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There was an air of optimism at Old Trafford on Sunday ahead of Manchester United’s match against Tottenham Hotspur. New minority shareholder Sir Jim Ratcliffe was due to attend, while quite a few big-name players were back on the bench, having returned from long-term injuries.
With Ange Postecoglou’s men missing key players, including their star striker and starting midfielders, the match was expected to be a chance for Erik ten Hag to claim a victory and announce his intention to fight for a place in the League. of Champions in the second match. half the season.
Two goals came in the first half courtesy of new signing Rasmus Hojlund, who scored only his second Premier League goal of the season, and Marcus Rashford, who showed signs of slowly returning to the form he had displayed during the previous campaign. .
But what followed during the rest of the match and especially in the second half will serve as a timely warning to the INEOS president about the magnitude of the task he has just taken on.
Strange tactics throughout the season
Many will point to the fact that United were also weakened by injuries, but a lack of personnel was never the problem. It was the distinct lack of anything remotely resembling a coherent structure and style of play that worried fans against a team that controlled the game with ease while the hosts simply gave up trying to keep the ball.
This has pretty much been the story of the current quarter: try to play high transition poker and hope someone can score with the resulting opportunity. And in the process, he loosens control in the middle of the field. United’s shape and pressing structure is ridiculously easy to deal with.
Remember the season opener against Wolverhampton Wanderers. Matheus Cunha and Matheus Nunes responded at will from the center of the field, while Casemiro struggled to contain the rival on his own.
Both Mason Mount and Bruno Fernandes played almost like two number 10s and there was hardly any coordination in the middle. The Red Devils were lucky to escape with all three points on that occasion, but were obviously discovered by top teams over the course of the current campaign. People like Thomas Tuchel, the Bayern Munich coach, even pointed out the flaws of using such a system.
Poor set pieces! What does the team do in training?
On Sunday, sometimes it was Eriksen who was deeper, and on some occasions, it was young Kobbie Mainoo and the general shape of the team was such that almost everyone was deep in the opposition’s half, trying to pass the ball high without any pattern . to pressure and therefore it was easy for the North London team to play.
Perhaps, with so many key players out, turnover tactics are not appropriate at the moment. But the team struggled to play out from the back again and again and André Onana, brought in to make safe passes, always looks to throw long passes instead of short ones because his players treat the ball as if it were made of lava. United’s players barely held the ball for more than five seconds at a time.
The less said about set pieces, the better. Spurs threaten time and time again with their deliveries and Ryan Mason is in charge of dead ball training at the club. United have Eric Ramsay, widely regarded as one of England’s best young managers, and every other day reports are linking him with a managerial offer, but the former Chelsea manager continues to stay. None of the corner kicks found their target for United, while almost all corner kicks gave Tottenham a goal opportunity. How is this allowed to happen over and over again?
The return of injured players will not solve the problems
United have conceded the second-most goals from set pieces this season. What exactly does the team do in training all week? The players run, yes we see the videos that the club publishes on social networks but what else? Currently there is a clear lack of training and the coach is to blame for this because he is the one who insists on standards all the time. Surely this is not the US standard!
A chaotic structure, both on and off the ball, and Ten Hag has insisted it will clear up once all his injured players start returning. The main players he talks about are Casemiro and Lisandro Martínez. Both were present in the first series of matches before suffering long-term injuries. The scenes were not much different from those seen on Sunday.
Without his key players, Postecoglou has gotten his team to play the way he wants in his first season. There are other examples like Eddie Howe, who managed with a team affected by injuries, but still got his team to play the way he wants. The same goes for Roberto De Zerbi at Brighton. Sure, United are ahead of both teams, but the patterns of play are clearly visible when the two teams play.
And after more than a year and a half, the Dutch coach wants to make people believe that this is acceptable. A team that seemed to be building something special last year suddenly looks like a bus without wheels and the driver seems to have given up trying to fix this.
INEOS must decide soon
The manager needs to go back to last season’s style or change things up, but so far he has proven too stubborn to change. His press conferences are starting to sound delirious, like the last part of the reigns of Louis van Gaal and José Mourinho. Football is boring and time is running out to save the season.
Surely the United squad has more talent than the teams already mentioned. But this just doesn’t add up and the players are certainly not blameless and more than a few overpaid prima donnas need to be shown their place. But Ten Hag is making things difficult for himself.
Why Ten Hag suddenly changed his style to a transitional one in his second season is a big question. United have plenty of pace up front and counter-attacking is one of their strengths, as seen in numerous displays under Ole Gunnar Solskjaer. But it was thought that they would hire the former Ajax coach because we didn’t want to remain just a counterattacking team. Instead, the plan was to keep the ball and create.
But Ten Hag certainly looks like he has given up on that ideal this season and nothing is expected to change even if all the players are back and the United manager has a full squad to choose from. Ratcliffe needs to take a hard look at what he has inherited.
Before the Spurs game, he revealed that investing in United was the best decision he has ever made and that he has been a fan of the club since childhood. This is not the club he fell in love with and many things need to change. Maybe starting with the manager.
