MUNICH — Like many Mancunians relishing being able to forget about their team’s plight by drinking as many Oktoberfest steins as is humanly possible, Erik ten Hag headed to Munich with at least one reason to smile for the first time in a long while.
Munich is where a wide-eyed young coach fresh from a debut season in the Dutch second tier made his mark in 2013. Eyebrows were raised when Ten Hag left Go Ahead Eagles after steering them to promotion to the Eredivisie, but the Dutchman has always insisted he never regretted taking the Bayern Munich II reins, for one reason in particular.
In the Bayern first-team dugout at the time was a certain Pep Guardiola and Ten Hag was hooked, earning the moniker “Mini Pep” during his two year stay in Bavaria for his obsessive and meticulous methodology. Fast forward to now and the situation Ten Hag finds himself in has not changed.
Ten Hag is still on a voyage of discovery, this time in Manchester, searching for an identity and what his style of play is. The only difference between then and now is he has had 17 months and £400m to aid that process.
While much of the blame for Manchester United’s humiliating start to the season has been put on matters out of Ten Hag’s control – the Glazers’ indecision over selling the club, how Mason Greenwood’s exit was mishandled and Antony’s leave of absence to answer allegations of assault – the fact we are here, almost a year and a half later and unaware of what Ten Hag’s modus operandi constitutes is just as damaging.
Guardiola and Jurgen Klopp both needed at least one year to acclimatise to life in English football, with doubters circling after their respective underwhelming debut seasons. While the same naysayers are sharpening their knives for Ten Hag, he has shown enough as a coach, amid difficult circumstances, to also warrant being given time.
What Guardiola and Klopp did, however, was lay out a tactical blueprint. Liverpool adopted the German’s now world-famous gegenpressing system, while Manchester City would ensure they dominate possession, starting with a goalkeeper who could play the ball out from the back.
United’s tormentors-in-chief Brighton already have a recognisable style – similar to Guardiola’s philosophy – but with central defenders the key protagonists.
On the other hand, how would you define United’s approach under Ten Hag? He has committed to bringing back attacking football the club has been famed for, but in what form has his vision taken?
There were times early last term where Ten Hag’s team appeared to represent a counter-attacking unit, one that could seize on any mistake and launch into a blistering attack, en masse, in the blink of an eye.
Now, other than giving the ball to Bruno Fernandes and hoping the Portuguese can pick a defence-splitting pass, there is nothing recognisable, or even dangerous about United.
Which when they, according to CIES Football Observatory, have the most expensively assembled squad in world football, is a very worrying problem indeed.
Having had a whole pre-season to ponder and tinker, to then start the campaign being overran by Wolves, in part due to a top-heavy midfield that left Casemiro too exposed is not the mark of a team who had been prepared to build on the foundations laid last season.
Then, the solution to Antony being absent was to change the formation to a midfield diamond, with Scott McTominay on the right, for the visit of Brighton. And look how that turned out.
“He is an obsessive, he was then and that won’t have changed,” Ten Hag’s assistant at Bayern Munich II Danny Schwarz, tells i.
“Him and Pep didn’t have too many direct conversations because of the workloads, but Erik was always watching training sessions and all matches, to learn what it took to be an elite manager.
“He can learn from his mistakes. Any detail can make all the difference.”
from Football - inews.co.uk https://ift.tt/6DvPZpb
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