If that sounds alarmist, these are David Moyes's words, not mine. Speaking after his side slumped to defeat against West Brom on Saturday, the Scot said solemnly:
"I dont think it was just the one department where we were lacking. It was the whole thing. We were lacklustre in nearly all areas. We should be defending better and we should be scoring more from open play. We just couldnt do it at either end of the pitch and when you look at the amount of possession we had in the first half, we didnt create enough."
The problem isn't just that United's defence are aged and ragged, that their midfield is far too often found bereft of creativity and that they rely too much on Robin van Persie, it's all of the above. There are problems all over the pitch, and though this is the same side that won the title with ease last season, it's also an average one that Sir Alex Ferguson somehow managed to squeeze another championship out of. And that leads me to my final point.