Shapeless, demotivated, petulant … Ten Hag’s ghost ship continues to drift on | Jonathan Wilson
WDidn’t he think we’d be here again sooner or later? Sir Jim Ratcliffe, Sir Dave Brailsford and the rest of the Ineos leadership at Manchester United spoke to numerous potential candidates at the end of last season after the club finished eighth in the Premier League with a negative goal difference. They decided to keep Erik ten Hag as manager. Who, after that decision, did not foresee a moment in the near future when, after another series of poor results, they would be back in the same place as before, only several million pounds poorer after buying another load of Dutch and Netherlands-adjacent players ?
This is United and that means these issues are always complicated by the memory of Sir Alex Ferguson, who endured some lean years before finally winning the league in his seventh season at the club. The instinct of fans is always to show patience. Nobody wants to be Pete Molyneux, the fan who, six months before the decisive 1990 FA Cup win, held up a banner reading ‘Three years of apologies and it’s still rubbish… ta-ra Fergie’, which was a springboard to Ferguson’s success.
In that context, last season’s FA Cup participation only adds to the confusion, especially given the memorable wins over Liverpool and Manchester City on the horizon. For those desperate for parallels with Ferguson, they were easy enough to find. Yet the FA Cup isn’t what it was then and the fact that Ferguson was a lucky guy in 1990-91 doesn’t disguise how lucky United were last season: a harum-scarum, unlikely win over Liverpool is all very well. but United probably shouldn’t need that kind of win against Newport or Coventry.
And so here we are. If the first half performance against Tottenham on Sunday was not the worst under Ten Hag, it is only because there are so many other candidates: the four goals conceded against Brentford in his first season, the six conceded in one half at Anfield in March 2023 , the entire 4-0 defeat to Crystal Palace last May… They were formless, demotivated, petulant and apparently completely devoid of confidence.
After the 3-0 win over Southampton and the 7-0 League Cup success against Barnsley, followed by a dominant display in the first half of last week’s 0-0 draw at Palace, some tried to suggest that United are showing signs of improvement shows . But then Barnsley were in League One and United were poor before Southampton missed a 33rd minute penalty and were dismal in the final half hour at Palace. How far have United fallen when the score is 0-0 and surviving a tough period against two teams in the bottom three could become a testament to green shoots? Wednesday’s drab 1-1 draw against Twente just felt familiar.
The infamous Ten Hag donut has resurfaced, that gaping space in the middle of midfield. His United have a habit of conceding goals that, for lack of a better phrase, just look silly; It is not normal for an opposing centre-back, even one as quick as Micky van de Ven, to win the ball and dart forward 60 yards unchallenged before crossing for a tap-in. Where was the structure? This is the whole point of working on defensive shape so that if possession is lost, players are in the right position to control a counter. But somehow Kobbie Mainoo and Manuel Ugarte – who seemed to fit in perfectly, although not in a good way – went missing, while Noussair Mazraoui, distracted by Timo Werner, was too wide.
And then it happened again. Two minutes into the second half, Lisandro Martínez recklessly exaggerated to allow Brennan Johnson to run 50 yards unchallenged before crossing for Dejan Kulusevski’s goal. Martínez has a wild streak, but that mentality, that irrationality, underlies everything about United. Bruno Fernandes was a little unlucky to be sent off after slipping before passing James Maddison, but a calmer player wouldn’t have made a desperate lunge for the ball in that situation.
Perhaps most damning of all is that United had actually gotten back into the game and caused Spurs some problems. Then Ten Hag made a double substitution with 17 minutes to go and immediately the pressure United had put on Spurs was lifted; Dominic Solanke scored four minutes later. It was a similar story at Palace last week, with Ten Hag’s substitutions handing the initiative to Palace.
There was a theory that keeping Ten Hag gave Ineos cover, someone who could be made a scapegoat if this season started poorly. But United made £180m from signings in the summer, all presumably with at least some input from Ten Hag. That already seems like an investment in a lame duck. The more games go by, the more their inability to replace him, despite giving every indication that they really wanted to, looks weak, a club that didn’t know what it wanted, or lacked the courage to cross the line get what they wanted.
And so the ghost ship drifts on, without a plan, without structure, without leadership. The Glazers may not be in charge anymore, but it seems no one else is either.
This is an extract from Football with Jonathan Wilson, the Guardian US’s weekly look at the game in Europe and beyond. Subscribe for free here. Do you have a question for Jonathan? Email footballwithjw@theguardian.com and he will provide the best answer in a future edition