One of the Premier League and Europe's most iconic football clubs is sitting two points above th

Two points above the relegation zone. The European champions their next fixture. Star players unhappy and wanting out. With the new Premier League season well underway and club football taking a two week break to make way for the Internationals, now would be a good time to evaluate an eye opening start to the season for Manchester United.

An awful end to last season, finishing sixth with two wins from their last nine league games, left a bitter taste in the mouths of Manchester United fans. However, with manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer's publicly advertising plans to rebuild the squad in the summer transfer window, there was renewed optimism amongst the United faithful that maybe they would finally be on the path back to where they belong. The big money signings of Aaron Wan-Bissaka and Harry Maguire for £50m and £80m respectively added some much-needed steel to their shaky defence while the purchase of Swansea winger Daniel James helped inject significant pace into the United front line.

The notable departures of flop Alexis Sanchez, Belgian striker Romelu Lukaku and defender Chris Smalling, who all headed to Italy, helped lessen a growing wage bill, something that was becoming a desperate problem for the Manchester United board.

With the end to the transfer window came a mixed reaction from the United fan base. Having been linked with attacking superstars such as Paulo Dybala and Bruno Fernandes, there was a feeling of disappointment that they couldn't add to their attack especially after been promised a big shake up by manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer. The defence on the other hand was an area of hope for Manchester United, totalling a staggering £188m worth of talent, however, given how money had been spent in the past, there were still some doubts.

These negatives were aimed at United's executive vice-chairman Ed Woodward. A man who has come under plenty of criticism since his arrival at Manchester United due to his consistently poor transfer windows and the overall quality of how he has run the club.

Since the American was appointed in 2012, after helping the Glazers buy the club in 2005, the club have spent a staggering £887m, yet somehow are worse off than when Woodward was first appointed. Big money purchases such as Romelu Lukaku (£75m), Angel Di Maria (£59m) and Paul Pogba (£89m) are only a few examples of big players that have failed to hit the ground running as they only showed glimpses of what they're truly capable of, while also taking up a huge amount of the wage bill.

However, a stellar preseason, which saw Solskjaer's team win every single game, scoring 12 goals in their 6 games, meant that overall, these negative feelings directed towards Woodward were temporarily overshadowed. Their pre-season was a good set up for a huge opening game against Lampard's Chelsea side, in a match that was truly unpredictable. How would Frank Lampard do at such a big club despite one year of managerial experience? Had United recovered from their dreadful end to last season? It's safe to say the Red Devils responded in a ruthless fashion demolishing the Blues 4-0, giving the United faithful early hope that maybe, just maybe, they might be getting back on track.

United's tough start didn't get any easier either as they made the trip to Molineux to face Wolves, a side notorious for beating the "top six" teams. However, they put in a very convincing first half display but only came away with a draw thanks to a stunning Ruben Neves strike. If I were a United fan, I would have been very happy with four points from those games.

The next two fixtures before the international break seemed much easier than the previous two as they played Crystal Palace and Southampton before the turn of September. However, despite such optimism, they only managed to turn over a point, conceding with the last kick of the game against Palace to lose 2-1 and being pegged back to a 1-1 draw at St Mary's.

Ed Woodward's poor transfer dealings amongst other factors earns him a lot of stick from United fans, however, new signing Daniel James' performances have left little to be desired as the Welsh winger bagged three goals in United's four opening games. The 21-year-old shone with his direct dribbling at pace, terrorising defenders with quick changes of directions, then releasing lethal shots that surprised everyone given his physical stature. While Woodward may be in question, the singing of James should lead to praise for him and Solskjaer as it seems that finally they have used their money wisely.

The international break left time for fans to reflect on what went wrong in the last two games. Was it just a blip? Or had nothing changed? Hopefully at this stage, they went with the latter.

Their first two games back ended in two unconvincing 1-0 wins against Leicester and Astana respectively, however, their luck ran out against their next opponents West Ham as they bowed down to a 2-0 defeat at the London Stadium. The latter was a game that began to turn the crowd. Fan and neutrals began to label them "in a crisis" with only 6 games of the league season gone. With strikers Anthony Martial and Marcus Rashford both picking up injuries, Manchester United had a seriously depleted front line, with most of the blame, focused on Woodward. While the American was somewhat successful in offloading Lukaku and Alexis, his failure to add depth to an already scarce line of forwards has made Solskjaer's job an even more uphill task.

On the other hand, the Norwegian's use of his squad has been poor up to this point and it didn't show any signs of improving in their next game in the Carabao Cup against Rochdale. The Carabao Cup is normally a competition by which Premier League clubs use their squad players to help bed their youngsters into the first team. However, Solskjaer made the controversial decision to start all three of Wan-Bissaka, Pogba and Lingard in a game that preceded the visit of Arsenal to Old Trafford.

Even more worryingly, they only won on penalties, with Pogba also picking up an injury that put him in big doubt for the league game against Arsenal the following Monday. At this stage, there was a growing concern about the direction the club were heading in as they continued to put in poor performances against inferior opposition.

The Arsenal game was huge, despite it still being in September, with both sides still yet to find their best football. The fans of both teams were jokingly calling the game "El Sackico" as a mockery of "El Clasico" due to the feelings of both sets of fans towards their managers. The Norwegian manager seemed desperate as both Pogba and Rashford were rushed back for the game and despite the latter picking up an assist for Scott McTominay, both were highly ineffective and clearly didn't appear match fit. Overall, the game lived up to what was expected of it as the match finished as a bore 1-1 draw with neither team ever truly finding their rhythm in the game.

By Manchester United's standards, it had been an awful September. They only managed 3 goals, with 2 being from their 18-year-old wonderkid Mason Greenwood, a man who is acting as a shining light for United this season along with young Daniel James.

As October got underway, the optimistic United fans hoped that a new month, meant a new team, a turnaround. Funnily enough, any of those hopes were very short lived as they drew 0-0 in the Europa league against Belgian outfit AZ Alkmaar. They had somehow got worse as not only were their shots doubled, but United failed to register a single shot on target. The United manager tried to give a positive outlook on proceedings as he said speaking to MUTV: “It [AZ] is a team that’s just beaten Feyenoord 3-0 away from home. We’ve been to Feyenoord ourselves over the years, so this is a good performance and a good point against a good opponent on a very difficult or a bad surface.” However, I'm sure it won't have come to anybody's surprise that these comments didn't exactly help getting fans back on board with the project.

Before we're brought back to present day, they had one game left at struggling Newcastle United who sat in the relegation zone prior to the game. However, despite the even stats with both teams having the same number of shots (12), the game didn't paint the same picture. United were once again outfought as they fell to a 1-0 defeat courtesy of a wonderful strike from Longstaff, no not Sean, his little brother Matty.

So where does this leave Manchester United?

They currently sit 12th in the table, two points above the relegation zone on 9 points and they have Liverpool as their next game. One of their star players, Paul Pogba, reportedly wants to leave for Real Madrid, with him growing only more frustrated a transfer never materialised in the summer. In March, he commented on these rumours saying, "Real Madrid is one of the biggest clubs in the world. I've always said it is a dream club for every player." Even though he mentioned before that, "At the moment I'm happy in Manchester. I play. There's a new coach," this was before their awful turn of form and the tables could've definitely changed since then.

So what has gone wrong at Manchester United? I think the more appropriate question is what is actually going right for them at the moment. Injury problems, a coach that has managed the squad poorly, a vice president that has let the club down time and time again and who knows what else is going on behind the scenes nowadays. The fact the squad isn't ageing and that there are a few promising young talents in the squad is probably the light that United fans will have to hold onto for now.

The finger can be pointed in most places for being the reason Manchester United aren't where they should be, however, since Sir Alex Ferguson left, the players have changed, as have many managers, but one thing hasn't, and that's Ed Woodward. Understandably because of this, he's the main focus of hate from the United faithful, as almost by a process of elimination, they have outed him as being the main culprit for their demise. However, everyone can make their own judgements, the scenario at Manchester United is one of interpretation. There is no clear right or wrong answer. Although there is one thing for sure, if United don't want to fall too far behind, they need to sort out their mess as soon as possible.