Dissecting Manchester United's 'game model': What is Erik ten Hag hoping to achieve?

What are Manchester United hoping to achieve this season?

An underwhelming start to the new campaign has left those around the club trying to ascertain what Erik ten Hag wants from his squad. Things are not helped by the United manager’s cagey approach to press conferences, where he prefers to discuss previous successes than talk about tactical details at length. Ten Hag believes United will be successful at the end of 2024-25, but figuring out how that success will come about is proving difficult.

A clue might be found in Ten Hag’s use of the phrase “game model”, which has steadily increased in recent weeks. But what is that? And how will it affect his team in the coming weeks?

What does Ten Hag mean by “game model”?

Football managers describe their plans as tactics. Then “playing philosophy” became the buzzword of choice. Now, more and more football managers and executives are using the term “game model” to describe a vast umbrella of principles that define a club’s playing style and identity. 

“For the team, this is the perfect night,” Ten Hag said following United’s 7-0 victory over Barnsley in the Carabao Cup last month. “We did everything we planned, won to reach the next round, scored some great goals, entertained the fans and worked on our game model, so we are happy.”

When a football person refers to a club’s game model, they are broadly referring to the tactical, strategic and logistical plans that contribute to the positive momentum of a football club. The term can cover how you want to approach the different phases of a team’s play (both in and out of possession), how you press and how you wish to counter-press. It will also cover your approach to set pieces, both attacking and defensive. 

It is worth noting that Ten Hag only began to use the term in interviews towards the end of last season after the INEOS minority takeover was finalised and Jason Wilcox joined as the club’s new technical director. The head coach and his staff take chief responsibility for handling the day-to-day game model, but others — including players and other non-playing staff — factor into how a game model is created.

If a club’s game model is to play high-pressing, counter-attacking football, then they are likely to have a high number of young, athletic players suited to that style of play. Their scouting department and recruitment team will be geared towards acquiring more players that fit that system. They would also have a manager proficient at coaching that style of football. And so on.

So what sort of game model are United pursuing at the moment?

This is tricky to know for certain as Ten Hag has a habit of talking about a plan, rather than outlining what the plan is.

That could be a byproduct of the disastrous 2023-24 campaign, where he spent pre-season talking of his intention to turn United into “the best transition team in the world“, only for injuries and other disruptions to see that plan blow up in his face.

The end of last season saw Ten Hag play down previous ambitions, but he appears to be pursuing a game model where United seek to control games by maintaining attacking pressure on opponents high up the field. After his side has pushed the opposition’s defence to breaking point, he then wants United to attack at pace and score quickly.

“If we have players available, we can construct a team that can play very dynamic, very proactive (football), with a lot of speed,” said the United manager before facing Crystal Palace last month. “We can play very good in attacking transition but we also want to dictate in possession and, from there on, find our moments to speed up.”

Ten Hag has also made it clear that United’s game model seeks to provide a clear pathway for academy prospects. The Dutchman cites the progression of Alejandro Garnacho and Kobbie Mainoo as one of his jobs under the previous leadership.

The game model is there to further the development of talents such as Garnacho and Mainoo (John Walton/PA Images via Getty Images)

While we can throw multiple Ten Hag quotes at you explaining what he wants, United’s game model remains frustratingly opaque because:

• There has been limited evidence of it since April 2023
• Ten Hag rarely elaborates on his out-of-possession demands when asked
• He also doesn’t like to elaborate when asked what makes this game model different to those used by other top sides
• When he does attempt to do either, his answers can be so circuitous that they often leave the reader/listener more confused

A good example of the final point came last October when Ten Hag told Dutch media that United would never play like his successful Ajax side, only to say later on that those quotes were taken out of context and that he was referring to how United will play in a more direct manner to his previous club.

Broadly speaking, United’s current game model appears to be a modernised version of “The United Way”, where the team attacks at speed and dominates their battles down the wings, and academy players prove they are good enough to factor into the first-team picture. 

It is also worth noting that during Ten Hag’s time at Ajax, he had form for adjusting his tactical demands to better suit the players in his squad rather than sticking to a set plan and making sure players fit within that. Part of that is down to Ajax’s then-director of football, Marc Overmars, who took primary care of player recruitment and merely tasked his manager with winning games.

At United, Ten Hag has increased input into devising the game model — or at least he did until the arrival of INEOS executives over the summer.

Is this a sensible game model to pursue?

At a club boasting one of the world’s most famous academies and numerous attackers who are most dangerous when running into space, one can understand how relevant decision-makers decided on the current game model.

United’s proposed game model for the season bears similarities to something Ole Gunnar Solskjaer outlined in November 2020. There is form for United becoming Premier League and Champions League winners playing in such a way. Sir Alex Ferguson’s squads between 2007 and 2009 were devastating when attacking at speed, but could also control games through prolonged periods of possession.

The team pressed well as a collective unit and contained several defenders who could be relied upon to dominate their one-versus-one duels.

It also has some similarities with Jurgen Klopp’s Liverpool between 2018 and 2022, but we understand if readers would prefer not to compare the two clubs. 

In September, Dan Ashworth and Omar Berrada made it clear the intention was to develop United so that, when they return to the summit of the Premier League, they stay there for multiple seasons. 

“When you look at the teams who have been successful consistently for many years, it’s because they have the right coach, they have signed the right players, they have the right structure around the coach and the players,” said Berrada. “You need to take good decisions consistently for many years to get into a position where you are a financially sustainable club that is competing to win every single competition.”

Enacting a game model to make you the best football team in the country — when there are more competitors to that title than ever — is difficult. It will take time, patience, a lot of luck and a lot more money to make it happen. It also requires clear communication so everyone involved in the plan knows what they are supposed to be doing at every step of the way, as well as buy-in from everyone involved.

“If you lose your faith, you lose everything,” Ten Hag told Sky Sports on Monday. “We have to keep going and stick to the plan. For a long period, we are in transition at Manchester United. From the moment I came in, we knew we had to change. We had to replace some older players.

“Our choice was to bring young players in and that takes time to get the messages on board, to get a game model on board and to introduce a new culture. That takes time.”

That sounds good, but United are 13th in the league and playing horribly…

For all of the talk of how good things may be for United in the future, there are many, many problems for the team right now.

The Athletic prefers to avoid using statistical analysis of teams until the 10th game of a new season (to order to work with a better sample size), but the numbers are beginning to paint a sorry picture for the new campaign.

If we chart the side’s non-penalty expected goals (how many goals they should be scoring taking into account the rate of their chance creation) against their xG against (how many goals they should be conceding when accounting for the number of chances they concede), United are quite a way behind the best teams in the Premier League. 

For those who don’t like statistical charts: a good Premier League team keeps the blue line above the red line. A great one keeps the blue line above the red one by quite some distance. The above image tells you that Ten Hag’s United have a worrying amount in common with a mid-table team: they don’t create nearly enough chances to bail out their subpar defending.

United’s proposed game model is a lofty goal. The execution of it thus far is suboptimal because:

• The team’s inconsistent press and counter-pressing efforts leave much to be desired
• United’s out-of-possession approach and shape make things too difficult for their defenders and too easy for opposition teams
• They also struggle to manufacture — and convert — chances when facing deep defences

Each of the three points could have its own, separate in-depth analysis, but for the sake of brevity let’s focus on the first two points using the 3-0 home defeat to Tottenham as an example.

This season has seen Ten Hag move to a 4-4-2/4-2-4 high press where Bruno Fernandes moves forward to join the centre-forwards, while United’s wide players try to match the opposition full-backs.

However, the pressing efforts of the front two/four are not good enough to compensate for the relative lack of athleticism in the central midfielders behind them. In addition to this, the current setup isn’t compact enough to prevent opposition teams from playing between the lines.

Their approach to defending in midfield areas compounds things.

Ten Hag has argued that his midfielders do not man-mark, but his players can often be dragged out of position by opposition midfielders dropping deep, creating further space in behind for opponents to thrive. Multiple goals conceded this season have seen United defenders chasing the ball, looking to put out fires.

On top of this, United are careless when in possession, meaning opposition teams know if they can repel one of United’s attacking attempts, they have a good chance of taking the ball down the other end.

Ten Hag wants his team to attack in a fast and direct manner, but there is sloppiness in United’s play that often sees them losing the ball cheaply and opening themselves up to counter-attacks. Many teams on United’s (supposed) level avoid this by regulating their speed of play and taking more care when in possession.

On more than one occasion on Thursday, Porto opted to slow down the speed of their counter-attacks against United, deciding to retain and recycle possession, rather than risk losing control of a fraught game.

Following Liverpool’s 3-0 victory at Old Trafford, Arne Slot explained how his side were able to score by aggressively winning the ball and exploiting United’s poor rest defence. United do not have enough athletic one-versus-one duellists to repeatedly mop up mistakes made after losing the ball, and there are very few players in the world comfortable covering the large spaces the team’s defensive structure affords.

Unfortunately, Ten Hag’s attempts to solve it have come with their own, separate shortcomings. In asking Diogo Dalot and Noussair Mazraoui to invert into midfield to plug gaps in central areas, the United manager has conceded space in wide areas that teams are beginning to exploit with crosses.

Or to return to our jigsaw analogy from earlier, the execution of United’s game model is struggling because there are several missing pieces to the puzzle right now, leaving something that looks a lot less than the sum of its parts. 

How does the club go about fixing this? In Ten Hag’s words, it will take time.

Will the United manager get it? We will have to wait and see.

(Top photo: Diogo Cardoso/Getty Images)