Ten Hag made some decisions to shape a team - big decisions, the sort that most on here would have made, but ones that smaller ‘yes men’ managers they’ve had would not make. Ronaldo benched, Maguire benched, and all of a sudden they looked a step quicker all over the park. We started too slowly, again.
Dalot went through Diaz multiple times. It’s incredible what the refs let them do. I think Diaz is a smashing player, but he will have to get a bit of Mane’s nasty streak about him, or else he will be kicked out of too many games.
The balance in the trio up front wasn’t right. They were miles apart when they needed to be closer together. I love Bobby but I want to see a bit more of Carvalho, as he looks like he will make stuff happen.
We missed Nunez. It was too comfortable for their defence.
I won’t have a go at Milner. He started because we had a list of midfielders who are not available. Milner should be closing out games to get some rest into the legs of main men, with the game already won. Instead, we are the down to bare bones in the engine department, so Milner is having to start.
It’s early days but we need to buck our ideas up, pronto. A home game against Bournemouth is about the easiest the Prem offers, so we simply have to respond.
I won’t say the title has gone, as that would be ridiculous, but I suspect this season will be more of a top four campaign, hopefully with a nice CL win if we don’t win the league. I think we are in the middle of a bit of a reset. We are a little short, and it is being exacerbated by injuries.
Add Caicedo to get some legs in the midfield right now, and then Bellingham next summer as the long term Hendo replacement, and all of a sudden it looks that much better.
But at the moment we are getting overrun in the engine department, and we have started slowly.