An accusation which is often levelled at Manchester United supporters is that they are living in the past.
It is not an issue which is unique to United, Liverpool fans were guilty of it for years pre-Jurgen Klopp. However, unlike with the Merseyside club, it appears that it is those in the upper echelons at the Reds who are suffering from nostalgia rather than those on the terraces.
For some time now, the United faithful have known that a new way of operating is needed to return the club back to where they used to be. The Reds need to look at themselves to do this before they start comparing their club to others.
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Discussions about the 'top six' which dominate the weekend offerings of the beautiful game push the narrative that United must be competing with the likes of Manchester City immediately. The reality is that when Sir Alex Ferguson retired, the club was in a position of transition on the pitch as well as off it.
Aging stars were beginning to leave for pastures new and fresh blood was needed to replace the old guard. However, in the urgency to remain relevant with the title contenders, a scattergun approach to player recruitment was adopted.
Nearly ten years on and United are still suffering from a lack of forward planning. Up until this point, it felt as though the Reds' camp was immune from admitting that they need to look inwards and sort their own house out before casting their net out to challenging Premier League rivals.
However, ahead of the trip to Omonia Nicosia, Bruno Fernandes addressed what needs to be done. "We don't have to focus on anyone else, we have to focus on ourselves," he told the assembled media at his press conference.
"That has been the problem for the club in the previous years, we want to compare, we can't do that. We have to do the best for this club, because this club deserves to be at the top but we have to look at ourselves, understand the problems, and what we can improve."
For a player that has often been maligned for speaking out of turn, Fernandes appears to have hit the nail on the head with his comments. Truthfully, those of a red persuasion knew that City would be a tough task for this team even if previous performances leading up to the match had been positive.
The manner of the defeat was unacceptable even if the task was difficult, but what should have become clear is that United must now concentrate on themselves and create their own style to success rather than recklessly and somewhat needlessly attempting to compete with others by replicating their winning formulas.
Actions speak louder than words though and United will be judged by how they manage to rebuild themselves in the weeks to come. But, accepting what needs to be done is the first step to actually solving the problems.
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