-too-familiar territory, under pressure after his ramshackle side were outplayed by Liverpool.

Luis Diaz scored twice before the interval and the sublime Mohamed Salah added a third in a wasteful second-half display from the visitors, who could have matched last season's 7-0 drubbing of United at Anfield with smarter finishing.

What is particularly difficult for Ten Hag to justify is how much better coached Liverpool looked than United.

This was supposed to be a season of transition for Liverpool, a post-Jurgen Klopp hangover while they adjusted to a new manager's style of play and began to move away from their reliance on senior players Salah and Virgil van Dijk.

Yet Arne Slot, the new Reds head coach, has taken just two months and three games to earn a landmark result with his brand of high-tempo, possession football.

Ten Hag, by contrast, has been at United for two years and is starting his third season, and yet they remain a side without a clear plan or identity.

United were supposed to be among the clubs well-placed to capitalise if Liverpool did struggle to adjust to a new coach, the Red Devils buoyed by another ambitious summer in the transfer market and a sense of a new beginning under Ratcliffe and his company, INEOS.

As Liverpool toyed with United in the second half on Sunday, however, nothing appears to have significantly changed at Old Trafford.

And now the Glazers have retreated into the background, Ten Hag feels more exposed than ever, no longer able to hide behind the hated Americans or use their mismanagement of the club as an excuse for poor results.

For all their quality individuals, who will occasionally be enough to win big games, United simply do not have a compelling tactical vision or plan, which comes back to the man in the dugout.

After the game, a familiar debate raged on the touchline as Sky Sports pundits Gary Neville and Jamie Carragher argued over United's decision to keep Ten Hag, with Neville arguing passionately that there was no obvious alternative to the 54-year-old available in the summer.

As he watched Man Utd sink, you wondered, though, if it crossed Ratcliffe's mind that he could have tried to hire Slot if the club had dismissed Ten Hag as planned.