Ole Mark II? Manchester United are so much better under Erik Ten Hag with Eriksen and co

There have been some claims that Manchester United have just become a counter-attacking team again, but Christian Eriksen would never have played under Ole. And some of those goals have been sumptuous.

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Manchester United are far from Ole Mark II
Since the Arsenal game, I’ve seen a few references to Ten Hag reverting to Ole’s tactics to get results. Personally, I don’t think it matters how you play as long as you win. Putting that aside, I think the reason Ole failed was because of his insistence on playing Maguire-Lindelof and McTominay-Fred. He was incapable of evolving the team past those combinations, which to me pointed to a lack of imagination and outright favoritism.

We all remember when Axel Tuanzebe had that excellent game against PSG and Mbappe. It seemed like one of those performances where a young player finally came of age. I think he got one more game after that and was for some reason scapegoated for that Demba Ba goal against Basaksehir. That was that for Tuanzebe. We went back to the turgid Maguire-Lindelof duo and the rest is history.

Anyway, how can it be “Ole MK II ” when we don’t play with that defensive combination anymore? A combination that totally lacked pace and mobility, didn’t seem to gel communication-wise and had a few brainfarts a game in them. Yes we can play on the counter but having Martinez and Varane in defence gives us so much more confidence and structural integrity up the pitch. McTominay can concentrate on being a water carrier and breaking up attacks with his long limbs. The fact that he’s able to do that must be a testament to the system. There’s no way he has suddenly learned how to tackle or pass overnight.

Having Eriksen instead of Fred is also the total opposite of Ole because Eriksen can pass a ball and Fred cannot. Incredibly simple yet massive changes that can seismically shift games in our favour. If we can build and upgrade on this team as it stands and not let injuries/the odd bad spanking derail us, then we will be heading to the footballing promise land.
Mike, Manchester

…I see a groundswell of opinion forming, both from some United fans as well as those of other clubs, around how Ten Hag has come around to becoming Ole Mark II because this United side can only play counter-attacking football. When you’re ahead in a game, you’re perfectly within your rights to play counter-attacking. And…