Erik ten Hag will relive a past nightmare when Manchester United visit Brentford on Saturday.
The Bees' Gtech Community Stadium is where he endured one of his worst lows as United boss. United were 4-0 down after 35 minutes as they were humiliated by Brentford and Gary Neville claimed it was like watching “men against U9s”.
Neville said that first half was the worst 45 minutes of football he can remember in his 42 years following United. The fans called for the Glazers to go and it seemed nothing was working at United.
From that low, Ten Hag galvanised his side and they beat Liverpool 2-1 at Old Trafford in their next game and they went on to win the Carabao Cup, finished third in the Premier League and reached the FA Cup Final.
Ten Hag will hope things go his way and United travel to west London on the back of their huge win over Liverpool in the FA Cup - arguably their biggest since beating Newcastle in the Carabao Cup Final.
Few gave them any chance of winning when they trailed 2-1 in the second half, but they forced extra-time and won with two late goals from Marcus Rashford and Amad Diallo.
Now they face Brentford in a reverse of the fixtures’ order in August 2022 and ten Hag will pray United are on a roll again.
They have lost just two of their 12 games this year and face Coventry in the FA Cup semi-finals in what will be ten Hag’s fourth Wembley appearance in his two seasons.
There is real hope at United that they can win their first FA Cup since 2016, although the example of Louis van Gaal is a sobering one for Ten Hag.
The Glazers had already decided to replace van Gaal with Jose Mourinho before he lifted the Cup because he missed out on the Champions League and Ten Hag could suffer a similar fate.
Ten Hag must deliver Champions League football for United if he is going to hang on to his job. And with United nine points behind fourth-placed Aston Villa, albeit with a game in hand, that seems a huge ask.
Fifth place may be enough with UEFA expanding next season’s Champions League and West Ham’s win over Freiburg in the Europa League was significant because the Premier League is fighting the Bundesliga for another spot.
That win for David Moyes’ side improved the Premier League’s UEFA coefficient, and it could get a further boost if either Manchester City or Arsenal win the Champions League and Liverpool or West Ham win the Europa League.
It’s still a huge task for ten Hag to qualify for the Champions League again, but at least United have hope. That’s something they did not have for much of this season.
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