It was an hour or so after the drubbing at Brighton when Ralf Rangnick, in response to a question about the invertebrates in his care, said he had to 'defend' his players.
Too bad they didn't feel any such compulsion towards their own goal, and other punchlines.
Rangnick will disappear into snowy mountains soon enough, and how will he be remembered? Or, more appropriately, where will the balance of blame fall between him, the playing staff and the club's infrastructure for what has been an abysmal era at Manchester United?
Doubtless it did the German no favours at all in that regard to oversee what was arguably United's worst performance of their worst Premier League campaign — compounded by the fact that the defeat came at the hands of a manager who is doing far more with considerably less.