Muzi watching the tiger fight | Without attack and defense, Manchester United lost not only to Newcastle, but also to Ten Hag

A midweek draw in the Champions League has resurfaced United's crisis.

The previous three consecutive wins in the Premier League were largely the result of low-intensity games, and it was not so much that United's performance had improved, but that the schedule had given the Reds a breather.

After all, in the fourth round of the Champions League group stage, Manchester United still lost to Copenhagen with a score of 3-4.

So after the 3-3 draw with Galatasaray, the challenge for United to start anew, with another 90 minutes away to Newcastle that tested how the Reds performed in a hard-fought game.

But for them, 90 minutes may seem too long.

Ten Hag made another adjustment in response to this game.

He re-established the midfield pairing he used against Everton last week, with the few changes coming at the back, with Aaron Wan-Bissaka starting and Harry Maguire partnering Luke Shaw as Diogo Dalot playing at left-back.

If nothing else, at least the center-back combination is one left foot and one right foot.

Fans familiar with Ten Hag and Manchester United should be well aware that this is very important to Ten Hag, but once the game began, neither the midfield that was so good against Everton nor the slightly more well-established back line played with the same intensity.

Newcastle's attack started from the start:

On Manchester United's side, Rashford wasted an attacking opportunity when he finally got the ball from Newcastle in the fifth minute of the game:

Then, Maguire, who strode forward with the midfield, was shaken off by Isak in the centre circle:

In the 6th minute of the game, Rashford, who came back to help, was passed away in defense:

The danger is not over, in the 9th minute of the game, when Manchester United dealt with a diagonal attack from Newcastle, not only goalkeeper Onana and defender Dalot did not work together, Dalot also kicked the ball to his arm:

In those nine minutes alone, United's defeat seemed inevitable, as there were nine more nine minutes to go.

However, from the 10th minute onwards, United found one of the few places where they had a slight advantage on the pitch: Garnacho vs Kieran Trippier:

For three minutes, Garnacho had a few chances from here to give the Reds a breather at the back.

In fact, this is where Newcastle's weakness lies. Kieran Strippier is getting older and less athletic, but Newcastle still rely on his passing on the right to help attack, and on top of that, Newcastle's right centre-back Lassell is not good enough, and United will hopefully play more if they can bring Garnacho to this combination.

However, this hope is very slim.

First of all, Manchester United's confrontation and skill in the central midfield are not up to par, and they often make mistakes under Newcastle's pressure, and then develop into an attack by the opponent:

Secondly, under Ten Hag's idea of marking people, there are often some inexplicable gaps in front of the back line, just like in the 17th minute of this defense, the teenager Maynu followed the marking to Milley, McTominay was pinned down at the far end, and there was an empty space in front of Luke Shaw:

It was at this point that Trippier had to cut in and then delivered a beautiful pass:

The extent of the problem of losing layers of defence because of the marking was clear in the midweek game against Galatasaray, and of course the game continued, as in the 28th minute:

At some point, there will even be six or seven players on a flat line.

In the backcourt pressure because of themselves and their opponents, to this extent, in addition to the backcourt to resist the difficulty, it is especially necessary for the success rate of the striker to receive the ball, not only to develop the offense and score goals, but also to let the backcourt where he is at the limit can rest and slow down.

However, in the 29th minute, this time it was a success:

The quality of Manchester United's forward receivers is as follows:

That leaves Garnacho with the little advantage he can barely play on Trippier in theory and on paper, because you don't have much to do to get the ball to Garnacho, let alone rely on his teammates and system to put him in the combination of Trippier and Russells.

It was in such a confrontation situation that Newcastle broke through the theoretical limitations, and at the end of the first half of the physical decline, through the accumulation of times, accumulated a mid-post attack:

Strictly speaking, Eddie Howe's tactical design is not particularly subtle, and the pace of construction at the back has always been slower than in central midfield, which is reflected in the staff, and they also have a large number of English central defenders, and tactically, the forward penetration of bilateral defenders is still an indispensable means of moving forward.

However, one of the main characteristics of Newcastle's ability to avoid these hidden problems in many games is that Eddie Howe will maintain the vitality of the front court through constant substitutions in the second half, putting pressure on opponents while also adding barriers to his own backfield.

However, Newcastle have been plagued by a wave of injuries in recent times.

In the midweek game against Paris Saint-Germain, Newcastle had to make zero substitutions throughout the game and were unable to extend the score, and finally equalised on the penalty spot in injury time.

So over time, United with a back hand will gradually accumulate some advantages in the game, shortening or surpassing Newcastle without a back option, which is something Ten Hag should pay attention to in the game.

But early in the second half, United conceded a goal.

As soon as the second half came up, Newcastle, who had added some fitness, continued their attack:

Manchester United are still at the bottom of the pack.

Finally, in the 55th minute, Luke Shaw wanted to connect directly with Garnacho, and the 19-year-old was naturally pushed down by the experienced, especially the current physical, Kieran Trippier, and Newcastle developed goals from then on:

After conceding the goal, United brought on Hjlen and Antony for Anthony Martial and Marcus Rashford, but that didn't work out after Newcastle were inspired by the goal and their attacking threat continued into the 78th minute:

In this case, United struggled to push forward, making Maguire the player with the most fouls on the pitch, because in this state of play, like being passed by Isak early in the first half, Maguire will get into the way of play that he is not good at.

It was only at the end of the game that United took control of the game, after all, Newcastle always had a limit to not being able to make substitutions, and they only needed to hold on to the 1-0 scoreline.

In those circumstances, United made sporadic attacking threats, with the 89th-minute goal being blown away for offside:

In the end, the score went as Newcastle had hoped, staying at 1-0.

In fact, this is a result that is not difficult to predict. The previous three consecutive Premier League wins don't say much, and conceding seven goals against Copenhagen and Galatasaray in the more dangerous Champions League shows that United still have problems with high intensity.

The away game against Newcastle is, of course, a similar high intensity.

So in the game, it can be seen that Manchester United has fallen into the disadvantage almost from the beginning of the game, there is no defense, no offensive attack, and the overall advantage is impossible to talk about, resulting in a single point advantage that cannot be shown.

So, conceding a goal, and therefore losing, is a logical result.

However, beyond this result, what makes people even more frustrating is Ten Hag's approach to the crisis.

In this game, Manchester United not only continued the midfielder marking that has been used, but even the front field had a marking arrangement, starting with Rashford's defensive danger due to the lack of recovery of Newcastle left-back Livramento:

and Newcastle pulled out the gap in midfield, allowing Newcastle centre-back Scher to step forward and shoot from distance:

It should even be noted that Kieran Trippier's free-kick at the centre post was also an opportunity created by Schell:

It can be seen that Ten Hag's idea of strengthening the defense is to expand the man-marking, the midfield marking is not finished, and the frontcourt must also be added to the man-marking plan, but it can be seen from these shots that the striker's marking always has mistakes, and after the others behind him are taken away, the striker's marking mistakes will become more serious.

In the case that the tactical intensity cannot be improved for various reasons, you have to go back to the beginning of everything, think from a defensive point of view first, build a basic low post system, and protect your goal and core area, rather than allowing the opponent to empty the core area.

Mere man-to-man doesn't mean a clean sheet, and that's something that even most FM players know well.