The shadow of Denis Law once more darkens Old Trafford, and it has nothing to do with a statue cast in bronze.
More than the goals he scored in the service of the red shirt, it was the one he back-heeled into United’s net for the blue of Manchester City which the club’s gathering crisis evokes.
That harrowing blow at the Scoreboard End half a century ago sent Manchester United into the second tier, just six years after winning the European Cup for the first time.
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Read MoreNo-one thought the standard bearers of the English game might be vulnerable to such a fate, yet by failing to address decline quickly or thoroughly enough, United proved as fallible as the rest.
The spectre of a repeat is raised not by inflammatory reports in the media but by the man brought into to save them, the bright young thing of Portuguese football, Ruben Amorim.
“We have to be clear with our fans,” he said. “I’m really concerned.
“If you see the league, it’s really tough and every team has the possibility to win games. We have to be honest with our supporters and, especially, our players.”
The likeable, softly spoken coach has a vision for the way the game should be played that is at variance with the outcomes delivered by his team.
He recognises the dangers. Indeed he claimed after the 2-0 home defeat to Newcastle that the horror of a third consecutive defeat at home was a necessary part of the process, a cattle prod on the nose that might alert the club to the reality it faces.
“I’m responsible,” he said. “I don’t like to arrive here and make excuses. I think people are tired of excuses at this club.
“I talk about relegation because of that. I think our club needs a shock and we have to understand that. It’s a very difficult moment and we have to fight for our lives.”
The question is: how should he respond to the inherited mess when married to a way of seeing the game that in the short term has not only failed to produce results but is deepening the mess?
Though United were initially more cohesive defensively, the inability to function as an attacking unit has gradually cancelled the gains made, draining confidence with it.
He points out that the old system, and the players acquired to function in it by predecessor Erik ten Hag, failed to take United forward. To repeat those failures by operating the same way would be ridiculous. So, he says, he must continue to change the method.
He insists it is not necessarily about systems, but about understanding how the game should be played, developing an instinct for an adaptable system that he has shown to be successful elsewhere. A crude interpretation of that is presented as three at the back with wingbacks either side of a midfield two, so a 3-4-3 system.
Joshua Zirkzee was substituted after 33 minutes (Photo: Getty)Amorim counters that it is more subtle and fluid than that, allowing for shifts in shape and formation.
“It doesn’t matter if you are three, with five or with four if you know the basics and if you can train that idea. I see the game this way. I have to teach what I know.”
All good as far as it goes. But Amorim is subject to the same rigours as any visionary. His principles must meet the challenge of matchday, and at this juncture they are not passing the test.
United have appointed a theorist, a man intent on teaching United a new language of football.
Yet, at the moment at least, they can barely string a sentence together. This is not a challenge to be solved intellectually, but a visceral examination that requires a pragmatist’s touch. Amorim must find a way to adapt or face the consequences.
As Jamie Carragher made plain in his role as Sky pundit, Amorim is compromised by players with the wrong DNA. Diogo Dalot cannot function as an attacking wingback on the left, a situation replicated on the right by Noussair Mazraoui. Both are by instinct defenders who repeatedly fail to respond to the cues from deep when possession is regained.
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Read MoreUnited simply have no way of consistently applying pressure on the opponent’s goal. In Amorim’s early games he was successful in shoring up the middle, making United less porous whilst controlling possession, albeit passively.
But once undone, by set pieces or teams targeting a weakness in the air, the likes of Arsenal, Spurs, Wolves, and latterly Newcastle have increasingly stripped United bare.
The Newcastle experience reached a new nadir, Amorim forced to cull the maladroit Johsua Zirkzee, a striker who has come to symbolise the many mis-steps taken by the club, after barely half an hour. While Amorim should be commended for acting quickly, the question is begged how Zirkzee was ever considered selectable?
Brutally chastened by the Newcastle evisceration, Amorim faces more shock treatment at Liverpool, the most vibrant expression of the old game anywhere in Europe. More than a system, Amorim needs players he can trust, someone to take responsibility, to fight. If that means picking Marcus Rashford, so be it.
Zirkzee’s replacement Kobbie Mainoo changed the mood, putting behind him a series of indifferent displays with a performance that might be regarded as Herculean. Suddenly the three-line whip of Bruno Guimaraes, Joelinton and Sandro Tonali were taking punches.
And with the suspended Manuel Ugarte and Bruno Fernandes available at Anfield, Amorim has more to work with.
Necessary as both are, neither will be sufficient if strapped to a dogma conjuring distant visions of the Lawman dispensing football justice.
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