There is good news and not-so-good news for Erik ten Hag and Manchester United.
A 1-0 victory over Burnley at the weekend went some way to steadying the ship. However, there are still a number of stumbling blocks between this version of United and the one Ten Hag talked of when he said he wanted them to be the best transition team in the world.
Between now and the next international break (the week commencing October 9), the United manager will want to improve his team’s fluency in and out of possession, look to tighten up his defence during set pieces, and the concession of several goals quickly after restarts is another situation he will need to investigate.
Other problems include injuries that have left the manager unable to play his strongest side, while many of his available players are struggling to replicate their peak form, last seen from October 2022 to February 2023.
The positive is that the United manager says he is aware of all of these issues.
The negative is that he needs a lot of help on the training field — and in the medical department — to fix it all.
Piecing together Ten Hag’s public comments, this appears to be his plan…
The 2023-24 season remains in its early stages, but Ten Hag has already faced questions as to whether recent events on and off the field mean the club is in crisis.
The Dutchman’s response has been an interesting one. Rather than be drawn into panic stations, he used his press conferences to explain how his team’s issues manifest. The United manager is not the most candid of speakers (as seen in his reluctance to give any details regarding player injury) but will offer corrections and assessments when he believes someone misdiagnoses a problem with his side.
Amrabat’s cameo against Burnley was positive news (Paul Ellis/AFP via Getty Images)
Mason Mount’s deployment as a free No 8 next to Casemiro has been questioned but, to the manager, United’s early season troubles have more to do with their actions after immediately losing the ball rather than the composition of his engine room.
“They didn’t run,” Ten Hag said after United’s 2-0 defeat away to Tottenham Hotspur in August. “Or they run in the wrong moment, too late. Especially the front didn’t recover. It is not about the midfield, it is about the back and the front. That is why we were open.”
Last season, United’s out-of-possession system revolved around a five-second plan. Whenever the side lost possession, they would look to regain it for a short period. If they were unsuccessful in winning the ball after five seconds, they would retreat into a compact 4-4-2 to protect against counter-attacks.
Casemiro’s work as an aggressive tackler and line-breaking passer was essential to this, but the Brazilian has looked far from his best this season. Ten Hag has avoided critiquing the midfielder, instead pointing to issues around his lynchpin.
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Man United’s win at Burnley was not pretty but finally there was defensive stability
Prior to United’s 3-1 defeat to Arsenal, Ten Hag was asked to elaborate on what he meant about United’s issues in “the back and the front”.
“We got stretched, and we have to improve that,” he replied. “We have to be more compact, otherwise you can never counter-press. I had a problem with how the defence moved and I had a problem with the responding in the defence transition of our offensive players.”
A stretched front press has been a consistent bugbear for United this season. Ange Postecoglou asking his centre-backs to stand further away from each other when his team were building up in the second half saw Tottenham much improved in their victory over United.
Ten Hag felt the pressure against Spurs (Photo: Adrian Dennis/AFP via Getty Images)
By doing so, United’s front three encountered problems when angling their defensive runs as there was more space to cover. It was an in-game adjustment repeated by Roberto De Zerbi’s Brighton in their 3-1 win over United.
Brighton had seemed vulnerable to United’s front press in the first 20 minutes, before having their centre-backs stand further apart, once again reducing the counter-pressing efforts by Ten Hag’s men.
Both of those matches saw Marcus Rashford criticised for his application when working without the ball. Ten Hag has not named his forward when discussing defensive schemes but spent part of the press conference which followed the 4-3 defeat to Bayern Munich talking about the “collective energy” when defending.
“That is the point: we have to cross the line as an individual and as a team to win games because it started there. You have to suffer, sacrifice in situations, to give everything and to stop that — and only when we get that in are we going to win games.
“Of course, he (Andre Onana, who was at fault for the first goal in Munich) knows he has to stop the ball but the way (Leroy) Sane came through can’t be. And the second goal, it’s almost similar to the other side. How easy players come through our box and to finish, it can’t be.”
Sane’s goal came from running past Rashford and Christian Eriksen on United’s right. It was followed by a goal four minutes later for Serge Gnabry that combined two complications for United: their vulnerability to pull-backs to the edge of the box and their tendency to concede after restarts.
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Casemiro and Eriksen look like a short-term solution to a long-term United problem
United have conceded 14 goals already this season — eight of which have occurred within five minutes of a new kick-off (two after the start of a half, three after United have scored a goal and three after the opposition have scored). It’s another worry that Ten Hag is mindful of.
“You can’t close your eyes for things like this, so we coach the players,” he said prior to the victory over Burnley. “When you analyse the goals against and look at our defensive transition, we are quite good. But when we start in an organised situation, we are not always that good.”
These organised situations that Ten Hag is looking to solve are not helped by injury concerns regarding several players. It means the manager has been unable to name consistent starting XIs.
Ten Hag after a more satisfactory result against Burnley (Paul Ellis/AFP via Getty Images)
Help could be on the way, however. Sofyan Amrabat’s brief showing against Burnley is a sign the Moroccan is getting closer to full fitness. Amrabat, who has pre-existing knowledge of Ten Hag’s style of play from their time together at Utrecht, should bring much-needed defensive energy and ambition to United, making them stronger when on the defensive transition.
Raphael Varane’s second-half introduction in the same game should also bring respite, while Mount’s recovery (from a supposed hamstring injury) could see him moved to the right wing of Ten Hag’s preferred 4-2-3-1, solving another problem position.
Despite it being two years into Ten Hag’s tenure, the team still needs certain personnel available to make the manager’s processes work. A returning cavalry, coupled with a decent run of matches should better enable the United manager to fix a myriad of issues.
“There are reasons (for United’s troubles on the defensive transition), but if you explain reasons all of the time you end up with excuses, so I don’t want to talk about that,” Ten Hag said ahead of Burnley.
“I just have to coach my team and to put to them my conclusions. I have to make them aware of these conclusions and then also to give them solutions for it.”
Ten Hag says he knows what the problems are. The next few weeks will see if he addresses them correctly.
GO DEEPER
This is Ten Hag’s United team now - it is on him to turn things around
(Top photo: Matt McNulty via Getty Images)
