Bruno brilliance saves Man Utd as Ten Hag extracts worst of Sir Alex ‘DNA’

Erik ten Hag again had to rely on individual brilliance in a game in which the Manchester United boss harnessed some of the Sir Alex Ferguson ‘DNA’, but none of the good stuff…

Erik ten Hag was hired by Manchester United because of the job he did at Ajax. The bosses may not have expected him to play in the exact same style – there was always going to be tweaks to his method in the Premier League – but they wouldn’t have imagined Bruno Fernandes fighting for second balls as the modus operandi.

Ten Hag felt the need to clarify his claim that it was not possible for United to play the Ajax way ahead of the trip to Fulham.

“I came here with my philosophy, based on possession, but also to combine it with the DNA of Man United, but also with the players and their character,” Ten Hag said, before claiming they got that combination right last season.

But what we saw at Craven Cottage in the first half was a far cry from the highs of his debut campaign, when United generally built from the back, while keeping Marcus Rashford’s pace in mind. What was more like a 50/50 split between Ten Hag’s philosophy and the “direct” football that he believes is the key part of the United DNA, was far more heavily weighted in favour of the latter on Saturday.

Needs must perhaps, but it was dreadful to watch, in part because of the waning examples of Ten Hag’s own philosophy in action, but mainly because his interpretation of “direct” football appears to have alterred from getting defenders turned with balls down the sides and over the top for fast, tricky wingers, to bashing it straight down the middle to a big man and hoping for the best. It explains Harry Maguire’s place in the team over Raphael Varane.

He kicked the ball long, and in fairness usually pretty accurately, to Rasmus Hojlund, whose role was reduced to being a big body to challenge Fulham defenders while one of the best playmakers in world football fought for scraps he rarely won.

And while Bruno toiled next to Hojlund, Christian Eriksen did not enjoy his role as a lone defensive midfielder, as everyone bar Ten Hag would have predicted. He looked off the pace with the ball at his feet as well as when hopelessly attempting to deal with Fulham breaks.

Antony was awful, in every way. They were all poor except for Andre Onana and Maguire, who probably shouldn’t have been on the pitch after an early head injury, but was about the only one to ‘Play like you mean it’, as the United fan banner implored, despite it presumably being too blurry for him to read.

The second half was better from United in that they at least attempted, and sometimes succeeded, to pass the ball through Fulham, but opportunities to create chances in dangerous positions were fluffed or snuffed out by their opponents, who had very little to deal with. Hojlund had 23 touches and no shots in his 78 minutes of action.

Ten Hag, in attempting to harness the United DNA in his squad, has extracted the admittedly “direct”, but incredibly outdated, hoofing of the Sir Alex Ferguson era, while failing to extract the bits he’s actually after – the do or die attitude, the constant pressure on the opposition goal, the inevitability.

Manchester United boss Erik ten Hag.

He again relied upon individual brilliance for three points in a game they arguably deserved nothing from. Fulham won the game according to xG (1.17 – 0.74).

Bruno was heavily criticised this week after the Manchester City defeat, but there’s no doubting his quality, and the way in which he dummied a shot to send two Fulham defenders the wrong way before finding the bottom corner was proof of that at a time when United really needed their captain.

It’s a victory to paper over the cracks, as has been the case pretty much every time United have claimed all three points this season. But those cracks will widen if Ten Hag fails to revert to the combination of styles he found last season, rather this new interpretation and expression of United DNA, which features the worst of Sir Alex Ferguson’s football and far too little of what made it so effective and entertaining.