Manchester United’s defensive shortcomings perplex Erik Ten Hag

Erik ten Hag acknowledges that he has no idea as to why Manchester United’s poor defensive play has persisted throughout their miserable season debut.

After losing 4-3 to Bayern Munich in their Champions League debut on Wednesday, Ten Hag’s team has let up 14 goals in their previous five games across all competitions.

After Brighton defeated United 3-1 at Old Trafford in the Premier League, pressure on United manager Ten Hag increased as a result of Bayern’s failure.

Ten Hag must immediately patch Manchester United’s porous defense with a match against struggling Burnley on Saturday.

Unsettlingly for United supporters, the Dutch manager said he is still attempting to identify the cause of the issue.

We had the most clean sheets in the Premier League last year because of the team, because we defended extremely well as a team, therefore we need to return to that level, Ten Hag told reporters on Friday.

“Of course I am pushing the team and demanding of the team from the beginning of the season, but they are human beings, not machines, so I try to find out why they are not doing it, I try to provide the answers, and I try to urge the players to do the work.

“As a manager, you constantly ask yourself these things when you are in a phase like the one we are now in. I have to persuade them to do the task.

The mindset of United’s team has come under scrutiny after video from the match against Bayern Munich seemed to show players not following back as aggressively as they might.

However, according to Ten Hag, there was no evidence of a lack of motivation. He said: “It’s always concerning when we don’t run, but I don’t think that was the case against Bayern.

“In certain circumstances, sure. Thus, it’s also important to know which circumstance. Is it because they were unwilling or because they didn’t realize it and didn’t make the proper choices?

“We didn’t run a much against Spurs. However, I believe that despite our best efforts in terms of physical outputs versus Bayern, we sometimes ran at the wrong time.

“You can’t claim the spirit isn’t right if we recover as we did in Munich. I believe we have more significant issues than that.