Defeat at Everton may have felt like a new low for Manchester United ’s underperforming stars and their beleaguered interim manager Ralf Rangnick. But for the stunned supporters in the away end there must have been an overriding sense of deja vu.
After all, the ingredients of a Goodison humbling were present exactly as they were in April of 2019. A team seemingly weighed down by the badge on the front of the shirt and then overwhelmed by a passionate home crowd, and a manager left questioning what he could do with dreams of a Champions League finish all but evaporated.
It may have been a 4-0 reversal almost exactly three years ago, but make no mistake, the 1-0 loss to Frank Lampard’s relegation threatened Toffees was just as humiliating. “They [ Everton ] played Wednesday and they were tired but they had more desire than us, that is not acceptable. Very sad to lose today,” a furious David de Gea said after the full-time whistle.
"It is a disgrace from us, we should be winning this game,” the Spaniard added. "Second half, we were trying to add more creativity with our substitutions but we could not choose the right moment or make the right decision and couldn't score a single goal in 95 minutes,” Rangnick explained.
It’s often said that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result. And those words could perhaps be attributed to a Manchester United team stuck in the same rut they found themselves in 36 months ago.
"Some of them won't be here next year,” Solskjaer blasted after goals from Richarlison, Gylfi Sigurdsson, Lucas Digne and Theo Walcott condemned them to a Merseyside thrashing. "There's no hiding place on the pitch in this shirt, and we weren't good enough, it was not worthy of a Man United team.
HAVE YOUR SAY! Are Man Utd's hopes of finishing in the top four now over? Let us know in the comments
"We have to hold our hands up and apologise on behalf of the club to the fans as they were the only ones with the badge who could hold their heads up and say they were Manchester United. My message to them at the end was sorry, because they were class, and they always are while we have to realise talent has never been enough."
However, actions speak louder than words and three years on from the debacle at Goodison nine of the 11 starters remain at the club. Only Chris Smalling and Romelu Lukaku have permanently left the club, with Anthony Martial the other away from Old Trafford on loan with Sevilla.
It’s perhaps tinged with a cruel irony that placing Smalling or Lukaku - however much the latter is struggling at Chelsea - into the 2022 vintage of United would likely improve their miserable recent showings.
But aside from that pair, the same players deemed not good enough are surprise, surprise, just that almost exactly three years on.
In the minutes after that defeat under Solskjaer, a furious Gary Neville ranted "I've often said over the last few seasons if you've got weeds in the garden you've got to get rid of them but there's some Japanese knotweed at that football club and it's attacking the foundations of the house and needs dealing with properly."
If Manchester United are to move forward, whoever is the man to permanently replace Ole Gunnar Solskjaer must finally deliver on the Norwegian’s long overdue promise.
