Manchester United supporters were given another bitter reality check as the full-time whistle rung around a shell-shocked Old Trafford on Monday night.
Under the guidance of interim manager Ralf Rangnick, there have been glimmers of improvement from a straight-talking coach who is well aware of the issues at the club that go beyond the personnel on the pitch.
Despite the fact that the charismatic 'godfather of German football' has been able to talk the talk since his arrival late last year, he has yet to walk the walk with a comfortable victory that has shown his principles put into practice.
Joao Moutinho's late winner and the agony that followed looked like it would be the lowest point of United's night, but the worse was yet to come when Wolves manager Bruno Lage spoke to the press following his side's win.
In a short, snappy three-minute interview, the Portuguese dissected the match and explained in simple terms just why his side had found it so easy to play against a star-studded United team that failed to get going.
"The most important thing for us is to see where the full-backs are," the Wolves boss told Sky Sports. "To find the spaces, when they are defending and when they are attacking, to see where they are."
While many coaches would stop at that simple observation, Lage instead decided to go into deeper detail, treating the post-match media chat like it was a debrief with his trusted assistants — an insightful piece of analysis, which shed light on how rival sides view United under Rangnick.
The Wolves manager continued: "If you look in the first half, when they are defending and trying to block - I saw it from the bench - they have [Edinson] Cavani trying to block Ruben [Neves], Cristiano Ronaldo trying to control [Conor] Coady and the wingers inside.
"So the space is outside. That’s why Semedo and Marcal had a lot of chances and a lot of ball in the first half and the boys found those spaces.
"That’s why it’s so important when you have the ball to know where the space is and when they are defending, if Trincao and Podence understand that if the full-backs are in front of them or, if they go, it is not your man, so control the space inside.
"That’s why it was so important that we work hard on these questions, the players understood the plan and we deserved the three points."
It would be hard to find any United fan who doesn't agree that Wolves deserved the win on Monday night, but their biggest concern will not be about a shock home defeat, but rather the fact that the west midlanders were so confident they could get something from the game.
Heading into the match, United pedalled the narrative that they were still unbeaten under Rangnick, but now the perception is very much of a side who have failed to win in three of their first six matches with him in charge.
Once again, it is important to note football isn't played on paper, but for a side that was supposed to seriously challenge for the title this season, dropping points away to Newcastle, at home to Wolves and scraping past Norwich simply isn't good enough.
Rangnick responded after the game by stressing "he always knew it would be a difficult job" before fighting his own corner and reiterating "there was a reason why United had contacted" him in the first place.
There is still plenty of time for the experienced coach to come good on his rebuilding of United, but a month into the job, it remains a huge area of concern that opposition managers find it so simple to disrupt the opposing threat and implement their own game plan at a perceived leisure.
With so many of United's problems continuing despite a change of manager, it is clear the players need to take the brunt of the blame for failing to stabilise a struggling season, but once again it will be Rangnick who ultimately pays the price.
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