Thread by @TheDevilsDNA

𝙈𝙖𝙣𝙘𝙝𝙚𝙨𝙩𝙚𝙧 𝙐𝙣𝙞𝙩𝙚𝙙 𝙖𝙧𝙚 𝙧𝙚𝙜𝙧𝙚𝙨𝙨𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙪𝙣𝙙𝙚𝙧 𝙀𝙧𝙞𝙠 𝙩𝙚𝙣 𝙃𝙖𝙜

The bigger issue with the ten Hag's philosophy & tactics is that most of the issues have been evident for his whole tenure at Man Utd.

— Poor high press structure that's easily bypassed
— Poor rest defence when we lose the ball
— Deep block that invites entries/shots
— Vertical progression intent that bypasses midfield
— Build up structure that relies on player ability over patterns
— Low quality chance creation due to lack of any sustainable patterns
— General over-reliance on key player power due to lack of patterns that leads to overplaying them
— Above reason & end-to-end football leading to fitness issues & injuries

The assumption for last year was that he didn't have his players & was dealing with many squad issues. Many tactical discounts were given that way (Eg. Deep line because of David de gea).

But even from the first month of this season, after heavy transfer backing & pre-season time, much of these issues remained and in fact were magnified with a higher press and more vertical intent in possession. The wrong direction.

The older issues remained (Eg. Deep line even with Onana) & newer issues got added (More strain on midfield & defence due to high press compared to last year).

But the biggest argument against keeping Erik ten Hag is that he hasn't addressed any of these issues all year. Game after game, we try the same thing. His genuine reading of the situation seems to be that this gameplan will actually work once X key player comes back (a never-ending cycle for obvious reasons). And the few undeserved wins probably add to that feeling.

But the reality is that we've seen various player combinations including our best players, we've played one game a week recently, we've lined up against the worst teams in the league and through all that still seen the exact same issues in and out of possession all year.

If a manager isn't ready to change for the better, he can't guarantee progress even with more time and more investment. We'll just see new players succumb to the inherent problems of the manager's game model.

Recruitment and more time will only help if the path to progress is clear.

INEOS have a decision to make this summer.

And it doesn't make me happy or say I've been pointing out these issues from The first month. My threads in Wolves, Spurs, Arsenal, Brighton laid the issues out. Every month and every international break I kept hoping ETH would fix the issues or try something different. Barring ocassional flashes (Copenhagen, Palace, Wolves 2nd game, Chelsea) and that too in possession, he's just stuck on to the same system hoping it clicks. That's my bigger issue here. The stubbornness. That's a big limiter to progress.