Manchester United's woes continued on Wednesday evening as Erik ten Hag's men kicked off their Champions League campaign with a 4-3 defeat away to German giants Bayern Munich, with reported summer target Harry Kane inevitably among the scorers for the home side on the night.
While there were positives to take from the performance for the former Ajax boss, the narrow margin of the scoreline did somewhat flatter the visitors, with Andre Onana's goal having been peppered throughout as the Bundesliga side had 19 shots in total.
How did Onana perform against Bayern?
It was a night to forget for United's summer signing, with the 27-year-old taking a leaf out of the David De Gea playbook by producing what can only be described as a "howler", as per journalist, Samuel Luckhurst, after failing to deal with Leroy Sane's rather innocuous effort midway through the first half.
That high-profile blunder appeared to shift the momentum in favour of Thomas Tuchel's men as Serge Gnabry then struck just minutes later, with the German having been afforded the freedom of the penalty area to slot home – in a similar vein to Danny Welbeck's weekend strike.
In Onana's defence, however, there was little that he could have done about Harry Kane's subsequent penalty nor Mathys Tel's late rocket, with the Cameroonian stopper at least recovering to make a handful of notable saves after the break.
Of course, the former Inter Milan man will need to sharpen up following a shaky start to his United career – having conceded three or more goals in each of the last three games – yet it is fair to say that he is hardly receiving support from those ahead of him, including the sluggish Christian Eriksen.
How did Eriksen play against Bayern?
The Dane's most notable contribution saw him harshly penalised for handball after compatriot Rasmus Hojlund had offered some hope with his first goal for the club, with the 31-year-old's former Tottenham Hotspur teammate Kane ruthlessly dispatching from the spot.
While that harsh penalty decision may have been little fault of Eriksen, the experienced playmaker had squandered possession prior to that with United high up the pitch which ultimately led to the conceding of a corner and the subsequent spot-kick.
Such woes in possession were evident throughout his limp showing as the £150k-per-week asset lost the ball on ten occasions from his 46 touches, having been dubbed a "passenger" by journalist Liam Canning in the centre of the park.
As Canning also noted, both Eriksen and two-goal enigma, Casemiro were "overrun" in midfield after being dribbled past twice and five times, respectively, with the former also failing to win a single duel as a sign of his lack of physicality.
Perhaps most frustrating of all, however, was the one-time Brentford man's inability to find the back of the net in the early knockings of the game after firing an effort straight at Sven Ulreich, as he was simply 'not clinical enough' – according to Luckhurst for Manchester Evening News.
In truth, it was a night in which Eriksen simply 'got another chasing from another midfield', in the words of Luckhurst, with that evidenced by his dismal 5.6 match rating, as per Sofascore, a record that was by far the worst of any player for either side – including Onana (7.0).
While Ten Hag had little choice but to persist with the ageing maestro due to the club's mounting injury woes, the hope will be that changes will be made once both Sofyan Amrabat and Mason Mount are finally fit to feature.
As the aforementioned Canning stated, the Old Trafford outfit need that latter duo "up to speed as soon as possible" if the recent rut is to be improved upon.