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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Sport
Jamie Jackson

What can Ten Hag do about the sorry decline of Manchester United?

Erik ten Hag gets his orders across during Manchester United’s defeat to Brighton, a match in which Marcus Rashford was again among the underperforming players.
Erik ten Hag gets his orders across during Manchester United’s defeat to Brighton, a match in which Marcus Rashford again struggled. Photograph: Toby Melville/Reuters

Erik ten Hag: you have three weeks to save Manchester United’s season. Sound ridiculous after only 90 minutes of Premier League action, even if that was a dire 2-1 home defeat by Brighton on Sunday – their first ever home loss against those opponents in 113 years?

Of course it does, but this is the glaring truth that faces the new manager. And it certainly does not help that Ten Hag’s ability to rebuild an embarrassingly mediocre squad is materially affected by two branches of the executive: the smarts of football director, John Murtough, and the desire of the Glazer family to splurge a serious amount of cash.

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