Manchester United have had many problems this season.
A lot of them have been issues out of Erik ten Hag‘s control. There have been a ludicrous amount of injuries to the first-team squad – which have definitely hindered performances.
The Dutch manager has also had to deal with external issues, such as that of the Jadon Sancho and Mason Greenwood debacle. Not ideal.
But there are some things under his control – which have been brought to light in the past couple of weeks.
Roy Keane on Erik ten Hag’s press
On The Overlap podcast, Gary Neville, Roy Keane, Jamie Carragher, Ian Wright and Jill Scott sat down to talk about Manchester United’s issues after the Premier League clash with Fulham.
They got onto the topic of the press, which has been a burning issue for United this season, which Jamie Carragher also highlighted on Monday Night Football.
United always seem to get caught up on the pitch in a high press, which leaves the defence wide open. They also don’t press as a unit, more so as individuals – which leads to a lack of cohesion and ultimately defensive issues.
Neville kicked off the questioning: “How much do you pin on the manager for not correcting this issue that’s repeatedly happened over the last six months and how much do you pin on the players for not following instructions?” Neville asks.
Ian Wright responds: “We see sometimes Bruno [Fernandes], he’ll just go and then you see a massive space, what happens is that, in training, you’ve worked on that to such an extent, that you go ‘oh we can’t go now’ because we’re not set up right. So you say, let’s wait for the trigger point – and then press.”
Roy Keane immediately interjects: “But United haven’t got the players to do that. Fernandes is not gonna do it, [Marcus] Rashford is not gonna do it. They might do it for five or ten minutes, but the evidence is there.
“So if you’ve got a team that’s not going to press, we talk about leopards and spots, Man United are never really going to be good at that pressing side of it.”
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Manchester United don’t have the players to do the job Erik ten Hag wants to do
Neville hit the nail on the head in our eyes, ‘How much do you pin on the manager and how much do you pin on the players?’
United clearly have a problem whilst pressing, and a lot of it comes down to the fact they press as individuals – not as a team.
Ultimately, in our opinion, Ten Hag can only do so much. He evidently can work with a press, shown by his days at Ajax. But, it depends on what he’s telling the players.
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