This is such an execrable Manchester United side that relegation was alluded to at Ruben Amorim's post-match press conference at Wolves.

United is the club where anything that can go wrong will go wrong. Within a week, they have lost three matches, sieved nine goals, exited a cup competition, plummeted to 14th, a ceiling in their stadium started leaking mid-press conference and Old Trafford's hygiene rating was downgraded. They are so bad they are now making Marcus Rashford look good.

Wolves, at one stage in the bottom three during the Boxing Day fixtures, have already enjoyed a new manager bounce of consecutive Premier League wins. United have not won back-to-back league games since May.

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Every fixture for United is treacherous but they are about to come up against two demonstrably better teams in Newcastle United and Liverpool. Lose those and United may well be teetering above the relegation zone more than halfway through the season.

No wonder Amorim, whose command of English is so impeccable he understood the relegation reference without mention of the 'r' word, said United have to "survive".

Amorim arrived for the debrief sooner than expected. Club staff say he is punctual post-match. During the match at Molineux, Amorim patrolled the technical area like a wrestler itching to be tagged in so he could pick a fight.

The United players enjoyed all the festive perks they could have hoped for. No overnight stay in Wolverhampton on Christmas evening, a Boxing Day breakfast at Carrington before a stop off at a hotel en route to the stadium. Draconian measures are perhaps warranted.

After Anfield next Sunday, it is Arsenal away in the FA Cup. United may come full circle that day. Thirty-nine days after their emaciated performance at the Emirates in the Premier League, Arsenal could effectively end United's domestic campaign on January 12.

This season is Europa League or bust for United. They are fortunate the new Europa League format has been so diluted in quality that its two favourites are United and Tottenham, two English clubs in complete disarray. Spurs have lost more games than United.

There will be no Champions League sides tumbling down to the Europa for the knockout stage and no Sevilla to continue their love affair with the competition. The Europa League is an eminently winnable competition for a terrible team.

After the full-time whistle at Molineux, Amorim, the players and staff, stood motionless in front of an emptying away section in the Steve Bull Stand. They went to face the music but the silence spoke volumes. Empty seats and empty feelings.

United are literal pushovers. Arsenal, Nottingham Forest, Tottenham, Bournemouth and Wolves have exposed them from set plays. If Andre Onana was as aggressively front-footed confronting the referee as he was from Matheus Cunha's corner he may have caught the ball.

If Bruno Fernandes channelled his energy into probing passes more than pointless protests he would not be United's card shark. A captain who had never seen red before this season has been expelled three times and his foul on Nelson Semedo amounted to a dereliction of duty.

The feebleness of this United side was apparent at the other end. Rasmus Hojlund, over-promoted as a £72million striker when he is a sub striker not in Javier Hernandez's class, eschewed duels with centre backs, such was the physical mismatch.

Hojlund has two goals in the league this season. He rarely has his shooting boots on and one of them came off at Molineux. Wolves had the ball and rather than rush, Hojlund pulled it back on as leisurely as Dimitar Berbatov would have.

Spot the difference between Hojlund against Wolves and Joshua Zirkzee against Bournemouth. United do not have a number nine to pump up their goalscoring numbers.

That is a consequence of two dubious decisions by two different regimes. They are well documented. The striker situation is compounded by United's imperfect 10s behind the striker and full backs masquerading as wingers. Too many players jar with Amorim's system.

The defence is as porous as the Old Trafford roof. United have a -3 goal difference and failed to score against the league's joint-worst defence on Boxing Day. They have conceded from nine corners this term.

This is the worst United team since the one that was relegated in 1974. Tommy Docherty's loyalists at least had backbone. There was one change to the XI that was downed by Denis Law's backheel for the opening day Division 2 victory at Brisbane Road against Leyton Orient.

Doc's Red Army achieved promotion at the first time of asking, finished third in their first season back in the top flight, reached successive FA Cup finals and won the second, the club's first honour since the European Cup in 1968. United supporters of a certain vintage remember that vibrant period wistfully.

United have finished below 10th on three occasions since the relegation season of 73-74. All three were in Alex Ferguson's early years when things got worse before they got better.

Erik ten Hag was the earliest in-season post-war managerial sacking by United. The defenestrations of Ron Atkinson in 1986 and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer are proof things do not improve. When Docherty replaced Frank O'Farrell in December 1972, United ended the season only three places above the relegation zone and went down a year later.

If United's slide continues and they somehow suffer a first relegation in 51 years, Amorim has to stay. (It is surreal to type that sentence.) Amorim has inherited an omnishambles that can be traced back to the illogical and gutless call not to change manager last summer.

At the club where anything that can go wrong will go wrong, securing their sweetest FA Cup triumph in nearly 30 years has contributed to things going very wrong for United.