There were still more than five minutes to go in surely the first half of football ever played by a United team, when the visiting fans struck up what is becoming an all-too-familiar chorus.<br /><br />“You’re not fit to wear the shirt,” they sang. And when that shirt is the hideous new green one they were sporting for the first time, that’s saying something.<br /><br />Back in the good old days, Sir Alex Ferguson ordered his team to ditch their hard-to-pick-out grey kit when they trailed 3-0 at half-time to Southampton.<br /><br />But a game that ended in a 3-1 defeat back in April 1996 did not stop United going on to win the Double.<br /><br />Only two games into this campaign, and you can be sure that won’t be happening this season or for the foreseeable future.<br /><br />That is to take nothing away from Brentford.<br /><br />The Bees were Thomas Frankly brilliant and ruthless in putting Ten Hag’s men to the sword.<br /><br />Josh Dasilva, Mathias Jensen, Ben Mee and Bryan Mbeumo scored the four first-half goals for a home side that was superior in every department.<br /><br />But United were the architects of their own downfall.<br /><br />David De Gea was at fault for the opening two goals.<br /><br />After letting Dasilva’s shot go through him for the first, he played Christian Eriksen into trouble for the second on a very unhappy return for the Dane to the club that helped his resurrect his career.<br /><br />United teams of the past, when the heat was on, would have stayed cool and plotted a way back into the game.<br /><br />This dismal crop wilted in the West London heat like a bouquet of cheap flowers from a garage.<br /><br />The big difference being, of course, that United have spent hundreds of millions assembling this motley crew.<br /><br />And they will have to spend hundreds of millions more to have any chance whatsoever of returning to where they believe they belong.<br /><br />Of course, Ten Hag deserves time to try to succeed where everyone since Ferguson has failed.<br /><br />But if he is having as much say in the transfer policy as is believed, then he has to take some responsibility for his predicament.<br /><br />After the historic, limp home defeat by Brighton, the only significant change he could make was to restore Ronaldo to the starting line-up.<br /><br />Ten Hag brought in the man who wants out for Scott McTominay.
