As the referee blew for fulltime at Old Trafford last Tuesday night, Manchester United registered their second home defeat in succession in the Premier League. Their opponents on the night were bitter city rivals, Manchester City. The score-line: 0-3. Only nine days earlier, United had lost at home to Liverpool, by the same score-line. On both occasions, the score fairly indicated how the game had played out. If you are a United fan, this is the stuff of nightmares.

‘Crisis’ is an overused word in football, especially with big clubs. Quite often, if a team has a couple of bad results in a short space of time, talk of a crisis and rumours of the manager’s imminent sacking begin to surface in the media very quickly. Such talk, of course, is usually premature and dramatic. It might have been reasonable to conclude the same about United following their defeats to City and Liverpool - that it is too early to talk about a crisis - were it not for the fact that these were not their only bad results this season. Far from it, they form only the tip of the iceberg.

United have already lost 10 league games this season -- more games than they have ever lost before in a single Premier League season -- and there are still 7 league games left to play. They currently sit 7th in the league, requiring a miracle to reach 4th place which would qualify them for the Champions League next season. A better, or perhaps only, chance of Champions League qualification for United lies in winning the tournament this season. For that, they first have to get past Pep Guardiola’s Bayern Munich in the upcoming quarter-finals. Not many people’s idea of a walk in the park. For a club so used to fighting for the league title every season, winning it more often than not, and where Champions League football is usually a guarantee every season, these are tough times.

This season was always going to be a transitional one for United. For the first time in 27 years, the club has a new manager in charge, David Moyes, who was handpicked by the very man he has succeeded, Sir Alex Ferguson. During his 11 years at Everton, prior to joining United, Moyes built a reputation as a shrewd manager who consistently overachieved on a limited budget. He formed a cohesive unit out of a core group of players who played for him and put the team’s cause above all else. He built a team for the long-term and then maintained it admirably despite the various challenges. Furthermore, Moyes was a man who ‘owned’ the club he managed. He served as an ambassador for the club and cared for all aspects of the institution he worked for -- the youth academy, the backroom staff, the security guards, the stewards -- all of them. Perhaps, in this sense more than others, Moyes was seen as the closest thing to Ferguson, by United and by Ferguson himself. However, nothing could fully prepare anyone to fill the boots of a man, whom many consider the greatest football manager ever. Ferguson’s endorsement was a big plus for Moyes, but it was never going to guarantee success. This was very much new territory for everyone involved at the club.

Moreover, Moyes has inherited a United side that is perhaps at the end of a cycle itself. The team has relied far too heavily for far too long on the likes of Giggs and the recently retired Scholes. At 40, Giggs still continues to be central to the squad, and Scholes had to be temporarily called back from retirement last season to refill the void he had left in midfield. Since, Scholes’ permanent departure in the summer, the void he left can still be felt. Vidic and Ferdinand, who formed the strongest centre-back pairing in the Premier League for several seasons, are now shades of the defenders they once were, age having caught up with them. United’s successes in the last few seasons, especially last season, were built more on efficiency than on an ability to play opponents off the park.

Despite the enormous task Moyes faced, both in terms of the man he replaced and the squad he inherited, no one expected the results to be as bad as they have been. All teams have cycles, and teams often suffer a dip in results during transitional periods. But with a club like United, there is a limit to how low the dip can be, and the dip they’ve had this season is far too low. But beyond the mediocre results, there is something far worse, far more worrying for United fans and directors. As we approach the end of the season, no one still really seems to know what Moyes’ plan is - what is the style of play he is trying to establish, if any, and what sort of identity does he want the team to have. Even the most optimistic fans are only willing to forgive draws and losses if they can see a clear vision of what the manager is trying to do. Moyes still hasn’t provided that.

He has chopped and changed his team selections and tactics often giving the impression that he makes his choices to negate the opposition rather than to impose the team’s own style of play on them; that he often sets up his teams to not lose rather than to win; that United are conservative under him and they don’t back themselves likes they used to under Ferguson. The City game was a good example of this. In the first 20 minutes, United played like a team holding onto a 1-0 score line away from home, rather than a United side at home trying to dictate the game’s tempo. The defensive line sat deep inside their own penalty box as City came at them and scored inside the first 45 seconds of the game. His critics argue he is struggling to break free from the ‘mid-table club mentality’ instilled in him from his time at Everton.

The Ferguson era was special, and it will probably never be matched again in terms of longevity. For United, this is a matter of pride, as it should be, and the reason why they made the choice of successor on a long-term view. Although this is admirable and understandable, there has to be a limit to how many blows they can take in the short term.

More importantly, they need to see proof from Moyes that he has a solid plan to take the club forward. It is looking quite likely that there will be a major overhaul of the squad this summer. Before United make decisions on the players to let go, and spend millions on buying new ones, they need to ensure they have the right man in the managerial hot seat -- whether that is Moyes or someone else. United have been forced to ponder over the future of their manager far sooner than they would’ve expected to. But the current situation demands it, and their decision will have significant consequences on how the club evolves over the coming years. United are in crisis. This is one of the rare occasions in football when saying this seems neither dramatic nor premature.