FOOTBALL | JONATHAN NORTHCROFT
Are Manchester United any better under Erik ten Hag than Solskjaer?
He came with a reputation as a master tactician and has spent £400million, but the club’s fortunes have not moved on under Dutchman
, Football Correspondent
Saturday October 28 2023, 6.00pm, The Sunday Times
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It is approaching five years since Ole Gunnar Solskjaer sprung from his sofa in Kristiansund to catch a plane to Manchester and twinkle into Carrington bearing grins and vibes, chocolates for Kath on reception and old values that re-energised Manchester United for a while.
It is also approaching two years since Solskjaer made a tearful retreat to Norway. Erik ten Hag was supposed to bring more sober, rigorous times, and a tactician’s rebuilding. But on Friday he was defending himself against a fair question, posed by Jamie Carragher: what has changed?
Ten Hag has had 64 more games in charge of United than Ange Postecoglou has had at Tottenham Hotspur and 33 more than Unai Emery at Aston Villa, but his team somehow bear less of his stamp than those of his rivals. A measly 38.2 per cent possession against Burnley, Scott McTominay as an emergency striker against Brentford — even in the games that Ten Hag wins, there can be an absence of the dominant playing identity he was tasked with bringing in.
The Dutchman’s riposte to Carragher was that while “in possession we have to do better”, his critic had ignored an improvement in United’s out-of-possession work. “We are much better. We are top in the Premier League in high-ball regains, we are top in middle-ball regains. So our pressing is always very good,” Ten Hag said. “So that is not the truth, what he is telling.”
It felt like a politician’s argument, one where the rebutter counters what’s staring people in the face with statistics. Are United now really that different from the Solskjaer team? Their best weapon is still the counterattack, they still play in moments rather than the intensely choreographed patterns Manchester City will unfurl at Old Trafford on Sunday.
Hojlund is the ninth-worst player in the Premier League this season in terms of his expected goals
CATHERINE IVILL/GETTY IMAGES
It feels that fortunes still depend too much on individuals having surges of form. In the same way that Solskjaer’s best periods capitalised on purple patches from first Paul Pogba and then a newly arrived Bruno Fernandes, the Ten Hag era rose on the back of Casemiro playing brilliantly at the start of his United career and then a run of Marcus Rashford scoring. Now both those players are in slumps, the team are too.
Pep Guardiola has never relied on the individual (watching City it’s easy to forget that Kevin De Bruyne has been out since August 11) and nor did Ten Hag at Ajax, so it’s fair to assume that he, too, aspires to a United that are more than this. He cannot say he hasn’t been resourced to change things, having spent £400 million on ten permanent transfers and another £13 million on five significant loans. For comparison, Solskjaer’s outlay across the entirety of his three-year reign was £380 million on 13 permanent transfers and £10.5million on one loan.
As has been a pivotal issue since Sir Alex Ferguson retired, so few of their signings have moved the dial. United’s latest accounts show they owe £317.8 million in outstanding transfer instalments, roughly twice as much as any other Premier League club, and Sir Jim Ratcliffe, who is negotiating to buy 25 per cent of United from the Glazer family, has pinpointed recruitment as one of the areas where he can make the greatest difference.
He wants, as part of a deal that would lead to the Glazers pocketing £1.3 billion, to take charge of football matters, and his company, Ineos, has already gathered data that demonstrates how little of United’s transfer spending translates to minutes on the pitch compared with competitors such as City.
Ten Hag says his players are not unsettled by the impending change at the top (“they are not thinking about strategic reviews or structures or whatever”) but he may wonder if he’s about to face questions. His influence on recruitment is far greater than Solskjaer’s was, with nine of his signings (including the loanees Sofyan Amrabat and Wout Weghorst) having either played in the Netherlands or been represented by the same agency (SEG) that represents him. This season’s struggles have followed a summer when United signed for him the goalkeeper, midfielder and striker he desired.
The goalkeeper, André Onana, has faced the greatest scrutiny, but after good performances against Sheffield United and Copenhagen — including a stoppage-time penalty save against the Danes — Onana is at least on an upward trajectory. He appears to have belatedly gathered confidence and settled mentally.
The poor form of former Chelsea star Mount is the most concerning of Ten Hag’s summer signings
GETTY IMAGES
With his ball-playing ability, Onana completed 30 or more passes in five Champions League games for Inter Milan last season, including the final, after which Guardiola observed the “incredible Onana” had played at times like “a holding midfielder”. However, his upturn has been based more on better shot-stopping and, with him ranked only 13th among goalkeepers for passing accuracy in the Premier League, Ten Hag admits United are still waiting to benefit from that side of his game.
“The first job of a ’keeper is to save his goal, that’s his first and main job and don’t forget,” Ten Hag said. “But, yeah, he’s a ’keeper who [we] can use as an extra player, and if we are developing he can be more progressive and even higher up the pitch.”
The United head coach added that, for now, Onana is having to be “pragmatic” in how he plays — with a rush of injuries to defenders disrupting United’s ability to build up — and that, like all players coming into the Premier League, because of the speed and intensity, goalkeepers need time to adjust.
Ten Hag’s most expensive summer signing, the £72 million striker Rasmus Hojlund, is yet to score in the Premier League, after six appearances. Erling Haaland scored ten goals in his first six Premier League games. Hojlund is the ninth-worst player in the 2023-24 competition in terms of underperforming his expected goals (ranked below Neal Maupay, while Rashford is second-worst) but the 20-year-old Dane has shown enough in terms of physicality, link-up play and endeavour to encourage belief in his raw potential. Those who know him say he has one of the biggest attributes any United player needs: strength of personality.
In some ways, the most concerning of Ten Hag’s summer signings is Mason Mount. What has happened? United won a contest with Arsenal and Liverpool to attract him, and his recruitment, for an initial £55 million, was prioritised over that of more defensive midfield options who were on the market, namely Declan Rice and Moisés Caicedo.
Yet Mount, despite injury to Casemiro and Ten Hag’s increasingly sparing use of Christian Eriksen, did not get off the bench against Copenhagen and his two minutes as a substitute against Sheffield United were a landmark: the first time in five Premier League appearances for United he was on the pitch while his team were winning.
The Bayern Munich No 2, Anthony Barry, who coached Mount at Chelsea, says he is “a modern-day player who plays with responsibility and plays multiple positions at high level. United are lucky to have him”. However, it is more than a year since Mount’s most recent Premier League assist and ten months since he scored a top-flight goal.
Mount is a footballer perhaps in the mould of his Chelsea predecessor Frank Lampard, in that self-belief, intelligence and effort lifted him above rivals with fuller skill sets, but in recent months he has looked like someone who has lost the spark inside him. A persistent pelvic problem, which required an operation, knocked him last season and helping the 24-year-old recover confidence and his best physical condition should be one of Ten Hag’s priorities.
“I think in every game, our game would benefit from Mason Mount,” Ten Hag said, presumably speaking about the player at his best. “I don’t have any concern to line him up. He did come on in a lot of games; he started in a lot of games. Last games he didn’t, but he is definitely one we will consider for Sunday. He has abilities that can be very helpful against City.”
Last year’s transfer business was patchy too, including £90 million spent on Antony: not far off twice the price of Jérémy Doku for half the player. However, new players coming in thrive when the team and club they join are set up to maximise their abilities. Playing as their main attacking midfielder, Mount bagged 13 goals and 16 assists for Chelsea in 2021-22, but at United, Fernandes has that role and Ten Hag appears to envisage him further back, as a younger, more energetic alternative to Eriksen.
On Hojlund, Ten Hag may have been let down by those above him. He pushed for a master-apprentice set-up, where alongside the youngster, they would recruit a senior No 9 such as Harry Kane. This would have given Hojlund more room to develop — and it wasn’t Ten Hag who negotiated the fees for the striker, Mount and Onana that devoured United’s budget, nor was it he who was unable to raise more money to spend through sales.
Onana, however, appears to be the victim of a coaching issue. A sweeper-keeper needs a high line and rehearsed options to play out to. Ederson slotted in at City because, under Guardiola, all that was already there. United, with a collection of slow centre backs, struggle to push up, and the Premier League’s seventh-best side at retaining possession require work when it comes to offering the man on the ball an easy pass.
Asked about United’s struggles, Guardiola defended Ten Hag. “Nine games, nine games. It takes time. Leave the manager do the job like they allowed me to when we didn’t win,” he said.
But his reply when asked who City’s biggest rivals are was painful to United ears: “There was one year with Ole that was quite close — but overall it has been Liverpool.”