Is Erik ten Hag ever going to learn from his mistakes? | OneFootball

According to The Athletic’s Mark Critchley, despite Manchester United’s 2-1 defeat at the hands of Brighton yesterday, “there is some small progress” at the club.

It is true that but for an unfortunate twist of fate when an offside Josh Zirkzee’s knee touched Alejandro Garnacho’s goal-bound shot on the goal line, United could well have won the tie and gone into the grudge match with Liverpool next week with six points under their belt.

That bit of bad luck is compounded by teething troubles, Critchley notes. He points out that while the defending on Brighton’s injury time winner looked awful, “Of the nine United players in the penalty area as Adingra played his cross, three were new signings, two joined just last week and four had not started the game.

“The routines themselves were being orchestrated by a set-piece coach in Andreas Georgson who has an excellent reputation yet only arrived less than a month ago.”

That is all very well, and it is certainly also true that United are playing a more attractive and controlled brand of football than they did last season. It was a loss, but at least one that was generally more pleasing on the eye.

But you could also look at this another way. Had the Zirknee not touched Garnacho’s shot, and had Antony and Mazraoui shown Adingra to the outside, or had Diogo Dalot, Lisandro Martinez and Alejandro Garnacho been marking the army of Brighton players queueing up at the back post, then United may have won and that victory would have been papering over the cracks that still exist throughout the team.

Many of us gave manager Erik ten Hag the benefit of the doubt for much of last season due to the horrific injury crisis he endured and the relatively weak squad he had at his disposal – although weaker squads, on paper at least, finished higher than United in the table.

But should Ten Hag be given credit for what is going better for United and should he not be held accountable for what is still going badly?

First, there is the change in system from the ugly transitions-based football the Dutchman preached. This change started in the last few games of last season. Did Ten Hag finally see the light and abandon the flawed strategy, or did he receive orders from the newly appointed technical director, Jason Wilcox, to make the change? That was the rumour and the timing certainly gives you pause.

Second, United struggled to find the back of the net against Fulham with Bruno Fernandes in the false nine role and Mason Mount behind. A lot of money was spent on Serie A sensation Zirkzee in July, so why did Ten Hag persist with the zero striker experiment?

At half time, again he seemed to see the light and made the change, replacing Mount with the Dutchman. But he himself took away the credit we might have given him for the brave(-ish) change when he said after the game that Mount had been subbed due to an injury.

In other words, by his own admission, we can’t give Ten Hag the credit for correcting things tactically at half time, the change was enforced.

The goal that never was would have been scored by Alejandro Garnacho, but he did not start the game. He came on as sub in the Community Shield and against Fulham and looked hands down United’s most in-form winger on both occasions. Yet Ten Hag keeps starting Marcus Rashford, as he did almost incessantly last season, when the England man continues to disappoint, fluff his shots, and exhibit awful body language when things don’t go his way.

We all know what Rashford is capable of and we all want him to be given ample opportunity to re-find his form, but, as noted here yesterday, not at the expense of losing or failing to win match after match while he battles his inner demons.

The formula is simple. Start your form wingers, get the game won, then bring on the struggler against tired legs to help him get his mojo back.

No-one would defend Jadon Sancho’s petulance in his ongoing spat with Ten Hag, but his original gripe does seem valid: some players do seem to get preferential treatment, while others seem to have to do everything those ones do backwards and in high heels, to quote Lauren Bacall.

And while we’re on the subject of the spat with Sancho, Ineos must be pulling their hair out over that situation.

Again, stressing that nobody is supporting or condonining the unprofessional and childish Sancho, the facts still remain that Ten Hag has completely mishandled the situation from start to finish and, in dropping Sancho after he performed well in pre-season and pleased the coaches, has shown himself to be petulant and vindictive himself.

And if, as some fans suspect, there was never really a rapprochement and playing Sancho in pre-season was putting him in the shop window for a transfer, then that has backfired badly.

But back to tactics, and it is still far from clear what United’s personality is. Ineos seem to be backing Ten Hag in the transfer market – or else, agree with him – in pursuing another holding midfielder in Manuel Ugarte. But where is the creativity in midfield? Should there not be at least one central midfielder whose strength is his passing?

The only visionary passers of the ball in the United squad are Bruno Fernandes and Christian Eriksen. The latter can’t get a game for love nor money, while the former is constantly being played out of position by Ten Hag, on the wing or up top, where his skills are wasted.

Even then, Fernandes’ heat map from yesterday’s game shows neither a false nine nor a number 10. It is more like the heatmap of a left back. It is hard to justify these tactics when Garnacho and Zirkzee sat on the bench for much of the game.

Source: sofascore.com

Hopefully, Mr Critchley is right and these are all just teething problems. We all want to believe Ineos were wise in keeping Ten Hag and that he, and they, all know what they are doing. We will find out soon enough.

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