Erik ten Hag's chucking it away! Man Utd are wasting the generous fixtures that might've saved their season - and Sir Jim Ratcliffe must be absolutely seething

The day that United beat Liverpool in the Cup, Tottenham had been thrashed by Fulham and Villa had been held to a draw at West Ham. Tottenham had a six-point lead over Ten Hag's side in fifth, while Villa, sitting in fourth, had a nine-point gap.

With next season's expanded Champions League gifting two extra places to the team's finishing fifth in the two highest-ranked European leagues, the race was on.

Now it is off. Since that joyous day at Old Trafford, Villa have taken four points from three games while Tottenham have picked up seven in four. United, inexplicably, have earned just three points from a potential 12 in their four games. And the gap with both their rivals now stands at 10 points with six games to go. And this is despite Tottenham and Villa dropping plenty of points and United having a relatively easy set of fixtures.

Brentford, Bournemouth and Chelsea were all in the bottom half of the table when they faced them yet they were played off the park by the Bees and the Cherries and beaten by two late sucker punches at Stamford Bridge. They should have been targeting between nine and 10 points from those four games but instead have been left with a just a third of their desired haul.

But what was telling was that while many United fans would have been backing their team to click into gear at the crunch stage of the season, their opponents did not. Just listen to what Dominic Solanke had to say after the 2-2 draw at the Vitality Stadium.

"Going into the game we were confident. Knew it would be tough game but we told ourselves we had beat them once this season so knew we could do it again," Solanke told Sky Sports. "We created a lot of chances and should've been two or three up but we didn't take the chances and the second half was a tight game."

For Bournemouth, this was not a point earned but two lost, made even harder to digest due to the penalty being taken away from them. "Unlucky to not get it there and thought it would be our opportunity to go on and win it at the end," Solanke added. "To beat United is something we'd love to do, it would've been a good chance to win it at the end so the boys are obviously a bit gutted about that."

Bournemouth coach Andoni Iraola, who masterminded the Cherries' stunning 3-0 win at Old Trafford in December, also seemed disappointed with just a point. Bournemouth had come so close to becoming only the third team to do the double on Ten Hag's side in the same season after Brighton and Manchester City.

"We could not finish it off. We are happy to take a point, and give importance to taking a point against Manchester United, but we think that we deserved the three points," he said.

"We should have begun the second half with a better scoreline. The reason we did not win was because we missed chances and all the refereeing decisions went against us. We were the best team today. We probably have to find a way to win these types of games."

Effectively, this draw felt like a kick in the teeth to his side, who had thrashed United at Old Trafford and deserved more here.

But beneath the frustration there was also a sense of admiration from Iraola for his opponents. "United always find goals they don't have to be at their best to find results," he said in his press conference. And then he paid United a compliment they are not worthy of. He compared them to Real Madrid.

Asked how United kept managing to get results they barely deserved, he responded. "Sometimes you are playing against Real Madrid and thinking 'Wow we are doing well against Real Madrid and then boom boom, they score in three seconds and you are losing.

"You think you are doing well against United but if you don't take your chances they always find ways they are very good on transitions, they are difference makers down the other end you could see it today."

Unfortunately, despite their capacity to stay in games they should be dead and buried in, United are light years away from Real Madrid.

You cannot imagine Madrid accepting ever being outside the top three in Spain, let alone all the way down in seventh, without sacking their manager. Los Blancos call themselves the Kings of Europe and when they are not winning the Champions League, as they have done five times within the last 11 years, they are serving up breathtaking spectacles like last week's 3-3 draw with Manchester City.

United are on a completely different, and far lower plain. Florentino Perez, for all his flaws, would not stand for such mediocrity. And neither should Sir Jim Ratcliffe.

For too long United have been run by people who prioritised commercial success over sporting achievements, as the club openly admitted when it announced Ratcliffe had become minority shareholder.

Ratcliffe has spoken of the importance of qualifying for the Champions League this season and being in it every season. He also expressed the need to fight for the Premier League title, a trophy United have not won or even come close to lifting since Sir Alex Ferguson retired in 2013.

But fighting for the title feels like an outlandish fairy tale and being in the top four also seems preposterous on the evidence of United's performances this season.

No team with any ambition can be conceding an average of 17 shots per game. And Ten Hag knows it. "This is not enough, we know that. When you come into the final stage of the season this is not enough," he said. "The truth is we did not deserve more today. We have to do better, control the game, score goals and not give as many chances away."

There have been some noises coming out of the club indicating that INEOS are in not in a desperate hurry to change managers. There is already enough disruption going on, with the club spending huge amounts of money on a new CEO, sporting director and technical director.

There is a clear need for new players too. Sacking Ten Hag and his staff could cost the club up to £20m ($25m), an amount of money they could certainly do without parting with given they will miss out on Champions League revenue and are already close to breaching the Premier League's profit and sustainability rules.

But Ratcliffe, his INEOS colleagues Sir Dave Brailsford and Jean-Claude Blanc must be seething at what they are seeing each week. They inherited a mess when they purchased their stake in December but there appeared to be light at the end of the tunnel.

With United already out of the Champions League, they had more time to train and rest to try and get back into the top four. And they were up against Aston Villa and Tottenham, who each have their flaws and a reputation as bottlers when push comes to shove. Instead all they can see is more darkness, a black hole between them and Europe's elite.

INEOS talk of being 'best in class' and right now United are in the bottom set, failing to do basic maths or string sentences together. The fact that the likes of Bournemouth and Nottingham Forest fancy their chances against them and expect to beat them says it all.