The reason for Manchester United's tactical failure was exposed, and Ten Hag crushed one person alive! The Red Devils have been reduced to a graveyard of generals

Once may be accidental, twice may be coincidence, but if it is like this for many years, then the case can be closed, Manchester United repeatedly fail to play the tactics that the manager wants, it is not a simple problem, the manager, the players and even the club culture have an impact.

The 53-year-old Dutch boss Ten Hag tried to implant his style of play at United for two years in a row but failed, having to compromise last season and re-embrace the quick counter-attacking style best suited by the likes of Marcus Rashford, Bruno Fernandes. So where will he go this year? In any case, no one suffers more than core Casemiro last season.

Last season, Brazil's iron-backed Casemiro was also hailed as Manchester United's savior, but just six months later, his performance at Old Trafford has been questioned, like many superstars in the past, Ronaldo, Lukaku, Martial and others, all of them are high and low, and their role is declining.

Casemiro's ability will certainly diminish as he ages, but he will not decline overnight, and the "Fat Tiger" plays 73 games for Brazil, which was Real Madrid's Champions League victory in the past. The Brazil international is not a player who controls the game by speed and body, his ability lies in reading the game and occupying a reasonable position.

So why has his performance declined significantly this season? The answer lies in two key areas: Manchester United's tactical system, and Casemiro himself's adaptability.

After finishing in the top four of the Premier League and winning the League Cup last season, Ten Hag again spent nearly £200 million on signings, aiming to lead Manchester United with his own style of play. He purged 12-year-old goalkeeper David De Gea and replaced him with Andre Onana, who is known for his ball at his feet and has the obvious aim of organising from the back.

Unfortunately, this style of play encountered a second problem, which is that Casemiro's control and coverage space is reduced.

One of the key tactical principles of Ten Hag's time at Ajax was to organise from the defensive line and use short passes to organise the attack. He played the same way when he first came to Manchester United, but that belief lasted only about two games as United lost to Brentford and Brighton. At the time, goalkeeper David De Gea was thought to be to blame, as the 32-year-old Spanish goalkeeper was good at saving and couldn't pass the ball.

As a result, Ten Hag quickly adjusted United's style of play, introducing more direct passes, and the team's record improved. This summer, United withdrew their contract extension for De Gea and signed goalkeeper Onana from Inter.

Onana's passing ability at the back is what Manchester United like. Unfortunately, this model has not worked for Manchester United so far. Because the overall passing of a team is not only the goalkeeper, the ball passed by Onana must always be answered.

Goalkeepers have two options, short passes to central midfielders, or long passes to find striker teammates. Ten Hag undoubtedly wanted the former, and with no central striker Harry Kane bought, United's only pivot in midfield at the start of the season was Casemiro. When the team possessed the ball, he was responsible for retreating to receive Onana.

But Casemiro is not a technical midfielder like Barca's Frankie de Jong or Manchester City's Rodri, and his role during his years at Real Madrid was not to organise passes, which was the duty of the other two teammates in the "ceremonial midfield", Modric and Kroos.

At Manchester United, when Casemiro had to catch the ball at the back, he made a mistake from the size of the receiver and did not turn sideways quickly enough to create the ideal move for his next pass.

Ten Hag wants to increase the number of contacts by adjusting the midfield configuration, with the likes of Eriksen and new signing Sovjan Amrabat being his options. The logic is to get more midfielders to step back and create passing angles and options to form passes at the back.

Unfortunately, Premier League and Champions League opponents are not stupid, they understand the changes in Ten Hag and give up blocking Onana's pass, but blocking the line of passing that follows. Casemiro was not very good at mobile receptions, and United's attacking pace became slow and inefficient.

While increasing backcourt passing, Ten Hag also wanted to press more high when the opponent possessed the ball. Quickly grab the ball and play the speed advantage of the attacking players by going straight in the middle. With fast horses like Hoylund and Marcus Rashford, this style of play is understandable.

Unfortunately, when facing opponents who defended deeper, Manchester United were poorly executed in front of the press, and after being broken through by opponents, the deepest midfielder Casemiro was repeatedly blasted by opponents. Casemiro has scored four goals this season and is the team's top scorer, and he is more effective in playing in the B2B midfield. However, if he is required to score from the back and defend at the back, then he will overdraw his physical strength and be even more alone.

Ten Hag brought in Mason Mount in the summer window, who would be in the front of the field if played at the same time as captain Bruno Fernandez, with Casemiro alone under intense pressure. Because the teammates in the front court cannot properly execute the high pressing and curb the opponent's advance. They won't even foul up front when necessary to avoid exposing Casemiro to multiple mobbies.

From a tactical standpoint, it's fair to say that Ten Hag didn't use Casemiro in positions where he maximized his player's strengths. Perhaps Amrabat was signed to free up the Fat Tigers, but with all three left-back players injured, the time for the two to play together at the back was numbered.

United's other midfielders are more technical or attacking, like Mason Mount, B Fee and Eriksen. Academy graduate Hannibal Mejerbri has had more game time lately, but he's just working harder, still inexperienced in the first team and an attacking midfielder in the past.

That means Casemiro has to control a lot of space in the midfield, which wouldn't be a big deal if United could prevent the ball from reaching the midfield more effectively. But not everyone at Manchester United is active in defence, Hoylund is positive, but top paid goalscorer Marcus Rashford sometimes works hard and sometimes doesn't chase back at all.

Casemiro is never fast, he relies on anticipation to defend, but if the opponent has a lot of passing points, and there is no central midfield teammate to return to the defense to assist, there are dangerous areas everywhere, Fat Tiger can't help it.

Ten Hag still has options to avoid this problem by bringing in another defensive back, such as having Amrabat drag back and Casemiro moving slightly forward.

But it also poses problems because it means that some of the stars such as Marcus Rashford, Anthony, B Faye and Mason Mount have to sit on the cold bench.

As we all know, from the experience of Ten Hag's predecessors Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, Jose Mourinho and others, this is bound to cause internal problems. Sancho has fallen out with the Dutch manager after being publicly criticised and he won't be the only ticking time bomb in the dressing room.

Manchester United greats such as Gary Neville have made it clear that the club's operational mistakes in the 10 years since Fergus retired have created a bad culture, and Old Trafford has now become the graveyard of their own manager.

The club lacks ambition and over time, the stars are used to it, they are not willing to sacrifice for bigger goals, they just want to play in a pleasant environment.

"Oops, very messy." Commenting on United's performance this season, Neville said: "There are ups and downs, instability, injuries and other problems on and off the pitch. I feel very sorry for the manager, I know a lot of people will say he should do better, but even the best Manchester United manager has found a lot of major problems at the club over the last 10 years. I think until these problems are resolved, we will continue to see the team underperforming, the players underperforming, and it's easy to say that it's a graveyard for managers and stars."

Neville added: "Very few players have excelled at Manchester United in the last 10 years. They came to the club as great players, players that other clubs wanted. Manchester United got the core of other clubs and then they ended up at Manchester United and they didn't succeed and couldn't perform at the level they deserved, why? It's because the team can't use players the way they should, which is culturally incorrect and Manchester United need to rectify that."