Manchester United suffered a defeat against Fulham at Old Trafford in the Premier League on Saturday.
Jamie Carragher analyzed the shortcomings in Erik ten Hag’s system on Monday Night Football. Currently, United are eight points behind the top four and are set to face Nottingham Forest in the FA Cup on Wednesday.
Manchester United‘s four-game winning streak in the Premier League came to an end on Saturday with a 2-1 home defeat to Fulham, leaving them eight points behind the Champions League positions.
In full: Carra explains where Man Utd are going wrong via Monday Night Football on Sky Sports.
Since Ten Hag joined the club in 2022, United have faced 20 or more shots in a Premier League game 12 times – already double that of Man City and Liverpool under Guardiola and Klopp, despite the pair having spent a combined 13 years longer with their clubs.
This season alone, Ten Hag has watched his side face 16 or more shots on 14 different occasions, a tally matched only by Luton and Sheffield United, who both sit in the relegation zone.
Carragher said: “Over the last few weeks, Manchester United have been in great form but still the underlying numbers have been really poor.
“They’ve been very fortunate, so we’re not talking about them now just because they lost to Fulham.
“It’s about performance. They defend like a team I’ve never seen before. They like to press high with a deep block.
“It’s impossible. They like to do two things at the same time. You can only do one or the other.
“We’re all pressing high or we’re all defending deep. They’re trying to do both.”
Ten Hag fires back at Jamie Carragher
Ahead of their FA Cup fifth-round tie at Nottingham Forest on Wednesday, saying: “Some analysts are objective in their comments, [offer] very good advices, some are very subjective – Jamie Carragher is one of them.
“For the first moment he is criticising and now he wants to make his point. In the first half an hour [vs Fulham] he had a point. Fulham surprised with their midfield setup and we had to find a solution. We did after half an hour.
“I wasn’t pleased with the defensive performance, especially down the left side and that has everything to do with willingness, spirit and passion. That was good in previous weeks, therefore we won football games.
“Footballers are not robots, sometimes they have bad days. It was unacceptable and we have to do better tomorrow.”
