Three is no point passing for the sake of it. Usually teams that follow playing from the back religiously pass the ball no matter what, ManUtd under any manager didn't follow that philosophy. Usually pass from the back, when under pressure go for long passes.
Unless we have a manager who insist to pass the ball no matter what (like Betis manager did), no point blaming De Gea for this. It's better to take safe option, especially against teams like Spurs who press aggressively and very high up the pitch. One mistake and momentum completely swings other side.
That is a very backwards way of looking at football and is a very outdated tactic.
In the modern game each pass back to keeper is an opportunity to reset and start another attack and each time you give up possession you’re basically giving the other opportunity a chance to mount an attack.
Unless you’re under extreme pressure as in every player in defence is marked and you’ve got opposition CF charging down at you then if there is a clear opportunity to pass out then you should take it. Every other elite side in Europe does it and the top two sides in England do it so why are we arguing otherwise when we have not even been a great side in many years?
Vds without any specific tactical instructions had already mastered playing out from the back but since he went we have been so poor in that regard and it is very easy to just employ high press against United and know full well you’ll get the ball back easily.
Ceding control of the game in the modern era is suicide and you can’t give teams like City blanket possession and let them dominate. We got away with it yesterday but put simply we will have to improve in that regard going forwards because if the idea is to become a progressive attacking and modern team we have to know how to play out from the back under pressure. The teams that have the best passing stats and pass it out from back tend to have the best defensive records so it is worth it to risk a few blunders in possession in order to get the better overall picture which means becoming a team that doesn’t give you much opportunity to mount attacks against them. If you have the ball you can’t concede goals - only Mourinho would argue otherwise.