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This was a very different line from another game where Manchester United “It’s not like I’m Harry Potter,” was alleged Erik Ten Hag Said after a 3-0 loss to Liverpool“That’s what you’ll have to accept.”
The statement was in response to a question about how Manuel Ugarte would fit in, but it was a comment about everything because he started it with “this is another one”. There are many more things that Ten Hag himself refuses to admit, at least not publicly. When asked what his team is doing, the United coach replied suffer from many of the same deficiencies Like last season, he responded The defensive approach that has become a habit,
“What do you mean?” said Ten Hag. “Perhaps explain to me the mistakes which are often made.”
A long list of problems were made, including individual mistakes, marking and turning over so close to his own box. Ten Hag simply stared and said: “Are you sure? I don’t think otherwise you would have won trophies like we did against big opponents. So I feel sorry for you, I have another point of view. I think we have won the most trophies in English football after (Manchester) City, so I feel sorry for you.”
The crudest implication is that it’s no wonder United continue to suffer the same problems if the manager doesn’t see them as problems. Of course it’s possible that this is a way of refusing to give anything to the media, which is what happens in press conferences when the manager is under pressure. They can’t show weakness.
Despite all the talk of Ten Hag’s “vision”, there was another image from the game that was very clear. That was Sir Jim Ratcliffe He had his head in his hands, and there were a few serious faces around him in the executive boxes.
At moments like these it’s impossible not to wonder if the new Ineos hierarchy regrets it Decision to stick with Ten Hag After openly considering his dismissal in the summer. This was one of the group’s first major decisions and no matter what happens, it’s going to impact the entire season. The fact that this process became so public was an issue in itself. Simply put, everyone knows there were serious doubts about Ten Hag. That means he looks and feels like a lame duck.
There is only one way to stop this. That is to put up a great performance and deliver results. And they really need to put up a great performance because there was so much uncertainty about Ten Hag’s future that it is going to come back with every single blow.
So far they have been nothing short of outstanding. In fact, there have been some worrying patterns.
It was remarkable how succinctly Arne Slott summed up United’s issues – both new and old – in a pitch-side TV interview after the game. “Their full-backs, nine times out of 10, are really too high, and then Casemiro comes in the middle,” the Liverpool manager explained. Sky Sports“So, if you get the ball and you can put (Luis) Diaz and Mo Salah up there, you’re constantly in one-on-one situations.”
Put in more blunt terms than the more diplomatic Slot dared, such a summary meant that Ten Hag’s approach was so easy to break down that the Liverpool manager believed he could do so in just his third game. And while an obvious answer to that is that Slot moved into a better structure – as Ten Hag has said before – their starts are not comparable.
The United coach has been in charge for two years and has had control over transfers for most of that time. His squad still lacks the cohesion of Liverpool.
There is another thing to it. It is not as if Slott has only adopted Jurgen Klopp’s approach. He presses and moves the game forward in a very different way. Salah, who performed brilliantly against United, explained this in detail.
“It’s a big change,” the Egyptian said this week. “I was with Jurgen for seven or eight years but now with the new manager things are different. I enjoyed it before and I’m enjoying it now.
“We play a different kind of football now. The manager now wants to control the ball all the time – with Jurgen, sometimes we counter-press and try to attack in their half all the time. But now we need to control the game, slow things down sometimes because it’s part of the plan, and that’s a big difference.”
This can be seen in the way they open against United. The same is true at Brighton, where Fabian Hurzeler plays with a much more nuanced approach than Roberto De Zerbi. Again, his team looked more in rhythm than United.
Ten Hag talks about “building a team”, but then again, he’s been at it for more than two years. Yet the United coach has been outdone by the 31-year-old in terms of tactics in his second Premier League game And the recently arrived Eredivisie coach is on his third.
This doesn’t sound negative in the long term, but it does point to fundamental issues, and the evidence so far doesn’t inspire much enthusiasm about Ten Hag being able to change that.
Does this mean Ineos will finally do what it didn’t do in the summer? One view is that it would feel bad to sack Ten Hag so soon after the summer decision. It’s just that there is nothing in football that feels worse than a performance like this.
There have been calls from the club to be patient, that they are happy with the encouraging summer signings, that Ten Hag needs time and space to get this new structure together, but that there are still plenty of variables.
It is worrying that many of the flaws of the past have persisted. You don’t need to be a magician to change them.