I hate not having a midfield. Watching us get ran through over and over again is maddening. It's absolutely bizarre that a Dutch manager - probably the second most precious about midfield control and order after Spanish, per school of thought - is so reckless with control and pacing of the midfield.
It's looking increasingly like ten Hag can only work with special midfielders, otherwise his instructions simply do not transfer to a lower tier of midfielder. No wonder he was obsessed with FDJ.
People calling it a basketball game are right. We just run back and forth with no ability to kill a game or keep it orderly.
I think this is where some fans aren't getting the criticism. It's Man United. As a club, its not our job to hold a manager's hand to do a job. Unfortunately, due to our moral high ground over the years, this has been a pattern we've had with managers. Fans and club urging them to succeed. Statements like " i feel sorry for him having to deal with the club/players". Yet, the only way to judge a manager is what goes on on the pitch, this seems to skip some people's minds. At United, Ten Haag should be proving to us with his system and ability to handle events like injuries and player issues that he's a good enough manager to get us challenging properly every season for top trophies. He's inflexible , he can't handle player changes and injuries. It's a massive weakness and people keep masking over it as an excuse. It's December and the feeling he's given me is that he needs a perfect squad to perform well. Losing Shaw and Martinez somehow completely affected our style of play. Not having a pressing striker completely stops us from controlling games. Varane and Maguire can't play together due to angles. i.e can't play without left footer at left centre back. He doesn't understand the physicality of the league despite this being his second season. He went into the season expecting Bruno and Mount to work together. The age and profile of most of our signings aren't great for a team trying to impose themselves in the league. He's shown a lack of urgency, for me, the way we started the season in terms of fitness was poor. The way we've played tactically has also been dubious. Our defenders have been out of position, with wide spaces apparent in key areas. It's quite clear we switched systems, but a manager of a top team would have realized the possibility that a tactical tweak might not have worked and not invested 60m on a player who can't play the system previously used.
I don't like the fact that fans and the media are so quick to blame players and the club, yet be so light on the manager. I've seen Bruno's reputation and captaincy questioned, Rashford has been questioned, Casemiro has been questioned, as have Varane, Maguire and everyone else. Yet, despite clear tactical issue being evident on the pitch and leadership problems being pretty clear, he's not really. He deserves time that the likes of Mount and Onana haven't been afforded. For me, the worst part is that these managers know that. It's the reason why they always act so surprised when they get sacked. We treat them like their doing us a favor, when their also part of the problem. I saw Mctominay, Fred, Maguire and Lindelof play with Ole. It wasn't like this. Would we be better if we didn't have injures? Yes. But how can you fully trust a manager who's proving that he can't play decent football with what he has? I've seen Arsenal dominate Champions League games with Denilson, Bendtnar and the like. Yet some fans are actually buying this concept that player x not playing is why we have massive static spaces and cant's string passes together. I'm not saying he should be sacked immediately, but all of these failures should be scrutinized heavily. If we fail to get out of this group, that should be scrutinized too. If we can't play good football on a weekly basis, that should be scrutinized. His job is to ensure that our players are put in the best position to play good enough football to win as many matches as possible. At United, its to play good football and get us back to where we were. He's not showing progress and hasn't proved to us that he deserves the patience.