Manchester United top Premier League statistic that is CRUCIAL to Erik ten Hag’s philosophy

Manchester United rarely ‘suffocated’ Premier League teams in recent years, however, the tide is slowly turning under Erik ten Hag this season.

Under Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, in the team’s best moments, they could blow teams away with pace, power and precision but also often had periods of games where they were not in control of the flow of the game.

United’s press and team cohesion out of possession was not considered alongside the likes of Manchester City and Liverpool, and then completely derailed in the final months of Solskjaer’s tenure.

Since Ten Hag took over at the helm, he’s slowly been integrating elements of his philosophy into the United side. The two losses at the beginning of the season meant it was drip fed slightly slower than anticipated, but changes are being made.

The Reds have begun to have a larger portion of control in games as the season has progressed. With Raphael Varane and Lisandro Martinez at the back, Casemiro patrolling the centre, and a well-rounded press from the front; United are able to snap back when they lose possession. They have the fifth-highest amount of interceptions (9.88) and recoveries (54.6) per 90 in the Premier League this season.

But, United aren’t gung-ho, not yet at least. They are often found in a mid-block and don’t counter-press constantly. However, the structure that Ten Hag has implemented means that his team are able to be successful when they do search to gain possession back shortly after losing it.

One amazing Twitter account, @markrstats, provides a number of insightful visuals and one of his latest shows the improvement from United in the counter-pressing department.

The visual above shows the difference in counter-press success rate for all Premier League teams compared to last season. It also shows how difficult it is to counter-press against each team.

As you can see, Ten Hag’s United have made the biggest improvement across the division in regard to the counter-press success rate, going from just over 23% to just under 30%, which is comfortably the best in the league.

It also shows where United are relatively untested and potentially weak, however. They have slightly improved their ability to bypass an opposition’s counter-press but that is still something that has been untested for The Reds in this impressive run of form under Ten Hag.

There have certainly been times, with the likes of Lisandro Martinez and Diogo Dalot often at the heart of it, where United have cut through an aggressive counter-press but improvements still need to be made and they will be tested in the upcoming week as they face City and Arsenal.

Nevertheless, Ten Hag is helping United play better football, for longer periods and the next step of the process is to sustain control for 90 minutes of games, consistently.