A couple of hours after Manchester United had lost 1-3 to Brighton at Old Trafford, Gary Neville posted the now-traditional post-match excoriation of the owners. “Oh and yes the Glazers are responsible. It’s how it works. You own a business and everything good and bad sits with you!”
If only United’s problems were that simple. Whatever the many legitimate criticisms of the Glazers, they can’t be accused of starving the team of resources. Figures released last week by the CIES Football Observatory (International Centre for Sports Studies) show that United’s 23-24 squad is the most expensively assembled in world football, costing €1.15 billion in transfer fees. (Chelsea, Manchester City and PSG were in second, third and fourth places.)
Unfortunately, the waste has been staggering; €90 million of that outlay is locked up in Harry Maguire, now a permanent fixture on the bench and enduring a global cyberbullying campaign that is about to enter its third year. Another €100 million was spent on Antony, who is on leave of absence so that he can “address” accusations of violence that have been levelled at him by multiple women.
It’s clear that Brighton are making a much better job of managing their resources – and it’s not the Glazers who are doing the managing
Then there’s the €85 million they spent on Jadon Sancho, exiled from the squad after a public row with the manager. Between them, Maguire, Antony and Sancho cost €50 million more than Brighton’s entire squad. The Brighton first XI that started at Old Trafford cost about €19 million – that is, less than United pay Sancho in a year.
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To some extent, this reflects the reality that the Manchester United price is different from the Brighton price. Sellers know United are one of the richest clubs so will always quote them a bigger price for the same player, agents will demand higher wages for their players, etc.
Yet it’s also clear that Brighton are making a much better job of managing their resources – and it’s not the Glazers who are doing the managing. Yes, the Glazers are responsible for appointing the people who are running the show, but it’s not a defence of Erik ten Hag to say the Glazers should have appointed someone better.
This might have been the most difficult afternoon United’s coach has had since he came to England. Losing 7-0 against Liverpool was worse, but that at least could be seen as a freak result, one of those mad things that sometimes happens. This prosaic capitulation was in some ways more disturbing.
For the first time there was mass dissent at one of the manager’s decisions when the Old Trafford crowd booed the decision to replace Rasmus Højlund with Anthony Martial. Ten Hag later explained that Højlund, who has only recently recovered from a back injury, is not yet in condition to play 90 minutes.
Reframing that booing as a positive (because it will make Højlund feel appreciated and give him confidence) was probably ten Hag’s best moment of the day. For the most part, he had spent the afternoon being made to look like a coach of the previous generation by Roberto de Zerbi.
In some ways de Zerbi’s team is similar to ten Hag’s successful Ajax, sharing an emphasis on possession and quick one- and two-touch passing. But while ten Hag’s Ajax used a classic Dutch 4-3-3 – the same shape Ernst Happel was using in the early 1970s – de Zerbi’s system effectively dispenses with the central striker in favour of an extra deep-lying midfielder.
The Italian’s way of playing is all about how to bypass opponents who press you in an organised fashion – which hardly anybody was doing 20 years ago. Having that extra player in build-up helps his team to play around the press, while today’s pros have no problem compensating for the absence of a traditional striker by making repeated runs from deep positions into the box (Brighton are the top scorers in the Premier League and the third-highest scorers since de Zerbi arrived). Ten Hag, like most coaches, is following an established tradition. De Zerbi is inventing something new.
The victory was built on the assurance of the central defenders, Lewis Dunk and Jan Paul van Hecke, who each had more touches than any United player
Brighton hadn’t anticipated United would line up in a 4-4-2 diamond formation and took 20 minutes to figure out how to respond, but from that point, they dominated comfortably. The victory was built on the assurance of the central defenders, Lewis Dunk and Jan Paul van Hecke, who each had more touches than any United player.
Neither Dunk nor van Hecke is what social media would call a generational talent; the same could be said of Brighton goalscorers Pascal Gross, who has now scored more Premier League goals at Old Trafford than any opposition players except Mohamed Salah and Steven Gerrard, and Danny Welbeck, who was discarded by United nine years ago. This is just what top coaching can do.
Ten Hag is not the first Premier League rival to be schooled by de Zerbi. Jurgen Klopp, Mikel Arteta and Eddie Howe have all been trounced this year, while Pep Guardiola paid him the ultimate compliment by copying elements of his press-baiting build-up as Man City played their way to the treble.
The real reason why ten Hag was hired was to bring his Ajax side’s great football to Manchester
But the United manager could have done without being tactically shown up like this just as a succession of off-field events – Mason Greenwood, Antony, Sancho – has brought his leadership under critical scrutiny.
The coach suggested last week that one of the reasons he had been hired was that United had “no good culture” and wanted him to change this. This broad mission to raise standards, in fact, was the reason why he had allowed a training-ground row with Sancho to escalate into a public stand-off that has – temporarily? – put an €85 million asset beyond use.
But the real reason why ten Hag was hired was to bring his Ajax side’s great football to Manchester. He has signed three of his old Ajax players in Antony, Lisandro Martinez and Andre Onana, but the Ajax style remains elusive. In this context, feuding with players is dangerous. If United were winning, his hard line on Sancho would be applauded. In defeat, he just looks like a guy who hasn’t got the skills to manage big-name players. If United fail again next weekend at Burnley, Sancho might have to make some room for him in scapegoats’ corner.
