Man Utd have led for 29 minutes at Old Trafford this season – no wonder ‘Theatre of Dreams’ is restless

This was Manchester United’s sixth home game in the Premier League this season and they have led for a total of just 29 minutes in them. Fourteen minutes in a fortuitous 1-0 victory over Wolves, 14 minutes also against Nottingham Forest, when they had to come from 2-0 down after four minutes, and a minute against Brentford after Scott McTominay plundered a last-gasp winner with almost the final kick of the game.

For a period, it looked as though Erik ten Hag was starting to make Old Trafford a difficult venue to come to again but whatever illusion of solidity has been shattered in the space of three torrid months and, once again, the so-called ‘Theatre of Dreams’ has become a restless old place.

In truth, it did not take Manchester City to come here and administer a severe second-half beating for people to realise United have problems. Pep Guardiola’s serial champions left the red half behind long ago but it did feel fitting that it should be City, the team who have supplanted Sir Alex Ferguson’s United as the Premier League’s dominant force, who delivered a defeat that threw up a rather instructive statistic.

It took Ferguson 405 games to lose 34 Premier League matches at Old Trafford. United without Ferguson have now reached that same number of home league losses in just 196 fixtures, which gives you some idea of the scale of the drop off since the great man retired.

At times, it almost all feels too much for a crowd who cannot believe what they are watching. There were boos from those who hung around long enough for the final whistle – plenty had left in droves the moment Phil Foden scored City’s third goal – and for the second time in six weeks Ten Hag’s decision to substitute Rasmus Hojlund was roundly jeered.

It is one thing to come into this Guardiola team as a young centre-forward of great ambition, quite another to be asked to lead the line for the Manchester United of 2023. Hojlund’s Old Trafford career may be in its infancy but the young Denmark striker must have looked across at Erling Haaland at times in this game and cast envious glances at the glorious construct that exists around his fellow Scandinavian.

By contrast, United’s No 11 could be forgiven for wondering what he has walked into. Where one team is high functioning, the other is malfunctioning; whereas City are a Picasso piece, United resemble a pile of paint thrown at a canvas. This was another of those days when Ten Hag’s team selection and substitutions left you scratching your head and you wondered how a team that has had so much spent on it can still be left with such an underwhelming ensemble of players.

It was Hojlund who gave away the controversial penalty that Haaland dispatched to put City in front but it is doubtful any other player in red would have reacted as quickly as the 20-year-old Dane to Foden’s stray pass and a shame for a young player determined to make an impression that he could not find the finish his team needed. Indeed, he may have been better going down when John Stones leaned a hand on his shoulder.

Much as he did against Brighton last month, Ten Hag defended his decision to substitute Hojlund by insisting the player’s fitness needs protecting after injury and as he adjusts to the Premier League.

But this is not a particularly likeable team, populated as Ole Gunnar Solskjaer suggested with too many players who think they are far better than they actually are, so it is easy to understand the frustration of fans at the removal of one of the few players they probably feel they can really get behind.

Others in this squad, let’s be honest, really can try the patience and the sight of both Antony and Bruno Fernandes kicking out at Jeremy Doku in stoppage time and being fortunate not to earn at least one red card between them was as lamentable in its own way as the defensive disappearing act for City’s second goal.

Roy Keane, a former United captain, even suggested afterwards that Ten Hag should take the armband off Fernandes.

What a strange bunch they are.