Manchester United are in crisis -- again. One of the world's biggest football clubs is in the middle of its worst start to a season in 40 years and suffered its heaviest Champions League defeat since 1994 when losing 4-1 to Como this week, so who is to blame?

Is it the owners -- the Glazer family and Sir Jim Ratcliffe -- the senior executives, the manager or the players? The bitter truth about United is that their prolonged and deep-rooted decline can be attributed to all of the above.

So why does the blame lie in all areas and what, if anything, can be done to drag United out of its doom spiral? ESPN has assessed United's problems and why nobody at Old Trafford can escape the scrutiny for the club's cycle of failure.

The Glazers

United have been owned by the Glazer family since 2005 following the completion of a controversial leveraged buy-out.

The Glazers, who also own the NFL's Tampa Bay Buccaneers, purchased United for £790 million but borrowed £600 million, using the club as security for the loan, to complete the deal. As a consequence, the previously debt-free club was instantly plunged into £600m of debt.

That debt has been a millstone for United ever since and during the 21 years of Glazer ownership, over £1 billion has gone out of the club in debt repayments, accumulated interest, refinancing costs and dividends to shareholders. Every year of Glazer ownership has seen an average of £50m go out of the club on non-football costs -- a figure that could translate into a new signing or more attractive player wages.

Under the Glazers, Old Trafford has become a decaying stadium no longer fit for purpose and the team has suffered from long-term under-investment. Although the Glazers surrendered control of football operations to minority owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe in Feb 2024 -- a £1.25 billion pay-day for a 27.7% stake in the club -- the nine-year period Sir Alex Ferguson's retirement as manager in 2013 and Ratcliffe's arrival was dominated by poor managerial and executive appointments by the Glazers and a woeful player recruitment record.

Everything that is going wrong at United can be traced back to the Glazers.

Percentage of blame: 50%

Sir Jim Ratcliffe

One of Britain's richest men and a lifelong United fan born less than 10 miles from Old Trafford, Ratcliffe was billed as the club's saviour when he bought a 27.7% stake in exchange for control of football operations in Feb 2024.

The 74-year-old promised to overhaul the club, saying United's data analytics department was "last century," and he made an immediate impact by hiring Man City chief operating office Omar Berrada as CEO and recruiting director football Dan Ashworth from Newcastle. Despite the early positive moves, Ratcliffe fired Ashworth less than six months in the job and has since lurched from one self-inflicted crisis after another.

Ratcliffe oversaw interviews to replace Erik ten Hag as manager in May 2024 before keeping him in a job and handing him a new two-year contract. Ten Hag was fired in Oct 2024.

The CEO and founder of INEOS, a petrochemicals company, then triggered a series of job cuts at United amounting to more than 500 lay-offs, saying in March 2025 that "without action, the club would go bust by Christmas."

Ratcliffe's time at the club has resulted in many cutbacks including the player recruitment budget. This summer, United spent less than half of the outlay of Chelsea and Tottenham and a third of City's £450m summer spending. Sources have told ESPN that morale at United has plummeted during Ratcliffe's time at the club due to the financial restrictions, and he has also angered supporters with ticket price rises and controversial public statements about football and non-football matters.

Percentage of blame: 20%

The Man City connection

When Berrada arrived at Old Trafford in 2024, he quickly hired Jason Wilcox, then-director of football at Southampton, to become technical director at United. The two men had previously worked together at Manchester City: Berrada as chief operating officer and Wilcox the head of the club's successful Academy.

Berrada's recruitment from City was seen a coup by United and a sign that under Ratcliffe, they would seek out "best in class" appointments, drawing a line under the Glazer approach of promoting from within. Yet Berrada has struggled to live up to the hype, and his role in big decisions -- extending Ten Hag's contract, hiring Ruben Amorim and giving Carrick the job on a full-time basis -- gives him an unimpressive track record.

In March 2025, Berrada stated that he wanted United to mark the club's 150th anniversary in 2028 by winning the Premier League title, but that aim looks both naïve and unrealistic and his decisions on managers and recruitment are partly to blame for that.

Berrada led the move to hire Amorim from Sporting CP -- a hire that proved disastrous -- and he also promoted Wilcox to director of football following Ashworth's exit, despite the 55-year-old having no experience of the role at a club of United's stature. Indeed, Wilcox had less than a year in the same job at Southampton.

Wilcox was credited last year for overseeing a change in recruitment policy whereby United began signing Premier League-proven players, but United missed out on all of their top targets this summer and failed to sign a left-back or forward, despite an obvious need for both. That failure led to defender Lisandro Martínez openly criticising Wilcox after last week's Champions League defeat against Atletico Madrid.

"I expect more [investment], 100%," Martinez said. "I expect more from our technical director [Jason Wilcox]. You can't keep changing, changing, changing the manager. What about other areas? [hierarchy] I can't say more."

Martinez's comments exposed the reality that Berrada and Wilcox are both struggling to prove they are up to the job, and their inexperience has made them unable to successfully challenge Ratcliffe's failing blueprint.

Percentage of blame: 10%

Michael Carrick

The former United midfielder won every major honour at least once during his 12-year playing career at Old Trafford and after taking charge on a short-term deal in January following Amorim's dismissal, Carrick surprisingly secured Champions League qualification with a third-place finish. That success earned him a two-year permanent contract, despite concerns over his lack of managerial experience having only previously worked in the EFL Championship for three years with Middlesbrough.

But the honeymoon period he enjoyed last season has completely evaporated and Carrick's limitations are now being exposed. The 45-year-old was unable to force Wilcox to sign the players he needed in the summer and as a result, has been left with an imbalanced squad lacking in both depth and quality.

United have made a terrible start to the season, prompting questions about team selection and the fitness of the players -- issues that ultimately rest at the manager's door. And in a rare display of direct criticism from the players, captain Bruno Fernandes suggested that the tactics against Como led to the heavy defeat in Italy.

"It was a decision from the staff to not press man-to-man and sometimes leave space behind," Fernandes said. "That's on the manager and on the staff to see it, it's not on me."

Carrick is struggling to control performances and he now appears to be losing his grip of the dressing room, but he can only work with the players at his disposal and few are good enough.

Percentage of blame: 5%

The players:

Manchester United's squad was built by six different managers over a period of 12 years, dating from Luke Shaw's arrival under Louis van Gaal in 2014 to the summer signings of Carlos Baleba, Youri Tielemans and Andrey Santos. To describe it as a patchwork squad would be an understatement: it's a collection of players signed by managers with contrasting philosophies and demands, many of whom are now long past their use-by date.

Some have survived at Old Trafford because their shortcomings have been overlooked due to other areas in greater need of attention, so Shaw (who made his United debut in 2014), Marcus Rashford (2016), Diogo Dalot (2018) and Harry Maguire (2019) remain at the club when they would ordinarily have been shipped out years ago. So many aren't good enough, some are now too old and others are youngsters still making their way in the game, but they must all cope with the pressure and expectancy that comes with playing for a club of United's stature.

You cannot blame players for failing to measure up to impossibly high standards if they lack the basic qualities to do so, but they can be singled out for lacking commitment and desire, and Carrick hinted at that when he responded to Bruno's comments in Como.

"Whatever system you play, whatever tactics you play, if you don't run, and you don't run forward, and you don't run back, you aren't going to win," Carrick said.

United's running stats are among the worst in the Premier League, and there is also a valid question mark over the resolve of the players when faced with adversity, as highlighted by Bruno saying that expectations are too high.

"At this club, there's too much focus on what's been done in the past, but we're not those people anymore," Bruno said in Como. "The club and the players need to understand that.

"Unfortunately for us -- especially when it comes to the players -- those who join expect to win trophies, win games, and reach the highest level, but unfortunately, that's been very difficult at this club in recent years. That's the situation."

In the eyes of supporters, the players lack toughness and tenacity with too many failing to show leadership or accountability on the pitch. Players can be forgiving for lacking ability if they show those qualities, but it is a different story when they show none of them.

Percentage of blame: 15%