During pre-season, Erik ten Hag admitted: “I think, in general, when I came in at Man Utd, the standards were not right. That’s true.”
A year and a half into his tenure, there is little evidence to suggest that Ten Hag has dramatically raised those standards.
Manchester United’s limp loss to Newcastle United, with a 0-1 scoreline that desperately flattered the inept visitors, was the club’s tenth defeat of the season. United have only played 21 games this term.
Across the decade of decay since Sir Alex Ferguson’s retirement in 2013, no previous manager has ever racked up double digits for defeats as quickly as Ten Hag’s current vintage. Yet, even more damningly than those statistics is the style of United’s losses. They are still failing the same way.
Ten Hag candidly revealed the deeply troubling sight that he spotted ahead of his first away game as Manchester United manager, a humbling 4-0 defeat to Brentford.
“I saw one of our players shake his head and say with a sigh: ‘It is much too hot to play football’,” Ten Hag told Voetbal International. “I thought: ‘What is this? The opponent also suffers from it. You have to pull yourself together. You must have hardness’. That was what was missing – that ambition. It’s purely about mentality. Brentford ran eight miles more than we did that afternoon.”
The Dutch coach infamously punished his squad with a run to make up the difference in distance on what had been scheduled as their day off. But that question of ‘ambition’ was flagged in United’s first away trip of this current campaign as well.
After a bright but goalless first half against Tottenham Hotspur, United wilted under the August sun once again. Ange Postecoglou’s hosts racked up 98 sprints compared to United’s 57, scoring twice against a set of players “not doing their jobs anymore”, by Ten Hag’s assessment.
“They didn’t run,” the Dutchman lamented that day. “Or they run in the wrong moment, too late. Especially the front didn’t recover.”
Midway through the first half of United’s latest loss to Newcastle, Anthony Martial barely broke out of a saunter as Fabian Schar waltzed forward, striding into United’s half with precious little opposition. Ten Hag dropped his typical thousand-yard stare to scream at Martial, who expended more energy flapping his arms than he had when failing to press Schar.
Newcastle have been even more gravely decimated by injury than Manchester United but still racked up 185 off-the-ball runs compared to the visitors’ 96.
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