It's far too easy to throw the manager under the bus though.
Lest we forget that this team barely scrapped past 50 goals last season. Something that Liverpool and City that you mentioned have never really struggled with ,even last season.
This is an issue that precedes the manager.Yes it's his duty to fix it.But it's very harsh to lay it all in him. Last season we were not even creating chances with the manager constantly bemoaning how we should have scored from the only 1 or 2 chances we had.This season we do create chances but we seem to be abysmal finishers.
Yes we have problems,but I really believe that the manager deserves more time to fix them.I don't think he is the cause of them though.
I don't disagree that the manager deserves more time.
However the manager is responsible for the results and it's always been that way, whether it's SAF, Moyes or Mourinho, since the boss pretty much shapes how the team plays no to mention who is actually in it. So there's no two ways about it - the manager has to be held accountable for the team's fortunes. Even Mourinho would agree with that.
And with regards to our fortunes, as has been stated, this is a worse start in terms of points, than we made under Moyes. So indeed Jose has to take the brunt of that shocking muddle we find ourselves in.
Has everything been awful? No, at times, our football has actually been easy on the eye. And it's not consistently tedious to watch us anymore. So that's a win. The system doesn't seem to be at complete loggerheads with the quality/nature/education of our footballers. So that's a positive.
Has it actually been good enough? Again, not at all IMO. Coming off a season where we lost out on 4th by goal difference and won a cup, to be so hopelessly off the pace simply cannot be considered acceptable. And the football isn't great either. For every "brilliant" peformance where we happen to score 1 or no goals in addition to drawing, there a hammering handed out by chelsea, a shoddy loss to Watford, and being dominated by City at home.
And addressing my initial point, I expected more from us this season in attack. Yes, we were poorer than others in this respect last season as well but watching at us play, I don't feel were suffering from "Van Gaal problems". Nor is finishing our only big issue. You add a firing Martial and Mkhitarian to this team and we'd be flying. And that's where Jose does deserbe blame. After being backed fully by the board, is it too much to ask for him field two quality, gifted wide men who he gets a lot out of? I dont think so. Especially when one in martial was handed to him straight away. So yes, i am disappointed in Jose's front three which has consisted of average players or very talented players either not playing or not playing well.