I have watched all their UCL games, but not really much in the EPL, so I don’t have a clear picture. I’ve gotta say I’m not Ten Hag’s biggest fan, so might be a little biased on the tactics and formation stuff.
When it comes to players, I think United suffer the most when it comes to “connecting their lines”, if that make sense. Midfielders feel isolated from the defenders, Hojlund feels isolated from everyone.
I think their biggest issue right now are wingers. Antony was missing and when he is there I don’t understand what he’s supposed to offer. Sancho is missing, Rashford is, let’s face it, horrible right now. The younger guys like Pellistri and Garnacho are kind of meh. So, every time I watch them play, it feels like 2 random guys just occupying the winger spots. Maybe a solution would be to follow Real Madrid’s example, switch to a more narrow formation like 442 diamond or 532, I don’t know. Get rid of deadwood like Sancho, Antony etc and find someone to partner up top with Hojlund (Rashford? Martial? New player?), then use Bruno as a 8/10. Mount could be more useful on that formation too. I think Hojlund has the potential to be their best player, he just never gets service he should get.
My unpopular opinion would be that their defense is not as bad as people say. Surely Onana and Maguire had made their mistakes, Varane is a ghost of his former self and almost all their defenders are either injured or underperforming. But I think their main issue is the midfielders (+wingers) not helping the defense as much as they should. I mean, Rashord tracked back ONCE against Copenhagen and got a damn red card, for absolutely no reason. That’s what they need to fix. Onana didn’t become the worst GK in the world, after being one of the best last season. Maguire can’t be good for England and awful for United. It’s easy to shit on players, the difficult part is to understand why these players are underperforming in the first place.
I have watched all their UCL games, but not really much in the EPL, so I don’t have a clear picture. I’ve gotta say I’m not Ten Hag’s biggest fan, so might be a little biased on the tactics and formation stuff.
When it comes to players, I think United suffer the most when it comes to “connecting their lines”, if that make sense. Midfielders feel isolated from the defenders, Hojlund feels isolated from everyone.
I think their biggest issue right now are wingers. Antony was missing and when he is there I don’t understand what he’s supposed to offer. Sancho is missing, Rashford is, let’s face it, horrible right now. The younger guys like Pellistri and Garnacho are kind of meh. So, every time I watch them play, it feels like 2 random guys just occupying the winger spots. Maybe a solution would be to follow Real Madrid’s example, switch to a more narrow formation like 442 diamond or 532, I don’t know. Get rid of deadwood like Sancho, Antony etc and find someone to partner up top with Hojlund (Rashford? Martial? New player?), then use Bruno as a 8/10. Mount could be more useful on that formation too. I think Hojlund has the potential to be their best player, he just never gets service he should get.
My unpopular opinion would be that their defense is not as bad as people say. Surely Onana and Maguire had made their mistakes, Varane is a ghost of his former self and almost all their defenders are either injured or underperforming. But I think their main issue is the midfielders (+wingers) not helping the defense as much as they should. I mean, Rashord tracked back ONCE against Copenhagen and got a damn red card, for absolutely no reason. That’s what they need to fix. Onana didn’t become the worst GK in the world, after being one of the best last season. Maguire can’t be good for England and awful for United. It’s easy to shit on players, the difficult part is to understand why these players are underperforming in the first place.