Ten Hag has two weeks to fix a glaring problem
When they go to other big clubs, United turn into a bunch of losers. And that's on the boss
SIX ASIDES Premier League: Newcastle 1, United 0
This was a 1-0 hammering. Newcastle, to borrow a line from the late Shane Warne, were all over United like a cheap soup. The TNT commentators pointed the finger at Anthony Martial, who made an impression only when bickering with Erik ten Hag, and at Marcus Rashford, who allowed his full-back, Tino Livramento, to turn into a winger (although Rashford did get back a lot more than Alejandro Garnacho on the other flank). Yes, the forwards all had a bad day, but there was a bigger culprit: the boss.
Erik ten Hag showed, once again, that guerrilla war is not his game. This was his 11th big away match in the Premier League and his 10th defeat, so that makes one point out of a possible 33. In games like this, his United are relegation fodder. At St James’s they were hampered not just by weariness, after a hard day’s night in Istanbul, but by several poor decisions from the manager.:
(1) He persisted with a shape that had never worked for him in a league game like this – his usual 4-2-3-1, so predictable that it just makes life easier for the opposing manager.
(2) He picked only one No 6, an 18-year-old making his second PL start. That was asking a lot even of the precociously composed Kobbie Mainoo.
(3) He turned four players into square pegs, sticking Luke Shaw at left centre-back, Diogo Dalot at left-back, Rashford on the right wing and Bruno Fernandes in the pivot rather than at No 10.
(4) He saw that the weather was bad enough for United’s flight north to be cancelled (karma, surely, for their careless carbon footprint) and still picked Martial, who wears gloves on a mild afternoon in October, ahead of Rasmus Hojlund, who is Danish and quite used to being frozen.
(5) He saw everything go horribly wrong in the first half, except the scoreline, and still didn’t make a substitution at half-time. For a highly organised person, Ten Hag is too often a man without a plan B.
Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, for all his limitations, was better at this. He knew how to pull off a heist at a fortress. Switch to a back five, play on the counter, bench all your forwards except the two fastest runners. In Ole’s time it was usually Rashford and Dan James; now it would be Rashford and Hojlund – but Ten Hag has never fielded them as a front two. If he had, he would then give himself more of a chance in midfield, where United are routinely outplayed.
Here, for a change, they were also outplayed down the flanks. Their best player at turning defence into attack, Shaw, was pushed inside, which made it easier for the most creative defender in the Premier League, Kieran Trippier, to turn into an attacker. He duly took the most touches in the match (106), made the most shot-creating actions (10, only two fewer than the whole United team), and supplied the assist that broke the deadlock. Shaw is close to Trippier’s class – and, unlike him, is in England’s first XI – but he couldn’t offer much creativity while trying to withstand a siege. When United finally got a left-footed left-back in the 79th minute, as Dalot went over to the right, the game changed. Both flanks improved and that left-back, Sergio Reguilon, immediately had two shots.
Harry Maguire, in his new role as an elder statesman, put his finger on the problem. “I think we defended the box well,” he said. “The other areas of the pitch, we allowed them to get into the box far too easily.” He himself was immense, again, but his fine form gives Ten Hag another headache. It means he can’t be dropped, United play out from the back less than André Onana would like, and Raphael Varane is stranded on the bench. That would change if there was a back three: Varane could go at right centre-back, Maguire in the middle and Lindelof on the left, with Wan-Bissaka and Shaw as the wing-backs, one more defensive than the other. Amrabat would be in the pivot, keeping the seat warm for Casemiro. He’d be joined by Mainoo (who was again United’s neatest passer last night, finding a red shirt 36 times out of 39). Fernandes would go in front of them to provide the through balls. Or it could be a diamond, with no Varane, and McTominay joining Mainoo in centre-mid. Either way, Hojlund and Rashford would start up front, under strict instructions. Rashford would be told to play like he means it and both would be told to run their socks off, before handing over on the hour to Garnacho and Facundo Pellistri, who did a solid job in similar circumstances at Bayern Munich.
Ten Hag may well have a better idea. If so, he has just two weeks to make it work, because on Sunday 17 December United have to break into an even tougher fortress: Anfield. Last season their sixth league defeat came there, in the first week of March. This year it came at St James’s in the first week of December. That’s how much worse they have got.
Tim de Lisle, a United fan since before the time of Ian Storey-Moore, is the editor of United Writing and a sportswriter at The Guardian, where he had the misfortune to live-blog the Newcastle game.