Manchester United: What Went Wrong and What Can Be Done After Brentford Loss?

Erik Ten Hag got it all wrong!

Before jumping on blaming the defence and the other positions for their incapability to dictate the match, new manager Ten Hag from the sidelines seriously got his tactics and the message to his players all wrong.

He was unable to pass on any positive information, which could have swayed the game in his favour; his players literally got worn out by the organised Brentford press and conceded the 4 goals in more or less the same way.

When building from the back wasn’t working and was only taking away the momentum from United’s game, Ten Hag didn’t come up with any solution, thus enabling Brentford to capitalise by pressing Eriksen, dispossessing him and setting up a 3v2 situation in the final-thirds of the pitch.

Coming to the attacking spectrum, Ten Hag likes his wingers to stretch themselves rather than coming inside and waiting for the ball, but that usual tactic became a rare occurrence as he couldn’t find Jadon Sancho the best position, leaving the player vulnerable and Frank’s men covered him well.

At times when Sancho, whose role is of a winger, couldn’t capitalise from the inside, should’ve been shifted out wider by the manager by “getting the message across” but nothing significant came from him — a rather “indolent” sort of thing from a reputed manager.

Of course, the mistakes from De Gea shifted the momentum in the home team’s favour but blaming everything on him is not the answer. Ten Hag needs to immediately reflect on his tactics and man management to turn this awful condition around.