If Mauricio Pochettino has five minutes to spare between plotting the downfall of Haiti and preparing Manchester United for his first engagement at Anfield, he might take a moment to familiarise himself with Old Trafford before Sir Alex Ferguson. 

Pochettino owes his appointment to the powerful realisation that a club the size of Manchester United might actually go down. The danger will not necessarily pass with his arrival.

Though Pochettino begins from a position of political strength, he faces the same structural failings that hampered Michael Carrick; inadequate squad depth, worst-in-class football executives and clueless owners. As Tommy Docherty discovered half a century ago, charisma alone won’t keep United up.

Inadequate squad depth

The team were in steep decline when Docherty became the third permanent hire following the retirement of Sir Matt Busby in 1969. Docherty replaced Frank O’Farrell in December 1972. Though he kept them up that season, he was essentially an undertaker, laying to rest Sir Matt Busby’s last great creation, the team of Law, Charlton and Best.

The young players coming through weren’t good enough, and an increasingly panicked transfer policy made things worse. Feel familiar? The likes of Steve James, Jim McCalliog, Mick Martin and an ageing George Graham were never going to lace those once golden boots. 

Charlton retired at the end of 1973. Best left in acrimony in January 1974. Law, in the service of Manchester City, backhealed United into oblivion four months later. Then, as now, United were victims of the same kind of anomie that sucked rational thought out of the equation.

Worst-in-class football executives

This stuff has its own momentum. Pochettino has Premier League experience at Southampton, Spurs and Chelsea, has managed marquee names at Paris St Germain. But the demand at a global institution like United is of a different order when the energy turns toxic.

In the argot of today’s elite foreign coach, Docherty had to ‘suffer’ in order to live again. In came Steve Coppell and Gordon Hill on the wings and Stuart Pearson up the middle to fire United straight back up. The march through England’s second tier re-inflated United’s sense of themselves as a big brand club. Lockouts at home games were a regular feature as the fans came flooding back.

Docherty had the experience and chutzpah to pull it off. Michael Carrick’s legitimacy came from his time as a United player. His coaching credentials were just not there. In the end he could neither affect outcomes nor impact organisation.  

He wasn’t helped by the cast of characters above him, who remain in post and are as poorly equipped as Carrick. Chief operating officer, Omar Berrada, and director of football, Jason Wilcox, resemble undertakers, their hollowed out features and long faces projecting not eminence but hopelessness.  

Clueless owners

It could be that Pochettino pulls off the escape by virtue of rivals suffering their own issues. Only six points separate 11th and 20th and all in the bottom half are struggling for goals. United’s problem is conceding. Only Crystal Palace and Ipswich have shipped more than the 19 United have leaked. 

Also in Pochettino’s favour is the narrow nature of the margins in the Premier League. City have lost three on the spin for goodness sake. Chelsea were ripped by Sunderland last weekend and Arsenal ground out a marginal victory at home to Hull.   

Any still clinging to optimism at Old Trafford will argue that had United not conceded in added time at Everton or at home to Spurs, two points would have been six. Chuck out the illegal goal that cost them the Manchester derby and United would have been one point off the Champions League spots with their world vaguely on its axis. 

Shoulda, woulda, coulda, is about all United had left. Carrick had to go. Welcome to the madhouse, Poch.