sport news MARTIN KEOWN:Erik ten Hag's defenders could be lambs to the slaughter against ... trends now
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Erik ten Hag has just endured his longest week in football. He was back on the training field within 24 hours of that 4-0 defeat by Brentford, the most embarrassing and inept performance from a Manchester United team in living memory.
I have no problem with Ten Hag putting his players through a Sunday running session. He felt they didn’t do enough to deserve a rest day and it’s going to take incredibly strong leadership from United's newest boss to resolve this crisis.
United have had six different managers since Sir Alex Ferguson. That's six different philosophies to adapt to and believe in. When that happens, the basics can be forgotten, and there was evidence of that at Brentford last weekend.
Erik ten Hag must demonstrate incredibly strong leadership to turn United's fortunes around
Club captain Harry Maguire was part of a United defence that was embarrassed by Brentford
David De Gea has played under all six post-Ferguson managers and he is experienced enough to know he should not give a marked Christian Eriksen the ball on the edge of the box.
But in his blinkered quest to stick to the latest letter of the law laid out by his new boss and pass out from the back, he played into the opposition's hands.
There were too many passengers in the United team in these situations, too many pretending they wanted the ball when they didn’t, too many poor decisions made.
One example was when Harry Maguire had the ball and was looking for options. He had no one but Eriksen. Everyone else had disappeared into the distance. Already 1-0 down, United lost the ball and almost conceded another goal, with Maguire forced to commit a foul.
