No matter what Manchester United do in the final weeks, this season will be their worst in Premier League history.
A 4-1 defeat at Newcastle on Sunday has them 14th in the standings on 38 points with six games left to play.
United have won once in their last five league matches, with the sole victory coming against relegation contenders Leicester City.
And with the season run-in still in full flow, Ruben Amorim’s side will put themselves on the wrong side of the club’s history.
Following the result against Newcastle, United will amass their least ever points tally in the Premier League.
Even if they won their final games – Wolves, Bournemouth, Brentford, West Ham, Chelsea and Aston Villa – they could only reach 56 points.
That tally is two less than the 58 points they won during the 2021/22 season, their worst ever total as of now.
United will also be braced for their worst ever Premier League finish.
Erik ten Hag’s team came eighth last season but there’s currently a ten-point gap between them and Fulham in that final standing.
As well as this, United are on the verge of being mathematically out of the race for a top five finish.
Despite it being unlikely anyway, they’re 17 points adrift and would have to win the Europa League to play Champions League football.
Sunday’s loss at Newcastle is their 115th since the 2013 departure of Sir Alex Ferguson, who fell to 114 Premier League defeats in 26 years.
The defeat led to more vented anger from United legend Roy Keane during his Sky Sports post-match punditry.
“Man United are physically and mentally a weak team. Newcastle were too fast, too powerful and more determined.
“United couldn’t deal with the pace up front from the attacking players and they got what they deserved.
“There was talk before the game on there being good signs for Man United and that they are getting better, but I can’t see it.
“It’s not good enough and I worry for this group of players. They don’t look like a strong group mentally.”
United fans called into talkSPORT afterwards, with Michael giving up on Amorim when he said: “I wouldn’t give this guy the money.
“Amorim, he has to go, because he’s not adaptable, he plays the same guys, same system, and we just get battered and battered, and bruised.
“As much as you can say he’s had players injured, like [Joshua] Zirkzee and all the rest of it, we’re not scoring enough goals, defence isn’t good enough.
“We have no leadership on that pitch, [Leny] Yoro, when he pushed that guy defending one of his own players, where’s the leadership? I don’t care about Bruno Fernandes, he may be the captain but he’s not a leader.”
Rick also said: “Zero faith in this manager going forward. I know you guys have previously said about how he conducts himself and compared to the Spurs manager [Ange Postecoglou], it’s really good.
“But we’re Manchester United, we shouldn’t be comparing ourselves to Spurs. This guy, this manager Ruben, every time we don’t win a game, he’s always saying, ‘My mistake, this player’s mistake, we made a lot of mistakes.’
“The reason the players are making the mistakes is because they don’t know the system they’re playing, this system will expose you when you don’t get it right compared to other systems.
“The other thing is as well, he’s put in [Altay] Bayindir today, we know he’s not even good enough to be a third-choice Manchester United goalkeeper, and we haven’t got competition there for [Andre] Onana.
“So, of course Onana is going to think, ‘It’s alright if I have a bad game because I’m going to get picked the next game.’ Then he’s going on, talking about, ‘I didn’t play Onana because the cameras are going to be on him.’
“What the… We don’t want to hear these excuses, we’re getting fed up of it. I hope this club do not give him the transfer kitty in the summer, he will put us into a further decline.”
Amongst a dismal Premier League campaign, United could somehow salvage their season by winning the Europa League.
They drew 2-2 late on against Lyon in their first leg last week and will play the second leg at Old Trafford on Thursday, live on talkSPORT.
United will then meet either Rangers or Athletic Bilbao in a potential season-defining semi-final clash.
