For any manager to be successful at United, they have to understand how to develop the team where we we can play a more dominant brand of football in the opponent's half and then whilst being high up the pitch, control the defensive transition in large spaces. The concept of controlling the game in a high defensive line doesn't seem to register with certain managers and even a lot of fans don't seem to understand how crucial it is to have a strong rest defense if the aim is to implement a more dominant brand of football in the current EPL. The EPL imo is the most brutal league when it comes to defending transitions in a high defensive line, and the teams who have strong players in midfield and at CB with attributes to control or contain transitions, are near the top of the league. There's a lot of good managers, but their tactics are only as good as the players they have their disposal.
Take the game against Bayern as a example, their rest defense was considerably stronger than ours. Players like Upamecano and Kim Min Jae at CB, with Goretzka in CM and Mazraoui and Davis at fullback were too quick, too powerful and also very capable on the ball to provide a threat going forward as well as a platform for the rest of the team to function at a good level.
For Man Utd the answer was never Harry Kane and the 120m on him would've been a bad move imo. And I say that because Harry Kane wouldn't have solved United's biggest problem going into this season, and that being how weak we're in comparison to our rivals when it comes to defending transitions in a higher defensive line. And the way things are shaping up, it does look like improving the rest defense is in the cross hairs going into the January and summer windows.
And if we sign 4 players to come into the team with a view to improving our rest defense by next summer, then I believe ten Hag will have a complete team to implement his strategy. Players like Ousmane Diomande at RCB, Castello Lukeba or Jarrad Branthwaite at LCB, and midfielders like Amadou Onana and Lucas Gourna-Douath to just to name some examples to improve our rest defense structure and bring us closer to the likes of Arsenal, Liverpool and Man City in that regard.