Our football is stale

Some nice patterns of play and obviously we played a few "2nd teamers". But it's worrying that our goals and wins are almost exclusively coming from counter attacks. A bit reminiscent of the Ole years.

Early days, but I think people should hold their horses calling EtH our saviour, the next coming of the Christ, "the man to end Klopp's cycle" etc.
 
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I see where the OP is coming from. To be fair, Ten Hag is not a miracle worker, he's not going to be able to transform this group into an exciting free flowing team in the space of a couple of months.

Not only that, but we are still miles away from having the right types of players to play such football. This is about getting the most out of what we have, it's very much a work in progress.

I still feel ETH has a few scars from the opening two defeats, he daren't set the team up that will expose the frailties which are still there. We are going to struggle against teams who defend deep, this group are lacking players to create chances against stubborn or physically strong teams. We need to accept there will be periods this season where utd may struggle to score goals, until ETH finds a way to get the most out of what's available to him.
 
We are horrible without Eriksen and Varane and lack threat up front without the pace of Rashford and Martial.
 
Skills said:
Unless the opposition gives us a chance to break on them by overcommitting.

It's been a constant theme from the first game to now.

How do we address this?
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Yes the 18 pass, every player in the team touching the ball was my favourite counter attacking goal that we've scored.
 
Yeah there's ways to go.

That was the worst performance we had since Brentford.
 
If everything gets postponed we've got a 2 week training camp. Our movement was as poor as our passing tonight.
 
It’s been like this since our first game. Aka 7 games. Under a new manager. With new players. After one of our worst seasons ever. And we’ve one 4 of the 7 games…beating Arsenal and Liverpool along the way.

Give this beautiful bald bastard some time will you? JFC
 
I just wanna watch a Man Utd team with some techno midgets attempting 100 passes each, and some wingers who can dribble would be nice too
 
Real Name said:
What are you on about?
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I’m talking about the state of the shape of our midfield. It’s all over the place. Not even one match we are able to control. The gaps in midfield are mind boggling. Eriksen plays as a striker in one match, plays as a DM in the next, Fred or mctom plays higher than him. The lack of passing lines and position of midfielders is non existent hence no possession and no control from the middle. It feels like no care has been given to the position of midfielders that’s why they are so far from each other. Half of the time our defenders are booting the ball from defence to attack straight away rather than creating passing planes in the structure of our play to not only control and keep possession of the ball but also build up the play from there. This helter skelter football is a direct outcome of no control from the midfield.
 
Frosty said:
Was anyone expecting us to be world beaters, considering the squad we still have and the fact we haven't had that long with ten Hag?
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No.
We need time and we need to improve the squad more. At the moment There are too many players who look off the pace or not clued in to how we want to play. Some of the players are just not good enough to start matches and others are a ways away from being match fit. If we have no matches over the next 9 days I hope we arrange some behind closed door friendlies.
 
kaku06 said:
I’m talking about the state of the shape of our midfield. It’s all over the place. Not even one match we are able to control. The gaps in midfield are mind boggling. Eriksen plays as a striker in one match, plays as a DM in the next, Fred or mctom plays higher than him. The lack of passing lines and position of midfielders is non existent hence no possession and no control from the middle. It feels like no care has been given to the position of midfielders that’s why they are so far from each other. Half of the time our defenders are booting the ball from defence to attack straight away rather than creating passing planes in the structure of our play to not only control and keep possession of the ball but also build up the play from there. This helter skelter football is a direct outcome of no control from the midfield.
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You're seeing strange things. It's as if we've been playing completely different games. Sure in parts of games we'd lose possession but it hasn't been as chaotic as you're portraying it. At all.
 
VP89 said:
What are you on about?
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There are a few posters who wanted Pochettino or someone else and they're on a posting crusade about how the football is not good enough yet. After losses you get these, after wins they didn't win properly. You'll note there's no effort whatsoever in any of these. No screenshots of bad play, no thought into which of the manager's decisions are wrong, about what sorts of new players we need, just a negative thread title and an invitation to discuss. They obviously can't openly demand Ten Hag be sacked because most people agree that it's only been 6 games and he started with a terrible squad that needs 2 more transfer windows minimum until it's actually good enough to play decent football, so instead we just get low effort shit stirring like this thread.
 
It has been the same for over 10 years, even towards the end of Fergusons tenure. We haven't played consistently great football since about 2009
 
RedOrange said:
There are a few posters who wanted Pochettino or someone else and they're on a posting crusade about how the football is not good enough yet. After losses you get these, after wins they didn't win properly. You'll note there's no effort whatsoever in any of these. No screenshots of bad play, no thought into which of the manager's decisions are wrong, about what sorts of new players we need, a negative thread title and an invitation to discuss. They obviously can't openly demand Ten Hag be sacked because most people agree that it's only been 6 games and he started with a terrible squad that needs 2 more transfer windows minimum until it's actually good enough to play decent football, so instead we just get low effort shit stirring like this thread.
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Stop trying to guess why others are posting. Many are here wanting ten hag as first choice and calling a spade a spade - today's football was utter wank.
 
Disagree with basically everyone here. I think the football (as in the structures, build up, pressing etc.) were totally fine. Spanish sides normally can toy with us when they build up and that didn't happen at all, we forced many turnovers. Basically total control defensively.

Some experiments that needed to happen happened (Eriksen - Casemiro partnership, Fred further forward, Ronaldo at CF etc.).

I think this one's just on VAR, Ronaldo, Fred and some randomness (1.5 npxG - 0.8npXG). Pretty hard to get 1.5xg without scoring.
 
Skills said:
Unless the opposition gives us a chance to break on them by overcommitting.

It's been a constant theme from the first game to now.

How do we address this?
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It's been a constant theme for about 10 years and got worse under Van Gaal and Jose.

The only way to address is with caffeine pills and peds.
 
The usual suspects getting the blame, but I thought Casemiro, Antony and Fred were our worst performers tonight. Sancho also poor when he came on. Full backs poor. Bruno ineffective. Maguire and Ronaldo were the least of our problems.

Tbh don't care, with won 4 PL games in a row with increasingly better performances each game - not drastic improvement but steady. Europa should be used to give youngsters a game and keep squad players fresh.
 
VP89 said:
Stop trying to guess why others are posting. Many are here wanting ten hag as first choice and calling a spade a spade - today's football was utter wank.
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I don't have to guess, there are people who have been complaining about the manager since preseason FFS.

It's obvious why they looked bad today. Without Eriksen and Bruno in midfield at the same time we can't string 3 passes together and we don't have a CF who can hold the ball up. Fred can't pass the ball long and is gaffe prone, and they spent the whole match just kicking the ball at Ronaldo, who was unable to finish any of his chances (aside from that one where he was offside).
 
ten hag is the same guy who subbed on attackers after losing 2 men to red cards in the CL against Chelsea. Where has that bravery gone?

when klopp and pep first took over their teams, you could immediately see what their philosophy was. I am still not seeing anything that assures me that we made the correct appointment.

We already know counter attack is our strongest weapon. What has he done in three months that has evolved our play?
 
We didn’t play well and yet On another night we would of won 3-0. Not sure what game some of you were watching. Ronaldo wasted a lot of chances he’d normally score and he looks a real problem. Whether he can’t get motivated or just isn’t arsed he looks badly off. He’s not doing the simple things, he hasn’t become a sh*t player over the course of a few months, he’s clearly struggling to get his head around his new role.

Im looking forward to seeing how we play in the next game, whenever that might be.
 
Some of you moaning don’t deserve nice things.
 
Threesus said:
ten hag is the same guy who subbed on attackers after losing 2 men to red cards in the CL against Chelsea. Where has that bravery gone?

when klopp and pep first took over their teams, you could immediately see what their philosophy was. I am still not seeing anything that assures me that we made the correct appointment.

We already know counter attack is our strongest weapon. What has he done in three months that has evolved our play?
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He brought on Garnacho and McNeill while we were chasing the game mate
 
RedOrange said:
I don't have to guess, there are people who have been complaining about the manager since preseason FFS.

It's obvious why they looked bad today. Without Eriksen and Bruno in midfield at the same time we can't string 3 passes together and we don't have a CF who can hold the ball up. Fred can't pass the ball long and is gaffe prone, and they spent the whole match just kicking the ball at Ronaldo, who was unable to finish any of his chances (aside from that one where he was offside).
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Saying the football was shit today isnt a complaint against the manager alone. You're being unnecessarily defence.
 
Taking Dalot off really finished us tonight. It finished off any threat from the right side. The fact we had no other option but Lindelof or AWB to come us is a real problem.
It was so obvious that this shit situation would happen sometimes this season. Pretty much everyone in the rate the transfer window thread pointed out we needed a RB and a striker.
 
Teja said:
Disagree with basically everyone here. I think the football (as in the structures, build up, pressing etc.) were totally fine. Spanish sides normally can toy with us when they build up and that didn't happen at all, we forced many turnovers. Basically total control defensively.

Some experiments that needed to happen happened (Eriksen - Casemiro partnership, Fred further forward, Ronaldo at CF etc.).

I think this one's just on VAR, Ronaldo, Fred and some randomness (1.5 npxG - 0.8npXG). Pretty hard to get 1.5xg without scoring.
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Pretty much. You had a front 4 with 3 of those players technically poor and wasteful.

kouroux said:
Even with our best 11, we still cannot keep possession
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We can certainly “keep possession” we just don’t dominate it when Rashford, DDG, and McT are in the aforementioned best XI. It’s never going to happen.
 
We need players who havent been influenced by the last 3 years. Its shows that our better players are all the newbies. It will take time to adapt and we will have a few nights like tonight if TH tries to switch it around again.
 
Out of the last 5 games this is probably one we could 'afford' to lose? Our football was bad tonight. We haven't being good when we have to dictate the play unfortunately. I still have confidence that Ten Hag will make the changes necessary.
 
12OunceEpilogue said:
I'm not that worried about tonight. We're still a work in progress and making so many changes was always going to run the risk of slowing our improvement. Add in that their penalty was horseshit and it's not been so bad.
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I have read on other places (the match thread I think) a suggestion that because the game this weekend will be postponed (as will all matches) the manager didn't need to rest players as he did.

Two problems though: i) the news was only official at 6.30pm so 90 mins before kick-off. So that is a bit too late to make changes and revert to more like the team that has been so successful in the Prem these last few weeks. ii) Of more concern is the fact I bet ETH has promised game time to certain players and the Europa and FA Cup will be when he intends to give it. I would even suggest the money people have pressured him into including Ronaldo in the starting 11 when really he has lost it completely. The Europa Cup is probably Man Utds best chance of a trophy this season, but not if Maguire, Ronaldo, Fred and Lindelof are the spine of the team for that competition.
 
Tigersam said:
I have read on other places (the match thread I think) a suggestion that because the game this weekend will be postponed (as will all matches) the manager didn't need to rest players as he did.

Two problems though: i) the news was only official at 6.30pm so 90 mins before kick-off. So that is a bit too late to make changes and revert to more like the team that has been so successful in the Prem these last few weeks. ii) Of more concern is the fact I bet ETH has promised game time to certain players and the Europa and FA Cup will be when he intends to give it. I would even suggest the money people have pressured him into including Ronaldo in the starting 11 when really he has lost it completely. The Europa Cup is probably Man Utds best chance of a trophy this season, but not if Maguire, Ronaldo, Fred and Lindelof are the spine of the team for that competition.
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Erik has a job on keeping this squad motivated and there seems to be a cavernous gap between his first choice players and the understudies. I'm still happy to give him and the players plenty of time to work things out but if it turns out he can only rely on 12 or 13 of them to be even acceptable we can forget fighting on several fronts this year.
 
holdsteady said:
Fred & Casemiro did not work today. No creativity. Fred was in positions to succeed and failed miserably in the first half. He was awful.
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Fred was playing higher than Eriksen, which I still don’t understand as he has zero football IQ. His first touch lets him down also.
 
Pogue Mahone said:
Paradoxically we’ve dominated possession in all three of our defeats this season (including tonight) and consistently had <50% in all of our wins.
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I don't think it's necessarily the keeping possession that's an issue. It felt like tonight and Vs Brentford we spent a lot of time going backwards and passing between our defenders. But the challenge for us now has to be having good, progressive possession, turning the screw on opponents that try to press us or sit back. Get the ball into dangerous areas for prolonged periods where the opposition is pinned back and defending for their lives.

It never feels like we're probing when we do have the ball Vs a deep defence, rather just passing the buck to the next guy to find a way through.

Only when we can do this will I believe we're a team that can go on to great things again. Perhaps we don't have the players, I don't know. But I've seen the likes of Brighton do it very well so I find it hard to make that argument myself.
 
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