After getting stunned in their opening fixture at home against Brighton, Manchester United have hit a new low as they got entirely outplayed and outclassed against Londoners Brentford, in Matchday 2 of the Premier League.
A tough start for Erik Ten Hag to his United managerial career after coming from a glowing reputation at Ajax — though he did manage to convey his words and tactics to the team during the preseason — those have absolutely “vanished” into thin air during these official league games.
Manchester United, after getting a 4-0 thrashing away to Brentford, now sit rock bottom of the Premier League table, which last happened under the reign of Sir Alex Ferguson back in 1992, though The Red Devils capped off the campaign by winning the inaugural Premier League, ending their 26-year league drought.
🗣 "The glazers have to be more involved in Manchester United. Don't appoint yes men."@henrywinter calls for change at Manchester United and for the owners to become apart of the project pic.twitter.com/y3gqfnTSSB
— Football Daily (@footballdaily) August 14, 2022
This United team can merely hope to finish top-10 now, as they have become the “easiest team to play in the league” according to their legend and media pundit Gary Neville.
A bucketload went wrong for them against the Bees and everything cannot be put on the head of the players; the defeat was due to a number of mistakes at the back, from the manager, and the wingers. Below, we discuss three of the significant mistakes which cost Erik Ten Hag and his men valuable three points, thus taking their away record to seven consecutive away defeats.
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.
It Would Take More Than Rabiot to Sort This Manchester United Midfield Out
It was another horrific display from the United midfield, which has rather been a usual occurrence since last season with the management yet to address it. However, a deal is expected to be reached with French midfielder, Adrien Rabiot, in the next few days in order to bring him to Old Trafford.
If Manchester United fans are thinking that Rabiot is the solution to this difficulty, they are so horribly wrong!
First up, The Red Devils will be adding Rabiot, a “low-confidence” player, with the company of his mother Veronique Rabiot. She is always there to defend her son ferociously if any dispute between him and a club.
Adding Rabiot to an already unhappy dressing room will further extend their dilapidated condition, let alone be an answer to it. Fred was set up with a holding role due to his recent attacking frailties but the duo of “McFred” rarely connected and were stiff in their movements on the pitch.
It created the same issues of Harry Maguire pushing forward and leaving a hole in the defence. It was literally the same thing over and over again, typically hard for a manager to not notice and make changes.
Diogo Dalot, Marcus Rashford and No Motivation
Man United have endured tough times in making their right-backs play as per expectations and up until now the tough times march on.
Neither the manager nor Dalot knew what was his actual role in the match and how he should play. For a bit, it seemed to one that Ten Hag is using him as an inverted right flanker, and if that was the case, it failed miserably.
Whenever the Portuguese pushed up the pitch, he left a huge space at right-back, thus inviting the likes of DaSilva, Toney, and Mbeumo to use that position to their will and tear apart the Man United defence.
Dalot tried to involve himself in the game. Certainly, the shock of being 4-0 down at 35 minutes stunned all the players, owing to their poor performance. But players like Dalot and Rashford, among others, showed absolutely no hunger, nor a desire to get back into the game.
Like Dalot, Rashford displays no determination and has a serious lack of confidence, as he tried to get involved, but was covered well by the Bees’ defence.
He could’ve helped by dropping back and getting the ball moving up the pitch, by creating options to pass for the United defence. But he rather chose to stick to the left-wing role without wanting to move an inch.
The same goes for Sancho, who also remained cemented to his position and didn’t even bother to drop down when Maguire was shouting at him to stay close and create an option to pass for him. It might be something Ten Hag employed but it too failed quite clearly.
He needs to give his wingers more freedom to move about the pitch, rather than restricting them to stay up and not get more involved.