The usual ghosts came back to haunt Manchester United in their Champion’s League game against Basel.

They failed to score from numerous chances in the first half then let the opposition back into the game in the second half.

The problem was that the players, possibly in collusion with their manager, possibly not, decided to play for a draw too early in the game.

As we have warned on many occasions, playing for a draw is a very dangerous game. Usually one of the teams will score in the last five minutes meaning that playing for the draw has failed. It is also quite often that the team playing for the draw is the one who concedes the goal and it is invariably too late to reply.

This was United’s downfall as woeful defending allowed Basel to score in the 89th minute – and it is a very rare thing for Romero to concede a goal. The Argentinian goalkeeper will not be happy with the lack of responsible defending in the build-up to the goal.

It was particularly unfortunate for Marcos Rojo who had been the man of the match and looked to be the one United defender who could keep Basel at bay. This wasn’t to be the case as he was surrounded by incompetence.

Matteo Darmian was frequently caught miles out of position, as was the donkey known as Chris Smalling, who was often on the outside of his right back! How this pair have a present at the club, never mind a future, is beyond mere mortals such as I.

As is becoming the case on a regular basis now the defence in general was a shambles and it becomes more and more evident that it is only the organisational skills of José Mourinho which prevents them from conceding more goals.

Yet again, the right-back was an international left-back, the left-back was a defensive midfielder, one centre back has just returned from months out with a cruciate injury and the other centre back has decided he is a brilliant defender having just been left out of the England squad. This was the same defender who allowed the ball to go through his legs for the Basel goal.

Hopefully, this was Manchester United’s off-day in Europe and they won’t play this badly again. If they do so and it happens in the knockout stage then they will be exactly that…..knocked out!

As things now stand, United only need to avoid a defeat by seven goals or more by CSKA Moscow at Old Trafford in a fortnight and they will qualify for the next stage.

When this happens, as it surely will, they will be into the business end of the tournament. They cannot afford another game like this one no matter who provides the opposition.

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