In what seems like a must-win game for the Red Devils, there were questions asked about Erik ten Hag’s style of play and tactics on the pitch.
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Manchester United supporters will be eager for a response after the club suffered two successive heavy defeats at home. First, they were beaten comprehensively 3-0 by Manchester City in the Premier League and they suffered a similar loss couple of days later to get knocked out of the Carabao Cup against Newcastle United. Those losses have invited massive criticism to Erik ten Hag and his players.
These defeats came on the back of a poor start to the season, hence it understandable to see their fan base concerned at the moment. Next up is a trip to Fulham in the Premier League for Manchester United. In what seems like a must-win game for the Red Devils, there were questions asked about Erik ten Hag’s style of play and tactics on the pitch. While responding to a question, the manager stated that his summer signing Andre Onana was not brought to hit long balls.
During the pre-match press conference, it was pointed out to ten Hag that after the Manchester City game, he had said that he couldn’t play here the way Ajax played. Asked about it, the manager, quoted on the club’s website, said, “I thought it was an explanation from my point of view [that] was totally wrong. But I can’t play like Ajax because we have different players. I came here with my philosophy based on possession but also to combine it with the DNA of Manchester United and combine it with the players and the competences and with the characters of the players.”
He added: You combine and I think last year we have seen what that was. We played very good football last season. This season, the philosophy is not different and I would emphasise more on going direct. But the explanation of my going direct, they [journalists] thought I wanted to go for long balls. No, I don’t. I didn’t buy Andre Onana to go for long balls. I know we want to play from the back as we did and we tried every game. We also did against City but if an opponent is going in a high press there is an option to go direct.”
The manager used references from their games in the US Tour during the pre-season and explained what he meant by playing direct. “What I meant with directness, and I explain it, is I thought it was in the USA [on tour] how we want to play. We want to press. We want to press from different blocks and then go direct because we have players like Rasmus Hojlund, Marcus Rashford, Antony and Bruno and Scott McTominay who are very good at it, with passing from Christian Eriksen. With our full-backs joining in. That was my idea and I explained it very clear.”
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