Honestly, I don't think this has anything to do with the players. This is tactical and it's been that way all season.
Fans expect players to go out and perform whilst either following directions that aren't being communicated properly or aren't good. There is literally no indication that players are purposely not performing. What is quite clear is that we have massive gaps between attack and defence. Casemiro hasn't been able to cover that space all season. Losing Shaw and Licha seems to have totally disabled our ability to play out of the back, which much weaker teams can do. Teams have been able to hurt us on cutbacks and drives through midfield. We've also consistently lost the midfield battle in almost every game. Fans like to cry about players, but Rashford, Bruno and Hojlund aren't in the build up play.
What has been suggested is that we haven't been able to play decent football since 2 members of our backline have been injured. Yet we can watch teams with lesser players than Varane, Licha, Maguire, Dalot, AWB, Malacia and Shaw do this. Last season, the same excuse was used for the striker position. Every element has to be perfect for us to even look like a decent team, whilst I can watch Spurs, Brighton and Villa play well.
A poor team of players is what Chelsea look like. They can dominate games, but have issues scoring and concede weak goals due to defensive lapses and an inability to finish chances. Their players are still able to move the ball quickly enough and spread it around the pitch. Their issue is that when moments of quality are needed, their lack of quality shows. I can tell you how they attack, how they set up, how they build up and how they attempt to defend. I could do that somewhat with United last season, but since Erik started trying to transition, I haven't been able to see that. As fans we re confused, but so are the players.
Our fans always seem to want to praise managers and dish our on players when things don't go well. I'd argue that our arrogance in needing to feel less cold than other top teams has led us to try and make every manager we have the next Messiah. It's ok to run through managers until you get the right one. The Glazers actual mistake over the last ten years has been them not getting involved with the club on these type of issues. You sack managers when your team performs this badly for this long. A manager should fear that.a manager should know that poor performances won't be tolerated and as a result not take risks like bringing in Mount or Antony. Or break up a system that was working to experiment on transition. That's what happens when managers feel too comfortable. IMO the standard that's fallen isn't just about our players, but the lack of pressure put on our managers