I Analysed EVERY Man Utd game… Is Ten Hag Actually Good?

"Play Casemiro as a centre-back." Hmm, that hasn't aged well.

"Play Casemiro as a CB." God that aged poorly

If 6 of your out field players fail to make a simple 5yard pass Consistently u would never see a style

I will answer you.. 1) he wanted FDJ, they couldn't get him. When they got hammered by Brentford, the board hurriedly signed Cassie. Not as a FDJ replacement but for them to play differently. David DG was asked to go long henceforth. 2) who are the ballers? Only Ericsson and Amad qualify as ballers on that bench. Amad is still adapting. Still will take his chances as they come. Ericsson has the brain but the legs are gone. One close marking and it is a one vs one with Onana. 3) it is nonsensical to say the best teams play the same way no matter who is fit. As an elite manager, you must be pragmatic in some games. Sir Alex lost 2 UCL finals becos he chose to go toe to toe with barca when he knew he didn't have the right weapons. How do you make of Tottenham's bench? The quality is way ahead that of united. How do you also make of Tottenham beating Aston 4 nil and going to lose 3 nil to Fulham the next game? In summary, it is a miracle for man u to still be alive in a competition and still 6th with all that ETH had had to handle this season. It is debatable if someone else would have done better. I feel sad that diligent and progressive hard work is undervalued. Look at the disrespect Xavi is getting after cleaning up barca mess? If you guys keep listening to crooked Coach agents looking for jobs for their average clients, you will wake up too late to realize they've done you dirty. Just like some are calling for Ole to return. And the team starts from 0 again. ETH is still the man

Can't wait for the: I Watched All Of Man Utd's shots conceded Under Erik Ten Hag And Here’s What I Found… video coming 2035

47 injuries in 28 prem games may have something to do with it 🤔

Hi Dave, While your analysis of the 3 games (United, Arsenal & City vs Sheffield United) is great, I think it is a bit naive of you and other United analysts to always skip the fact that we are missing KEY players for United's system to work. In the game you analyzed, United was missing 11 players through injuries, 7 of whom would have played the game. The game in January against West Ham would have been a better game to compare where United had almost all players available. Ange is doing a similar job ETH did last season but ETH outperforming him in points, number of time spent in the top 4 and trophies won. We are missing key players, ETH is a manager who needs specialists in his team, and we see gaps in the midfield because of the profile of players in the backline not having pace leading to no pressing and gaps due to the CBs dropping deeper. Arteta had one injury last season (Saliba) and their footballing ability dropped leading to City winning the league, Klopp lost VVD for a season and they finished 6th, and Pep lost Rdori for 3 games and lost all 3 games. ETH is missing between 7-10 players every game and you want his style to remain the same? C'mon, Dave!

15:06 is actually a good decision. No need to switch if you can skip the whole defense. The problem in this particular case is the individual quality. The pass must be immediate and accurate. The receiver must be fast and able to control the ball perfectly. This was what Ajax did and they've used to surprise every team. Just doing what is considered unlikely to be done. Breaking the model of play. Doing it very fast. Catching the opponent unprepared. The problem here is those players aren't a team. They couldn't do the ordinary. There is a long way before applying this model into a club that still haven't got the basics.

We can't camp in the opposition half with Maguire or Evans at CB and Lindelof at full back. 1 ball over there heads and the opposition scores a goal.

United need to buy at least two centerbacks this summer who are fast and ballplaying this would make ETH job so much easier. united biggest defensive problem is most of the center backs are slow and like playing in a low block {apart from martinez} leaving huge space in midfield

I think a major problem Ten Hag has had is the ability to move players on. Maguire was sold but still stayed and apparently Mctomiany was allowed to make his own decision if he stayed or left. Hiw can you rebuild a club if you can't move Players on ?

The big problem is our second 11 is championship level, well the first 11 usn't that great either. Losing Martinez and shaw has been huge, especially Martinez. Casemiro's level hasdropped massively and he doesn't have the legs any more. As Ralf said, the squad needs a massive overhaul. Pretty much there are only about 5 or 6 players that the team and squad should be built around, the rest need to be replaced. It will take at least another 4 transfer windows to sort the mess out

The biggest difference from last season is that Ten Hag hasn't been able to play with a defensive high line. He cannot do that without the pace of Martinez and Shaw. Maguire, Lindelof, Evans and Amrabat don't have pace, so we have to defend much deeper.

Play more ball players in midfield Statman says. More ball players in the squad i exhaust my eyes looking for. At this point any analysis is a waste of time. The lack of quality in the squad is evident, ten Hag, a coach who built his career on ball playing principles has not suddenly forgotten the principles, he is simply suddenly landed in a club that lacks a squad capable of doing it, very few players who are actually capable of doing it at high enough level consistently. The answer will be replacing ageing defence and deep lying midfield with young potential, yes potential, because United is financially hamstrung, we will need some years to fix the squad, ten Hag will need time, and fans will need to understand that the squad will not be consistently champions league side in this process. Also, i have a simple question Dave, can you see any of the managers you mentioned in the end, be able to implement their ways with Varane, Maguire, Casemiro, Lindelof and Evans as the combination of players in the base of the defence?

When Ten Hag put Weghorst in the 10 vs Barca in the nou camp UTD looked very dangerous. Their link up play through the middle was sharp, bringing the wingers and dlp into the game. Had a positive impact on pressing structure as rashford pressing centrally hides his reluctance to track back. Would love to see UTD in a 2-1-4-3 build up structure like De Zerbi has at Brighton next season. As you mentioned having a rcb, cdm and wing back would facilitate that structure well

Have you ever seen rashford win any header, a player who will not attempt any chance to win a header.

I think you're right that Fernandes needs to be pulled back from the '10' role and do more of what Eriksen did for us last season as an RPM and/or Casemiro dropping between our CBs as a halfback. Mount (if he can stay fit) should fulfill the 10 role - it might be his only chance at playing his way back into the England setup. We desperately need reinforcements at centreback who can play in a high line, depending on who goes this summer it may be worth also investing in another left-footer with Martinez and Shaw being out injured so frequently.

Playing Casemiro as a CB comment aged like milk.

Let me guess, all those goals are randomly scored and nobody has any idea what's going on.

Disagree with a couple of points here. One of the reasons why Brighton, Tottenham and Aston Villa have been able to stay consistent in their styles is because of many years of focused recruitment and sporting direction. All of their players can come in and still contribute to the gameplan. For united however, two thirds of the squad simply aren't cut out for it since we've basically had Ole and Jose as our previous two sporting directors, two managers with completely different philosophies to ten hag. When these players are forced to play because of the numerous injuries in key areas, this lack of stylistic depth in the playing staff becomes more apparent. The squad has much more quality than the ones mentioned, but not in terms of suiting the style of play! The other point that I disagree with is this idea that ten hag wants to play direct and wants to play counter attacking football. I believe that is the case for this season, but definitely not as a long term goal as it is made out to be. Currently it's a necessity because of the playing staff, or we'd get nowhere near as good results as the already terrible ones, and he could quite possibly have been out the door already. I feel looking at how the u18s play as an idea of what ten hag wants from the team is hugely relevant! When he came, one of the first things he did was to ensure that all of the youth teams play the exact same way that he wants them to, so they're ready when the time comes. The u18s are much more moldable, and the results aren't anywhere near as important as the first team results, even though they have been doing much better, so the compromise in playing style there hasn't been necessary. I definitely agree that this season hasn't been good enough, but I do believe it's mostly an awkward phase that will be over once about ten players leave, and five or six of the right players join, which will lead to an injury crisis like this season not nearly having as great of an impact on our stylistic approach.