Erik ten Hag agrees with Gary Neville on “frustrating” Man United problem

Erik ten Hag has agreed with former Manchester United defender Gary Neville on one ‘frustrating’ problem that exists at Old Trafford.

The Reds are unbeaten in 2024 with six wins and a draw, yet there remains to be a game where United have truly dominated.

Their latest bout against Luton Town saw Rasmus Højlund put them 2-0 up within the first 10 minutes before a lacklustre performance up until the full-time whistle.

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Neville, now a pundit on Sky Sports, believes that United’s inability to play well consistently across games is a ‘frustrating’ element, especially when they look promising in spurts.

“United don’t seem to be able to put together a real… professional, I think is the right word, performance,” he explained on his podcast.

“In the second half, it was more professional but in the first half for 25 minutes they just lost their discipline and started giving fouls away, they had two players booked who were so close to red cards that they needed to be taken off.

“So it was a scruffy first half after such a brilliant start, and I am not quite sure why we have these huge peaks and troughs, not just from game to game but within games and not just within games but within halves of games.

“We just see huge fluctuations in performance, and that’s the frustrating bit because they can be really good when they are good and breathtaking when they play in five or ten-minute periods, but then it seems to just dip.”

This is something that manager Ten Hag seems to agree with, “We dropped too deep and allowed them to get back into the game. We didn’t close the half-spaces… allowed shots and crosses,” he said after victory at Kenilworth Road.

Whilst United are now winning fixtures, and subsequently moving closer to the top four, there are still major improvements to be made in terms of playstyle and performance levels.

“We are back in the race, but not in the position we want to be at this club – that is a minimum of the top four, so we have to catch up and we are still doing that. But I do think that now we are going in the right direction,” concluded Ten Hag.