The new Erik ten Hag/Ineos project is already on the back foot. This 3-0 drubbing at the hands of Liverpool could have been much more humiliating – and damaging. Two defeats in three Premier League games, with just three points, is a bleak way to end the international break as Ten Hag and co. attempt to bounce back just 16 days after the start of the season.

It is unrealistic to dismiss this collapse as an isolated incident, as a lack of basic skills was demonstrated from start to finish, regardless of the catastrophes caused by the unfortunate Casemiro which cost the goal.

Here we also come to a pertinent question off the pitch. It is hardly a calling card for the sophisticated strategy that Ineos’ revolution is supposed to bring to the table to see 20-year-old Toby Collyer replace the Brazilian at half-time for a Premier League debut. If Collyer seemed lost, the bigger issue is how United could go into this clash with their biggest rivals, two days after the market closed, with just one senior midfielder (Casemiro) eligible, having had all summer to plug Ten Hag’s glaring hole in the squad.

The £42m worth of Manuel Ugarte, the manager’s new defensive midfielder, was paraded in advance. He was bought to dislodge Casemiro but arrived too late for the deal and you wonder why the deal took so long, especially given the 32-year-old’s decline.

In July, during pre-season training at UCLA, Casemiro was spotted throwing himself around to make last-ditch tackles. A sign of desperation, it proved to be a prelude to the sorry tale of his first half, as his disintegration cost United two goals from Luis Díaz. In injury time of the first period, Casemiro’s final foul was greeted with boos, a mid-range pass that went precisely to no team-mate and bounced off acres of Liverpool turf. What followed was a head hung in grief, Anthony Taylor blowing for half-time, and Collyer running onto the pitch to warm up, receiving instructions from a coach, Darren Fletcher, ahead of the second half.

Casemiro was not the only culprit in red. As a striker, Joshua Zirkzee, in a first United start, missed clear chances and showed a clumsy touch. André Onana’s tendency to send high balls straight out or into the opposition was seen again. The recovered Alejandro Garnacho was ineffective, as was Bruno Fernandes, and then we come to the curious case of Marcus Rashford.

With Ugarte set to succeed Casemiro, Ten Hag’s biggest concern is a 26-year-old who normally looks very calm and helpless: the opposite of what a star player should be.

Outside of Lee Carsley’s England squad, with no goals and no shots in hand, Rashford remains the same and has now gone 245 minutes without scoring. Retained by Ten Hag today, he was supposed to get his season going but failed again after a bright start that included fizzing bursts, a trip into a defensive zone to hold off Trent Alexander-Arnold and the cleverness of thinking when executing a deft throw-in with Diogo Dalot by running in behind Liverpool.

With his lightning pace, a 200m Olympic champion’s body and a lethal finish that saw him score 30 goals two seasons ago, Rashford’s slump in form is yet another mystery for Ten Hag to ponder before United return to action at Southampton on September 14. It’s a mystery that would astonish Miss Marple, because after failing to score in his final nine games of last season (including for England), you have to go back to March 17 and United’s breathtaking 4-3 FA Cup thumping of Liverpool for the last time the son of Wythenshawe scored.

This is an age for a man who is the club’s highest earner, whose wages of more than £350,000 a week are paid primarily for scoring and winning games. After he was subbed off for 65 minutes of last week’s 2-1 defeat at Brighton, football’s opinion mill had been speculating about what might be ailing him. One thread, revived by the debate over last season’s dreadful eight-goal comeback, raised concerns about Rashford’s off-field welfare. But to hear him beat Liverpool’s United Under-18s 2-0 at Carrington on Saturday suggested a commitment to the club’s cause and a positive sign that the goals could soon be flowing again.

Not against Liverpool, as he missed again, as did Casemiro, and United as a whole. It is already a story similar to last year, where you stagger from match day to match day in hope rather than belief.