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On Saturday afternoon at Brighton, there was one clear difference between the teams that led to the 2-1 final score. Fabian Hurzeler’s team kept playing to a distinctive idea, and played to win. Erik ten Hag made some reactive substitutions, and Manchester United just tried to stay in the game.
There’s obviously a lot that can be said about the reversal of history this represents, and why. It’s ultimately difficult not to put it down to basic game management.
Up until the 85th minute or so, after all, United’s trip to Brighton had looked like it was playing out for a 1-1 draw that would have left both sides relatively content.
The home team had been superior but, as Hurzeler admitted, they often lost control and it was occasionally a “wild” game that suited United’s superior individual quality. That’s always the danger of getting into that kind of game against Ten Hag’s team, who looked set to prove it through a series of dangerous counters.
He didn’t ultimately use that talent in the best way.
Most obviously, there was the inexplicable manner that such players could produce marking like that for Joao Pedro’s fine match-winner. He and two other Brighton attackers were left completely unmarked mere yards from goal, despite United themselves having so many players in the box. It is already one of those calamity moments of the season. And what of Casemiro? The notional defensive midfielder just sauntered to the edge of the box, in a way that was reminiscent of some of the worst moments of last season. He has lately looked a lot sharper, admittedly, but mostly in terms of attacking play. This might well prompt movement for Paris Saint-Germain’s Manuel Ugarte.
When asked, Ten Hag didn’t even really criticise the marking, but instead pointed to the moment that led to it: Simon Adingra’s cross. It was exquisite but, as the United manager immediately stressed, they should have stopped it.
“There were three players, right-footed players, should have sent him down the line and not allowed the cross. We have to talk about this, how we act in that situation as a team. There were more than one mistake on that occasion and that had a big impact on the score.”
If Ten Hag is going back a moment to the cross, though, it’s just as fair to go back to the play that led to that - which returns the discussion to game management. United’s counter-attacking had been pinning Brighton back and creating chances, which made it all the more questionable why they ceded that advantage. That happened due to both substitutions and just general stance. It too quickly became like they couldn’t compete with Brighton’s game.
Ten Hag stridently defended his approach: “I think so often we did the right things, we’ve had success for example, we win the trophies and many other big games.”
There are a few questions from this answer. One, does Ten Hag actually believe this, or is it just natural face-saving in a media conference? Two, if he does believe it, did he see nothing wrong with the game-management in this match? Three, is he really pinning the justification on a few good results, when the reality is that the record has actually been extremely mixed?
This is why there were concerns about this result, even if there is obviously no need to get extreme about it yet.
It was just so Ten Hag. It felt and looked like that United lost the game because of many of the core reasons they lost so many games last season. They didn’t really seem threatening outside counters. There were a lot of individual errors that were a consequence of a team structure that isn’t quite right. There were then confusing managerial decisions late on.
If this keeps playing out, it is going to mean that the same question keeps coming back from the summer: should United have also changed the manager along with so much else?
None of this is to say it was definitely the wrong decision to keep him right now. Ten Hag does deserve a chance under the new structure, given the manner of that FA Cup win.
It’s just something that isn’t going to go away until the team properly goes in another direction in terms of performances. United just looked stuck in this cycle. The obvious comparison is the opposition, who new sporting director Dan Ashworth knows so well.
There were no caveats about early days or huge changes necessary for Hurzeler. He has immediately gone in and imposed what right now looks an even more sophisticated idea of football than that which Brighton previously had. There was such a maturity and creativity to the way they took the game to United - and won it. It was one of many obvious differences.
