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“For the primary time since I used to be the supervisor, we will decide a workforce from the squad that’s most likely the strongest,” Erik ten Hag revealed throughout a post-match interview after Manchester United’s win within the FA Cup.
Whereas United emerged 4-2 winners from a pulsating recreation in opposition to Newport County within the fourth spherical on Sunday, it’s a victory which can have completed little to quell the constructing stress in opposition to the Dutch supervisor; stress he solely fuelled together with his post-match feedback.
The sport was a throwback traditional; an advert for the proverbial ‘magic of the cup’. The BBC would have been ecstatic to have hosted such a recreation on terrestrial tv. Neutrals can have loved the decrease league minnows giving the Premier League giants a contest.
Ten Hag would have been much less enthused by this ‘magic’, nevertheless.
The Dutchman watched his workforce give up a two objective result in a membership seventeenth in League Two. They had been had been capable of produce seventeen photographs on Altay Bayindir’s objective.
There was even a interval within the second half, after Newport County scored to attract degree, the place it felt like United might go on to lose a recreation they’d been successful 2-0.
Ten Hag’s expensively assembled workforce persevered by this tough second, producing simply sufficient high quality to win the sport. A well-timed fourth objective, courtesy of Rasmus Hojlund with 5 minutes left to play, spared followers an agonising finish to the sport.
A visit to Nottingham Forest or Bristol Metropolis awaits United within the fifth spherical, after the 2 sides drew their fourth spherical tie on Friday. The FA Cup represents United’s final probability of a trophy this season.
Ten Hag reduce a pissed off and tense determine in his interviews after the sport. Whereas his temper was definitely exacerbated by the off-the-field scenario with Marcus Rashford, defined in higher element right here, it’ll have been influenced by his workforce’s poor efficiency as properly. It’s a well-known feeling for the Dutchman.
United’s type this season has been nothing wanting abysmal. They at the moment languish in eighth place within the Premier League with a adverse objective distinction. They’ve already crashed out of the Champions League and Carabao Cup in equally embarrassing trend. Throughout 62 video games final yr, United misplaced 12 video games. They’ve already misplaced 14 this season.
Ten Hag has made fixed references to the pervasive harm disaster at Previous Trafford this yr as a cause for this downturn.
“So typically we’ve to alter the workforce,” he revealed final month. “You don’t get the routines. We all know soccer is about stable efficiency and consistency and we all know we’ve to make a step there, however I’m certain when we’ve extra gamers accessible in the important thing positions we are going to get extra consistency.”
It’s an affordable excuse, given what number of key first-team gamers have spent prolonged intervals within the medical room. However it’s one which is now not relevant.
The Dutchman welcomed again Casemiro, Lisandro Martinez, Harry Maguire, and Luke Shaw from harm yesterday.
Aaron Wan-Bissaka was rested as a precaution, whereas Victor Lindelof and Mason Mount are edging nearer in direction of their respective returns as properly. Even Andre Onana will return this week, following Cameroon’s departure from the Africa Cup of Nations final week.
It means there are now not any long-term accidents at Previous Trafford.
Whereas Rashford’s availability within the short-term is unclear, Ten Hag can have his full ensemble of expensively-assembled stars to choose from over the approaching weeks.
He describes it because the “first time” that is true since he arrived in Manchester over eighteen months in the past. It additionally means there are not any extra excuses for errant shows.
Dan Sheldon (The Athletic) believes the impact has already borne fruit. The reporter contends it was United’s senior gamers who had been essential to “getting over the frustration of conceding twice and grinding out a win” yesterday.
He implicitly signifies if it had been different members of the squad on the pitch, we might have been extra prone to see a well-known big killing.
Ten Hag indicated his senior gamers’ returns had been “essential” for the rest of United’s season. His facet should display a far larger degree within the second half of the marketing campaign to show issues round, with the prospect of a prime 4 place, in addition to a profitable FA Cup marketing campaign, nonetheless potential.
With the INEOS Sporting workforce but to make an official resolution on Ten Hag’s long-term future, nevertheless, the outcomes his fully-fit workforce produce from now till the tip of the season will seemingly have a “essential” affect on whether or not the Dutchman will stay at Previous Trafford past the summer time.
