Ten Hag runs risk of De Boer repeat at spineless Man Utd
Daniel Edwards
- Updated: 13 Aug 2022 19:38 BST
- 4 min read
Spineless. It is funny how a single adjective can both describe Manchester United's horrendous opening Premier League performances and explain just what went wrong.
Because United, in the most literal senses, are devoid of a backbone.
From their own goal to the opposition penalty area the Red Devils cut a shambolic figure as they went down to Brentford in a 4-0 drubbing, with nothing holding together a team whose cohesion and confidence is basically non-existent.
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They are paying the price for that systemic failure and in the process threatening to turn new manager Erik ten Hag into a laughing stock comparable to his hapless compatriot.
Frank de Boer's tenure at Crystal Palace has gone into football history as one of the most glorious examples of managerial incompetence. Like Ten Hag the Dutchman had moved to the Premier League with a strong reputation, his sparkling Ajax career barely tainted by a subsequent poor spell in Italy with Inter.
But the ex-Barcelona player proved an unmitigated disaster at Selhurst Park. From his appointment in June 2017 to his dismissal De Boer lasted exactly 10 weeks and four Premier League games, all of which ended in defeat.
He left behind him a bewildered side unable or unwilling to adapt to his desired style of play, dubbed the "Worst manager in Premier League history" by the ever-forthright Jose Mourinho.
It may be early to predict the same dark fate for Ten Hag, but it is clear that something has to change if the ex-Ajax hopes to avoid a similarly swift end to his Premier League career.
The manager's problems start in goal and run straight through the middle of the pitch.
David de Gea may once have been one of the league's premier goalkeepers but he looks a shadow of his former self, with even his lauded shot-stopping ability seemingly on the wane judging by his inexplicable failure to save Josh Da Silva's daisy-cutter to kick off Saturday's rout.
The keeper was also at fault for Brentford's second with a terrible pass out of his own area that left Christian Eriksen cornered and helpless, but the buck does not stop with him.
In the middle of defence Harry Maguire and Lisandro Martinez have cut an awkward partnership too easily breached, while Eriksen's discomfort as a holding midfielder was exposed time and again as Brentford ran rampant.
That gambit worked to a point in the second half against Brighton last weekend, with the Seagulls falling back to protect their lead, but it was never a real solution, and Ten Hag's reactive thinking over the Dane was badly punished by his former club before Scott McTominay's half-time entry (one of three substitutions at the break) gave him some breathing space.
The Ronaldo problem
Then we come to Cristiano Ronaldo. The pouting, wantaway forward did little but berate his team-mates for their failings as the team collapsed around him, certainly nothing to explain why a Champions League contender would swoop to save him from Old Trafford purgatory this summer.
De Gea's early howler masked the fact that it was the Portuguese who gifted possession to the hosts and set them off on the way to goal and he must shoulder his portion of the blame for a static, uninspired performance in which he looked a world apart from anyone else in a yellow shirt.
No goalkeeper, no stability in defence and midfield, and a centre-forward who seems to want nothing to do with the club and its new manager. Without that central column the rest of the United team is left to its own devices, flapping across the pitch without rhyme nor reason - explaining why accomplished footballers of Jadon Sancho, Marcus Rashford and Bruno Fernandes' calibre have fallen almost to Sunday League level amid the chaos around them.
And the worst part is that none of those problems have sprung up overnight.
It was clear that United's flimsy spinal column needed serious surgery in the summer transfer market, but while rivals like Liverpool and Manchester City went out and swept up their targets in rapid, surgical strikes, the Reds have conducted a ponderous window full of rejection and short on real quality reinforcements.
It is a calamitous situation, and unless he has a hitherto unforeseen ace up his sleeve to alter the team's fortunes it is Ten Hag who will pay the price.
Read more about: Premier League, Man Utd
