It's unfair to make sweeping generalizations just four matches into a season (or ever, really) but it's safe to say the 2017 campaign isn't going to end well for Minnesota United. With three losses, one draw and 18 goals against, this new outfit is setting futility records - and is being called the worst team in MLS history.

While much has been made of the Loons' early-season struggles, it's important to remember that, as expansion teams go, success has been hard to come by. The bar is low. And while Minnesota isn't meeting even those expectations just yet, calling the team the worst ever is to overlook some truly awful MLS sides.

It's abundantly clear Minnesota United has made mistakes building its squad for the 2017 season. On paper, this current team is more likely to look competitive in, say, the 2011 campaign than the modern version of MLS. Opting to sign questionable Scandinavian talent and bringing on the bulk of its NASL side into MLS wasn't smart squad-building, and the assumption that the quality gap wasn't quite so vast may prove fatal.

As such, Minnesota suffered the worst four-match stretch in league history, and, juxtaposed to fellow newcomer Atlanta United, looks the part of league pariah.

Let us not so quickly forget, however, that the history of MLS is filled with a fair few awful teams, Chivas USA chief among them. So riddled in controversy and incompetence was Los Angeles' other franchise that the league folded the club entirely in 2014, opting to try again with Los Angeles FC four years later.

The Tampa Bay Mutiny were also quite terrible right before being killed off, ending with a minus-36 goal differential over 27 matches in 2001. In 1998, the Colorado Rapids conceded a league-record 69 goals, while the Dallas Burn suffered the single worst loss in MLS history in an 8-1 walloping to the LA Galaxy. In 2013, D.C. United managed to record just 16 points in 34 matches.

As bad as Minnesota's start to the season has been, it is not the worst in MLS history. That honor belongs to Toronto FC, as Aron Winter's 2012 side lost its first nine matches in a row. Star striker Danny Koevermans called Toronto the "worst team in the world" - a comment he later told theScore he regretted.

If we're being honest with ourselves, this Minnesota team is nowhere near good enough to compete in 2017. But MLS has a rich history of incompetent owners, baffling head coaching appointments and woeful stadium arrangements. In comparison, Minnesota has a lot going for it.

Head coach Adrian Heath is nowhere near the worst boss in MLS history, and owner Bill McGuire is an ambitious investor with a stadium plan he and the club will fund themselves. The team welcomed 35,000 active, engaged fans in a snowy debut match, which is twice more than, say, the Chicago Fire can boast. And for all the talk of defensive troubles, scoring certainly hasn't been an issue.

Things change, in time, and Minnesota is banking on just that. As the 2015 Colorado Rapids, the 2014 Montreal Impact, the 2013 D.C. United, the 2012 Toronto FC, and the 2009 New York Red Bulls can tell you, that change sometimes happens overnight, and sometimes as a long, determined process.

But Minnesota has made some mistakes for the sake of rushing into MLS, and could hardly be blamed for doing so, as entry fees swell weightier with each round of expansion. If anything, saving the $50-million in expansion fees now rather than waiting for the next round of expansion is a smart bit of business.

So give Minnesota a chance and forgive some of the skin-deep growing pains; sure, they're a touch sorer in Minneapolis than down in Atlanta, but the Loons have a long way to go before being the worst of all time.

(Photos courtesy: Action Images)