Criticism in victory is fuelling Man United’s recovery under Erik ten Hag, a manager dissatisfied after a 3-0 home win.

As influential as Luke Shaw was on Tuesday night, starting and finishing one attack and pinging the ball with the precision of Kevin de Bruyne for Manchester United’s third goal, he often went walkabout in the 37 minutes in between.

That was not lost on Erik ten Hag. “I had the feeling [in the] second half some had the feeling the game is gone and the game is never gone. You saw the reaction of the opponent, they still believed in it and if they get 2-1 they are back in the game.” David de Gea had a more taxing evening than the 3-0 scoreline suggested, making four saves.

At full-time, Ten Hag strolled onto the pitch and thanked De Gea before they approached the Stretford End together. The impromptu exchange and Ten Hag’s hand signals indicated he was irked by how open United were on an evening they only had two more attempts on target than Bournemouth.

Criticism in victory is essential in elite sport and United barely got out of second gear in their sixth successive win. It is a reassuring character trait that the United manager is dissatisfied when ‘Glory glory Man United’ has followed the final whistle.

“I think we ended up with two departments: one attacking and one defending,” Ten Hag said. “Big game in between. It cost a lot of energy. It’s like you get a tennis match. We don’t want to play tennis, we want to play football.

“Keep the ball, keep possession, recognise when to speed up and, sure, when we have to go for goal we go for goal. But it costs so much energy for the backline and they also take a lot of risks and the front had difficulties to get back, so we got stretched. The spaces are huge and it cost a lot of energy.”

Ten Hag’s selections signalled the importance of conserving energy in a month United could play as many as nine games. The superior back four was on the bench, with Raphael Varane rested entirely, Christian Eriksen earned a breather and Anthony Martial, the only No.9 in the squad, was withdrawn for the sixth match running.

United should have a hard taskmaster in the dugout rather than a soft touch, a complaint of players under the previous permanent regime. Ole Gunnar Solskjaer revelled in United’s third-place finish in 2020, referring to certain pundits’ predictions of where they would finish and trumpeting United’s “massive achievement”. Ten Hag has repeatedly said, “satisfaction makes you lazy”.

Ten Hag has struck a productive balance between cajoling the players and demonstrating with the officials. Before Ten Hag sidled over to De Gea, he offered an opinion to the referee Michael Salisbury, doubtless over the lack of punishment for Marcos Senesi’s collision with Donny van de Beek.

Ten Hag has hitherto not neared that line Jurgen Klopp has crossed and that Mikel Arteta is hovering over. In United’s last defeat at Aston Villa two months ago, Ten Hag preferred to dwell on the team’s listless performance than their wall being placed farther back for Lucas Digne’s free-kick conversion.

Eriksen had politely informed referee Anthony Taylor of the discrepancy but was superciliously spoken to. United obtained the audio of the exchange and raised it with the Professional Game Match Officials Board.

A more paranoid club – and United are surrounded by some geographically – would have briefed to detract from the defeat. A well-placed United source clarified Ten Hag does not like blaming refereeing decisions. That is refreshing in a season when sections of their fanbase have carped about refereeing calls that have not been as decisively bad as their outrage would have you believe.

After Antony scored his third goal in as many Premier League games at Everton in early October, Ten Hag’s analysis began with the words “we have to expect more from him”. Antony has not scored since but nobody is pinning his ineffectual form on Ten Hag. United’s winning streak is masking certain players’ shortcomings and that is why Antony, an £85.51million investment, has avoided any scrutiny.

United staff were humble in analysing the win over Arsenal in September, a game one source admitted “could have gone the other way”. That augurs well ahead of their rematch at the Emirates on January 22.

SOURCE: www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk