This is an extract of The Score. Click the sign-up box below to receive the newsletter every Monday morning this season for Daniel Storey’s verdict on all 20 Premier League clubs
It is fitting that it is Brighton who have inflicted four straight league defeats on Manchester United, for these two clubs are almost exact diametric opposites. One has every stakeholder in cohesion: a local owner, the staff, the manager, the players and supporters all on the same page; the other is in civil war. One loses players because they agree to sell them at their possible value; the other gets rid after years of underperformance for a fraction of the purchase price.
One has a team created on the cheap, because they target players who fit the system; the other either buys big names or those who the manager knows from previous clubs. One has an obvious system that rules over everything else. At Manchester United, having a system and a style of play seems like something everyone wants but nobody actually gets around to organising.
The idea of a system is key, because it’s something that Erik ten Hag spoke to Robin van Persie about in an interview in March. “It’s not about the way you want to play, but the players – they decide and they dictate the philosophy of how you play.” Ten Hag said. Contrast that with what De Zerbi is doing at Brighton and how he moulds players into the team’s philosophy.
I don’t buy into the theory that Manchester United’s players don’t care – that’s almost always nonsense. Instead, it looks like a lack of effort when one team is systematically undone by another. This was one side entirely outplayed by another that was well-drilled and each player knew both what he was doing and what the person next to, behind and in front of him was doing at any given time. De Zerbi has done this in less time than Ten Hag and to greater effect with fewer resources.
Watch Manchester United and it is hard to know what the system even is. They seem to excel occasionally on the counter but then opponents just let them have the ball. Captain Bruno Fernandes has licence to roam everywhere but then gets deeply frustrated and his body language becomes appalling. Marcus Rashford looked deeply uncomfortable with whatever he was being asked to do – that tends to manifest itself in him taking too many touches. Lisandro Martinez looks lost with Raphael Varane. Casemiro is being overrun in midfield and his manager doesn’t seem to have a plan to stop it. Andre Onana loves staying on his line and making a striker’s job easier. And now there are no right wingers.
Some of this goes back to what we have repeatedly said about the Glazers: nothing will work perfectly here while they remain in position, overseeing a grubby civil war, the fumes from which seep into every crack. We don’t really trust them to spend money well, create an environment in which new signings will thrive or, if they did get sick of Ten Hag, attract a good replacement.
But, as we’ve also said about previous head coaches, that isn’t a defence of poor management. Manchester United are too open at the back and too wasteful in attack. The midfield doesn’t protect the defence and the defence doesn’t protect the goalkeeper. Nobody seems to look out for one another. Nobody seems to know the next move. United have lost three of their first five league games for the first time in the Premier League era and were highly fortunate to win the other two.
Ten Hag got a free ride last season and rightly so. He oversaw systemic, tactical changes and got a lift out of several players. He took Manchester United back into the top four. But that should have set him and them up for a second season of improvement and, suddenly, United are now in disarray again. That Ten Hag’s response is to say that the players need character and to argue that Brighton have also spent money is a pretty limp look.
This is an extract of The Score. Sign up here to receive the newsletter every Monday morning this season for Daniel Storey’s verdict on all 20 Premier League clubs
from Football - inews.co.uk https://ift.tt/qHygLtp
Post a Comment