Ten Hag absolutely deserves credit for his promoting and handling of Mainoo and Garnacho, playing teenagers is always a risk, Ten Hag had other options available when he began picking Mainoo and Garnacho. Garnacho became the obvious choice because Ten Hag was willing to give him a chance. He’s also started giving minutes to Forson and Kambwala. He’s got a lot of faults, what he’s been doing with our teenage talent deserves credit.
For me, my criticism of him has to do with the system we've been using. I don't personally think any manager deserves a second chance when they've had a decent amount of time to employ their tactics. He's been really stubborn this season in sticking with the 4141. It doesn't work fundamentally and is the reason, moreso than injuries, we've been as poor as we have been so far this season. Each week we are either winning poor uncontrolled games or losing is a lost week. This season, almost every single week can be considered lost. It's been clear the current system employed hasn't worked since August. He has only attempted to change this once against Brighton, and outside of that, has stuck to the same formation.
I don't think the formation works with the strategy he's trying to employ. The 4141 is far too aggressive in attack and can leave a team exposed to the counter. City's employment of inverted full backs in 2018, allowed this to work, as the team wasn't open to as many quick transitions due to the extra cover. In addition to this, on the ball, City play a measured brand of football, rarely using transitions. This means that they are always in set positions to deal with potential counters. United, on the other hand, are way too fluid, direct and dependent on transition play.
The fluidity we employ starts from our build up, with our defenders having to move into different shapes to move the ball. When moving to midfield, one of our full backs moves into midfield, whilst the other flies up the pitch. Two of our midfielders press high, leaving one exposed, with our transition expecting one of them to drop back. Even our press is sometimes fluid, with wide players moving centrally, leaving gaps on the flanks. This many movements and transitions leaves our team quite shapeless, particularly on the counter. It's far harder to find structure under this shapeless premise when playing a fast transition game, as opposed to one that's slower and more measured. This then leads to us constantly losing the ball, as our players struggle to find teammates due to their positions on the pitch being vague, or they get countered quite easily as they are constantly out of shape and can't get into shape quickly enough to stop the opposition. It's a tactical issue, that some poor individual performances mask.
A set formation with less fluid components would really help this team and Ten Haag. He can still employ some of the systems used at Ajax, but with formation and strategy tweaks that allow it to work in England. For example, already employing a back 3 from the start of the game, would negate us having to transition to a 3 whilst trying to build up. So employing a 343 might work for what he wants to do tactically in England. My concern with him is that despite having the opportunity to do so, he hasn't actually experimented enough, given his current system has been failing since August. Instead of folding his arms and waiting for Licha to come back, he should be looking at the best tactical solutions to getting the team to play good football. That's what I'm hoping he can do, If not, I just don't see the point of keeping him.
