Page 31 - Soccer360 Issue 107

ABOVE:
Manchester United forward Joshua Zirkzee (11) scores a GOAL 1-0 and celebrates Manchester United midfielder Scott McTominay (39) during the Manchester United FC v Fulham FC
DID YOU KNOW?
Hennie, Erik’s father, made his money as a real estate tycoon, founding the company ‘Ten Hag Assurantie Adviseurs B.V.’ in 1967 and in the process became one
of the richest businessmen in the country.
“OFTEN, ERIK LIKES TO
TROT OUT ONE OF FAVOURITE EXCUSES WHEN HE TALKS ABOUT THE BIGGER PICTURE.”
game, but those fleeting moments are too readily being exhibited as the evidence
for what Ten Haag sees as improvement. Last season these all too often shapeless improvisations represented a strategy and playing style. Will anything change? The team is developing, moving forward. It’s all part of the bigger ... you know? Last season his team won away from home against a top nine side only once in twenty attempts. Poor performances were met with what had long become the manager’s stock-in-trade excuses. ‘The team showed big character to fight back. We are missing players, we showed big personality and character. We are working hard.’ He believed all this stuff.
TEN HAG ISN’T PEP.
A guiding principles of Pep Guardiola’s football can be witnessed by his team’s slow and deliberate build-up play, designed to ensure every player keeps in a compressed block. Their opening fixture of the season away to Chelsea whom they comfortably swatted away like a pesky wasp at a picnic, put in plain view Pep’s team’s ability to move up and down the pitch as one, slowly building attacks yet also ensuring they are correctly positioned to defend anytime
they lose possession. Ten Hag’s fast and furious approach stands in stark contrast
to this way of playing. His insistence that
his front players remain high and make constant runs on the shoulder of the last defender, and instructing his midfield, particularly his captain, Bruno Fernandes
to play long racking passes towards them, means that the team’s shape inevitably becomes stretched. The result of such
game management results in the distance between United’s defensive and attacking line becoming too large. This in turn exposes the full backs. And due to this stretched shape, the team’s midfield is asked to cover more and more space between the lines, but the current United midfield still lacks the legs to do this for ninety minutes.
Basically, it comes down to Ten Hag’s defensive structure exhibiting too many defects that can be boiled down to what is
a basic flaw. This is his team’s lack of central compactness. No matter if they defend in a low block, mid-block or even when the team presses high up the pitch, it is all too easy to isolate or overrun the team’s pivot. As most opposition managers worked out last term, this makes Ten Hag’s team too easy to play through. Most serious observers can see it. Why doesn’t he?
THE NOISY NEIGHBOURS STILL RULE
Unfortunately for United fans and their manager, the club remain further away than ever from bridging the gap to their noisy sky-blue neighbours City at the very top of English football.
Since the departure of Alex Ferguson United have launched more projects than NASA! They might have beaten Fulham, but Ten Hag’s tenure still feels like just
the end of another beginning. Recently
Sir Jim Ratcliffe rocked up, shirtsleeves rolled and a no-nonsense demeanour.
Sir Jim had descended from the top of
the mount, tablets in hand, hopefully not Prozac, bearing the new commandments
of the club. Unfortunately, I rather think the first one to be read aloud to Erik before Christmas will probably be ‘Thou Shalt No Longer Manage!
In fact, I would venture to posit that ‘the bigger picture,’ remains his favourite footballing excuse. Sadly, the bigger picture, like a lot of his previous bigger pictures, has long resembled a fake.
Many observers of his continued and unconvincing attempts to drag one of football’s largest ships away from the rocks, are constantly reminded that the man who was appointed to salvage this monolith couldn’t navigate his way out of a parking space. United did eventually get the better of Fulham but it took over eighty minutes of uninspiring football and much of the same old, same old from only a few months ago. The FA Cup win notwithstanding, I simply cannot find any words to explain how this man continues to dodge the fecking sack!
THE DAMNING EVIDENCE
Ten Hag has repeatedly managed to escape being surplus to requirements for his uncanny knack of overseeing a few
mini resurgences. Last season each new resurgence was soon met with the usual pallid performances. None of them ever suggested that somehow United were back, or indeed anywhere near approaching the required levels to be considered a top side again. For long periods during the Fulham game, one still couldn’t identify any distinct patterns or combinations. His team still concede too many chances. They still fail to control games, and the space between the back four and the midfield is large enough for a Manchester housing estate.
When it comes to that footballing imperative, possession, they rarely maintain possession better than the opposition. There are no legs at the back. Maguire can’t run, and Rashford still won’t run! I could go on. But what continues to fuel Ten Hag’s escapology is that he is fortunate enough to have players who can win him matches. These players do little more
than play for fleeting moments during a
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