Football News: Concerns about Erik ten Hag at Manchester United

It's pretty much impossible to change someone's attitude, it certainly cannot be done quickly and tends to take years. Ask any psychologist. Either someone has developed that drive and motivation in themselves during their formative years or they haven't.

Some players are driven to success because they are chasing glory and sporting immortality. They want their names to be remembered. Other see it as a way out of poverty and their only chance to build a better life.

You need the former to be successful, the latter will lose determination once they get their big contract, for them football is a job, and like the vast majority of people they will do just enough and no more.

There isn't any amount of shouting, encouragement or psychological tricks that will suddenly make a player work harder if it isn't already a part of their psyche to fight and give their all everytime they enter the pitch.

You can refocus a player who has it, or push one who has it to push their limits, but you can't make someone who doesn't have that internal motivation to push themselves outside of their comfort zone.

Which means the manager's only option is to play the players who do have that drive, regardless of whether they are good enough or not. But then people complain that he is picking his favourites or not mixing things up. This also assumes that there are at least 11 players in our squad with the right attitude and mentality to begin with and that we are fortunate enough that those 11 players cover all the 11 starting positions. If three of those 11 are goalkeepers and two are RB's then that probably rules out three of those five from playing in the first place. While injury, suspension and the need to rotate will also rob a manager of being able to play those few players with the right mentality for many games throughout the season.

There is a reason why no manager has been able to be successful at our club since SAF left, and it isn't simply down to the limitations of the managers.

We have been run horrifically, we have had no plan, swinging from left to right, abandoning a direction the moment it becomes tricky and making an about turn. That weakness in upper management has been seen with the sacking of managers the moment the press and the fans start complaining, it also saw the immediate about turn over Greenwood last summer. Weak leadership will always leave you rudderless and unable to achieve anything. The squad we have assembled for a world record fee is not even top 7 quality if we are honest. Forget how many of our players would start for Liverpool, Manchester City or Arsenal, how many would start for Newcastle United, Aston Villa or Tottenham Hotspur? How many would start for Chelsea?

That is where we are at, none of that is the current managers fault. Is EtH good enough? Who knows, because he like all of his predecessors haven't been given a fair crack at the whip to find out.

There are things I've seen from him that I like, things that make me think there is a top class manager in there, while there have also been a few things I'm less happy about. Things that raise legitimate questions over his suitability long term.

I think his leadership and ability to steer the club through several highly difficult situations has been near faultless (from the outside looking in). He has been honest, clear and dampened down any clamour from the press to play up a story or create an difficult situation. He has shown strong leadership, shipping out Ronaldo and Sancho.

That is after he did everything possible to help Sancho, setting up a mid-season break with coaches and people to support him when he was struggling, despite the fact meant he was unable to call upon a very expensive asset while Sancho was away for nearly 3 months. Of all the post-Sir Alex managers I felt he has carried himself the best, he hasn't been weak like Moyes, crazy like LvG, sullen and sulky like Jose, too nice like Ole or too out spoken like Rangnick. He has been calm, measured, serious when needed, and a little more light hearted when appropriate.

The two things that are minor causes for concern for me, are that it has been said he can be difficult to get along with. Without context it's hard to judge how or where that could negatively impact the side. Lots of successful managers have been labelled as difficult to get along with, like most I suspect that they are difficult for "some" people to get along with and fine for others. Conte, Jose and Simeone are notoriously difficult to get along with, regularly falling out with some players.

Yet others recount them as the best manager they have played under. Pep and SAF could be difficult to get along with at times, and have fallen out with players in the past. So while it's a slight concern to hear murmurs that EtH is "difficult" to get along with, it's impossible to say whether that is or is not necessarily a negative, or at least a significant one. Ultimately anyone who has high expectations and demands a lot of people are likely to rub some people up the wrong way. Yet, having high expectations and demanding the most of people is a prerequisite of success, and it is impossible to achieve without it.

So while a minor concern, it isn't something I'd be overly worried about. Also unlike under previous managers very few is any dressing room leaks have happened so far under EtH. Certainly not like under previous managers, which suggests either that there is minimal discontent within the squad or that they at least have enough respect/ fear of the manager to not go leaking things and stirring up trouble.

The only other "concern" I'd have over the manager is that I'm not entirely sure about "some" of his tactical choices. I fully appreciate that he has been severely limited by both injuries and the level of quality he has available within the squad, along with it's unbalanced makeup. These lead to obvious limitations in what you can do, and to what level of quality and consistency you can do it.

Yet I'm not entirely sure about the shape he has used both in and out of possession. The 3133 shape in possession leaves the midfield very exposed when we lose the ball centrally. As one midfielder has to often mark 2 or even 3 players. They can either drop off and protect the space behind them, which invites more pressure, or they can try and engage and win the ball, which is dangerous as if they don't win it then the opposition are breaking on just three players left defending. While the odds of winning a challenge in that situation are low if you are outnumbered as they opposition can merely pass it around you as you move to engage.

This tactical set up has been exasperated by both the decline of key players like Casemiro and Eriksen, along with consistent injuries to our defence. That has lead to having to play defenders who drop 10 yards deeper due to a lack of pace and mobility making them fearful of playing too high and having to turn and defend the space in behind, while the extra space created in the middle by the defence dropping deeper means the lone midfielder has a bigger space to defend and patrol on their own.

While the forward line have been tasked with trying to win the ball high, often meaning they are higher on the pitch, meaning they are less able to cover the large distance behind them when we lose the ball or they play through the first line of pressure. Again this is exasperated by playing the wingers wide stretching the pitch. That is something you want to do when in possession, but not really something you want to do if you are looking to play a pressing game. To play a pressing game you want your players closer together and more compact, so they can press as a unit and not be bypassed easily.

At times it looks like we are caught between trying to be a possession based team and a pressing counter attacking side. This could be due to not having the players to fully commit to playing one way or the other. Without the technical and intelligent ball playing players to effectively play a possession based style, yet we lack mobility, pace and in some cases work rate to play as a pressing side.

We have a defence that is more suited to sitting deep and having two CDM's shielding them, but lack the passing range to play consistently good longer passes forward to play on the counter. Plus this style is entirely dependent on the opposition actually venturing out of their shape. If they stay disciplined then it's a 0-0 borefest with neither side doing enough to try and win the game by committing the players forward to score.

Yet if we play as a high pressing side then we have issues with our forwards players lacking the tactical intelligence to press as a unit (they are mostly individualistic players), while key players like Rashford tends to play better when he has space to drive into behind the opposition. In a high pressing side that space is limited forcing him to try and intricately dribble through a deeper defence rather than knock it past an isolated defender and blaze past them.

I'd be interested to sit down with EtH and discuss his tactical choices as I appreciate that I don't see the team training every day and I certainly don't have the depth and quality of tactical nous that someone like EtH has. I'm sure there are good reasons for his choices, it's just frustrating to see us struggling.

I think that we could be better off changing our shape slightly to have more defensive support, but I appreciate that in doing so means we have less players in attack. While it is scoring goals that has been our biggest issue this season. We have conceded a massive number of shots, but actually have one of the best defensive records in the league in terms of goals conceded. So maybe dropping an extra defender deeper wouldn't help us all that much.

Again EtH's tactical choices are hard to judge without knowing the context of his decisions or the thinking behind them. So while it's a concern, it's not something I can out right say he is getting it wrong.

I like the rest of us will just have to hope that the new football people at the club are able to see those things we can't see from the outside and make the right decision based on a far better understanding of the situation than we have.

Written by Shappy April 02 2024 15:41:35