Manchester United can turn attention to improving in Premier League, Erik ten Hag says

LONDON – While Manchester United’s involvement in European competition came to a crashing end on Dec 12 with their 1-0 home loss to Bayern Munich, embattled manager Erik ten Hag said his team can now focus on improving their disappointing English Premier League position.

The question is, amid the current circumstances at the club, how much can they improve?

The Red Devils have struggled this season, not helped by a lengthy injury list and the cloud hanging over their ownership situation, which has yet to be resolved after the Glazer family put the club up for sale over a year ago.

It was telling that United had both needed to beat Bayern in their Champions League Group A finale and have FC Copenhagen’s game against visiting Galatasaray end in a draw to advance to the last 16. Neither happened – Copenhagen also won 1-0 – and United finished with four points from six games.

Their bottom-place finish meant they did not even have the consolation of dropping down to the Europa League.

“There are still many things to play for and now we can focus on the Premier League and this is the level we want to play, the Champions League,” ten Hag insisted.

“So we have to give every effort to be in the top four and next year be back. And then of course, we have the FA Cup, so there are so many things to play for.”

Kingsley Coman’s 70th-minute goal lifted Bayern to victory against a United side that, despite needing to win, failed to create chances and registered just one shot on target.

“They’re not creating anything,” former United midfielder Paul Scholes said of the team’s attacking play.

“I think it was a frightened performance more than anything. There was such a lack of goal threat.”

Ten Hag defended his side’s lack of attacking threat, saying: “The game was like this for both sides, less chances (Bayern had just three shots on target). We did quite well, we had our moments but just didn’t take them.”

But it is not just about one game, it was the whole campaign that has been disastrous.

It was the sixth time in United’s history they have gone out in the group stage, but the second time they have finished bottom of their group.

Former Premier League Golden Boot winner Chris Sutton said on the BBC that United are “just not very good”, adding that they are “going backwards” under their current manager.

Ten Hag, as a manager, has to be positive about his team, but the schedule does not get any easier for United, who play at league-leading Liverpool on Dec 17.

The Red Devils are sixth in the Premier League on 27 points after 16 games, six points adrift of fourth place.

While they are not too far adrift from a Champions League spot with more than half a season to go, Sutton’s criticism holds some weight as there is a clear lack of playing style under ten Hag in his second season in charge.

Some have said that the signings made under the Dutchman – winger Antony has for one been in the spotlight – are simply not good enough.

But the team have also not gelled as a unit all season, partly because of injuries, partly because they have no clear idea of how they should play and look like a “muddled creation”, as The Guardian describes it, “stitched together out of parts and off-cuts”.

“In this campaign, we had not always the players available we want,” ten Hag said of his team’s injuries.

Bayern manager Thomas Tuchel, whose team went unbeaten to finish top of Group A with 16 points, was asked if he felt for ten Hag’s predicament, especially as Harry Maguire and Luke Shaw went off injured to add to a crowded treatment room that includes the influential Casemiro and Lisandro Martinez.

“Of course I have sympathy, he has a lot of key players injured for a decisive match,” he said. “But I am pretty sure he knows what to do next and he does not need my advice, he is experienced enough.”

What ten Hag needs to do next may be out of his control, however.

The club’s ownership situation needs urgent clarification, and hopefully there is a clear plan on how to move forward without players distracted by the impasse and possibly affecting their performances.

It is reported, without official sources, that Jim Ratcliffe’s Ineos Group is set to have its 25 per cent investment into the club – and with it a supposed “sporting control” – confirmed soon.

It is hoped there will be some kind of vision and strategy on how to improve things on the pitch both in the short and long term, but the date of any partial takeover, if it happens, is unknown.

Ten Hag will therefore have to mitigate the difficulties he and his players face, while knowing that there will always be high expectations at a club like United.

To do that, he must quickly find a way to win, at the same time manage the dysfunction of the present, that ranges from an unsettled playing squad to a leaking Old Trafford roof.

The job of the manager is simple – to improve players, to win. For ten Hag, though, it is made much more difficult with the incessant pressure and a complex takeover process. REUTERS, AFP