Manchester United Need A Proper Plan In Place

Erik ten Hag (EtH) is taking absolute pelters again, but for 70 minutes, Manchester United were well in control of the FA Cup semi-final match against Coventry.

I fully understand some supporters’ frustration with taking off the likes of Mainoo and Garnacho. Both are still teenagers and maybe EtH was just trying to manage their minutes whilst demanding more of the senior players to take responsibility?

The substitution of two teenagers should not result in the capitulation of an entire team especially against Championship opposition. I accept there is an argument that EtH might not just be managing their minutes and is blind to the performances of players such as Rashford, McTominay, Bruno and others but as results and performances continue to suffer he will eventually have to face the consequences of these decisions.

Rashford and McTominay both hobbled off injured and I’d much prefer Mainoo and Garnacho playing against Sheffield United in mid-week, so well intended or not, in my opinion the more important players should be fit for our next fixtures and we scraped through by the skin of our teeth. Extremely slim pickings, but positive nonetheless.

Tactically, I think we need another player in midfield and I must question if we actually need to play with a traditional CF?! Poor Rasmus Hojlund gets absolutely no service. This must be so demoralising for a young player.

To be honest, we’ve said for years there has been a lack of service for our CF, this is not exclusively an Etsy problem, with inverted wingers more interested in cutting inside to shoot and wanting to score for themselves rather than creating for the CF.

The full backs have also been poor in attacking situations and have become even less effective now EtH often asks them to play inverted.

Last season, Casemiro and Eriksen improved the midfield, but they still got regularly over run especially away from home. This was not addressed in the summer and it’s even worse this season with EtH transitioning to a more man for man coverage in midfield and wanting the team to press higher and more aggressively.

Whilst I really like Hojlund and think he’s a very promising young player, I do question if he was the right type / profile of CF considering we don’t look to create chances for our CF. Maybe more of a false 9, link type player would have been better to help us retain the ball better and give us an extra man in midfield?

My concerns regarding EtH are what direction are we going? If he wants us…