United View: Ten Hag Needs Reinforcements And Fast

Manchester United find themselves rock bottom of the league after losing their opening two Premier League fixtures.

A humiliating 4-0 defeat against Brentford left fans fuming and Erik Ten Hag with plenty to learn in English football.

There’s no excuses for Saturday’s performance. There was no divine intervention from above that gifted Brentford a freak result. Simply put, United were atrocious. Especially in the first half as they played right into the hands of a Thomas Frank side that utilised their strengths to a devastating effect. Two errors from David De Gea gave the home side a two-goal advantage, but Brentford weren’t resting on their laurels, grabbing another two before half time.

I don’t want to delve into the game too much as the result reflects the performance. And over recent times results like this have become more common. Teams are relishing playing against United currently as they know they can cause problems against a side with scarred confidence.

Following the defeat, Ten Hag cancelled a day off for the players and ordered them into Carrington for a hard running session. Making each player run 13.8km as Brentford as a team ran 13.8km more than Manchester United on Saturday. Its old-school but it sets the tone and right now Ten Hag needs to inflict his authority on a squad who clearly aren’t working hard enough.

While I commend Ten Hag’s efforts to stick to his philosophy, he needs to find solutions and adapt to the English game. Although it’s as if some of the players at his disposal are incapable of playing the style of football he expects. The likes of De Jong and Rabiot have been linked with a move but United are still stuck with options of McTominay or Fred in midfield.

The board really need to help their manager and bring in some quality. It wouldn’t be the first time a United manager had been let down in the transfer market though. I can recall David Moyes asking for Gareth Bale and Cesc Fabregas but having to make do with Fellaini instead.

Currently United have a net spend of around £56 million, which is nowhere near enough for a side that is supposedly in another rebuild. I can excuse it partly because a large chunk of the budget is being saved for Frenkie De Jong. But what if the Dutchman doesn’t join? It could be another late panic buy to find a suitable replacement as it’s been shown already that the current midfield cannot be trusted over the course of the season.

Ten Hag is a fantastic coach but he’s only one man and can’t perform miracles. Once again it feels like another Manchester United manager is being let down by people whose job is to aid him. And don’t even get me started on the owners.

I have full faith in the abilities of the manager but as a football club Manchester United have been failing for years and need to buck up their ideas should they want to escape the rotten path they’ve been following since the departure of Sir Alex. At Ajax the likes of Marc Overmars and Edwin Van Der Sar were footballing people who understood what it takes to build success. Whereas United hire people who are great for business but haven’t got the knowhow to bring in consistent success on the field.

United have one of the most promising coaches in world football and while part of the blame for recent performances is shared by Ten Hag, to say he’s been let down with recruitment is an understatement. I dread to see another failing manager and the fact I’m speaking like this after two games is worrying.

Next up is Liverpool, a fixture that a team in poor form should look at to inspire a turnaround. Win this game and we go above them in the league, a lot easier said than done but crazier things have happened in football, like Brentford beating Manchester United 4-0.