FOOTBALL: Erik Ten Hag Now Has A Reason To Urge Manchester United To Play His Way

Erik Ten Hag Now Has A Reason To Urge Manchester United To Play His Way. In the days that Manchester United were finalising his transfer, an advisor to the club noted Casemiro’s running stats were worse than Scott McTominay’s.

That is hardly a jolt when Casemiro held the fort in the sedate La Liga and was flanked by peerless passers in Toni Kroos and Luka Modric. It does possibly inform Erik ten Hag’s preference for McTominay in the Manchester derby.

By not playing Casemiro, Ten Hag played him out of the team. It was six weeks ago today Casemiro was paraded by United on the Old Trafford pitch and warmly welcomed by Roy Keane, another midfield heavyweight.

The prospect of Casemiro starting on the bench at City 41 days later would have been fanciful that night. Yet he was a substitute before then against Southampton, Leicester, Arsenal and even FC Sheriff.

Erik Ten Hag Now Has A Reason To Urge Manchester United To Play His Way. The final question of Ten Hag’s post-match press conference at the Etihad centred on Casemiro, a £70million investment and sole defensive midfielder in the squad. Not utilising him in a game United sieved six goals was not a good look.

“On the day we signed him, we started to win and it’s about the team,” Ten Hag said. “The team is doing really well, it’s not against Casemiro, it’s for, in this case, Scott McTominay, he performed great in the team and then we get into a run.

“But I’m sure it will be important for us in the long and short-term, he will find himself in the team but it has to come in a natural way.”

McTominay was only recalled as he had the good fortune to be dropped at Brentford, where United skulked off at the interval 4-0 down. A Casemiro recall this week is inevitable.

Sir Alex Ferguson’s tinkering was often perplexing but he would reserve specific players for certain games weeks in advance. United have not been synoymous with forward planning since Ferguson’s heyday.

Every permanent signing United made in the summer had a link to Ten Hag apart from Casemiro and the club stressed during the pre-season tour they were prepared to end the transfer window without recruiting a defensive midfielder, such was Ten Hag’s predilection for Frenkie de Jong.

After a home humbling by Brighton and the debacle at Brentford, and with a sizeable protest planned against the ownership, United then concluded the £70m signing of the most garlanded defensive midfielder on the planet. Real Madrid coach Carlo Ancelotti was unfussed about losing Casemiro.

The circumstances of Casemiro’s signing were as troubling as Cristiano Ronaldo’s homecoming, only Ole Gunnar Solskjaer accepted Ronaldo had to play.

Discussions with Casemiro were more prolonged than they appeared and driven by the United football director John Murtough. That has been apparent with Ten Hag’s refusal to integrate Casemiro into the team.

Casemiro was cumbersome in his only start against Real Sociedad but should have lined up at Southampton or Leicester. That strange and subdued Thursday evening at Old Trafford, the day the Queen passed, was hardly a fair reflection of Casemiro.

United’s team at City was the same as against Arsenal four weeks earlier, a consequence of that clinical win, unsuccessful rotation against Sociedad and two questionable postponements in the Premier League.

A settled starting side can be a negative as well as a positive. Guardiola threw a couple of curveballs with the centre-back partnership of Manuel Akanji and Nathan Ake, City had to readjust without Rodri and Jack Grealish’s starting presence was noteworthy.

A player at United last season disparagingly described McTominay as a “teacher’s pet” – a reference to his ability to ingratiate himself with a new manager. It is a testament to McTominay’s attitude and his qualities he has transcended four diverse managers from Portugal, Norway, Germany and Holland.

Though the argument Ten Hag had to persist with McTominay over Casemiro (and it was one or the other) does not stack up. If a Formula 1 vehicle cannot keep up with the leader, the engine is tweaked. City motored past the United midfield at such a breakneck pace they almost burned rubber.

More problematic than the midfield were the forwards who deserted McTominay. At one stage in the first-half, Nathan Ake carried the ball unopposed into the United half. If McTominay engaged him, he abandoned Kevin De Bruyne. An irate United staff member could be heard lamenting the lack of pressure on Ake.

The derby was further confirmation Marcus Rashford has no presence as a centre forward and Bruno Fernandes has still not mastered pressing. Jadon Sancho and Antony are not wingers inclined to muck in and Diogo Dalot and Tyrell Malacia were exposed.

After four victories underpinned by pragmatism and breakaways, Ten Hag now has to draw a line under the surrender at City and implement his style he wants United to play. City was never the place for that.

McTominay has been a semi-regular midfielder for United for around three-and-a-half fallow and fraught years. If United are to have standards again they have to upgrade in midfield. Casemiro may get overrun occasionally in a frenetic league but he can pick out a pass.

Casemiro, 31 in February, and on a four-year contract, could easily go the way of Di Maria, Falcao, Schweinsteiger and Sanchez. He will do if Ten Hag does not run the rule over him.

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