The day Ten Hag lost the plot
The manager picked the wrong team, made his changes too late, and finally turned into Reckless Erik
FIVE ASIDES Premier League: Newcastle 2, United 0
It’s good that Erik ten Hag has so much credit in the bank, because he got this game badly wrong. His challenge was to find a way to win the midfield without Casemiro, and he didn’t rise to it. He knew what he was up against: even with Casemiro, United had lost the midfield for the first half-hour of the League Cup final, and yet for the first half-hour of the rematch at St James’ Park, they were overrun. They didn’t just miss Casemiro – they missed Fred, who was sitting on the bench. Shorn of quality in midfield, they could at least have offered some quantity by switching to a 4-3-1-2, with Scott McTominay and Fred acting as bodyguards for the more flighty Marcel Sabitzer, and Bruno Fernandes in front of them to slip the ball through to any two of United’s fast-moving forwards. Facundo Pellistri could have started, to tie Dan Burn in knots; Jadon Sancho could have been in his natural habitat at inside left, and Marcus Rashford, feeling his way back from injury and near-burn-out, could have been sitting comfortably on the bench, next to his mate Anthony Martial.
Instead Ten Hag persisted with Antony and Wout Weghorst. Antony hasn’t scored in the Premier League since October; Weghorst hasn’t scored for United in the league at all. United were trying to emerge from a drought (no league goals in March) by fielding two non-scorers in the front four. All the scoring was going to have to be done by Rashford and Fernandes. This could only have worked if United had controlled the midfield, and if Luke Shaw had had Fred on hand to help out on the left and stop Kieran Trippier running the show. As it was, Fernandes was posted next to Sabitzer, two non-defensive types trying to defend, while McTominay played as a sort of false 10, marking Bruno Guimaraes without managing to subdue him.
Newcastle should have won 4-0. On expected goals, they did – it was 3.57 to 0.43, so by that measure they were eight times better than United. They had 22 attempts in the match, four more than Liverpool had had in the 7-0 last month. United were heavily reliant on Newcastle’s profligacy and David de Gea’s prowess. For half an hour it was a team that couldn’t finish facing one that hadn't got started. Then United found some composure and strung some passes together. They went off for a cup of tea thinking that that they could, as so often, save the day in the second half. But Ten Hag made only one tweak at half-time, moving McTominay back to defensive midfield. He didn’t bring Fred on until it was far too late, and wasn’t as ruthless as he needed to be with Antony (whose shooting was as bad as his crossing always is, though he did produce one classy flick) or Weghorst (who managed ten touches and four successful passes in 62 minutes). Newcastle carried on merrily creating chances and although they still couldn’t find the net with their feet, they managed it with their heads.
When United went behind, Ten Hag turned into Reckless Erik. He removed both centre-backs, thereby increasing Newcastle’s chances of a second goal (which duly came) and reducing United’s chances of an equaliser (because that might well have come from a set-piece, like the first goal at Wembley). Both had played pretty well: Rapha Varane had been getting forward, trying to fill that Casemiro-shaped hole, and had probably been United’s best midfielder. It was more De Gea’s fault than his that their attempt to play out from the back led to Joe Willock’s goal. Lisandro Martinez, as usual, had mopped up his team-mates’ mess while also playing some piercing forward passes. He left the field fuming at being subbed, and rightly so. The formation was now 3-2-1-4, with the front four wasted because the midfield was too skimpy to supply them with the ball. Not content with having to be pulled away from Eddie Howe by Steve McLaren, Ten Hag had lost his head as a strategist, throwing on forwards like Ole Gunnar Solskjaer on a bad day. His criticism of the team afterwards was fair – they had been short of desire, as Shaw was honest enough to admit – but the boss really should have pinned some of the blame on himself.
The bad news is that United have won fewer points in their last three league games than they did in the first three of the season. They have lost all six of their away games to clubs now in the top nine, with a combined goal difference of 6-25. And there are two more of those challenges to come, at Tottenham and Brighton. But there is some not-so-bad news too. Casemiro will be back for the crunch games; Martial is fit at last and looking like an instant upgrade on Weghorst; the next two games are at home – albeit against two sides, Brentford and Everton, that have both been to Manchester this season and got a result. United’s slump has not cost them many expected points: Howe’s Newcastle never lose at home with 11 men on the field, and Liverpool, for all their flakiness on the road, are still strong at Anfield, so only the draw with Southampton has come at a high price. The big worry is that United have forgotten how to find the net in the league. And the big question is, can Ten Hag see that he has to drop the two forwards who never score?
Tim de Lisle is the editor of United Writing and a sportswriter for The Guardian. If you’re on Twitter, do follow him and United Writing. And if you received this piece by email, please feel free to forward it to any fellow sufferers supporters.