Pondering Manchester United: Cristiano Ronaldo, Casimiro, Erik ten Hag

Mulan

There are many small questions that need to be answered in order for the big picture to be completely understood. Today, I will attempt to understand some of the things that are happening or have happened to Manchester United. Starting with Cristiano Ronaldo, Casimiro, and their current coach.

The odd signing of Casimiro

What do De Jong and Casimiro have in common that the latter was signed after De Jong rejected Manchester United? Is Casimiro a better defensive midfielder than McTominay and Fred? Certainly. Is he better for Erik ten Hag's style? Definitely not.

Manchester United and ten Hag currently need midfielders that could transition the ball smoothly and control the play in tight spaces. Does any of that apply to Casimiro? He is simply a defensive tank that knows to secure the back end of the midfield. Some might even say, he is the best at it. But, did Manchester United pay 80 million to upgrade from McTominay?

I think a player like Bruno Guimarães would have made more sense, or any technical player. Plus, we're talking about a player who is thirty years old.

The only explanation I could think of for signing Casimiro is that Erik ten Hag is going for results for some time before implementing his style. More on that later.

For now, however, Manchester United seem set to be the quick transition, counter-attacking team. Rashford, Anthony, Martial, and even Elanga are extremely fast players who could wonders in the current style, especially countering offensive or possession-based teams as we saw Manchester United do against Liverpool and Arsenal.

It is when you need to be the more offensive team that this will become a problem.

Will we see Cristiano Ronaldo starting again?

The simple answer is no.

In the current phase of this style, we are not likely to see Cristiano a lot. Erik ten Hag can't afford to lose the speed that Manchester United has. Ten Hag's current style is physical-based and includes a lot of transitions, two things that Cristiano Ronaldo can provide very little for in this stage of his career.

Cristiano Ronaldo won't be as physically present to put pressure as the other players around him. He is not that good with transitions. Cristiano Ronaldo remains, even at this age, the best player to have in the penalty area or 18-yard box, however, this Manchester United team needs a lot more than that.

Erik ten Hag: Brain not heart

When Erik ten Hag was signed as a manager in Manchester United many people were expecting him to bring that Ajax, tiki-taka, total football style with him but quickly started seeing the opposite.

This is not what ten Hag has in mind when he first started, however, when he first started and attempted his style of total football he lost twice in the league, including a humiliating loss to Brentford. He knows well that he doesn't have a lot of time before the pressure starts mounting with the ghosts of the Alex Ferguson era all over the media.

The final solution was to get results as without results you can't build anything. Patience and building a team slowly are very nice fairy tales and while most experts insist that a manager needs 4-5 years to actually make a change, almost no club or fan base is willing to follow that.

Erik ten Hag also knows that he is not Pep Guardiola or Jurgen Klopp. He is not a manager with a great history to back him up in tough times. Yes, he was great at Ajax, I would argue even better than people credit him for, but the media response is always ready "He hasn't trained a team of this caliber like Manchester United".

That is why Erik ten Hag simply needs results now, even though his style is closer to Ole Gunnar Solskjær's Manchester United than any of the time he spent in Ajax. It will take a long time to turn Manchester United into a team with a distinguished style akin to Manchester City or Liverpool under Erik ten Hag. I am not even saying it will take time in the sense of months, but maybe years.

There is a lot more to say about Erik ten Hag's time in the United the future, but, let me end with this: to build a team you need building materials and equipment, in Erik ten Hag's case that's the players, and I can't name more than five players where that is possible at the moment.

In conclusion

This is Manchester United's first actual change that isn't based on quick fixes with money. And much like with other clubs who had these periods, it will take a lot of correct decisions to be done in crucial times. Erik ten Hag is going to spend the better part of his upcoming years at Manchester United, should he stay that long, playing a style that he doesn't prefer until he gets the players required to make his style work.



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Compared to previous seasons Manchester United has improved and actually now have a style of play for the first time in forever, before their playing style was so confusing and woeful. I just hope this new form will be consistent because a lot of PL team this season are not here for child's play.

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The most important thing for this current United team is to build confidence from winning. Without results, this players will teeter into mediocrity again and the coach is intelligent enough to understand that and leave sentiments aside.

The team needs more players, time and training sessions to effectively transform to title challengers. The best thing to happen to them after the De Jong debacle is Christian Eriksen. His intelligence, control and vision has created a base for them to transition fast into attacks. But even him is in his 30s which means he doesn't have much time left at the top.

As for the Casemiro signing, he is just a knee-jerk signing by the owners just to prove to shareholders that they still have the pulling powers and that their money is safe.

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