Ten Hag explains who to ‘blame’ for Manchester United being bad – and the answer will shock you

Erik ten Hag has explained who to ‘blame’ for the ongoing Manchester United struggles but it is advised that you sit down before he drops those truth bombs.

Blame duck
After yet another disappointing result for Manchester United on Wednesday evening, how handy it is that ‘Erik ten Hag makes clear who’s to blame after Man Utd suffer more humiliation’.

The Dutchman is, after all, the one most likely to pay for continued poor performances and results with his actual job. So he should at least get a say in who is ultimately responsible.

Who, then, does he make ‘clear’ is to ‘blame’? Does he name himself in a spot of introspection? Is it Paul Pogba? Been ages since someone got to blame Paul Pogba for Manchester United being rubbish. It’s not felt right since.

The Daily Mirror website has the update.

‘Erik ten Hag lamented his Manchester United team’s failure to kill off Twente in their Europa League opener, describing the equaliser as a collective error.’

And to the key part of the Ten Hag quote itself we go.

“We kept them alive. The goal, it’s a team [mistake], a player of Twente can dribble through the pitch without stopping. We can’t give a goal away like this.”

There it is. Ten Hag has made ‘clear’ that Manchester United as a whole are to ‘blame’ for Manchester United being bad. It’s quite the scoop.

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Humiliation ritual
The use of ‘humiliation’ is interesting in that headline. The Mirror website clearly likes it because elsewhere we are told…

‘Ten Hag suffers fresh humiliation as FC Twente battle back to earn draw in Europa League opener’

It was a suboptimal game to draw. But ‘humiliation’ feels a little strong for a result which has been rendered almost entirely meaningless by the convoluted nature of the new European competition formats.

They are joint-10th in a 36-team league phase, en route to a seeded place in the knockout phase play-offs and only missing out on the round of 16 on away goals. It might be some way close to ‘humiliating’ if it made any sense and there weren’t seven winnable games left to play.

You with the sad eyes
Another common theme from Old Trafford is that ‘true colours’ seem to have been shown. Manchester United have not been particularly good for the last decade so quite why this one match has suddenly exposed their ‘true colours’ is a mystery.

‘Manuel Ugarte shows his true colours with Manchester United message after FC Twente draw,’ is the take from the Manchester Evening News. The midfielder posted a message on Instagram which read: ‘The first to make self-criticism. It wasn’t a great match personally. We have to keep working.’

‘Christian Eriksen shows true colours after Europa League howler costs Man Utd,’ shouts the Daily Mirror website. The midfielder said after the game that: “They looked like they wanted it more than us and that can’t be right and I think personally, you score a goal and you think you’re a matchwinner but then it’s the other way.”

That is absolutely ripe for a ‘speaks volumes’, by the way. They’ve got it completely wrong there. Amateurish stuff.

But yeah, one elite-level professional footballer criticising his own performance, another questioning the desire of the team as a whole and both being disappointed at Manchester United not winning a match really does show some ‘true colours’. Until then it could only be assumed that Ugarte thought he had been brilliant and Eriksen was happy to settle for a draw.

Stony Eriksen
Perhaps Eriksen showed his ‘true colours’ even during the game, because…

‘Man Utd star left in disbelief at being substituted in FC Twente clash’

If Christian ‘completed 90 minutes for Manchester United twice in 2024 and those were in a 4-0 defeat to Crystal Palace and a 7-0 League Cup win over Barnsley’ Eriksen was really in ‘disbelief’ at being taken off after 79 minutes – having not long since made a mistake leading to an equaliser – then that’s on him and him alone. To imply that Ten Hag made some sort of inexplicable decision is weird.

But also, The Sun website, you can’t just stick that in a headline with one random screenshot and four tweets and present it as fact. Well you can. But you shouldn’t. Not that such a thing has ever stopped you.

Erik 10th Hag
And The Sun website has their fun with this:

‘Man Utd given embarrassing new nickname as fans spot bizarre Europa League coincidence after FC Twente draw’

The only issue being that ’11th FC’ are 10th in the Europa Le…oh what the f**k does it actually matter when you’re arguing against a supposedly semi-reputable outlet using @TrollFootball as the basis for their stories?

Keane learner
Feels like a bit of a shame to move on from the massively interesting Arsenal discourse and the MailOnline clearly agrees with this headline top of their site:

‘Arsenal are a ‘SMALL club with a small mentality’, blasts Roy Keane as he doubles down on his criticism after Man City draw – insisting they used the same tactics against Brighton’

And it’s a nonsense but that’s fine; it’s a man’s opinion. But it’s not even that. Not really.

Keane said “they were just booting it like a… like a small team with a small mentality”. What he did not say was that ‘Arsenal are a ‘SMALL club with a small mentality’. That “like a” in Keane’s quote might seem insignificant but it makes a massive difference to the context of what he was actually saying. To remove it even for headline purposes changes the meaning of the quote completely.

How unfortunate that the exact same mistake is made by The Sun website (‘Man Utd legend Roy Keane blasts ‘dinosaurs’ Arsenal as ‘small team with small mentality’ in furious rant at Ian Wright’) and the Irish Mirror (‘Roy Keane tears into Mikel Arteta and Arsenal: ‘A small team with a small mentality”). What a massive shame. So frustrating for everyone involved, for sure.

Fair play to Jamie Carragher, who said almost as soon as Keane came out with the “small club” quote: “Ooh, there’s your headline.” Silly him for forgetting it would need to be unnecessarily embellished first.

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