Former Man Utd midfielder Owen Hargreaves has slammed Erik ten Hag s tactics during the Red Devils 3-0 defeat to Liverpool at Old Trafford on Sunday.
Liverpool were completely dominant as a Luis Diaz brace and a second-half strike from Mohamed Salah and saw lose their second match on the trot.
The Red Devils triggered a one-year contract extension for Ten Hag in the summer, but only after considering alternatives in the wake of an eighth-placed finish in the Premier League and unexpected FA Cup success, .
And the Man Utd boss is already back under pressure after taking three points from their opening three Premier League matches of the season and Hargreaves has hit out at the Dutchman for having his full-backs, Noussair Mazraoui and Diogo Dalot, too high up the pitch against Liverpool
The first goal is a bad pass from Casemiro and he gets all the criticism but the full-backs can’t be there against Liverpool, Hargreaves said on the Kelly and Wrighty Show.
They get in this crazy position where they are too high. Okay, it’s a bad ball but where are your two full-backs against Liverpool – it’s crazy!
And that’s on the manager. Mazroui should be there at the back post but Diaz just ends up getting a tap-in.
But again that’s on the manager because he is saying “when we get the ball, you go high”. You only go high when you have good possession and they didn’t with all those goals.
Liverpool boss Arne Slot revealed after the match that Ryan Gravenberch, Alexis Mac Allister and Dominik Szoboszlai played a key role in exposing the weaknesses of Man Utd under Ten Hag.
Slot said after the match: Last season, they were man-marking in the midfield and they had a press with the No.7 and the No.11, so with the striker and one of the wingers jumped with him.
This season they are more with a No.9 and a No.10 press, so they are more in a 4-4-2, so that’s different of course.
I see them, in my opinion, working harder if the ball is being played through them, so they run more. That’s at least what I saw in their first games.
Their style is also this season, maybe last season as well, that I don’t remember that well, but their full-backs are, nine out of ten times, really high and then Casemiro comes in between so if you pick the ball and you can keep Luis Diaz and Mo Salah high, then you’re constantly in a one-vs-one situation.
And then you need midfielders who can run, and we had three of them today who kept on running and if they arrive in a duel they are aggressive enough to win it. That was I think one of the main things why we could win today.
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Manchester United chief executive Omar Berrada has insisted Erik ten Hag has his and the club’s full backing and remains the right man to take the club forward.
Speaking alongside new sporting director Dan Ashworth shortly before kick off against Liverpool, Berrada said it would take more than a couple of bad results to shake the club’s belief in their manager.
Do we still believe in Erik? Absolutely, he said. We think Erik is the right coach for us and we’re fully backing him.
