Ten Hag was able to manage the Manchester United squad well in the first season of his career there, Manchester United performed better under his guidance and ultimately managed to qualify for the Champions League this season. At that time he inherited the squad left by the previous coach, although there were several additional players during the season, but Manchester United's performance was much better than this season.
The current Manchester United squad is predominantly filled with players appointed directly by Ten Hag, but strangely he seems to have lost direction in managing Manchester United. I think Manchester United poor performance is not due to a bad transfer policy, but because Ten Hag ability is starting to decline in managing Manchester United.
Manchester United have zero points, poor performance in UCL and EPL. Erik Ten Hag had complications with key players who would have aided in comprehending the team's performance, I'm not talking about average players but key ones like Cristiano Ronaldo who delivered the team in crucial moments, yet he was underrated in the team because he was completely out of the picture in Erik Ten Hag's eyes, he favored the young ones instead of employing more qualities of Ronaldo among the average players. Manchester United is suffering today as a result of past mistakes made by the club and coach.
IMO we can't talk about Cristiano when Manchester United are having problems at the moment because at the moment Cristiano and Manchester United have their own way and they have been separated long enough not to be brought up again.
Manchester United's first 2 games haven't gone very well for them but the opportunity is still there just that they have to get 3 points from Copenhagen at all costs so that this can make them breathe a little easier.
The problem is that this is not as easy as it would be imagined especially when Manchester United's performance remains the same as now then it is certain that this will be even more difficult especially with the defense that Copenhagen showed against Bayern should Ten Hag already know this will be tough and when they lose in the worst possible way in this match then it is over for Manchester Unitd.