This still makes no sense. Sure, move Bruno to the left. It never seems to work but maybe 15th time the charm.
That still doesn't mean we need Weghorst. Why not start Sabitzer or Fred as a third midfielder? Hell, even Sancho. He was rubbish that one time we played him as a no. 10 but hey, maybe it'll be different this time.
There's no justification for putting Weghorst in there because we KNOW he's going to be utterly useless. Because he's not really a footballer. The idea that once Bruno is out of the centre our only option is Wout fecking Weghorst is pure nonsense.
Because he thought a physical/ heading forward is how to beat West Ham who are a quite a physical team anyway.
Just because a player starts at number 10 doesn’t mean they play there all game.
Playing Sabitzer or Fred at CAM or even Bruno would be a completely different tactic each to utelising a physical forward in our set up.
If we had a better quality one then they would do better than Weghorst - doesn’t particularly mean the tactic was wrong, he just had a shit player for it.
Again if he had Kane, he would be dropping deep, has heading ability, has hold up play, has the ability to play in Rashford - all the things he wants tactically from yesterday’s set up but all he has is bloody Weghorst at his disposal.
He either goes with the tactic he thinks is best to beat West Ham as he did yesterday or he goes and plays his best possible team no matter who the opposition is.
This is why he has done great in cup competitions so far and even at Ajax in the CL because he changes the tactics to outsniff the opposition- not just build the best team and stick to it 24/7 like Pep does with the quality he has with players like De Bryune, Haaland, Mahrez, Grealish and would be shit anyway in Ten Hag’s first season when he has arguably just had one transfer window & players like Weghorst and Sabitzer were forced on him because he had to loan such players from the glazers wallet rather than actually purchase anyone.
He went with what he thought was the right tactic with the wrong player - a player that is arguably not even his.
Anyway, we lost yesterday’s match down to De Gea’s howler and what happened then? West ham sat back with 34% possesion and got even more physical playing on the counter.