Manchester United were facing being dumped out of the Champions League in unceremonious fashion after a disastrous first half in Germany. A late rally might have been enough to reduce the embarrassment of the scoreline but it did nothing to spare the blushes of all who witnessed what a gulf in class there were between the two sides.

Events in Paris mean United’s fate is delayed for 24 hours but they will surely find themselves playing in the Europa League after the turn of the year.

As usual, United’s core problems were present as they shot themselves in the foot and capitulated in a manner we have come to expect.

Many supporters have commented about what could convince the Glazer family to go and some have flirted with the subject of relegation. United are far too ordinary to go down – and yet, whilst you would be staggered if some of these players represented the club at this level again, in a certain sense it would not be a surprise.

It was a sad and sorry state of affairs – and yet most apt – to see the problems that have afflicted the club since the start of the season, and last, come back to undermine their chances of progression in a tournament that has defined the fate of every post-Ferguson manager under the hypocritical regime that will do nothing to properly back a manager once they get there.

Say what you want about Louis van Gaal and Jose Mourinho’s tactics. Say what you want about the job being too big for David Moyes and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer. But one of United’s proudest traditions was pioneering in this tournament and seeing that reduced to a piggy bank for greedy owners is a bastardisation of what the club is supposed to stand for.

Solskjaer is not the first manager to suffer the fate of qualifying for the tournament under the pressure that he must in order to retain employment, only to find that there is no actual ambition to move on from that stage. It could not be any clearer how badly the ownership has affected the club than on a night like tonight.

It is a shame and a farce that United went into this year’s tournament with a squad like this; a decision that is on the owners. It will do nothing to impact their decision to retain control of the club but in years to come it will be remembered as one of the darkest periods in the history of the club.

United got off to the worst possible start; Sabitzer played a ball into a dangerous space but Wan-Bissaka was much too late to react. Angelino, the on-loan Man City player, was there at the back post and did well with his strike across De Gea to make it 1-0 within two minutes. As poor as Wan-Bissaka was, he was also trying to stop the blind spot of Lindelof, who had also managed to somehow catch himself on the wrong side of his attacker.

Solskjaer was joking at the weekend that his team were only one down as opposed to two as they were at Southampton; but they were two down in the 13th minute when Haidara converted Angelino’s cross. Solskjaer had planned for safety with numbers – at some stage he is going to have to learn that this strategy only really works when those numbers have the requisite quality. 

Suddenly the extra centre back and extra holding midfielder that United ought to have signed in the summer were notable by their absence.

But the defenders that Ole has signed were not doing themselves any favours, in particular Wan-Bissaka, who was caught out again by Angelino and was lucky that Forsberg made a mess of the cross. 

The former Palace man also made a mess of controlling the ball soon after and the hosts won a corner. From it, they hit the post, but Orban took advantage of the generous defending – just as at West Ham, the United contingent somehow managed to contrive to give the Leipzig attack all the time and space they wanted and Orban was unmarked in the six yard box to tap in. United could breathe a huge sigh of relief that the goal was ruled out after a VAR check.

They were relieved to get to half-time just two goals behind, though any realistic hope of a similar comeback to the weekend would have had to have been put into perspective by the fact they were up against one of last season’s semi-finalists in this competition. 

It has started to feel as if Solskjaer is falling into the trap of believing this United team are better than they are, and that much certainly felt true after a sobering first half where the idea of cautious pragmatism was almost immediately tore apart. The squad’s quality is not in defence and putting the emphasis there only heightens the sense of jeopardy.

At half-time, Van De Beek – a player who has signed not knowing exactly what scenario he has been bought for – was brought on for Telles. No response was coming, so Pogba and Williams were brought on, too.

United came into some form of life in the 67th minute when Fernandes struck the bar with a free-kick. But no sooner did they look like they might be back in the game, than they were out of it – another cross from the right this time was inexplicably missed by Maguire. Justin Kluivert could not believe his luck with all the space in the world to cleverly finish.

Then came the unlikely hope. Greenwood won a penalty – and won is most definitely generous, after it appeared he was at least as guilty of the foul – and Fernandes converted. Four minutes later, Pogba’s header was deflected off Maguire’s header and then off a home defender into the net.

Unfortunately that was the rally – and late efforts from McTominay and Fernandes were rash and optimistic. United were defeated and now face a demoralising wait to see what happens in Paris tomorrow. Regardless of the result in France, and regardless of the fact two of the group teams were last year’s semi-finalists, this has been an embarrassing process for a club that simply failed to adequately prepare and got what they deserved.

Selection

Predictably Paul Pogba’s name was the one most mentioned prior to kick off, but his omission, whilst newsworthy, shouldn’t have been a surprise nor should it have been something to be held against the manager.

There was some criticism that Solskjaer was too cautious with his selection but considering the occasion it made sense to show some pragmatism. Maybe, though, it was too much. And, as has been repeated to the point of exhaustion on these pages, there is no safety with numbers as far as United are concerned. More defenders means more trouble. It seems like United are the only team who can field seven pragmatic players and still give opponents the freedom of the opposition box.

If Ole is not responsible for the performance of the players he is responsible for the selection of them and he should know better by now. He is implicated in the mess and judging by the way the board reacts, he is likely to be facing the consequences if results keep matching performances.

Ratings 

De Gea 4

Wan-Bissaka 3

Lindelof 3

Maguire 4

Shaw 4

Telles 5

Matic 4

McTominay 4

Fernandes 6

Rashford 5

Greenwood 5

Subs :

Van De Beek 5

Pogba 5

Williams 5

Tuanzebe

Fosu-Mensah