Mourinho struts his stuff as careless, careworn Man United reach a year without a European win

Another night, another staging post on Manchester United’s concerted, determined creep towards mediocrity.

On its own, a 1-1 draw at Fenerbahce is the kind of result that can be chalked up as one for the ‘not bad’ column. But it’s not on its own, is it? This third straight Europa League draw this season also marks a full year without a win in Europe for Manchester United.

There is mitigation and there are caveats. There was actually some genuinely encouraging moments here. Their goal was a lovely thing, started with the sort of Manuel Ugarte challenge that Manchester United’s flyweight midfield has been crying out for before a quick break featuring Joshua Zirkzee, Alejandro Garnacho and number 10(!) Noussair Mazraoui before a crisp, precise finish from Christian Eriksen.

While United were probably fortunate to be ahead at that point and definitely by the half-time break, they actually improved in the second half despite being pegged back by a team featuring multiple ghosts of United mistakes past.

Most obviously there was Jose Mourinho in the dugout. The press boys were all delighted to have him back this week, of course, entirely losing the run of themselves about his press conference antics, and he was in predictably theatrical mood here too. He was to be found performing an extensive routine for the cameras after Andre Onana made two fine saves in quick succession to preserve United’s fragile lead in the first half.

We’ll leave it to others to decide whether the extra touch between the first and second save disqualifies it from ‘double save’ status, but it was a wonderfully agile piece of goalkeeping of a kind United require all too often these days.

Mourinho would later get himself sent off for complaining about a penalty decision, something he later had plenty to say about because of course he did.

On the pitch there were further reminders of United’s recent past with Fred and Sofyan Amrabat making up two-thirds of the Fener midfield.

Fenerbahce are the fourth best side in Turkey currently and looked pretty much precisely like that. Manchester United are the twelfth best side in England currently and, well, you get the idea with that.

Despite a third straight failure to end that long wait for a European win, there remains little danger of United actually stumbling to a second straight early exit from Europe. Failing to win three games in a row should put you at some risk really, but don’t worry, it doesn’t any more, we designed it that way.

In Porto and Fener, United have also ticked off what always looked like two of the tougher away games on their eight-game schedule in this jeopardy-free brave new world of European competition.

But really, the fact the p*ss-poor format means it will all be all right in the end shouldn’t be enough. The fact that a 1-1 draw away from home isn’t too bad shouldn’t be enough.

When even a club as committed to self-inflicted catastrophe as Spurs is managing to seamlessly steer themselves through the new league stage you really should be embarrassed if you can’t do likewise.

There’s also been an extreme carelessness about United in this competition. This was not just a third straight Europa League game without success, but a third straight one in which United had been unable to hold a lead. Sure, it’s only the Europa League, and if all was well elsewhere that might carry some weight.

But when their Premier League form has been so unconvincing you’d like to think these are games that would be seen as opportunities to shift the mood, to move the needle, to alter the narrative even if only within the club.

The sense that this is okay is undoubtedly in part down to a format that makes it so, but also belies a distinct loss of identity at United. A club that has forgotten who they are.

Because really it’s the worst thing. United have a manager who points to goalless draws at Selhurst Park and Villa Park as signs of progress. Mediocrity has been embraced and even celebrated. Three draws from three winnable games isn’t a great thing. But three draws from three winnable games being seen as kind of okay really is potentially far more damaging in the long run.