I shouldn’t have be subjected to 2 hours of football and come out of being utterly ashamed that this is my football team. Yet this is all that can be continually said about this season. It was a truly shameful performance. Quite frankly getting anything out of this game is embarrassing. This was somehow more comprehensive than the 4-0 last season. It was probably about the same as the game we won 3-1 in 2021/22. Brentford hit the post 3 times and were in immense control of the game. Up until the 95th minute, where Casemiro laid off to Mount who slotted into the side netting for his first goal in the colours of Man Utd. Everyone thought it was done until Toney laid off to Ajer, who couldn’t miss and didn’t. The home team should have been home and hosed.
Inferiority simply
Just through the nature of being Man Utd, there is a necessity for us to force the issue. Partly through the annals of our history making it so and also because teams will largely give up space so that we have the ball. For much of the period where Man Utd have not been reaching the heights they should, they have found it difficult in breaking down the low block systems that they face.
We don’t even get to see that issue these days. Man Utd have become a mid table team with slightly better than mid table players. That is why you constantly see the team conceding so many shots. I was about to say that they flatter to deceive but there is little to deceive when there is such low quality in the players and coaching staff.
A still during that Liverpool FA Cup went viral. Not just Amad holding his shirt aloft after the winner but one of which we have seen multiple times this season. An opposition midfielder in oceans of space between the defence and midfield of Man Utd. The frequency of which it happens with shows it is by design or a kink in the design. A pretty pathetic kink when you’re a supposed seasoned manager who earns millions a year. The idea that something like this is some sort of risk you have to take in order to get this grander pay off is lost on me. It is something we saw today. In fact, I implore you to go watch the kick off from the first half and watch the movements of Bruno, Mainoo and McTominay. You’d think that they were all 8s or 10s the way they all advanced to press. It was mind boggling to watch but these are instructions coming from the manager or even due to the lack of instructions from the same man.
The idea that we should be comfortable with teams constantly having shots on our goal by limiting them to low xG shots or by blocking them is some sort of sick joke to be quite honest with you. It is not just the concession of shots either. It is the fact that we are supposed to be comfortable with simply being outplayed to such a degree by teams placed well below us, with us or above us. It is all manner of teams and apparently this is supposed to be a team that the manager can see green shoots in.
Befuddling Complexities
That’s the overall scheme of the season of which this game was just another example of. Then there are the proclivities of tonight which just prove that the manager is not just confusing me, the fans, the pundits and probably the players, but he is probably confusing himself.
When Wan Bissaka suited up against Mo Salah two weeks ago, there was some rhythm in the rhyme in that the ex-Palace defender can shut down his opponent and we would be playing against a top team. Doing it tonight? Where was the sense in that? For what reason could there possibly be to play Wan Bissaka, notoriously weak in possession, on his wrong side. Moreover, Wan Bissaka just played like a typical left back. Overlapping Rashford. I wouldn’t even pass to Wan Bissaka overlapping on his right foot yet it was thought to be smart to do so on his weaker side?
Forget the times that Wan Bissaka did overlap. When he didn’t, United seemed to go into a weird lopsided shape. This is where Dalot would be all alone on the right hand side because astonishingly, Garancho was moving over to the left hand side to double up with Rashford. In a season of absolutely insane tactical decisions by Ten Hag, this might be the funniest. Because it is a clear admission that you do not trust Wan Bissaka to provide the necessary qualitative superiority in the final third so you are taking the winger from the right to travel over to the left in order to give that.
To the surprise of no one with a functioning brain between their ears, this big-brained tactical plan fell flat on its face. It is not like it could not be solved by simply having Dalot on the left hand side, somewhere he has played and performed well before. By the time the second half came around, it had stopped. Or who could tell given that United barely made any significant in roads to have sustained possession in the final third. By the 88th minute, Brentford had 73(seventy-three) touches in the Man Utd box. We had a grand total of 11. This is with 55% possession. No matter how many excuses Ten Hag tries to make about the difficulties he has had to face this season, this is a team in his image unfortunately. Even if the targets of FA Cup and Champions League football were to be achieved, how can INEOS stomach a manager playing this way?
https://therepublikofmancunia.com/brentford-1-1-man-utd-two-late-buses-in-west-london/
