MANCHESTER United are in turmoil, despite back-to-back wins over Coventry and Sheffield United.
They are unbeaten in four games – however manager Erik ten Hag is clinging on to his job because the club’s performances have fallen way below expected standards.
Erik ten Hag is facing a fight to keep his job at Man Utd
They collapsed to throw away a 3-0 lead to Championship side Coventry who fought back to draw 3-3 at Wembley in Sunday’s FA Cup semi-final.
Utd won on penalties but only after VAR saved them from a humiliating defeat by ruling out what would have been a winner for Coventry in the dying moments of the game.
United went on to win the shootout as Antony taunted the Coventry supporters afterwards.
Ten Hag’s men then stumbled to a 4-2 midweek win over Sheffield Utd, after twice falling behind to the Premier League’s bottom team.
The Dutch manager is under huge pressure as joint owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe continues his extensive overhaul of the club behind the scenes with new technical director Jason Wilcox overseeing events on the pitch.
For a long time United have been run poorly from behind the scenes.
Recruitment has routinely been scatter-gun and the slow nature of-decision making at the club has seen them miss out on potential new players.
Ratcliffe and his right hand man Sir Dave Brailsford are fixing some of these problems – and the expectation is growing that Ten Hag will be shown the door sooner rather than later.
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Here we highlight three key things that Ten Hag is getting wrong at the moment at United which could cost him his £9million-a-year job.
Conceding too many shots
The most damning stat is that United concede an average of 17.7 shots at their goal per 90 minutes in the Premier League this season.
Only lowly Sheffield United have more, with 17.9. Man City manage to keep that figure down to just 8.
Man Utd concede on average a shocking 17.7 shots per game
In essence, United look soft defensively.
Ten Hag will point to the amount of injuries with the likes of Lisandro Martinez and Raphael Varane once again being injured.
Brazil star Casemiro has been deputising as a centre half in recent games.
However, there are no excuses for how disorganised the defensive unit has looked as a group and the blame for this has to come down to the coaching staff.
Man Utd’s defence is chaotic in the build-up to a Coventry goal. There is a huge gap between centre halves Casemiro and Maguire while right back Dalot is completely out of position
Against Coventry there’s a giant hole in the centre of defence between Casemiro and Maguire
With the exception of the young French central defender Willy Kambwala the rest of the players who have played in the back four for United during this injury crisis have been established internationals.
This means that at the very least we should expect them to get their basic positioning right against the ball.
But instead United are often disorganised with players getting caught well out of position leaving gaps in the defensive line.
This lack of positional solidity from the defensive line, however, is not helped by the fact that United struggle to get pressure on the ball when the opposition are in possession.
The lack of pressure and defensive solidity that United have shown from their midfield unit has led to the opposition being able to find through balls or passes into space to threaten and stretch the United defensive line.
Kambwala has been caught high looking to win the ball and Maguire has come across to defend on the same line which leaves huge gaps in the defensive line that Bournemouth can exploit
One of the biggest things that United need to do looking forward to next season is to fix their defensive issues.
With that said, however, keeping key players on the defensive side of the game fit should also be a priority.
Too passive in midfield
With the exception of club captain Bruno Fernandes, United can be extremely passive and slow in possession when they look to build their attack.
United have traditionally been a team that attacks quickly through transitions and counter attacks.
But this season, under Ten Hag, they seem to have slowed the pace of their attacking movements down.
While Fernandes will still get on the ball and try to be aggressive in terms of his progressive passing to move the ball into the final third he is the only midfield player that we see break lines consistently for United.
Scott McTominay mostly moved the ball sideways against Coventry
Christian Eriksen barely passed the ball forwards despite being at home against the bottom team
The back four and the other midfield players for United will typically look to be safe and secure in possession.
However this just allows the opposition players to quickly get back into their defensive shape.
Given the pace that United have in the attack in the likes of Marcus Rashford, Rasmus Hojlund and Alejandro Garnacho it would be far more beneficial for United to be more direct and progressive in possession.
Casemiro passes forward to Eriksen in huge amounts of space to turn into but instead he just plays a simple pass backwards
United are not helped in this regard though by some of the poor technical quality that their players show when they have space and time to play.
Too often United players will give the ball away to opposition players or put the ball out of play when they have plenty of time and space to play and to break down the opposition.
Maguire receives the ball but instead passing easily to Mainoo or Wan-Bissaka he loses composure and passes straight to the opposition
For Manchester United to be truly successful they need to be braver and more progressive in possession of the ball.
We would expect this to be another aspect of the game that United will look to improve in the transfer market this coming summer.
They don’t play to their strengths
For a team to be truly successful at the top levels of football they have to be able to recognise their strengths — and play to those strengths.
As we have already touched upon, United this season have been far too slow and passive in their attacking play and as such they have struggled to really stretch the opposition and use the pace that they have in the attacking unit.
The likes of Rashford, Garnacho and Hojlund are all very strong runners with true pace.
If United were able to get the ball forward more quickly then the opposition would be forced to defend deep and in space.
Time after time we see United’s quick forwards making off the ball runs to attack space only for the ball not to be released quickly to exploit these movements.
Bruno Fernandes has been the outstanding player this season
Against Bournemouth, Hojlund makes an aggressive run to attack the space but United instead keep passing the ball around the midfield
All of the three most dangerous attacking players that United have thrive on getting the ball in space with the ability to run at opposition defenders and to attack space when they are in possession.
The fact that United are slow when they build the attack means that when these attacking players do finally get possession of the ball they tend to be playing against a more structured and settled defensive block from the opposition.
Hojlund starts to make an attacking run, against Liverpool, but the player in possession makes a simple sideways pass instead of putting the ball forward and into space.
As things stand United, under Ten Hag, have been far too slow in all thirds of the pitch when they are in the attacking phase.
Giving players more freedom to play long and into space would cause the opposition real problems with the pace that United do have in their attack.
Conclusion
It is looking increasingly more likely that Erik ten Hag will not be the Man United manager at the start of next season.
While he has been unlucky with constant injury issues, especially in the defence, this season it is also fair to say that he has taken some freedom away from players on the pitch.
This will be a big summer for United with England boss Gareth Southgate and former Chelsea manager Thomas Tuchel in line to reoplace Ten Hag.