A grandstand finish, homegrown match winner and precious victory snatched from the jaws of what, for 92 minutes, looked like being a seventh defeat in 10 matches, it was hard to overstate the importance of Manchester United’s last gasp win over Brentford.
But if Scott McTominay’s two goals in that dramatic smash and grab are to prove a genuine turning point in United’s dismal season and not a fleeting resistance that papered over the many cracks, the manager must address his Casemiro- and Andre Onana-sized problems.
Opponents are targeting both players, often with great success, and given the importance of their roles, particularly at a time when United are missing their entire first choice defence, Ten Hag has two huge headaches to solve.
Onana continues to plumb new depths, his abysmal attempt to keep out Mathias Jensen’s shot arguably even worse than a similar blunder against Bayern Munich, and it has already reached the stage where a period out of the team might not do Ten Hag’s £47 million summer signing any harm.
His confidence is on the floor, he is breeding panic and, according to Opta’s xG metrics, he has conceded almost two league goals more than would be expected given the quality of shots on target faced, the second worst record in the top flight this term.
Even the Cameroonian’s distribution – one of the main reasons Ten Hag signed him from Inter Milan – has been poor.
With Harry Maguire and Jonny Evans, reprising their Leicester partnership from four and a half years ago, at centre-half in the absence of the injured Raphael Varane and Lisandro Martínez, Ten Hag did not trust his side to play out from the back and instead told them to go long.
But there did not feel a discernible difference in the quality of Onana’s long range delivery to that of David De Gea, whom he has replaced at Old Trafford, and too many of his passes resulted in possession being quickly turned over to Brentford.
Onana’s struggles would be problem enough, not least given the long list of key defenders Ten Hag is missing, but Casemiro’s rapid deterioration at the base of the midfield has compounded the issues.
The man Ten Hag described as the “cement between the stones” last season is starting to show signs of crumbling and, just 14 months after committing £70 million to sign the now 31-year-old from Real Madrid, United already look like they will need to be in the market for a top-class holding midfielder next summer, by which stage Casemiro’s £350,000-a-week contract will still have two years to run.
Brentford was the first time Ten Hag had paired Sofyan Amrabat in central midfield with Casemiro and the concern is United did not particularly look any better protected for it. But it is still early days and the growing reality is Casemiro needs a partner in there with him. United still have Kobbie Mainoo to come back, too.
Casemiro being hooked at half-time would have been largely unthinkable last season but it was from the Brazilian’s error that Brentford’s goal originated and his form has been so poor this term that no one could say his substitution at the interval had not been coming.
Okan Buruk, the Galatasaray manager, revealed that his side had deliberately targeted Casemiro in their 3-2 Champions League victory over United at Old Trafford on Tuesday. The worry is not only that Casemiro is struggling to cover the ground these days but he is not reading the danger either – think how easily Kerem Akturkoglu was able to run unchecked into the penalty area to score Galatasaray’s second equaliser – and has become sloppy and ponderous in possession. The needless foul by Amrabat from which Crystal Palace scored from the resulting free-kick in their 1-0 win at Old Trafford followed Casemiro turning over the ball cheaply and it was a similar story against Brentford.
Casemiro had to play the ball back to Harry Maguire when receiving it with three Brentford bodies around but his intended pass for Amrabat was read much too easily by Bryan Mbeumo before the Brazilian then dived in in a failed attempt to win back possession. Three more errors followed – at least one of Maguire or Amrabat not closing the space after Yoane Wissa momentarily appeared to overrun the ball, Victor Lindelof getting his feet in a tangle and failing miserably to clear the danger and finally Onana making a hash of his save. It is impossible to compete at this level with so many unforced individual errors and such passive defending. “It sums up the whole season,” Ten Hag said of the goal before stressing that the victory had to serve as a springboard to better things.
“It has to be a turning point and a reset in our approach and attitude as a team and individuals. This must be the turning point.”
