Reported, unmotivated, petulant… Ten Hag's ghost ship is still adrift | manchester united
W.Who didn't think that, sooner or later, we would be here again? At the end of last season, Sir Jim Ratcliffe, Sir Dave Brailsford and the rest of the Ineos management at Manchester United spoke to numerous potential candidates after the club finished eighth in the Premier League with a negative goal difference. After all, they decided to keep Erik ten Hag as coach. After that decision, who didn't foresee a time in the near future when, after another run of poor results, they would be back where they were before, only several million pounds poorer after having bought another shipment? of Dutch players and neighbors of Holland? ?
This is United and that means these problems are always compounded by the memory of Sir Alex Ferguson, who endured some difficult years before finally winning the league in his seventh season at the club. The instinct of fans is to always show patience. Nobody wants to be Pete Molyneux, the fan holding a banner that said “Three years of excuses and it's still shit… ta-ra Fergie” six months before the decisive victory in the 1990 FA Cup that was a springboard for Ferguson's success.
In that context, last season's run to the FA Cup only adds to the confusion, particularly given the memorable victories over Liverpool and Manchester City along the way. For those desperate to find parallels to Ferguson, they were easy enough to find. However, the FA Cup is no longer what it was then, and pointing out that Ferguson's run to the trophy in 1990-91 was fortunate does not obscure the luck United had last season: an absurd and implausible victory over Liverpool it's very nice. but United probably shouldn't need that kind of win against Newport or Coventry.
And here we are. If Sunday's first-half performance against Tottenham was not the worst under Ten Hag, it is only because there are so many other candidates: four goals conceded in Brentford In its first season, the six fit in at a time at Anfield in March 2023, the entire 4-0 defeat at Crystal Palace Last May… They were listless, unmotivated, petulant and seemingly totally lacking in confidence.
After the 3-0 win at Southampton and the 7-0 League Cup triumph against Barnsley, then a dominant first-half display and last week's 0-0 draw at Palace, some tried to suggest that United have shown signs of improvement. . But then, Barnsley are in League One, and United were poor before Southampton missed a 33rd-minute penalty and were dismal in the final half-hour at Palace. How far have United fallen when drawing 0-0 and surviving a difficult period against two teams in the bottom three can become evidence of green shoots? Wednesday's drab 1-1 draw against Twente felt familiar.
He infamous Ten Hag donut has re-emerged, that huge space in the middle of midfield. His United have a habit of conceding goals that, for lack of a better phrase, seem rare; It is not normal for an opposition centre-back, even one as fast as Micky van de Ven, to win the ball and advance unopposed for 60 yards before crossing to score. Where was the structure? This is the aim of working on defensive shape, so that if possession is lost, players are in the correct position to control a counter-attack. But somehow Kobbie Mainoo and Manuel Ugarte, who seems to fit in perfectly, although not in a good way, disappeared, while Noussair Mazraoui, distracted by Timo Werner, strayed too far.
And then it happened again. Two minutes into the second half, Lisandro Martinez recklessly overcommitted himself to allow Brennan Johnson to run unopposed 50 yards before crossing into Dejan Kulusevski's goal. Martínez has a wild streak, but that mentality, that irrationality, underpins everything at United. Bruno Fernandes was a bit unlucky to be sent off after slipping before catching James Maddison, but a calmer player would not have made a desperate attack for the ball in that situation.
Perhaps most damning, however, is that United were back in the game and were causing Spurs some problems. Then Ten Hag made a double substitution with 17 minutes remaining and immediately the pressure United had been putting on Spurs was lifted; Dominic Solanke scored four minutes later. There was a similar story at Palace last week, with Ten Hag's substitutions handing the initiative to Palace.
There was a theory that keeping Ten Hag provided cover for Ineos, someone to make a scapegoat if this season got off to a bad start. But United did 180 million pounds in signings in the summer, all presumably with at least some input from Ten Hag. That already seems like an investment in an outgoing duck. The more games go by, the weaker their inability to replace him seems despite giving every indication that they really wanted to, a club that didn't know what it wanted or lacked the intelligence to get what it wanted.
And so the ghost ship drifts on, bereft of a plan, bereft of structure, bereft of leadership. The Glazers may not be running things anymore, but apparently neither is anyone else.
This is an excerpt from Soccer with Jonathan Wilson, Guardian US' weekly look at the game in Europe and beyond. Subscribe for free here. Do you have any questions for Jonathan? Email footballwithjw@theguardian.comand will answer the best in a future edition.
