The Anatomy of a Disaster: Breaking Down Manchester United's Collapse at Chelsea

On Sunday, Manchester United put up a display to rival any of the worst performances of the David Moyes and Louis van Gaal eras. For Red Devils fans, it was utterly dispiriting to see how ill-equipped the side was to deal with adversity, how total their collapse was under not particularly intense pressure.

Chelsea did not have to be at anything like their best to cut through United's back line like a razor-sharp, super-heated knife through a pat of room-temperature butter and emerge with a 4-0 victory. Stamford Bridge will not play host to many such gracious guests between now and season's end.

And all this came about with a United side that had been theoretically set up to form a solid defensive unit, as it had done against Liverpool. The only change from the side, which had often played as a back six at Anfield, was Jesse Lingard replacing Ashley Young—a fairly like-for-like change in terms of defensive contribution.

The whole thing was set up for the bus to be parked once again.

However, it took less than a minute for the script to need a dramatic rewrite. United's defensive resilience against their bitter north-west rivals was replaced by a total meltdown here.

Pedro made a simple run in behind the Red Devils defence. Daley Blind—in at left-back for Luke Shaw, who had impressed in the Europa League on Thursday—abandoned his runner. Chris Smalling briefly checked his run, assuming Blind would be cleaning up behind him.

David De Gea, for reasons that were hard to fathom, even after several replays, completely misread the situation and United were 1-0 down.

Moments later, Gary Neville remarked on Sky Sports' coverage that Marouane Fellaini and Paul Pogba were both playing ahead of Ander Herrera—meaning United were set up in a more traditional 4-3-3 than they had been at Anfield.

Whether that was the plan all along or a reaction to the goal, it did not work. At all.

"

The Daley Blind Fullback Experience has been especially experiential recently

— Michael Caley (@MC_of_A) October 23, 2016"

For a little while after Chelsea's opener, the game looked like it would settle into a more normal, competitive encounter than it ended up being.

United's defence was clearly supposed to have a flexible shape. Smalling, for example, followed Diego Costa into Chelsea's half when the striker dropped deep and pressed him when he received the ball.

The first sustained period of Chelsea possession saw United shape themselves into a back five rather than the back six that had shown itself against Liverpool. Marcus Rashford tucked in with the ball over on his side, but Lingard remained up the pitch in position to press.

The sense that this could be a competitive encounter did not last long. There were almost immediately warnings of what was to come. Chelsea won their first corner—United had all 11 men back and still struggled a little to clear the ball.

After 12 minutes came the first sighting of the true back six. A line formed from Rashford (on the left this time) across to Lingard on the right.

Chelsea still won a corner, and again it was clear something was wrong. Somehow, Eden Hazard ended up with the ball at his feet, completely unmarked by the penalty spot. When the second goal came, United could not claim they had not been warned.

Both wingers were playing the whole length of the pitch, an extremely demanding role. Rashford tracked back well to break up Victor Moses' counter-attack, but the amount of defensive responsibility on his and Lingard's shoulders at 1-0 down seemed unbalanced.

Both are hard-working and intelligent players, but neither is a defender. Less than two minutes later, Pedro found space between Rashford and Blind. Costa only just failed to find him with a backheel. All the solidity United had mustered against Liverpool had collapsed. It looked like a matter of time until they would be breached again.

And it was. After 20 minutes, United's response to Chelsea's possession was to retreat into a back six again. At 1-0 down, it made little sense. It was also remarkably ineffective.

Chelsea won a corner, and the warning shots that had been fired from the first couple went unheeded. Antonio Valencia's weak near-post clearing header ricocheted off Herrera. Smalling turned his back on the ball as if he had misread the situation as physically dangerous.

Gary Cahill, whom Smalling had been marking, thus had as much room as any player could ever have wished for.

Everything United boss Jose Mourinho had put in place had been torn down within the first 21 minutes.

After 25 minutes, De Gea was forced to save United from even more embarrassment following another terrible individual error from Blind. The Dutchman vastly overestimated how much time he had on the ball, was closed down by Pedro and only the 'keeper's reaction prevented another goal.

In the consequent passage of play, Hazard spun Blind inside out. The bounce of the ball was all that kept Costa at bay.

At 2-0 down, United were a total and utter shambles. Eric Bailly took a booking less than five minutes later, when Herrera passed the ball backward toward no one in a red shirt. Costa pounced, and Bailly did what he had to in order to stop the chaos descending even further.

Things settled down as United kept possession for much of the ensuing spell, but a few minutes before half-time, Hazard created danger with a mazy run down the left. Smalling just about did enough to put Costa off when the ball came to him. Blind finally made a positive defensive contribution by clearing United's lines.

That was probably the best thing either of them did in a game that made them both look unfit for top-level football. Everyone has an off day, but this was beyond that. The game exposed their individual weaknesses in spectacular fashion.

"

Fellaini came away from this fine and Bailly is seriously injured. I don't have time. pic.twitter.com/ue1FFVlRg6

— Nicole ΑΩ (@NickiDupre) October 23, 2016"

There was, almost inevitably, one more chance before half-time. Bailly tussled with Costa in the box, looked to have lost out during the duel but then put in a decent tackle. By the end of the game, the Ivorian, United's one in-form defender, had gone off with what Mourinho described as "a bad injury," per BBC Sport. As if the result and the performance were not bad enough.

By the end of the first half, it seemed reasonable to assume the worst was over. It was a terrible 45 minutes of defending—easily as bad as United had performed since the 3-1 loss at Watford in September. But surely Mourinho could shore things up during the interval? Surely the next 45 could not be as bad?

The first five minutes of the second half saw a reorganised United side emerge, reshaped into 4-4-2 with Juan Mata on for Fellaini and moved to the right flank. But once again, chances were conceded.

Costa was a long way offside when he put the ball in the net following a corner, but the Red Devils' defending was hardly convincing. Hazard then worked another opening, with his mazy run being laid off by Costa for Pedro. The shot went over the bar, but it was more of the same.

Bailly's injury meant the arrival of Marcos Rojo. No one other than Chelsea fans and relatives of the Argentina international wanted to see that. His first notable contribution was to give the ball away thanks to a sloppy pass in an advanced position. Smalling did well to prevent the four-on-two counter-attack resulting in another Chelsea goal by blocking Hazard's shot.

The Blues' third goal, though, came from more poor United defending. Hazard lost the attentions of both Mata and Valencia with a simple one-two. The Belgian's quality was such that he was never likely to miss.

As Neville pointed out on Sky Sports' commentary, this was not a case of United getting caught on the counter, as had nearly happened moments earlier. This was the Red Devils in position. Still, they could not muster anything approaching top-level defensive play.

The unit that had worked so well against Liverpool had essentially turned into a joke.

Nothing summed it up better than De Gea's "Oh my goodness! What is even the point anymore?" facial expression after N'Golo Kante's solo effort for Chelsea's fourth. "Garbage defending," was how Neville described Pogba and Herrera's contributions. He suggested Kante's run was "like he was playing against mannequins on the training pitch." He was not much wrong.

The lack of pressure on the ball from the midfielders was poor, but Smalling did nothing to improve matters. Indeed, while he was not necessarily the only culprit for any of the goals, the England international made at least a minor mistake on every one.

He failed to catch that Blind had lost his man for the first, turned his back in the wake of the deflection off Herrera for the second, did not close down Hazard quickly enough when he was alone in the box for the third and allowed Kante to shoot uncontested for the fourth.

And he was supposed to be United's senior defender.

It is only one game, and maybe, just maybe, this was an off day. But it does not feel like that.

"

i can't get over how terrible Chris Smalling was yesterday. it wasn't an anomaly either. his 2016 form hasn't come close to his 2015.

— Adam Joseph (@AdamJosephSport) October 24, 2016"

The defensive unit is not much changed from Van Gaal's time in charge. This game was reminiscent of the 3-0 losses at Arsenal and Tottenham Hotspur last season when, in the first moments of uncertainty, the first time the defenders fluffed their lines, their confidence collapsed and they suffered a collective emotional meltdown.

In the most reductive terms, United just lost it at Stamford Bridge. The early goal destroyed their confidence. Mourinho told Sky Sports: "We made incredible defensive mistakes."

Incredible was right.

What is entirely unclear is where the team goes from here. The Liverpool game, while hardly thrilling as an encounter, seemed to indicate that the squad was adapting to Mourinho's instructions. Perhaps the Chelsea game will prove in time to have been a blip, but there have been an awful lot of blips already.

Mourinho's task of transforming United looks as daunting as it ever has.