People underestimate how injuries can decimate a team.
Erik ten Hag | 2022/23 & 2023/24
- Thread starter sewey89
- Start date
- Status
Wonder whether Martinez's icing of his foot was precautionary or if it was an issue and that's why he came off. Fingers crossed.
With our main players back fit, If we can regain the form we showed for large parts of last season and somehow finish top 4 and have a good run in the FA Cup, then I’d give him another season. I’d like to what he’d be like with a competent football focused structure above him. Keep him away from transfers and let him concentrate purely on coaching. That said he’d really have to start showing he can implement the style of play he used at Ajax because that’s why we all wanted him after all.
Usual shit for me. Very good first half undone by a weak and unprofessional second half requiring our 18 year old youngster to bail us out in the 97th(?K minute. We can't put a good performance together for the full 90mins, heck even 60mins.
We also have an awful habit of conceding and shitting ourselves to the point of throwing games away.
We also have an awful habit of conceding and shitting ourselves to the point of throwing games away.
I think it's more instructions based... Even with Mainoo, just last game against Newport saw him way up next to Bruno, as it was with mctominay, Eriksen, Mount, whoever. This game had a clear switch to keep the 2nd midfielder deep as well, and have 2 players in the middle. There is simply too much space for just 1 player to cover in there. We've seen the same system too many times with different personnel to be anything other than instructions. Yesterday was a clear switch where you had a normal midfield pair.
Are people really still waiting for this? He literally said that he can't and won't implement that style at United.
What you seen last night is his style of play, that's what we are under him. A team sometimes capable of creating chances and scoring goals, but also capable of extreme wastefulness and complete capitulation.
Baffling that his immediate response to their second goal was to take off our striker to defend the one goal lead against the mighty Wolves
I'd say it was different... It's a mentally fragile team, and the refs gave a nonsense penalty to them after a dive and the 2nd was a corner with a few flicks and deflections (which can just happen to anyone). Of course, it continues the trend of shit set piece defending, but we weren't conceding chance after chance from open play which is a nice change... Was only 0.35 xG conceded from open play. Offensively we even saw the nice change of creating plenty from set pieces.
Yes, we should be further along now and yes, we still threw the game away (and then rescued it). But it's a start. If we played from open play like that on a consistent basis, not many would have issues and United wouldn't be mid table. If we can play closer to that level (and again, I think that's led from the manager and his instructions, not abandoning the midfield), then it's something we can build off of. Ultimately we still need to learn to control games, ten hags subs need to drastically improve, and the set pieces are generally a disaster, but it's a start.
Last edited:
I read somewhere earlier it was just precautionary as a Wolves player had heavily tread on it.
A lot of managers would try and go a bit more defensive when only winning by a goal near the end. We should really be sitting back and countering but like he said after the game he wasn’t happy with how we control games. We try and score more goals when sometimes it’s best to just calm it down and play it simple by passing around, make them tired and then wait for more openings. We have an habit of opening games right up even when in the lead. It’s like that silly corner we took which gave them a counter and a goal… what’s all that about. A top team would play it short there and waste time.
To have dropped points from a 2 goal lead is despicable. Turned my tv off as soon as Wolves equalised. Honestly I’m still fecking fuming.
ten Hag is abusing us.
ten Hag is abusing us.
Yeah. Firmly crossed. He’s made such a difference already. Varane looks better too with Licha alongside him. I’m praying ( well, you know) that he’s going to be ok and see us through the second half of the season.
Evans for Garnacho was the wrong sub. Should have been Amad or Eriksen on.
That’s what I’m saying, I know he’s already said he can’t implement that style of play at United but that’s why I said if he does enough to earn himself another season then hopefully by that time he’ll be under a proper footballing structure and if that’s the case then he better start delivering that style of play because that’s largely the reason why we all wanted him. If he doesn’t then show him the door and get someone else in that can implement a progressive style of play we all want to see. We’ve seen other managers come into the league and put their stamp on a team within a couple of months, there’s no excuses anymore.
To the second point, I think we looked pretty good for large parts of last season and seemed like we were building towards a set style of play but didn’t quite have the right personnel to implement it properly. That’s why I’d like to see him under a board that’s knowledgeable on football like he was at Ajax, then he can solely focus on coaching and let other people deal with the recruitment that will enable him to play that style at Utd.
Last edited:
Are we sure though? Yesterday was also the first time we had a quality midfield pairing with players that naturally can play as a midfield unit. capable of defensive positioning, comfortable in possession, forward passing and goal threat.
It does seem that there were some games with a true, suicidal lone pivot. But it is surely not a coincidence that two quality midfielders were able to make it look cohesive.
We had the same midfield vs Newport and they played more in line with the 1 deep and 2 #10's
I think Bayindir needs to replace Onana.
He get's off with it while other managers we have had were slated for cowardice.
They literally cannot, it's in the stats.
In that Ajax game they were completely knackered.
Against Wolves he had to take Casemiro and Martinez off to manage their playing time (both coming back from injuries and Casemiro on a yellow). We did not defend well after that.
There have been games where we set up to defend (Liverpool 0-0), he knows how to set us up.
To be fair I might be adding 2 and 2 and getting 5 but it's been a reoccurring theme of our season, we lead and then shit ourselves. Perhaps it isn't ten Hag but we seem to be one of the most likely to concede in the league. I really don't know if we just have players that crumble under the slightest pressure or ten Hag can't coach the players into keeping it tight.
It's a big worry for a man really under pressure, he needs his players to start winning more calmly.
The counter attack from the corner was badly defended. There is a plan in place to deal with that which they fecked up.
Antony can hold the ball very well and tracks back, a perfectly reasonable sub. He really fecked up when he tried to dribble through two players and lost the ball.
I don‘t have the answer. I don‘t think it is a coincidence Martinez and Cas come off and we crumble.
The alternative is risking injury or a red card for Cas.
It's happened so often that we can't put it all on the players. Can't be that it's Ten Hag's genius that gets us into 2 goal leads but players just stop listening to his master tactics after that and keep giving up the leads.
Not to be confused with the Liverpool 0-7 match if anyone was wondering
I mean he can be unhappy all he wants about the lack of control but that falls on him as a coach/manager at this point. He’s failed to coach a solid defensive structure when we have to sit deeper and consistently deal with pressure. He puts someone like McTominay on who will always cause you to lose more control of the midfield and lends himself to a more chaotic game. He keeps Bruno on at all costs who is fecking almost 30 and still refuses to keep a modicum of composure and play smarter passes when we actually NEED control, instead insisting on trying to create more with low percentage passes. He could have even brought on Eriksen and went to more of a diamond to ping the ball around with 4 CM’s
Complaining about our lack of control/ability to see out leads comfortably after 18 months on the job without trying anything different solely falls on his shoulders.
Yeah, I agree, of course there has to be some tactical tweaks between the league game against Wolves and cup game against Newport. I just hope that in the games where he will use two more advanced midfielders, Dalot will be more inverted to create a double pivot.
Dalot due to his passing range, physicality and great touch can be comfortable in that role and he is not that type of right back who will offer quality width. We just can let one man be responsible for that much space in the middle of the park, being that with an inverted full back or with Casemiro and Mainoo as double pivots.
Harsh on @Berbaclass
Obvious ragebaiting headline is obvious.
You guys should relax. Obviously Graham Potter will be our manager this summer.
What does this even mean? Is he going to resign if we don’t let him flush another £150 million down the toilet?
He really doesn’t help himself at times.
It means it's a typcial made up nonsense story by the Mirror that isn't worth posting.
- Status