Welcome back to the blog!
If you’re too cool to click over to the about page, these blogs are going to be synopsis of the games through the structure of the iconic 4-4-2. Each matchday, I’ll give my thoughts on the game via 4 takeaways, 4 players worth talking about, and 2 things worth saying that no one else might be. I’ll wrap it up with some forward looking things. The fun of writing this blog is to let out the fan, don’t worry about being absolutely right, and be unabashedly biased.
Quick Summary for Context:
Manchester United take the Ten Hag drama show on the road for a tie with Aston Villa at Villa Park. Both teams were coming off midweek ties in European competition. The game was nothing but a snoozer on the scoreline, ending in a 0-0 tie. Both sides generated some chances and statistically was indicative of a fair draw to both sides. Not much else to comment here in the game summary for an appetizer, on to the meat of the blog which is shorter because we as a club are in neutral and this game was devoid of excitement.
4 Takeaways:
- The lineup was quite the white flag. Back to front you Ten Hag comes out with Evans and Maguire as what probably figures to be the weakest center back pairing available to him on the roster. Then you roll out Eriksen in front of them for a combined age of 100, and you’re seeing a roster not designed to chase 3 points with the back against the wall and seemed to rather limp away with a point against a strong team on the road. In a weird way, the plan worked and we got the most out of Evans and Maguire, and the team seemed to revert into a flat back four which worked for the majority of the game against Villa and it really forced Villa into winning 1v1’s offensively. Villa wasn’t able to beat our defenders straight up and lacked any crashing threats from the midfield in the run of play to test Onana from inside the 18 yard box. It was shocking when the lineup got posted, and the shock was doubled when you look at Ten Hag’s signings to fix the problems sitting on the bench except for Onana, Hojlund, and Mazroui. Gutsy move by him, definitely not what I would have chosen.
- The game lacked any venom and was as boring as they come in the premier league. I think Villa looked passive in the early stages, especially with Rashford and Garnacho testing Martinez into some saves. As I mentioned before, we finally abandoned the inverted fullbacks and played a more traditional flat back four. The benefit was that Dalot couldn’t be caught out of position when the ball turned over to the counter attack, an Emery special. It also allowed Maguire and Evans to neutralize Watkins by passing him off and using their lack of pace to condense his game to more of a distributor, a role he’s not suited to exceed in at this stage of his career. I also think it allowed us to cut down on the running from the midfield back towards the back line to receive the ball, sitting deeper in a flat four allowed our backs to not be in a rush and not invite a ton of pressure. I have to say, tactically to get a draw, Ten Hag succeeded but it bore no real fruit for us going forward at all.
- A lot of talk about he result being a negative and a let down and not good enough. I have to admit, I wasn’t mad about the draw. After what feels like the utter chaos of the last month and some change at United, if you told me we’d force Villa to a scoreless draw at their place I would ask to be signed up immediately for that. Again, no one came into the eason expecting that but context matters. I also think it’s important to note that no player had a clear let down today. I thought as far as motivation and desire there wasn’t anyone I picked out as underperforming. In fact, I even thought the substitutions came on and gave good effort and contributed to us maybe stealing three points on Bruno’s unlucky free kick. A lackluster game but no blame to boot.
- Because the game was not thrilling, I’ll give my thoughts on Ten Hag’s future as we turn to the international break and the leadership summit in London on Tuesday. The entire board and executive committee or whatever you can figure to call them was in person to watch the match. I think it is time to move on before we lose the entire season and turn it over to Ruud. I don’t think this is working, and I was very hopeful that it would work coming into the season and was excited by the signings and the potential coming off winning the FA cup. It’s pretty clear that this “system” or “process” is at its ceiling which is somewhere between 5-10th in the table with a domestic cup trophy. I believe it is time to turn this season over, and leave us available to grab a manager in the summer while still unloading some of the old guard of players like Shaw, Maguire, Eriksen, Dalot, and get our manager befitting of a youthful and dynamic style our younger players like Hojlund, Zirkzee, Garnacho, Amad, Kobbie, Yoro, De Ligt, Ugarte can thrive in because they are far from void of talent.
4 Players Worth Talking About
- Diogo Dalot – I said last week I’d be fuming if he got a shirt in the next two matches and Ten Hag did exactly that at both Porto and Villa. I was mad, and I was still right that in a team with any backup challenging for the role he shouldn’t have had a spot in the team. The reality is that we don’t have that luxury right now and Dalot does give the team the best chance to win ahead of anyone else we can put at left back.
- Marcus Rashford – Need him to keep plugging forward. He had two more goal worthy shots today that forced saves, and one really good save, from Martinez. Amidst everything going on, I’m enjoying watching Rahford’s return to form as far as how he plays the game. It’s an exciting and dynamic style. I hope he can start converting these chances at a higher clip, he’s generating them at the clip of Rashford of old. Maybe, just maybe, two weeks at home and some more Instagram videos of him getting shots off could be the final touches to a more frequent goal scoring campaign.
- Johnny Evans – None of you reading this need me to tell you that he was the man of the match. We know. Highly publicized and highly indicative of where we are currently at in our performances. None of you reading this will see me clamoring for Evans to be starting again at any point this season. That’s all I have to contribute. Well done today, Johnny.
- Kobbie Mainoo – I think his performance here today is going to get lost but I thought he played really well. He showed his potential as a box to box player if he is ever entrusted to have that kind of role. I thought his ball winning and forward passing were both well above the level the match was playing at. I just think he’s a player we can unlock as the season goes on and I hope Ten Hag (or Ruud) can point to offensively as a contributor and relied upon to generate some more goals.
2 Things No One Else Might be Saying
- International break is actually welcome this time around, and I think several of our players will be withdrawn from their international side helping us.
- The board has 3 obvious windows to make a manager change that makes sense to me; 1) now, 2) If we fail to get into knockout play in the Europa league, 3) End of the season but make no January signings of material investment.