It will not be easy for Manchester United to be in the top four positions in the Premier League this season if the condition of their own team is still worse than last season. Because in the Premier League every team always needs extra energy and methods to get better results so that every coach must be able to be great in developing his own tactics for the team he trains. Meanwhile, the Manchester United coach is not like that so the hope of being in the top four at the end of the season will still be quite difficult for them because other teams continue to show better progress in every match.
It's not all lost for Manchester United yet, they are three points away from the top 4, but the difficulty is how consistently they can play, because they started losing a lot of points from the start. Also, Newcastle, Liverpool and Aston Villa look like they will be their main rivals, and they look much better than Manchester United.
If you just look at Manchester United's statistics now, you will see that essentially nothing has changed, their goal difference is as unconvincing as it was last season, so I wouldn't just hope that something will change on its own. Manchester United are the same team they were, transfers have not helped change anything, except for De Ligt trying his best to do something, but overall I don't see how ten Hag expects to get into the top 4.