At these moments, we, as football journalists, are supposed to have new and original things to say. Yet by now, you have heard it all before.

Yes, we know…[writer Adam Crafton then recites nine previously-given reasons for Man-U’s performance yesterday.]

So, yes, we know it all. We have heard it all. We have seen it all. And yet, somehow, each week manages to conjure a new sense of stupefying shock.
…
Yet even by United’s standards, this had been a staggering 25-minute ordeal…

…In the director’s box, United’s chief executive Richard Arnold stared on, speechless…

Whatever the tactical or technical deficiencies of the players and coaching staff may be — and there were plenty here — it is also true that United lack so many of those intangibles that define great teams. …an absence of leadership, organisation, accountability and togetherness in the United line-up.
…
Yet here United are again, with a cataclysm on their hands. And we can only begin to imagine the strain of panic that may now ensue…

That was an excellent start to an article on Man-U and I had high hopes Adam Crafton would write something original but alas he did not. He wrote because he gets paid to write, just as United’s players played because they get paid to play. That sort of says it all.