While I agree with your premise I still think his tactical approach is flawed. A 3 man midfield will dominate a 2 man midfield just by simple maths. Even when we were winning our midfield was being dominated. Its no coincidence that the top teams play with a 3 man midfield. I trust Ten Haag so hopefully he proves me wrong. Maybe a De Jong/Casemiro midfield will work. But in general I think we need a 3 especially against the likes of City.
Erik ten Hag | 2022/23 & 2023/24
- Thread starter sewey89
- Start date
- Status
Tbf hes a lump of immobile shit in this league.
That was tactically naive. He turned it around quickly in the Arsenal game, when he brought on Fred after they equalised. Here against a much better team we let them outnumber us in the center again. Bernardo and KdB just wandered into the half spaces and we did nothing to close them down
Bruno in a middle 3 against such sides is a huge gamble. He is basically a final third player and Eriksen just isnt physically enough to keep with up them with just McT alongside him.
Bruno in a middle 3 against such sides is a huge gamble. He is basically a final third player and Eriksen just isnt physically enough to keep with up them with just McT alongside him.
Not so late but when we played teams in the UCL in the years leading up to the win in 2008 I remember he adapted playing counter attacking line ups and dominating the midfield compared to more attacking line ups in other games.
I know it’s early days with Ten Hag and he went with his own decisions due to previous games but clearly we paid the price and hope we learn from it.
In an ideal world yeah.
1 problem though. We don't have the players not fitness levels to do it.
Come of it.
He's hardly played yet
We haven't got the team to go there and battle them toe to toe for another few years,he needed to take the Dortmund not Forest approach
How us that apparent, let alone more than ever?
Yes, he moved to that often pragmatic approach when he brought Queiroz which is nearly 2 decades into his career at United. In a vaccum I get your point but we are not in a vaccum, SAF wasn't, ETH isn't, no one is. For ETH there are two important things that he needs to do in these early days, instill his mentality into as many players as possible and understand which players can't follow his instructions and don't share his mentality. Going the pragmatic way that early has a cost that @Adnan has mentioned in his post and it's highly questionable whether ETH should pay it. Personally I would tell him to not pay it, this season we need to know what exactly we have and don't have outside of the "let's not lose that game" mentality.
Ladies and gentleman, Redcafe for you.
Am I the only person who doesn’t understand the Casemiro criticism? The man has been good whenever he’s come on the pitch for us.
Classic I'm happy I was right post.You actually sound happy wtf
Now, suddenly our victories were fluke.
Agree with this and @Adnan post, he needs to stick to his principles and the players need to show him they can play in his system, if they can’t then we should move them on and find players who can.
All problems can be resolved by shouting at them
We weren't lucky, they hardly had a chance, maybe 2, we won deservedly, let's not make it as it wasn't cause we lost today.
Yup. He can shout whatever but a Redcafer sees it and he's happy.
We do, we didn't try today and it was clearly the plan as the manager has said. If you run back against these lot you’re asking for trouble.
Bizarre people aren’t getting this. Tactics are irrelevant when your mentality and intensity is on the floor.
You didn’t watch the game. He was on the touchline seething.
I'm team RAM. Rashford Martial Antony up top for me. Rashford on the left has been much better than ronaldo up top this season.
I thought the manager was there to win games. You know, adapt the way he plays to the players he has and the team we are playing against. The idea that ETH is just above all those small considerations - like doing his job well - is just fantasy.
Also -- if he can't do this, he won't be very popular with either the players he has currently or any future players he might want to get. (Who wants to play for a team that's regularly slaughtered by the opposition?)
Last edited:
Really not wedded to the idea of a stubborn manager.
Didn't like it when SAF played Giggs and Carrick in midfield against Barça in 2011 and we got completely destroyed, didn't like it today. The whole world knows it's suicide to play 2 in a midfield against City especially with one of them not being a DM and the other not really a DM/not a great one. You need to shield the defence and cover the second runners that come into the box.
Respect the opponent enough to set up and contain them when the imabalance is so big.
I get sticking to principles and having belief in players but some pragmatism might be nice too.
I hope EtH reacts to this in the same way he did after Brentford and continues to show he learns and makes the right choices.
Didn't like it when SAF played Giggs and Carrick in midfield against Barça in 2011 and we got completely destroyed, didn't like it today. The whole world knows it's suicide to play 2 in a midfield against City especially with one of them not being a DM and the other not really a DM/not a great one. You need to shield the defence and cover the second runners that come into the box.
Respect the opponent enough to set up and contain them when the imabalance is so big.
I get sticking to principles and having belief in players but some pragmatism might be nice too.
I hope EtH reacts to this in the same way he did after Brentford and continues to show he learns and makes the right choices.
Its a fantasy to think we’ll win any games against top sides without intensity and aggression in our play. The manager is there to win big trophies in the future which means he needs to develop a team that can do that.
A manager is here to win games but he needs to win them long term and they need to lead to trophies. There is little point for United or ETH to sabotage your midterm position for short term results.
because he is classed as one of the best defensive midfielders in world football is he not? He cost us 70million euros. We played a midfield of mctominay, Eriksen (attacking minded) and Bruno (also attacking minded).. against a team like Man City. It left us extremely open. City walked through us over and over.
i do understand when we signed him we started winning and ETH wants to keep a winning team.. but at the same time you got to look at city as a fixture in its own right and you got to have as much defensive cover as possible on the pitch. Don’t defend or hold position and you get punished, that’s obviously.
In theory you're correct, but City away is the toughest game of the season, it's okay to make a couple of adjustments when we're miles away from competing toe to toe with them. Those adjustments don't even have to mean sacrificing control of the midfield. If anything, one of the logical adjustments would likely have given us more control in midfield - bringing in Casemiro for Bruno or Rashford.
No he needs to win them day by day as they happen. He can think long term, but his immediate task is the next game.
That all doesn't mean he wasn't his signing nor its apparent.
Okay. But how do you know whether a set of players are able to play a certain way against a certain level of opposition? Aren't you supposed to put them in that situation? Or do you think that the manager should not try to get that information and assume that he definitely know the players inside out and decrete that they are unable to do it beforehand?
Ole won us games too. If you catch my drift.
If we’d signed FDJ he would of started today. Every other signing made in the summer started today except this guy, who as I said before, is one of the best in his position.
i don’t think he was a planned out signing, I think as soon as they knew they couldn’t get FDJ they went and got him but it wasn’t plan A by any means. Not necessarily a panic buy but he wasn’t part of the original plan.
Doesn’t mean he can’t come good or be a massive player for us.
Yeah, makes sense, his signing or not I hope he'll come good. I mean, he certainly wasn't in an original plan but was the plan later when FDJ wasn't possible, I don't think he was bought without ETH's decision.
He wasn't supposed to be available. So yes, he wasn't planned like the others and as it has already been mentioned unlike the other players, his "competition" was actually doing well. Malacia and Martinez had the benefit of Maguire, Lindelof and Shaw being shoddy very early and Elanga was the one warming Antony's place and he wasn't good.
possibly but did anyone really think a midfield of mctom, Eriksen and Bruno would contain this city side? It’s so defensively weak, you got to look at each individual game and the opposition surely?
How do you get your philosophy across then? Only when you play against Bournemouth? What sort of message does this send to players, the best teams rarely compromise their style of play.
People are going mental after 7 games, 3 of which have been played against teams either fighting for the title or top 4, acting as if ETH has been here for years, it’s ridiculous.
Well I would say that you want to give them instructions and see how they handle them against City. And the biggest issue wasn't that we were defensively weak but that we were technically weak, that we were weak in possession and totally unable to keep the ball, recycle it and put City under pressure with any sort of consistency.
I know how we can paper over the cracks when it comes to defending, I know that it's a weakness but if I was in ETH's shoes I would like to know if we can be dominant with the ball, if we can use possession and ball recycling as a defensive tool because that aspect of the game is also crucial when it comes to scoring and creating attacking pressure.
In a way we are looking at things from opposite sides.
He's not trying to though. Bruno & Eriksen have always been high risk and low retention players. You obviously need someone like that in your team (Guardiola gives De Bruyne a huge license to lose the ball), but you can't have the two of them in your midfield especially.
On top of that McTominay has always struggled to get on the ball enough to help you recycle and move the ball around. So now you've got a mid 3 of 2 players who don't retain possession, and one who doesn't like to get on the ball.
That's not to say you can't play Eriksen and Bruno together, but they can't be in your midfield 3. One of them needs to occupy one of the forward positions if you want them playing.
Puzzled that anyone could argue that Ten Hag is right to leave Ronaldo out because he doesnt fit the pressing game. What pressing game? There was none today. Ten Hag has done nothing other than disrespect Ronnie today.
Ronaldo presses as much, if not more, than Rashford
Ronaldo presses as much, if not more, than Rashford
- Status