Erik ten Hag made Man United’s defeat inevitable with one wrong decision vs Man City, it was shocking

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Even though Manchester United lost in the Community Shield on penalties vs Manchester City, the general performance was promising.

There were a lot of positives to take from the game, not least the performance of Amad and Casemiro, whose narratives are trending in opposite directions but needed that performance for different reasons.

Erik ten Hag will also walk away with plenty of credit in the bank after his team went toe-to-toe with City, but he will also rue his one decision in the game that made United’s defeat inevitable.

It is not even said with the benefit of hindsight, as eyes were rolled when he made that call, and it ultimately came back to haunt the team.

Erik ten Hag’s big blunder

When the final squad for the dropped, it was a shock to see zero defenders on the bench, as many had predicted Harry Amass would play a part, if not start outright.

However, it was still fine, since United had four seasoned campaigners in the starting XI who had plenty of experience in high-stakes football.

The first-choice back four was playing well. The threat of Erling Haaland was neutralised almost completely and despite having plenty of the ball, they weren’t threatening much.

Until Ten Hag’s blunder of a shocking substitution that was always going to end badly and hurt the team.

Harry Maguire was subbed off, which was expected, considering he was likely a late addition to the team after shaking off his injury, but the new-look backline had a puzzling name- Facundo Pellistri at right-back.

The only thing going for the Uruguayan to play that position is that he’s right-footed. That’s it. That’s where the “list of positives” ends.

His defensive awareness is obviously not up to the mark, he’s not a physical freak who can get by on his athletic gifts, and he has never been one to like a tackle.

To add to his misery, he was directly matched up against Jeremy Doku when he came on, who, by then, had already rinsed Diogo Dalot a couple of times.

When Doku came off, Bernardo Silva came in, and guess how the City goal arrived? Yes, Silva outmuscled Pellistri and headed home from a cross.

The cross came from the left, where Dalot was defending on his wrong foot, and came to the right, where Pellistri was bafflingly placed as the right-back.

To his credit, Pellistri handled himself as well as a diminutive winger can in a completely unfamiliar position, however, that was never going to be enough against City.

Ultimately, that made United’s chances of conceding a matter of when, and not if.

Cavalry is arriving

It is fair to assume that the “RB Pellistri” experiment will end after this game. Noussair Mazraoui’s Man United transfer is close to completion and even if Luke Shaw doesn’t play vs Fulham, Mazraoui, Martinez, and Dalot are plenty of options for the two spots.

Matthijs de Ligt’s arrival will also strengthen the middle of the park so Ten Hag has arguably already had the worst of this crisis barring further injuries.

Still, his handling of the team when faced with injuries was criticised last season and Pellistri at right-back only reaffirmed the sentiment that Ten Hag’s solutions in a crisis are not always ideal.