Players are indeed missing, but I would not call the playing team a bad team. They had problems at the beginning of last season as well and then started a winning streak, but often had some crashes that nobody could really explain. I don't know how good Ten Hag really is. It seems that he is not a good motivator and that players sometimes have issues with them. You can then often see that players start playing against a coach instead of for the club. Burnley so far has a single point and yet Manchester United had trouble beating them, but have a look at their formation. That's not a bad formation at all.
Maybe the players really have nothing to motivate them, they are often confused on the pitch, it just means that they don't hear each other, because I doubt that Ten Hag is inarticulate in giving the set-up for the game. Even if we assume that the set-up is bad, why? Last season there was nothing wrong with it, but suddenly something has changed drastically, isn't that strange?
I think this topic has some actuality given what is going on in the Champions League. What is Manchester United doing? I don't know if anyone put their bets against them, but by now I think it makes as much sense to bet against Manchester United as it makes to bet against Chelsea. This is the moment when ten Hag's life will become much harder as a United coach. Is this even acceptable for now? We are talking about Manchester United and yes they can have a bad game or two, but this is a fundamental problem that needs to be solved or otherwise this season is going down the drain.