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Erik ten Hag's problems continue to mount as Man United stumble again with dressing-room unrest taking its toll, Casemiro 'looking like he's in Soccer Aid' and a hasty press conference exit

 


Erik ten Hag may wish to cheer himself up by taking a quick glance at Manchester United's fixture list for the next fortnight.

An FA Cup semi-final against a Coventry City side whose hopes of reaching the Championship play-offs have been all-but-extinguished, then back-to-back home games against strugglers Sheffield United and Burnley.

Surely even this wildly unpredictable United team cannot lose those? 

Well, quite frankly, in a season with more corners turned than the average maze, nothing is guaranteed.

A fresh week brings a fresh set of headaches for Ten Hag, who will feel the piercing gaze of United's new ownership more intensely than ever.


Erik ten Hag endured another bruising weekend as Manchester United made it four matches without winning in a 2-2 draw at Bournemouth which left them seventh in the table.

It was another woefully poor performance at times for United as they drew on the south coast.

In theory, United should be beating Bournemouth but they produced yet another abject performance and were fortunate to return from the south coast with a point.

That made it four games without a win - including seven points thrown away from winning positions against Brentford, Chelsea and Liverpool.

United's Champions League hopes appear to be over now and that's even before you consider the Premier League could yet lose its fifth spot if European exits batter the coefficient this week.


Only winning the FA Cup, you suspect, will save Ten Hag's job now. That or a dearth of plausible candidates for Sir Jim Ratcliffe and Ineos to appoint in the summer.

It's hardly an enviable position for a coach to be in with every passing day raising more issues.

Was Garnacho 'thrown under the bus'?

With United trailing Bournemouth 2-1 at half-time on Saturday night, Ten Hag decided to hook Alejandro Garnacho and bring on Amad Diallo.

United were being totally overwhelmed down their right-hand side, where Garnacho wasn't offering Diogo Dalot any defensive cover as Bournemouth targeted them.

Putting aside the stupidity of thinking you can 'like' a post such as that and think it'll go unnoticed, the truth lies somewhere in the middle.

On the one hand, Garnacho has been a rare success story for Ten Hag this season and maybe United would have won the game had he remained on the pitch.

On the other, he remains a young player with much to learn, not least how to effectively track back and take responsibility for the defensive side of his game.

In order to get better, he has to endure tough moments like this and respond in the right way.

Saturday was not his finest hour but Garnacho has just added to his manager's problems with an unnecessary distraction.

Dalot refuses to toe the party line

Ten Hag has maintained for a while now he is unconcerned about the number of chances United give up to the opposition because the majority are 'low quality' and unthreatening.

But the cold hard statistics should trouble him. United have conceded at least 20 shots in nine of their last 10 Premier League games and 574 in all this season, second only to Luton's 576.

After the game at Bournemouth, Dalot came out and essentially contradicted his manager by saying: 'Maybe we are taking too many risks, sometimes the gap between the defence and midfield is a little bit too big.

'That is why we are sometimes getting the counter-attacks too many times and are conceding too many shots, but overall we are looking forward to taking this as a learning process and trying to do better.'

This problems has lingered around all season, though, and United aren't getting any better. Ten Hag has come to accept his team will give up 20 shots a game as a calculated risk.

This complete lack of control isn't going to impress Ineos and Dalot's remarks do suggest the players aren't entirely on board with it.

Jamie Redknapp provided one of the soundbites of the weekend when he suggested United's Brazilian midfielder Casemiro 'looks like he's in Soccer Aid.'

The Sky Sports pundit added: 'He looks like he's playing at such a pace where the game is a bit of fun and there's celebrities coming on the pitch.'

Unfortunately for Ten Hag, Redknapp has a point. Following his outstanding debut season at Old Trafford, Casemiro looks like he's lost a yard of pace overnight that he can't compensate for with experience.

Surely United will move him on this summer and look to rebuild with a new midfielder alongside Kobbie Mainoo for next season?

There appears to be some in the United team no longer putting in maximum effort for Ten Hag. Casemiro isn't one of them; it's more he just can't do it anymore.

Reporting By: Ajayi Oluwaseun Michael.

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