Can anything be salvaged from Man United’s mess of a season?

Visiting managers used to joke that they would be happy to win even a corner kick at Old Trafford, such was Manchester United’s aura of invincibility in their famous stadium. The atmosphere was both pulsating and hostile; it helped that over the years, United had the likes of George Best, Bobby Charlton, Denis Law, Mark Hughes, Ruud van Nistelrooy, Eric Cantona, Wayne Rooney, Andy Cole and Ryan Giggs (plus many more) to call upon to torment opposing defences.

It was generally accepted that most players would walk to the ground on broken glass if they were offered the chance to sign for one of the most famous clubs on the planet.

United won 13 of the first 21 editions of the Premier League under Sir Alex Ferguson; since then, they’ve not won a title in 11 seasons, signaling a decay and decline that shows no signs of ending. Long gone is United’s power to intimidate opponents. Indeed, these days visitors waltz into town with a smile on their faces and hope in their hearts. This season Liverpool, Tottenham Hotspur and AFC Bournemouth have all won 3-0 at Old Trafford; Brighton & Hove Albion triumphed 3-1; Nottingham Forest 3-2; Crystal Palace and Newcastle United both 2-0.

The inescapable conclusion is that Manchester United, languishing in 14th place, are just not very good. They are 10 points off seventh place — the least they would need to achieve to earn European football via their league position.

After Sunday’s debacle at home to Fulham in the FA Cup fifth round, United’s only remaining “get-out-of-jail-free” card is the Europa League. Winning that competition would put them into the Champions League next season, which is why their round-of-16 tie this week against Real Sociedad is crucial to their entire season.

But only a supreme optimist would bet on United in any given game, such has been their laboriously unconvincing form.

United have a new ownership model, with Sir Jim Ratcliffe’s INEOS company in charge of football operations, yet their takeover has descended into something of a public relations calamity with bad results on the pitch, and — after five years of losses on the balance sheet — attempts to streamline costs that look more like penny-pinching. It’s fair to say that with 450 recent redundancies, and no more free lunches for staff at Old Trafford, the mood is downbeat.

Amid all this, manager Ruben Amorim (who replaced the sacked Erik ten Hag in November) is trying to plot a path through the debris of United’s season. He is amiable, charming and charismatic but often cuts an embarrassed and frustrated figure kneeling on the sidelines, with head in hands, as he witnesses yet another limp display. Whatever he is doing on the training ground, it is not working yet.

There is no doubting Amorim’s pedigree. At Sporting CP, he delivered two league titles in four years — for a club that had not been champions since 2002 — and won two league cups. His team played attractively as he racked up a record of 163 wins, 34 draws, and only 33 losses. He wanted the United job, though would have preferred to start in the summer with a chance to work with the squad over a long preseason. In November, he was told it was now or never.

Amorim told reporters he “wanted to do something special at a special club,” but apart from a dramatic late win at Manchester City in the derby and a penalty shootout FA Cup triumph at Arsenal, there have been precious few signs of United looking anything other than ordinary. A 3-2 win over Ipswich Town last week, while playing with 10 men, was a sign at least of some character and fight.

The manager is devoted to the 3-4-3 system he used so well at Sporting, but so far in the Premier League it has produced four wins, three draws and eight defeats. Does he have the players to make the system work? Should he try something different tactically, remembering that Antonio Conte’s Chelsea are the only team to win the Premier League playing with three at the back? Or is there a deep-rooted and harder to solve mentality problem in a dressing room which has proved difficult for some time now? These questions are at the heart of the United debate.

As Amorim has said, recruitment also needs to be better. Antony’s €95 million signing from Ajax Amsterdam is a candidate for worst deal in Premier League history and he has since been loaned to Real Betis. Rasmus Højlund, who joined United for €75m from Atalanta, has two goals in 22 league games this season. Casemiro’s arrival cost a similar fee even though he was the wrong side of 30 and can no longer be the midfield giant he was at Real Madrid. Indeed, a lack of energy and legs in central midfield has been a glaring issue in Amorim’s system, while concerns remain about Harry Maguire’s lack of pace in central defence if opposition forwards get in behind him.

Long-term injuries to defenders Luke Shaw and Lisandro Martínez and excellent attacker Amad Diallo have been damaging; Kobbie Mainoo, the young England midfielder, has been in and out of the team; Leny Yoro, the teenage defender whose transfer from Lille cost €62m, is yet to truly settle. Other new arrivals such as Matthijs de Ligt, Noussair Mazraoui and Manuel Ugarte have done alright without threatening to change the course of United’s season. Striker Joshua Zirkzee has had his moments, but is he ready to be a United star? The only other striking option is 17-year-old Chido Obi, who once scored 10 goals in a youth-team game for Arsenal, and is a big hope for brighter times ahead. Will he soon be preferred to the toiling Højlund?

Then there is Alejandro Garnacho, whose pace and electricity changed the fourth-round FA Cup tie against Leicester City. On that form he has to play, given how he injected some much-needed menace, even though as a wide player he does not exactly fit the Amorim preference for two No. 10 types tucked in behind Højlund. What has happened since that Leicester tie sums up the frustrations with Garnacho. He missed some big chances in the defeat at Spurs, and then stormed off down the tunnel in a strop after being sacrificed by Amorim once Patrick Dorgu was sent off against Ipswich. Diplomatically, Amorim said he was “wet” and needed to get showered and changed. No point making a crisis out of a drama.

Bruno Fernandes is easily United’s best player and surely always has to be used nearer goal as a No. 10 to maximise his threat. Though whether he is the right captain for the club might be more of a debate.

So what now for United? The best-case scenario is that the penny drops for Amorim with the players, and they end a horrible season with some silverware and a backdoor route into Europe. But this could get ugly if United crash out of against Sociedad. There is a strong feeling that they want this season over so they can give this squad a re-tread and get them in tune with Amorim’s 3-4-3 during the course of a very important summer.

It is too early to talk of the manager being under pressure. This is not yet his team and he probably needs two or three transfer windows, though he also has to give the fans more reasons to believe with some more fluent football and better results. That said, it was hard to see the sense in Amorim’s astonishing assertion that “this is maybe the worst Manchester United team ever” following a January loss to Brighton.

Was that meant to jolt the players into life or lower expectations on him? Either way, it was unlikely to do much for the team’s already fragile confidence. If Amorim really thought what he said, perhaps he would have been better keeping it to himself.

The club recently unveiled its “Project 21” aimed at signing emergent talent and moulding a new United ready to claim their 21st title in three years’ time. Stranger things have happened, but not that often.

Only those with a vivid imagination can see it all changing that quickly. This is a long job.