Man United are three games into the Europa League, without a win. Yet somehow, Erik ten Hag is desperately pointing at positives.
There is a fine line between hopeful optimism and toxic optimism. Unfortunately, there is little to be optimistic about with Man United, so any attempt at optimism is inherently toxic.
Man United won in the Premier League last weekend. However, this is more than what can be said of their entire Europa League campaign so far. Three games in and zero European wins.
Granted, Man United is also yet to lose a game in Europe. However, considering they have picked up just three points from three games, this is not a good showing. At this rate, they won't even automatically qualify for the knockouts.
Erik ten Hag points at positives in Man United's bad Europa League form
Speaking after the draw against Fenerbahce, Erik ten Hag addressed the positives before he addressed the negatives. He claimed it to be a "result" by getting a point against Porto and Fenerbahce.
In his own words, Erik ten Hag said: “Two points away vs Fenerbahçe and Porto, it’s a result. But of course we want to win these games. We want to win every game”.
Naturally, Man United fans are starting to doubt whether Man United wants to win every game. If they did, they would naturally win more games than they are winning.
After all, this team is constantly compared to the Man United of the past. Moreover, they are looked at with disdain for their inability to match even half of the ambition Man United players showed in their glory days.
The affordance of the new Europa League format is that Man United play another five group games, rather than another three games like the previous format. If Man United generated this amount of points after three gameslast season, they would really need to panic.
Next up in the Europa League, Man United faces PAOK. If three points are not picked up in this match, they must hit the panic button. If they haven't already, of course.