Manchester United 2022/23 - The Reign of ETH

Also debatable.

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John Murtough and Richard Arnold are in Barcelona :eyes:

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Looks like this is getting done. Him and Erikson such an upgrade to midfield.

You’d have to wonder about Barcelona signing the likes of rafinha from Leeds and Torres from city. They’ve completely overpaid for both of them.

They are getting a hundert million for de Jong

Scenes.

Ed Woodward wiuld be looking for a steamboat out of Siam to make it back to dend a telgram to Mendes to see how many players he could overpay for.

Someone needs to explain to Evan that unira shifted the decimal point.

It’s great to see the manyoo fans so thrilled that their legal team managed to fly themselves to Spain.

Not too long ago since they were off to Spain to buy Ander Herrera only for imposters showing up to negotiate

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Inside Manchester United training: Pressing drills, patient build-up and tight-space triangles

Telegraph Sport analyses United’s hour-long open training session to see how the players are adapting to Erik ten Hag’s methods

Erik ten Hag has taken on a huge task at Manchester United. Few Premier League teams looked more poorly coached last season than United and Ten Hag is seeking to give them the playing identity they have so badly lacked for too long as he bids to reshape the club’s ailing fortunes.

His first summer in charge has already presented plenty of challenges, from the absence for family reasons of star striker Cristiano Ronaldo, who also wants to leave Old Trafford, to the frustrating wait for new signings such as Frenkie de Jong, Christian Eriksen, Lisandro Martinez and Antony, players expected to be integral to the way Ten Hag plans to play.

Still, Ten Hag has been wasting no time implementing his ideas since the first wave of United players reported back just over a fortnight ago and the training is stepping up on the club’s pre-season tour.

United are due to play Liverpool at the Rajamangala Stadium in Bangkok on Tuesday in Ten Hag’s first game in charge and Telegraph Sport had the opportunity to watch their full, hour-long evening session, which provided a valuable insight into how the players are adapting to the Dutchman’s methods.

Patient build-up

One of United’s chronic failings has been their lack of patience and poor, rushed decision-making in the final third. Fans grew exasperated watching United routinely trying to force an opening that was not there, rather than retain possession and switch the play in a bid to disorganise the opposition and create the space to exploit.

The middle of Ten Hag’s three main drills on Monday focused on working the ball from side to side and urging his players to pick the right moment to strike in an 8 v 5 set-up.

In one instance, the ball was worked side to side four times before an eventual cross from near the left by-line was scrambled clear and the stand out moment came when, after another patient build up, the ball was eventually shifted from left to right where Jadon Sancho, on the edge of the penalty area, clipped over a fine cross that Marcus Rashford thundered home with a towering header, a combination Ten Hag will be eager to hone.

Rashford looked in particularly good shape. He has returned from a working holiday in America, where he did a lot of warm weather training at Nike’s HQ, in superb physical condition and with a point to prove after the worst season of his career.

Back to the drill and the wider shortcomings were obvious: the ball needed to be moved with greater speed and precision, the first touch better, some of the positioning and movement of players was too slow and encumbered, there was not enough communication and high-quality intensity will take time to develop.

Inviting trouble
One of the most instructive moments came when Fred, deployed in the holding midfield position Ten Hag has earmarked for Barcelona midfielder De Jong, attempted an overly ambitious vertical pass intended for Bruno Fernandes that was cut out by Zidane Iqbal and invited a counter-attack.

The error culminated in Iqbal rounding Fred and scoring, a needlessly risky turnover for which the Brazilian’s team had to do press-ups as punishment. If anything highlighted Ten Hag’s reasoning for wanting De Jong, a midfielder with precise, intelligent distribution, it was that.

‘Aaron inside, inside’

From the build-up, Ten Hag asked his full-backs to tuck in either side of Fred before stretching the play and creating as much width as possible once the play progressed.

Whether Aaron Wan-Bissaka, for whom United are prepared to listen to offers this summer, can adapt to Ten Hag’s exacting demands of his full-backs if he does stay remains to be seen - it was telling that Diogo Dalot was the first choice right-back in the drills - but there were some difficult moments for him here.

After one patient attack, play broke down with a poor pass from Wan-Bissaka, in a central position, that was intended for Fernandes but the right-back also had to be told to tuck in when the play switched to the opposite side with Ten Hag shouting “Aaron inside, inside”, something that came easier to new signing Tyrell Malacia at left-back.

Playing out from the back and pressing
United have never looked comfortable playing out from the back, nor have they pressed with any sense of cohesion or purpose in the past. Both are critical elements to Ten Hag’s style of play and the final drill of the evening worked to both disciplines and involved plenty of disguised fitness.

Whenever the ball went out of play, another one was introduced immediately - there was no let up - and it was clear the players’ reaction times and urgency, let alone the speed and precision of their passing, require work. Ten Hag and his assistant Mitchell van der Gaag were repeatedly telling United’s players to press and react and another coach, Craig Mawson, would scream at them to “get up to the ball” and close the space in moments when they switched off.

The contrast with Liverpool, who performed a similar drill on the same pitch, later in the day was actually very instructive and offered an illustration of where United need to get. In Liverpool’s case, players recovered their positions quickly, they moved the ball much faster, closed down space more quickly and talked far more.

Interchangeable 4-3-3
With Eriksen and De Jong still to sign, United’s midfield is likely to undergo quite the makeover in time but it was interesting that Ten Hag effectively set up in training with two No 8s - Fernandes and Donny van de Beek - ahead of Fred as the midfield anchor. Scott McTominay was missing with a minor niggle.

Van de Beek once thrived under Ten Hag at Ajax but he looked laboured here, perhaps unsurprisingly for a man who has played so little football over the past two seasons, and certainly a far cry from what Eriksen will offer.

Fernandes has so much to offer creatively but already Ten Hag seems to be encouraging the Portuguese to take better care of the ball in positions where a risky pass should be resisted.

Working out of tight spaces
When the squad was broken up into two groups after a bit of light work to begin with, the first drill was an 8 v 3 rondo in a very small boxed area where the non-bibbed team were awarded points for reaching a certain number of passes but there was also on an onus on the bibbed trio to win the ball back quickly, retain possession and find the nets.

At one stage Ten Hag could be heard telling the bibbed players: “You can make triangles, that’s football, always the same principle”.

Ten Hag wants his teams to be able to keep the ball in tight spots and manipulate space effectively, both defensively and offensively, and this drill provided an intense workout that tested the players’ first touch, reaction times, quick thinking, movement and fitness.

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Training analysis now. Jesus, I don’t think @thelimericks even went that low

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We could though. By god we could

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Like what we do with our 11 year olds :joy:

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Apparently united are flying in training.

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Bruno’s use of the ball attempting low percentage passes is going to be a huge issue. He needs to change his game.

Next week the innovative ten hag will have them running up hills in clare and bateing tyres

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Are we playing Liverpool today in Bangkok?

Hag is innovative as he has the Red Devils football team practising football.

What was Coach Ole at at all?

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negotiating the carrington car park, looking for a spot

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