Erik Ten Hag is adamant that he has a clear philosophy at Manchester United despite his tactical approach coming under scrutiny in recent weeks.
Ten Hag has been under immense pressure lately following humbling back-to-back home defeats to Manchester City and Newcastle United, with former United defender Gary Neville describing recent performances as “woeful” and ex-Arsenal forward Paul Merson suggesting that the Dutchman had “lost his players.”
United have now lost eight of their last 15 matches and even in some of the games they have won they have looked less than convincing- such as their 1-0 win over Copenhagen in the Champions League where they were bailed out by a last-minute penalty save from Andre Onana to keep their slim chances of qualifying for the knockout stages alive.
Eyebrows were raised after the defeat to City for several reasons, one being Ten Hag’s claim that his current crop of United players are incapable of replicating the style of football that he displayed at Ajax.
The 53-year-old was brought to Old Trafford primarily because of his success with the Eredivisie side and offered clarity on the comments he made last week.
Ten Hag said: “I can’t play like Ajax play – it is different players, so I came here with my philosophy, based on possession.
“But I wanted to combine it with the DNA of Manchester United and the players, the characters of them.
“Last year we saw what that was. We played very good football. This season, the philosophy is different, only I want to emphasise more on going direct.
“The explanation for me saying ‘direct’ is that I want to go for long balls. I didn’t bring in Onana to do that. I want to play from the back – we try it every game, including against City.
“But when a team is playing in such a high press, it is a good option to go direct. I explained in pre-season, in the USA, we want to play, we want to press, we want to press from different blocks and then go direct.
“We have the players like Hojlund, Anthony, Rashford, McTominay, Fernandes, who are very good in it. The passing of Eriksen, our full-backs joining in.
“That was my idea – I think I explained it very clearly.”
