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Former Manchester United goalkeeper, turned pundit, Peter Schmeichel has claimed that he was baffled by Erik ten Hag’s tactical decision in Sunday’s humbling loss to Manchester City.
It is fair to say that the United coach has not come out of the game smelling like roses, as he has faced a massive backlash from fans and pundits alike over his tactical choices.
The Red Devils opened the scoring in the first half and took a surprise lead into the half-time break.
However, three second-half goals condemned United to a sixth defeat in seven versus their neighbours.
The Red Devils only managed a limp three shots on goal in comparison to City’s 27 and had a meagre 27% of the ball.
Ten Hag’s praised his side’s “plan” after the game but it really seemed all he wanted to achieve was sit back and pray City’s impressive attacking arsenal would continue to falter like it did in the first-half.
Treble winner, Peter Schmeichel, was also perplexed by the former Ajax man’s tactical decisions.
Speaking to talkSPORT he claimed, “I thought as the game progressed that the team fell in a little too deep. For my liking, I would have pushed them up a little bit”.
The former goalkeeper also challenged the Dutchman’s substitute choices.
Commenting on the United manager’s personnel changes he said, “and also then, when you need to change the game and they have equalised and scored again, the substitutions that you make”.
“You take all your pace out, you take your driving force out of midfield off? You take your best defender off?”.
“I don’t get that. Are they being rested for the next game? I really don’t get the substitutions”.
“When you look what Pep’s doing, he is only taking off two players. Generally, he doesn’t substitute a lot.”
On the one hand, last season United’s substitutes scored the most goals out of any team in the league. In addition, Scott McTominay has regularly influenced the game from the bench with a critical goal or two like against Brentford and Aston Villa more recently.
However, The Peoples Person has highlighted the issues that the Dutchman has previously had when trying to change the flow of the game from the bench.
Poor changes allowed United to throw away a 2-0 lead late on against Sevilla last season, which would be the platform for their eventual elimination from the Europa League.
Moreover, the Red Devils once again threw away a late two goal advantage away to Wolves, only to be saved by a moment of magic from Kobbie Mainoo. Once again, the finger was squarely pointed at Ten Hag and his in-game decision making.
United and their under-fire manager now have a couple of massive games coming up against Everton in the league on Saturday and the following weekend, the small matter of a FA Cup quarter final against Liverpool.
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