Manchester United sticks to waiting for something to happen | Erik ten Hag

My favorite Benjamin Disraeli story – in a busy if largely apocryphal field – comes from a dinner the then Prime Minister attended in the late 1970s. There is war raging in the Balkans, and with public opinion overwhelmingly in favor of British intervention, the mood at the table is understandably tense. Finally, a guest, unable to bear the awkward silence any longer, bursts out: “Mr. Disraeli, What are you still waiting?”

“Right now, ma’am,” Disraeli replies, “the potatoes.”

I was thinking a lot about this story on Sunday afternoon during the 0-0 draw at Villa Park, which tells you pretty much everything you need to know about a game defined – to an unusual degree – by waiting. Waiting for United to take a goal kick to André Onana. Wait until Onana decides what to do with the ball. Waiting for the ball to land after another rising clearance. Waiting for corners, free kicks and substitutions.

Five minutes of waiting towards the end for referee Robert Jones to change his VAR radio. Waiting for something to happen, the lightning bolt of divine privilege that would somehow make all the waiting worth it.

Which of course it never did. This is the great thing about football, and especially competitive football: it offers no guarantees. Nothing has to happen. Your hard work is often not rewarded. You don’t always get what you deserve. Most shots miss their target, most attacks fail, most corners come to nothing, most cup runs end in failure and statistically this will almost certainly not be “your year”.

By now, Manchester United’s hierarchy will be aware that this isn’t going to be their year either, not that they had to endure 97 minutes of Midlands coma to find out. Last week, CEO Omar Berrada claimed with a completely straight face that United were targeting the 2027-2028 Premier League title, a target that somehow feels wildly ambitious and wildly unambitious at the same time.

Coach Erik ten Hag made a similar forecast at his press conference here, answering questions about United’s lack of potential and cohesion with a promise that “one day it will click”. And right now, United feels like a club essentially stuck in a pattern, offering reassuring visions of the future as an antidote to the mismanagement of the present.

Waiting for something to click. Waiting because on some level it has convinced itself that waiting has its own intrinsic virtue. Waiting because Alex Ferguson has time, so all United managers must be given time. Wait because these are serious men, and serious men are not in a hurry.

In the meantime, a club stranded in the bottom half of the table must approach these matches with a degree of humility. A point over Aston Villa is an excellent result given the circumstances. Does it tell us much about Ten Hag’s team? Not sure. Villa, perhaps understandably after the sugar rush from Bayern Munich on Wednesday evening, was actually quite poor: cumbersome in the build-up, not creative enough in the United half, the last ball often sad.

In context, we have to recognize that this was a United team set out – above all – not to lose. In defence, Jonny Evans and Harry Maguire were reunited in a surprise tribute to Leicester City’s backline of 2018/19. On the flanks, Marcus Rashford and later Antony were almost auxiliary full-backs at times, more preoccupied with the threat of Lucas Digne than anything they could imagine. Ten Hag’s pride in his fourth clean sheet of the season was a good barometer for his priorities.

And all this is offered not as criticism but merely as observation. Slow, arduous, and often erratic improvements are the only way this festering ghost ship can ever right itself again. Sometimes it will work, sometimes you will draw 0-0 away from home, sometimes Rasmus Højlund will run away from the ball like a scaredy cat for the entire match, and sometimes it will be all three. . Patience is an admirable quality. But let’s not pretend that it benefits you in itself.

United has scheduled a board meeting in London on Tuesday, a planned agenda event that will nevertheless be described in the media as a ‘crunch meeting’, a ‘crisis summit’, ‘Ten Hag bag talks’ and so on. Perhaps if Ten Hag is moved there will also be some focus on the decision to offer him a new contract in July after he spent much of the summer undermining what was left of his authority.

The most likely prescription, on the other hand, is probably to wait a little longer. A little more involvement in the process. A little more steadfast, keeping their focus, sticking to the plan, even if that plan has so far yielded five goals in seven games, a 14th place finish in the table and a centre-back straight out of an ITV2 detective drama.

What are they waiting for? It’s not entirely clear at this point.