Bayern Munich inflicted a third straight defeat on Manchester United with a comprehensive victory in Munich.

With the game evenly poised, Andre Onana failed to keep out a relatively tame shot from Leroy Sane. It went from bad to worse for United, as just four minutes later Serge Gnabry doubled the lead after majestic work from Jamal Musiala.

Rasmus Hojlund scored his first goal for United in the 54th minute, but this was quickly followed by another Bayern goal, with Harry Kane converting from the penalty spot after a controversial handball decision.

Casemiro allowed United to dream of a remarkable rescue job after scoring with two minutes of normal time to go.

That hope was swiftly extinguished, with Mathys Tel putting the game beyond doubt – though Casemiro did score his second of the evening with seconds remaining to put a perhaps undeserved level of respectability on the scoreboard.

Daniel Taylor, Seb Stafford-Bloor, Thom Harris and Jeff Rueter analyse the key talking points.

Onana’s ugly mistake

Unfortunately for Onana, his mistake for the first goal means he is obliged to spend some time grazing in the scapegoats’ paddock.

As mistakes go, it was an ugly one, too. Onana was signed by Manchester United for precisely the reason that David de Gea had become too accident-prone dealing with shots that should not trouble a goalkeeper at this level. So it’s unfortunate, to say the least, that De Gea’s replacement seems to have been temporarily afflicted by the same condition.

Perhaps it is typical of the way United’s season is shaping up, even at this early stage, that the man in question was widely credited as being the outstanding goalkeeper in this competition for Inter last season.

Onana is clearly an upgrade from De Gea when he has the ball at his feet. It just doesn’t feel so easy to push that line when he is waving an apologetic hand and his mistake for Leroy Sane’s goal has done so much to undermine his new team.

Why are United conceding so many goals?

If we are going to be generous, there are some mitigating factors. There are players injured. The list of absentees meant United had three goalkeepers, 35-year-old Jonny Evans and two teenagers on their bench. And yet, the thought still occurs: they have splurged an awful lot of money to be looking this vulnerable.

The most startling statistic? It was December 1978, under the management of Dave Sexton, that United last conceded three goals or more in three successive matches.

Perhaps we saw here why Ten Hag wanted to beef up midfield by bringing in Sofyan Amrabat, whose competitive courage will surely help once he has recovered from a back problem. But we also saw the latest evidence that Lisandro Martinez can lose opponents with a lack of positional discipline that would not be tolerated if it was Harry Maguire. We saw players running behind Casemiro and Christian Eriksen without too much to stop the

United have not had a clean sheet since their opening game of the season against Wolverhampton Wanderers and their opponents on that occasion had 23 shots at goal, the second-highest figure recorded by an away side at Old Trafford since 2004.

No team can be this generous and expect to get away with it.

Harry Kane still finding his rhythm

Kane’s start at Bayern Munich has been largely successful. Another goal tonight, another bit of pressure eased.

One of the issues he’s having to overcome, though, is the lack of rhythm he has with some of these players. Rather than being the starting point or focus of all attacking moves, as he so often was at Tottenham, he’s having to learn how to insert himself into phases that build without him.

He’s like an actor who has joined a new cast in that respect; he doesn’t quite know his cues yet.

That showed early in a pass that he attempted to play to Leroy Sane. Instead of dropping the ball into Sane’s stride, he pushed it clumsily over the touchline. It was emblematic of the issues that reside beneath his healthy goals tally and it was not the only example of an uncertain touch or miscommunication

But this is who he is currently. His first six weeks as a Bayern player has seen him operate as a No 9, rather than the 9-10 hybrid he really is and was bought to Germany to be. Positionally he may have appeared in deeper areas, but his actual contribution has been relatively narrow.

Tonight showed that much work is still to be done. But it also teased some future dynamics. Clearly, Bayern’s first goal was due to a goalkeeping mistake, but it was still encouraging to watch Kane’s part in it, and how Sane was able to use his centre-forward to fashion a shooting chance. The winger was also able to attack space created by Kane’s movement a couple of times across the evening and that was encouraging to see as well.

Small steps, certainly, but important ones all the same. It’s also not a coincidence that these flickers of understanding are generally occurring with Sane, as he’s the only other attacking player to have started all four Bundesliga games this season and the only Bayern forward to be both fit and in form. There is the semblance of a partnership between them and Kane and Sane both appear to be starting to profit from it.