Sport
Erik ten Hag likes to remind people how many cup competitions he has won as Manchester United manager. That’s because United’s league form over the last two seasons has been abysmal with the Dutchman’s team once again enduring a difficult start to a Premier League campaign this term.
Indeed, Manchester United have won just one of their three league fixtures so far this season – and that one win came courtesy of an 87th minute goal at home to Fulham. The 3-0 home defeat to Liverpool before the international break really thrust into focus how far off the necessary standard United are right now.
Manchester United CEO Omar Berrada claims the club is still “fully backing” ten Hag, but this comes after a summer in which ten Hag’s position as manager was assessed over a number of weeks. Ten Hag needed a strong start to the season to change perceptions of him and that hasn’t materialised.
Minor improvements in some aspects of Manchester United’s approach have been noted over the first three matches of the new Premier League season. Out of possession, ten Hag’s team are playing with more intensity. They are pressing opponents more willingly to win the ball back more quickly.
In possession, United are also moving the ball somewhat quicker. This was evident in the defeat to Brighton in which the visitors to the Amex Stadium were able to construct quick transition attacks from deep and get in behind. Had it not been for an offside Joshua Zirkzee intervention on the line, Manchester United might have won that match.
On the flip side, though, United have demonstrated so many of the same mistakes that led to their worst-ever finish of the Premier League era last term. Against Liverpool, they were so easy to play through the centre of. As the home side, United – Casemiro in particular – turned over possession inside their own half time and time again.
Last season, Manchester United scored just 57 goals in 38 league matches. For context, Manchester City scored 96 times as they won the title. The hope was that the summer addition of Joshua Zirkzee would increase United’s threat as an attacking outfit, but they have scored just twice in their three games so far. It’s difficult to pinpoint where the goals are going to come from.
Ten Hag points to the process his team is going through whenever questioned about his future at Old Trafford, but it’s difficult for an outsider to see that process. If anything, Manchester United have regressed since the Dutchman’s first season in charge when he led the team to a respectable third-place finish in the Premier League.
In football’s modern age, identity counts for a lot and Manchester United under ten Hag don’t have one. Originally, he wanted the Old Trafford side to play a possession-orientated game like his Ajax team did. Very quickly, though, it became clear he lacked the players to achieve this and shifted to a quick transition approach.
This has left United in ideological no-man’s land where they are neither technically capable enough to play a possession-based game nor incisive enough to play in quick transition. Ten Hag has got lost inside his own head and that is reflected in the muddled way Manchester United play on the pitch.
Even at this early stage of the season, Saturday’s game against Southampton is essentially a must-win match for Manchester United – and for ten Hag. Another underwhelming result and performance would add further strength to the argument that United would be better off without their Dutch manager.
