Manchester United have played Hull City, Ipswich Town, Everton, Manchester City, Fulham, Tottenham Hotspur and Leeds United and failed miserably to shut out any of them.

They conceded twice against Hull, shipped two in a win over Ipswich, their only league win at this point in late October, and another two followed at Everton in a dramatic 2-2 draw.

Dominic Calvert-Lewin's goal at Leeds United ensured a third successive 1-1 draw in the Premier League and the second time in three games United have thrown victory away.

By the end, all Lisandro Martinez could do was watch on from the bench with an expression that looked totally unimpressed. Up in the stands there was a shake of the head from CEO Omar Berrada with a frustrated Jason Wilcox alongside him at the final whistle.

Defensively the foundations of this team aren't right. The higher-ups knew that in the summer and kicked the can down the road.

At this rate, with United 16th in the form table across the past four league games, that defensive rebuild won't come as a Champions League club and for that heads would have to roll.

Of the 20 teams in the Premier League this season, only TWO have failed to keep a single clean sheet. Manchester United are one of them. Newly promoted Ipswich are the other.

That should be surprising. Martinez and his team-mates did not look surprised, though.

After all, they started at Elland Road with a right back at left back, a centre-back at right back, and finished with a right back at centre-back with a right winger at right wing-back and a right back at left wing-back. Square pegs, round holes.

They oscillated between a back five and a back four and yet by the end were grateful to have secured a point.

There's no Luke Shaw, out injured in a totally believable scenario before the season began. There's no Patrick Dorgu who, in truth, isn't a left back. Noussair Mazraoui, back involved after a period out injured, looked predictably uncomfortable and unsure as a centre-back. It was his mismatch from a corner that allowed Leeds to score.

Martinez, after a strong first 45 minutes that represented the best defensive half of United's season so far, was forced off with a knock at the interval. United looked significantly worse without him.

United have an enormously long list when it comes to what they must fix right now.

They must find a way to bring Bruno Fernandes, operating as a false nine here, into form as he once again struggled. They must be clinical when the chances arrive. Carrick must make better decisions in-game, too, with substitutions here failing to make the side better.

But crucially, they must become harder to score against. Right now, they aren't – and opponents are smelling blood in the water.

'When you come to places like this, you can't be beaten on set plays and we conceded a set play which got them back in the game,' Harry Maguire, who individually did play well and won Player of the Match at Elland Road, said.

'Throughout we felt comfortable in our [back three] shape. They didn't create too many chances. To concede a set-piece after half-time is disappointing. We had to dig in.'

There are technical complaints and structural ones, too, no doubt. There have been fine margins – the Man City goal at Old Trafford shouldn't have stood, for one.

But in their heart of hearts, these United defenders, however short they have been left by those upstairs (and they have by the way), have got to want to defend and want to become hard to play against.

They simply aren't brave enough. Maguire agrees.

'We're in a circumstance where we are not as brave as we should be, and we have to get that back because to win games for Man Utd we have to have that bravery and composure,' he said.

Laid bare that one of this side's most experienced players, a former captain, explicitly stated that this back-line isn't brave enough. That's as damning as anything Martinez said in the mixed zone after losing to Atletico Madrid.

Let's not forget that this is a backline that has Maguire and Martinez both out of contract in 2027. The club hold the option to extend both and may well do so. But surely both must earn it? Dalot, too, is under the microscope ahead of this supposed defensive rebuild next summer. Shaw is out of contract next June and what of the long-term prospects of players like Mazraoui? The bar by which these players are being judged is getting lower by the week.

Drawing at Leeds means that United have won just one of their seven Premier League matches this season (D4, L2), their fewest number of wins at this stage of a top-flight campaign since 1986-87.

Wilcox and Co kicked the can down the road when it came to bolstering the backline and are paying for it now.

'This is not a club at Champions League level,' Martinez fumed in Madrid.

Right now they aren't at a top-half Premier League level.

Fail to fix their defence on the fly and this could get a whole lot worse before it gets better for United.