Bournemouth dominated due to Erik ten Hag’s flawed choice of playing style – Man United News And Transfer News

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Manchester United were lucky to escape the Vitality Stadium with a point after playing out an entertaining 2-2 draw in their Premier League game on Saturday.

It was the hosts who took the lead through Dominic Solanke before skipper Bruno Fernandes restored parity with individual brilliance.

It took less than five minutes for the Cherries to re-take the lead through Justin Kluivert as the Red Devils went into the break trailing by a goal.

Andoni Iraola’s side deserved their lead and they should have been in the clear before half-time but for some fine goalkeeping from Andre Onana.

United got dominated

Whatever was said at half-time by manager Erik ten Hag clearly did not work as the game slipped into the same familiar pattern with the Red Devils hardly controlling proceedings.

It took a silly handball decision from a not-so dangerous position inside the box to hand the visitors an unlikely chance at restoring parity which the skipper accepted gleefully.

Even after the equaliser, there was hardly any impetus to win the game and in the end, they must be lucky not to go home empty-handed considering their recent trend.

They almost ruined it late on yet again with the referee pointing to the spot but VAR overruled because the foul was committed outside the box.

At the end of the game, Bournemouth finished with 20 shots as compared to United’s eight and they attacked almost at will with United far too easy to play through yet again.

Apart from the captain, not one player stepped up to be counted and apart from two moments of magic, nothing of note was created by the 20-time English league champions.

The gap between Casemiro and the backline was huge and the Brazilian kept struggling to track back while Mainoo was mostly caught up the pitch.

Despite the fact that these inadequacies in the system were on full display in the opening game of the season against Wolverhampton Wanderers, Ten Hag has remained obstinate in his approach.

EtH will not change his approach

He will clearly not compromise despite the poor performances and as it stands, the FA Cup semifinal against Coventry City looks like a daunting task on current form.

He refuses to acknowledge the systemic errors during his post-match comments, and while he keeps pointing to injuries, why he has refused to compromise on this flawed style remains a mystery.

What made him change his blueprint so drastically from last season will remain yet another mystery to the fans.

United slipped to seventh in the league and could go down to eighth by the end of the gameweek. Forget fighting for the Champions League, the possibility of the worst-ever finish in the Premier League looms large.

Are INEOS delaying the inevitable by not removing the manager now?

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