To Victor, the spoils ... but Erik knows it’s no time to celebrate
WHEN Victor Lindelof became the latest non-attacker to score for his team, Erik ten Hag had the decency not to celebrate.
The breakthrough was nice and sealed a seventh Premier League win of the season but the Manchester United manager knew his side, for the previous hour, had again been mediocre.
And Ten Hag knows that, in time, he has a duty to turn out teams that can thrill, that can get supporters out of their seats, that can celebrate more than the odd Premier League goal, often scored by a defender.
But that will have to wait until certain injuries clear and until there are more changes in personnel.
In the meantime, this is what Ten Hag’s United is going to have to do – grind out unattractive victories against less affluent outfits.
The long era of success under Sir Alex Ferguson – back in his Old Trafford seat for this one – fostered an envy of United that became deep-rooted.
Hands up, most of us, at one moment or other, are guilty of focusing only on the negatives at United.
And there remain plenty of those. The wretched Glazers, the leaky stadium, the recruitment strategy, Marcus Rashford’s form.
And there were plenty in this game. Rasmus Hojlund’s Premier League struggles, a lack of attacking fluency, Mason Mount again failing to make the starting line-up, the form of Marcus Rashford (right). But the bottom line is that United found a way to win, just as they did at Craven Cottage last weekend.
And while the five Premier League defeats are used as sticks with which to beat Ten Hag, the seven victories mean United have 21 points from 12 matches.
That is only two fewer than they had at this stage of last season – a season that eventually brought them a third-placed finish.
Oh, and while we are on the stats, this was Ten Hag’s 30th win in 50 league games in charge of United. That is a club record. His 96 points from those matches compares favourably
No matter what the mitigating circumstances, no matter how strongly you believe Ten Hag will be a good long-term fit, no matter how much this end result justified the means, United are a dull watch
to the 92 collected by Jurgen Klopp over his first 50 games.
The oldest cliche in the footballing book is that the sign of a good team is winning when not playing well.
Whether or not United are any good is a moot point but they can certainly fulfil the second part of the saying.
They did not play well here and Ten Hag should be particularly concerned with the lack of threat from his attacking players.
It has been symbolic of Hojlund’s start to his United career that his impressive tally of five goals in four Champions League games has actually counted for nothing.
But at least those strikes show the Dane does have some sort of scoring knack but his domestic form means that, when it comes to confidently predicting his Premier League future, the jury will be out for quite some time. Shielding Hojlund from pressure, the party line from Ten Hag and his senior players has been about his rawness, about his potential. But Hojlund will turn 21 in less than three months’ time and was deemed by United to be a £72million footballer.
Not every big-money recruit hits the ground running but this run without a goal or an assist – just shy of 11 hours of Premier League football – has to be verging on a serious worry for Ten Hag. Judging by his limp when he was substituted, Hojlund might now be out of the firing line for a while and Ten Hag will have to come up with another plan – hopefully one that produces football more watchable than this.
No matter what the mitigating circumstances, no matter how strongly you believe Ten Hag will be a good long-term fit, no matter how much this end result justified the means, United are a dull watch.
And maybe the manager’s frustration over that was partly responsible for his late yellow card.
A win is a win… but Ten Hag knows it is no time to celebrate.