In the middle of last week, two teams, Manchester United and Newcastle United, experienced exactly the same fate in the continuation of qualifying for the 2022/23 European Champions League season. MU was held to a draw by Galatasaray and the chances of the team nicknamed the Red Devils getting to the next round are getting slimmer. Likewise, Newcastle was held to a draw by Paris Saint Germain.
The difference in the situation between the two teams from the Premier League is that MU, which was already leading 3-1 over Galatasaray, was unable to maintain that lead. The issue of a porous back line and a team mentality that is currently fragile has surfaced. Meanwhile, Newcastle played with full dedication at PSG headquarters. However, Newcastle’s dedication collapsed when the referee pointed to the penalty spot in the final minutes of extra time in the match.
Even though, Newcastle was in sight of getting full points, but a penalty which was considered controversial undermined Newcastle’s mission to get full points. As a result, both teams had to provide extra energy in the final match in order to qualify for the next round. You could say that the last match for MU and Newcastle in the Champions League was like a final.
After spending time in the Champions League, the two teams met in the 14th week of the Premier League at James’ Park stadium (3/12/23), Newcastle’s headquarters. Considering the performance of the two teams in the Champions League last week, MU looks inferior to Newcastle.
It’s true, despite the narrow 0-1 defeat to Newcastle, MU is increasingly showing its helplessness this season. Instead of improving their slumping performance in the European Champions League when playing against Galatasaray, MU still lost their way to getting full points at home to Newcastle.
MU is increasingly showing a weak mentality. The trend of five consecutive wins in the Premier League ended when playing with a team that played disciplined, organized and had the courage to attack MU’s back line. Newcastle appeared braver. The two defenders, Kieran Trippier and Tino Livramento, often helped attack the MU defense. This tactic bore fruit because Trippier provided a sweet assist for Newcastle’s only goal scored by Anthony Gordon in the 55th minute.
If you look at the statistics, MU lost on several fronts to Newcastle. The team nicknamed The Magpies was able to dominate the game by kicking on goal 22 times. In contrast to MU, which only recorded 8 shots against Newcastle, and only one was on target.
Here, MU still hasn’t found the best rhythm when playing against established teams in the top six. With Newcastle itself, it was recorded that MU suffered two defeats in the last month, of which MU’s one defeat occurred last month when Newcastle won 3-0 over MU at Old Trafford.
Apart from the mentality that coach Erik Ten Hag needs to build, there is also how Ten Hag finds the best performance in his players. Harry Maguire has returned to the MU squad in the last few matches thanks to his consistently convincing performance.
However, this is not evenly distributed because some players often appear inconsistent. Jadon Sancho is no longer getting a place. Anthony, Marcus Rasford, Martial, Arambat and Mason Mount are increasingly far from the shadow of a convincing performance.
Therefore, changes at MU must be accompanied by efforts to build the players’ mentality on the right track. With this, if MU’s performance remains like this for the rest of this season, then Ten Hag’s place in the coaching chair needs to be re-evaluated.
Ten Hag sometimes claims that MU is currently carrying out the right process when they get negative results. However, this has its limits, where supporters and club owners are losing patience and evaluating Ten Hag’s place as MU coach.
Maybe MU needs different hands to lift the team’s mentality to walk on a different path. In other words, the results of the two matches played by MU in all competitions can be a reference for challenging Ten Hag’s position in the coaching chair. So, will Ten Hag be fired? Let’s just wait for the end of the club’s patience with the Dutch coach.
ASL
