How firm is the executive support?
After deciding in the summer not to sack Erik ten Hag and extending his contract to 2026, the Sir Jim Ratcliffe-led football department would appear a touch silly if he were removed six Premier League matches into the season. So, the stance at the club the morning after the 3-0 humiliation by Tottenham at Old Trafford on Sunday was a resolve to remain serene while acknowledging the defeat, and its manner, as anathema to the excellence pursued by Ratcliffe, his chief executive, Omar Berrada, and the sporting director, Dan Ashworth. Ten league outings may seem a more prudent test of Ten Hag and his piloting of the squad but lose at Porto, on Thursday in the Europa League, and at Aston Villa, on Sunday in the league, and the cull may come. Especially with an international break after the Villa game.
Injuries evaporating as a factor
The count of 66 injuries that decimated United last season is well documented and the start of this campaign, too, has been hampered by stricken players. Rasmus Højlund, Leny Yoro and Luke Shaw sustained problems in pre-season, with Yoro and Shaw still to kick a ball and Højlund only a substitute in the past three games. Mason Mount was also struck down, after starts in the first two games, Harry Maguire missed the Spurs debacle with a knock, and Kobbie Mainoo was forced off at the break on Sunday with a suspected hamstring issue.
But the XI Ten Hag sent out against Ange Postecoglou’s visitors was arguably his strongest, with exception of Shaw, Højlund and, perhaps, Yoro if the 18-year-old proves the footballer Ten Hag, Ashworth and Berrada believe him to be. But missing even three frontline players can never be an excuse for the type of defeat that brings jeers from your own fans.
Is Ten Hag selecting the right team?
Seven points from 18 in the league, a goal difference of -3, with only five scored, suggests not, with the manager’s confused choices in attack something of a red flag. Out wide on the left, Marcus Rashford drew blanks in United’s opening three league games – Fulham, Brighton and Liverpool – scored at Southampton in the next to end a drought that went back to mid-March, added two more against Barnsley three days later in the Carabao Cup and was then “rotated”, the manager said, for the goalless draw at Crystal Palace. On the other wing, Alejandro Garnacho was dropped for the first two matches for Amad Diallo (who scored at Brighton), started against Liverpool and was taken off after 69 minutes for Diallo, then dropped once more for the 3-0 Saints victory but registered the third as a replacement.
At No 9, further confusion: the new signing Joshua Zirkzee needed time to settle, apparently, so did not start the first two matches despite joining a month before Fulham’s visit. Zirkzee has been toothless apart from the winner against Fulham and appears to be more playmaker than ruthless finisher. In Højlund’s absence, Ten Hag might have considered sweet-talking Rashford into moving inside from his preferred wide berth because the 26-year-old has a menacing package of speed, height, trickery and lethality (when on song) to thrive through the middle.
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Not enough sign of a game model
Before the Spurs trouncing, the Guardian reported that, after United’s 3-0 defeat by Liverpool in the previous home league match, Ratcliffe and company were scrutinising Ten Hag’s style of play. Five outings later and, the 7-0 shellacking of League One opposition in Barnsley apart, an acceptable game model of possession and control has been sighted only in the win at Southampton and during the first 45 minutes at Palace. So this remains a problem for Ten Hag, as illustrated by Micky van de Ven tearing through United from inside his half to the byline and crossing for Brennan Johnson’s opener in the Spurs game. This after Bart van Rooij did similar four days earlier to create Sam Lammers’s equaliser for Twente in the Europa League. On too many matchdays, Ten Hag sends out an XI that does not gain control.
Half the outfield players are elite
The football department’s demand of Ten Hag is for continued improvement this term rather than a top-four finish. Yet to reach the promised land of a 21st title in 2028, the 150th anniversary of United’s formation, which is Berrada’s stated ambition, the squad should already have an elite nucleus with which to build towards such an outcome. They may just do because five players have an argument for a place, at least, in the title-winning Manchester City squad of the past four years: Lisandro Martínez at centre-back, Mainoo in central midfield, Garnacho and Rashford on the wings, and Fernandes in attacking midfield. The question remains, though: is Ten Hag the manager to realise this talent and construct the rest of an elite team?