If we go by this season it's a small data set, he looks to have had less of a vertical gap between the midfielders and our pressing was improved. And I don't think he's telling casemiro to go nuts with the passing. But at the same time there was a lot of disjointed moments vs Brighton in the backline, ball hunting etc.
As I say I'm waiting to find out, our backline is half changed. He's really on a last chance saloon with next games.
I think the extent of the change compared to last season has actually been disappointingly little. I didn't watch any of our pre-season games so can't comment on those but I thought we played really well against City in the Community Shield and also in the first half vs Fulham. The team looked more compact, were pressing better etc. We actually had the second highest defensive line in the league on the opening weekend. But against both Brighton and Liverpool, a lot of the same issues have resurfaced. Even against Brighton, where I do think there were positive signs in the first half, we mostly struggled to move the ball into their defensive third. Again, a constant issue for Ten Hag's United over his 2 seasons, we just don't seem to be able to progress the ball with any conviction and often resort to bypassing the midfield entirely by playing long from our defensive third.
And the stats are already starting to reflect the same much dissected problems with United's system - pressing structure is poor, struggle to get the ball into the opposition's defensive third, struggle to sustain pressure once if we do manage to get the ball into the opposition's defensive third because if we lose the ball there, our pressing structure is too poor to win it back or pin the opposition/defend transitions, defensive line is too deep and drops off too readily even when their starting position is high leaving a massive gap for the midfield to cover etc. Over three games (admittedly a very small sample but when it is repeating the same patterns as the 38 games last season, it isn't unreasonable to worry) -
For reference, field tilt measures the relative number of touches in your defensive third vs the oppositions defensive third. Meaning, if you exclude all the touches by both teams in the middle third, if roughly 75% of all remaining touches happen in the opposition final third, then you have a field tilt of 75% in your favour. Now obviously, this needs to be contextualized - if you are keeping the ball in your own defensive third in the hopes of baiting the opposition press (think De Zerbi's Brighton), you will have a lower field tilt. Plus, obviously quality of opposition also matters. We've played Liverpool and Brighton - both excellent teams who we were never going to pin back and dominate for 90 mins - but again, this is a continuation of a pattern from last season. And it is interesting in the above graphic that both us and Arsenal have roughly the same field tilt (around 50%) but combining this stat with our average defensive line height does highlight familiar failings for United, in my view. Add the context of what % of our possession happen in our own half -
And again, our field tilt of ~50% is not necessarily because we are successfully baiting the opposition press. In fact, we spend relatively little time in possession in our own half. Also interesting how high Spurs are on both the % of possession in their own half and field tilt - suggests their possession structure works much better at getting the ball in the opposition third than ours does, and is also much better at sustaining pressure in the final third through their pressing structure. Again, the data clearly shows this (both the positive for Spurs and the issues for us -
Again, I'd add the caveat that Spurs being so good at these metrics does not equate to their impending glorious season or our impending doom. For one, Spurs cannot defend for shit. But the data does reveal a lot about tactical structures and intent. Guardiola and Postecoglou's teams (for instance) have a clear and visible tactical identity - they build patiently from the back, keep possession and move patiently through the thirds, if they lose the ball in the final third, they mostly press in an organized manner to pin teams back, and they play a high defensive line to compress the pitch to make their press more effective. Tactical intent is also clearly visible for Southampton (even though they seem, at least to me, to be in for a LONG season with how they are playing) - they are the lower table side most visibly trying to implement the Guardiola blueprint. Again, the usual caveats of only a three game sample size and we have to account for quality of opposition faced - it's not a coincidence that Leicester's field tilt and defensive line height are the exact mirror of Spurs'. Or that Ipswich, having faced City and Liverpool are among the teams with the poorest field tilts and deepest defensive line.
But again, our numbers are a continuation of last season's. I don't expect Ten Hag to ever fix our defensive issues. A while back, there was a video doing the rounds of Ruud Gullit and Ten Hag debating his Ajax side's transition defending (and how much space they leave in midfield) and while Ten Hag conceded some points, his basic stance of 'these are risks you have to take to play an aggressive, entertaining style of football' is quite revealing about his coaching principles. He, much like everyone else in the world, sees the issues with our transition defending, he just thinks the risk is worth the reward if you can get the attack clicking. Problem is, we've not improved in possession nearly enough to justify this structure, yet. I would give him till the next international. We have a relatively comfortable fixture list coming up, which should give him ample opportunity to show the improvements in possession. If the numbers still look terrible, we should thank him for the two trophies and move him on and start assessing the tactical structures (and their fit to the Premier League) of the likes of Ruben Amorim, Sebastian Hoeness and Simone Inzaghi.
I'd also add that I think the issues with defensive line height are largely an issue with how direct play rather than the pace (or lack thereof) of our backline but this post is already much longer than I intended so I will leave you to it.
Bonus graph for the 'our players are too lazy/not inclined to press/unwilling to engage with the physicality of the league' crowd -