04 Dec 2023 13:58:10
People rightly harping on about things like effort and passion but can anyone explain the tactics.

From an outside perspective it looks like were setting up in a 4-3-3 with 1 midfielder holding but bruno and Mctominay play so far forward it looks like a 4-1-5.

There are spaces all over the pitch that teams exploit and we've conceded the most shots in the league apart from Sheffield and Luton and our champions league games have all been crazy end to end basketball matches.

Casemiro, Amarabat, Eriksen and now Maino have all struggled in deep midfield this season, surely ETH has to change to make the team harder to break down.

1.) 04 Dec 2023
04 Dec 2023 14:51:39
I'm not a tactician but I'd say Eric knows how to set up a team tactically. The problems persist with individuals. We don't work hard enough off the ball which makes us incredibly easy to play against.

We struggle against teams that get stuck in and are physical and nowadays that's nearly every team in the league. A team should be greater than the sum of its parts but we're the opposite. We have holes all over the pitch.

Rashford simply doesn't care about what's behind him, which in turn means you'll often find Bruno or a midfielder there covering the left back. Our midfield balance hasn't been right in years. We lose that battle nearly every week which makes winning games very difficult.

Individual mistakes and lapse in concentration are common in our defence. Onana has been rubbish, Dalot gets caught out time and again, although Lindelof and Maguire have done OK of late, they're not of a good enough standard.

We have too many passengers in the team.

Last year I lauded Ten Hag for his decision making. Dropping Maguire, removing Ronaldo, making the team run 13.4km at the start of the season, dropping Rashford for being late. Everything he done seemed to be right.

This year unfortunately I think he's gotten a lot wrong. His signings have not improved us one iota. Onana has been a waste of money, Mount hasn't had any impact, although i believe Hojlund will become good, he's not taken his chances, Amrabat is perfect reason why fans really don't know what they're talking about. Majority of fans were lauding this lad as the second coming probably without ever seeing him play, he's of a poor standard.

Ten Hag wanted rid of McTominay and Maguire and within a few weeks of the window closing, they're both in the team consistently. His persistence to reward Rashford with a starting spot is bizarre. His dropping of Varane from the outside is also bizarre.

His decision making at the end of games is like something someone does in Football Manager, go 2 at the back and 6 up front.

Hopefully he gets to work under the new administration coming in. I think he couldn't benefit from someone else picking the transfer targets but there's plenty of rope there for Ratcliffe to use if he wishes.

2.) 04 Dec 2023
04 Dec 2023 16:24:33
We have a bunch of players that have done the same thing to multiple managers. 8 of the starting team against Newcastle were from the LVG/ Mourinho eras. There is a group there that either are not good enough, or are not prepared to put in the required effort to move up a level. First year under several coaches has looked promising only to revert in the second year. We're in a rinse and repeat cycle, but we do have some good players. The players not making the effort are killing us. But things turn around quickly in football. Two windows could fix an awful lot but we need some good sound decision makers. Ten Hag should not be immune to criticism but as of now I'm putting 80+% on the players as they've a history of this. He doesn't.

3.) 04 Dec 2023
04 Dec 2023 16:24:48
Its difficult to identify what the style of play or tactics are when players aren't willing to execute them.

Its been mentioned a lot here that no one can identify what ETH style of play is and whilst I agree to an extent, I am past looking at the manager and focusing more on the players. Its clear to see some of them just aren't interested and are not putting 100% effort into games. Some players want to play and some dont, therefore the team becomes disjointed and tactics go out the window.

ETH is not without his faults, but I think people need to stop looking at the manager and focus more on the 11 of the pitch. Its clear he is struggling with getting players to play, but I'd rather see those players moved on, players brought in who want to play and the manager backed. Its clear some of these players have not and will not perform for any manager.

4.) 04 Dec 2023
04 Dec 2023 16:55:14
So Bruno and Mctominay vacating midfield is them ignoring Ten Hags instructions?

5.) 04 Dec 2023
04 Dec 2023 17:13:27
Are you saying that is ETH’s instructions, for them to vacate midfield?

6.) 04 Dec 2023
04 Dec 2023 17:54:28
I tend to agree with a lot of mumbles reply.
This season has been utterly underwhelming following really decent progress last season.
I don't get everyone's surprise with Onana. He has been making these types of gaffs for 6 or 7 years but played in pretty dominant teams so was not punished as severely as he is being here as we are not 3 or 4 up every week. His best attributes are being nullified due to the wrong players in front of him who can't play from the back. It just keeps getting played back to him eventually.
I think every other team in the epl tries harder, looks sharper, runs harder, plays with greater intensity than we do.
On top of that at least 30% of the other teams are technically better.
United has been a holiday camp for these players for years.
When Jose stepped up to them they rebelled when lvg did it same happened. Ole let them get away with it.
They bought into eth for a bit and now they don't want to work hard anymore because he has been making calls they don't agree with.
I'd say some are not trying at 50%.
The players don't care. (In the main)
They are not answerable to the fans.
Eth is on a hiding to nothing imo.
Ed002 has said the new investor and his team will either back him or sack him and bring in their own man to deliver their vision.
Until eth knows his fate nothing will make much sense imo.
If players know he is staying they either move or try.
If they know he is going then some will be kept to see if the new guy can get them improving.

7.) 04 Dec 2023
04 Dec 2023 18:35:04
It may come down to choices. Who are we going to play in midfield?

Bruno has been decent this season going forward, but he can be a liability in defence. Who gave away the 2 free kicks that led to 2 goals last week v Galatasary? McTominay? The remaining half of the much panned McFred tandem. It's not like there's anything new here. He's not a good defensive midfielder. He's actually a better forward. Casemiro and Mount are out. Hannibal is huff and puff and not good enough imo (he may become so) . The loaner Amrabat?

And then we have 2 forwards in Rashford and Martial who don't seem to give a rats arse. They don't work, They don't cover back. They don't hold the ball up. They're impatient.

We conceded just one goal away from home v Newcastle. Given the situation, is it any surprise? I may remain unconvinced about Ten Hag, but he's had a lot of sh. t to deal with this season, injuries and particularly a plethora of pusillanimous poseurs purloining their preposterously prolific payments.

8.) 04 Dec 2023
04 Dec 2023 19:54:10
Yet the same problem remains of players on too high wages to move on. Who will match Martial's £250k a week or Rashford's £325k? Maguire wanted £12 million to go as the disparity between what he's on now and what West Ham would pay him.

9.) 04 Dec 2023
04 Dec 2023 20:20:15
ETH got small club mentality and thinks this will work at United!

yes he can drop the ones that your all saying have no passion, but replace them with what, look at his signings and actually how poor they are, what’s point replacing with them they are so poor it’s ridiculous.

I’m not saying that some of the players lack passion etc, but ETH should have been bringing in much much better quality then what his done, injuries or not, and he needs to stop keep acting like an over zealous school teacher, he seems to carry petty vendettas on for months and months, which is very poor man management

It’s a shocking team, 400 million spent and I would argue worse then ever!

10.) 04 Dec 2023
04 Dec 2023 20:38:37
So Ten Haag has lost much of the changing room. Why do many players look to blame others for their own failings? Most of the players are simply not good enough for United and are using Ten Haag as a scapegoat. We need rid of players such as Dalot (simply cannot defend), McTominay, Amrabat and especially Fernandes. Yes, Fernandes. He runs around like a headless chicken. He cannot compete with the best midfielders. Yes, he scores the odd goal and makes the occasional good pass, but we need someone to dictate the play consistently. He gives the ball away cheaply too often and upsets the balance of the team.

11.) 04 Dec 2023
04 Dec 2023 20:44:53
How can he implement a style of play with playing squad made up of Jose ole and his own players!
Last year I saw big strides forward predominantly because of the signings he’s made!
Currently we are having to use players or a lot of them that he doesn’t want and doesn’t see capable of doing what he wants!

12.) 05 Dec 2023
04 Dec 2023 23:26:05
If ETH has indeed lost the dressing room, then the new ownership can’t happen soon enough and it needs to make changes from day one. The players seem to expect new owners and the structure they bring in to want to want to change the manager, so they smell ETH’s blood and have downed tools. Why would you do all that extra running and implement a manager’s instructions when you know he’ll be gone soon anyway. They have plenty of form for that

On the other hand, if the new ownership plan to stick with ETH then they need to make that unequivocally clear instantly and lay down the law. Players can then either fall into line or clear off as part of a rebuild

Fans seem pretty divided now on support for the manager, but for my two cents I’d rather see the latter of the above two scenarios happen. I do have questions over ETH - in particular why he continually selects these players who let him down constantly. But one way or another, things are about to change soon. Hopefully for the better, and not another rinse and repeat cycle as mentioned.

13.) 05 Dec 2023
05 Dec 2023 05:15:11
Regardless of whether ETH is here next season or not, the new management team have to make it clear that if you down tools for any manager, you don't have the mentality to be a United player and will be shown the door.