FIVE ASIDES Premier League: United 1, Brighton 2
Towards the end of Erik Ten Hag’s first Premier League pre-match press conference on Friday, there was a revealing little exchange that didn’t make the headlines. He was asked if he had watched United’s last game against Brighton, which they lost 4-0. ‘Last season is last season,’ he replied, according to the live blog from the Manchester Evening News. ‘I am looking forward. I am preparing the team for the future and for Sunday – that’s it.’
He didn’t say no, he hadn’t watched the game, but he did imply it. And it very much looked that way from United’s performance. They were so bad at times, they could have been coached by Ralf Rangnick. The defence was all over the place, the midfield mostly missing in action. By far the best United player on show was Danny Welbeck, who left eight years ago. For the second time in three matchdays, Graham Potter made a United manager look naive.
To be fair to Rangnick, he never presided over a home result as bad as this. His team may have ended up unable to score an away goal, but at home they averaged two points a game and although there were some exasperating draws, their only defeat to mid-table opponents was a 1-0 against Wolves, who had at least won at Old Trafford before. Brighton had never managed that, until now: in 14 previous visits, they had collected two points.
If Ten Hag didn’t study the 4-0, that was complacent of him – and hypociticial, because a boss who demands hard work from everyone else should be able to manage basic research himself. If he did do his homework, he didn’t make much use of it. One of Rangnick’s mistakes in May was to leave Scott McTominay on when he was playing badly, committing fouls and risking a red card. Ten Hag did the very same thing, keeping McTominay on at half-time when the scoreline (0-2) was crying out for a substitution. Those who don’t learn from history are doomed to repeat it.
It wasn’t all Ten Hag’s fault. When the first goal went in, United lost their nerve for 15 minutes. If Bruno Fernandes had taken his early chance, they might have been fine; if Marcus Rashford had taken his later one, they might have mounted a stirring comeback. They did get better in the second half. But Ten Hag’s game management, like a lot of United’s passing, lacked urgency.
He should have brought Cristiano Ronaldo on ten minutes earlier, likewise Donny van de Beek (who was crisp and creative), and rather than sending on a job lot of juniors for the last five minutes, he should have picked one of them – either Alejandro Garnacho or Tyrell Malacia – and given him a decent go. Ten Hag’s decisions weren’t bad, but, like many a Dutchman arriving in the Premier League, he was off the pace.
If he really means to sign Marko Arnautovic, he is committing a more serious blunder. The fans have had it up to here with elderly strikers – and this one has been accused of racism. If there’s a vacancy, fast-track Charlie McNeill or Joe Hugill: that’s the United way. They may take time to settle, but the fans won’t mind because they believe in growing your own.
Ten Hag’s inclination in the transfer market seems to be to keep going for people he has worked with before, from Lisandro Martinez (who played under him at Ajax) to Christian Eriksen (who trained there after his heart trouble), and even Steve McClaren (who was Ten Hag’s boss at FC Twente). A certain amount of that has its place: on landing in a new job, we all want colleagues who are already on our wavelength. Jose Mourinho did it with Nemanja Matic, David Moyes with Marouane Fellaini. It’s fine up to a point, but it can’t be the main strategy. It makes the scouts redundant, and United have about 50 of them. The manager is going to have to be braver, and more broad-minded. Eriksen is a wonderful signing, already delivering sumptuous crosses. He and James Garner could be the next Carrick and Scholes, but United need at least one more midfielder.
Ten Hag is admirable in many ways – a proven coach, a man with a plan, a straight talker. But if this is going to work, he will need to learn from his own mistakes as well as his predecessors’. Still, his clouded start did have a silver lining: at least, on one of Avram Glazer’s vanishingly rare visits to the club he co-owns, it ruined his day.
Tim de Lisle writes about sport for The Guardian. If you’re on Twitter, do follow him and United Writing.