Manchester United legend Ryan Giggs has insisted that one of Erik ten Hag’s “young” first-team players can’t have “all the pressure” placed on him.
Erik ten Hag has seen an up-and-down season at Manchester United, with the Red Devils crashing out of the Champions League with only one win in Group A.
The Red Devils’ Carabao Cup title fell well short of expectations after last season’s finalists Newcastle defeated United 3-0 at Old Trafford in the fourth round.
However, United have seen a better improvement at the start of 2024 and the Red Devils are currently undefeated in five matches across all competitions.
Ten Hag’s men defeated Wigan 2-0 away from home in the third round of the FA Cup before defeating Newport County 4-2 at the Rodney Parade in the fourth round.
Following a 2-2 draw against Tottenham last month, United sealed a thrilling 4-3 win over Wolves at Old Trafford and the Red Devils defeated West Ham 3-0 on Sunday.
Giggs talks up one Man Utd star
Despite the strong start to 2024, Erik ten Hag has been frustrated at times this season over Manchester United’s lack of goalscoring output from the frontline.
United’s wingers came under heavy criticism over their lack of assists for striker Rasmus Hojlund, who went his first 14 Premier League matches without scoring.
Ryan Giggs has previously praised Alejandro Garnacho and the United legend insisted that the Spain-born winger has had a solid season for the club so far.
The 50-year-old former United star spoke about the changes to wingers since his playing days and how the likes of Marcus Rashford and Garnacho have performed.
“Well, I think wing play has changed anyway over the years,” Giggs told the Webby & O’Neill YouTube channel.
“When I first started in the Premier League, more or less every team was 4-4-2.
“Now and again teams would play with three at the back, so they had wing-backs, but now they seem to be more forward players.
“You look at Liverpool, you look at United. You know Marcus just playing off the wing. He’s not really an out-and-out winger.
“Of course, when I started, I was a winger, Lee Sharpe was a winger, [Andrei] Kanchelskis, Becks [David Beckham] come in and it was just about having that balance really of maybe one side a player whose strength is assists, chipping in with a few goals, maybe the other side was somebody who would score more goals and not as many assists.
“And at the moment, we’re probably not doing enough of either. And I think Garnacho has had a really good season. He’s still young and you can’t put all the pressure on him.
“Marcus, we know what Marcus is capable of and he was so good last year, he’s just not hit the ground running this year [referring to 2023] and just not been producing the performances he did last year.”
Giggs on Hojlund’s initial struggles
Giggs admitted that he had “sympathy” for Hojlund due to the way United’s wingers play nowadays compared with how they acted during his time at Old Trafford.
Hojlund has turned the tide back in his favour after his initial goalscoring drought in the league and has now scored four times and picked up two assists in 18 matches.
While Giggs did say that the 21-year-old Denmark striker has been “missing chances,” the United legend acknowledged that Hojlund has been lacking service.
“But wingers in general [have] changed,” he continued.
“You have left footers on the right, right footers on the left and no longer do you get that winger getting to the byline [and] crossing, so I’ve got a little bit of sympathy for Hojlund.
“Obviously, he’s still missing chances and can still do better like everyone in the team, but I do have a little bit of sympathy that he’s not getting four, five, six chances, which probably when I played, you know the centre-forwards were just getting… not put on a plate – nah, they were getting them put on the plate – no, but they had, you know, the way that we played, 4-4-2, just getting chance after chance after chance and wingers have changed a little bit.”
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