Why have Manchester United and Newcastle struggled this season, and what can they do to turn things around? Matthew Gregory is joined by Manchester United correspondent Rich Fay and North East football reporter Mark Carruthers to discuss two teams who have found it tough to repeat last year's successes.
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00:00 Hello, I'm Matthew Gregory and welcome to the Premier League panel, the weekly show
00:07 in which I'm joined by some expert guests to discuss some of the biggest talking points
00:11 from the English top flight. This week, we're going to talk about two teams who made the
00:14 Champions League last year but have seen their best laid plans go rather awry this time around,
00:19 Manchester United and Newcastle. To help me find out what's gone wrong for both teams
00:23 and how they can fix it, I'm delighted to be joined by National World's Manchester
00:26 United correspondent Rich Fay and North East Football reporter Mark Carruthers. I think
00:31 we'll start with Manchester United. Rich, there's a lot of forward progress under Eric
00:34 Ten Hag last season but it does seem to have stalled a bit this year. In your opinion,
00:39 what's gone wrong?
00:40 It's a real difficult one to put your finger on. I suppose if you ask Eric, he will point
00:45 towards the injury situation and every team has to deal with some of their key players
00:49 across the course of a campaign. I think for Man United, that has been amplified. They
00:54 haven't had a steady back four across the entire campaign. That has contributed to a
00:58 lack of consistency, a lack of identity as well. They've not been able to have a clear
01:04 implemented style of play. In particular, if you look at Lissandro MartĂnez and Luke
01:08 Shaw, arguably two of the Premier League's best in their respective positions, but both
01:12 left-footed as well. They both love to play out from the back. They are archetypal Ten
01:17 Hag players and without them there, they've had to find short-term solutions. You've seen
01:22 a resurgence of Harry Maguire, who has been brilliant for United this season, but he's
01:26 still not a long-term player who fits into Ten Hag's style of play. You've got Jonny
01:31 Evans who many of us thought was just being Darren Fletcher's mate and being brought back
01:35 to put the cones out for training. He's playing every single game when he's fit at times.
01:40 And then at left-back, you've got Juan Pasacca playing there who lots of United fans would
01:44 say he's not even good enough to play at right-back. So to put him at left-back is maybe a key
01:48 reason why. But I think maybe another component of it all is United were a bit lucky last
01:55 season that they exceeded expectation. They went on a ridiculous, maybe rather unsustainable
02:01 run. It was a season of transition for a lot of the other teams as well. They took advantage
02:06 of the playing field. But now, like this season, we've seen Liverpool back up to standards.
02:11 Arsenal and City have both been at the same level they were last season. The chasing pack
02:16 have got better. Tottenham have got better. Villa have got better. So maybe it's just
02:19 caught up on United. Maybe they aren't actually even that much worse than last season. Maybe
02:23 everyone else has just got better and finally the pennies dropped. I do think performance-wise,
02:27 you know, you look at every game they play, look at the Brentford game. There's more shots
02:32 in that game than on that 18-30 holiday in Magaluf. United are just penned in for the
02:36 whole match. And it's really easy to say, look, stop having shots against you. But how
02:41 do you do it? And that's what's so fascinating right now from a United point of view really
02:44 is. Have you been using that more shots than an 18-30 holiday in every article, every tweet
02:50 for the last 24 hours or so? One article, I've thought of it today. Can you tell? I
02:54 might patent it as well when I'm at it. But basically, yeah, you know, the problems of
02:58 United look so simple, but they obviously aren't simple to solve.
03:03 I mean, you mentioned a couple of points which sort of let us bring Newcastle a little bit
03:06 here. One being the injuries, of course. We know Newcastle have had a pretty horrible
03:10 time injuries-wise. And one being, I suppose, the idea of whether, did Newcastle overperform
03:15 last season? Was this just that it set the bar so high they couldn't possibly clear it
03:18 again? I mean, Mark, what kind of percentage of the problem would you say is down to injuries?
03:24 And is there anything else going on?
03:25 I'd probably say a good proportion of it will be down to the injuries. I mean, it's not
03:30 necessarily even the level of the injuries it's been to. Obviously, there's a Sandro
03:34 Tonali situation as well, which has been far from ideal. Newcastle, you know, went big
03:39 on him as a big part of the midfield last summer. Started really well, scored on his
03:44 debut and then obviously everyone knows what's happened with him with this lengthy ban. So
03:49 he was a big part. But I just think losing people like Joel Inton, he's a massive part
03:53 of Newcastle's identity, the intensity they play with in midfield. But I do agree with
03:59 what Rich was saying about, I think last season was kind of a perfect storm for Newcastle.
04:05 You know, clubs around them didn't perform to the level that you would expect. You look
04:11 at the clubs that Newcastle finished ahead of last season, deservedly I will say, they
04:14 took advantage of that situation as Manchester United did. But I look at this season, you
04:19 look at Villa and their building process has taken another step forward. The impact of
04:24 Posta Cogliu at Tottenham has been fantastic. Probably the only one of the chasing pack
04:28 that hasn't improved has been Chelsea, but that's probably all of the other show altogether.
04:33 But yeah, I just think with Newcastle, the injuries are a big part of it and it's kind
04:38 of taken that. The consistency is a key word again, as Rich said, that consistency of selection.
04:43 They were quite fortunate with injuries last season. So Eddie Howe could put out that,
04:47 you know, start at 11, that preferred 11, nine times out of 10, they just haven't had
04:51 that this year. And I also think there's a learning curve going on at Newcastle and dealing
04:55 with the increased level of competition, the increased level of games with the Champions
05:00 League and obviously everything that that brings. So I think there are ways, and I don't
05:05 mind saying it later, that there are ways of looking at the season as a positive for
05:08 Newcastle. But at the moment it does feel a slight negative and a step back from last
05:13 year.
05:14 As we're talking about kind of the consistency of selection, do you think maybe Eddie Howe
05:19 could have tried something different? Because as you say, we've seen sort of injuries to
05:22 key players, Joe Linton arguably being one of the biggest, you know, Kieran Trippier
05:26 as well was out for a while and he still sort of persisted with that quite narrow, the 4-3-3,
05:31 the sort of the pressing style, trying to be very quick and vertical and get it forward.
05:35 Do you think he could have sort of tried slightly more things? I know there's been a few games
05:39 where he's moved the formation around a little bit, tried slightly different things, but
05:42 do you perhaps think there's a question of adaptability here, either in the squad or
05:45 in the manager?
05:47 I think to a certain degree. I think when he has changed it around, it's been sort of
05:50 circumstantial within games and reacting to situations. I think it was Fulham away in
05:55 the FA Cup where he's gone to a back three just to try and shore up a little bit and
05:59 see how the last sort of 10 minutes of the game. There's been a few games like that,
06:03 but I do think it's possibly one of Eddie Howe's weak points and something he needs
06:07 to improve on is his game management, his ability to adapt on a consistent basis during
06:13 games. I think that's maybe where Newcastle got found out a little bit in the Champions
06:16 League. I mean, a wonderful start, obviously they draw Milan and then the home win against
06:21 PSG, but then after that just seemed to get found out a little bit, maybe tactically.
06:26 But again, I mean, you can't really doubt what Eddie Howe's done there since he's gone
06:29 in two and a half years ago now. The progress of where they were back then, you know, let's
06:35 be honest, I think everyone connected with Newcastle thought they were relegated, even
06:39 though it was still only not even midway through the season to where they are now when they
06:43 could still, and we shouldn't overlook this, they could still qualify for Europe this season.
06:47 They could still, yes, it may be Conference League, it may be Europa League, but they
06:50 are still in there with a shout. But I think it's a really good point that Howe does have
06:55 to improve that side of it, be a bit more flexible. The Lewis Hall situation's been
06:59 a bit strange, how he's brought in with a bit of fanfare from Chelsea and hasn't been
07:03 played. Whereas I think everyone, including himself, would say Dan Byrne has struggled
07:07 at times at left back. So it's, I think it is something Eddie Howe needs to look at is,
07:13 you know, could he try and freshen things up a little bit at times? There have been
07:16 times when he couldn't do that because of injuries. But yeah, I think it's definitely
07:20 something to look at going forwards.
07:21 Yeah, I think it's interesting when you mentioned sort of Lewis Hall and you mentioned Sam Drottenale
07:26 earlier and that some of the work they did in the transfer market in the summer doesn't
07:29 necessarily pan out, often for reasons beyond their control, of course. But I also think
07:34 with Manchester United, I'd like to ask you, Rich, about the sort of work they did last
07:37 summer, because we've seen Ten Heart go towards this much more direct style, trying to get
07:41 the ball out much more quickly, sort of a big gap between defence and attack in a lot
07:45 of matches. But the players they signed don't really seem to have fit that formula. Look
07:49 at Mason Mount, for instance. You know, he's not the kind of player who's going to hair
07:52 up or should be trying to hair up and down the pitch, you know, sort of Scott McTominay
07:56 style, I guess. Do you think there was a bit of a disconnect between what the manager wanted
08:00 and what they ended up actually doing in the summer?
08:03 I think there's certainly an element of that. But I mean, you look at Mason Mount, he was
08:07 Ten Heart's number one guy. He targeted him, he pushed for that signing. The confusion
08:12 really from our point of view was always, where's this guy fitting in? Because you'd
08:16 say he's probably better in the number 10 role that Bruno Fernandes has the monopoly
08:19 over. So I think the target was for Mount to come in and be the link man in midfield.
08:25 Didn't quite work out that way. Last pre-season he played there, he looked quite good, but
08:28 it's pre-season, it doesn't matter. Anthony Martial plays well in pre-season, so it counts
08:33 for nothing. And then the season starts, Mount gets his injury and the bad news for him is
08:38 Kobi Meunier comes through and now Kobi Meunier is doing everything Mason Mount was signed
08:42 to do. So at best he is now this backup option and he just feels like that square peg in
08:47 a round hole. How do you fit him into this United team? He won't play in the second midfield
08:51 because Bruno plays there. He won't play the link role because Kobi plays there. There
08:56 is maybe a suggestion that eventually Kobi Meunier could become the Casemiro replacement
09:01 and then the gap in midfield is where Meno is now and that could be Mount. Perhaps midfield
09:05 of Meno, Mount and Fernandes could work, but I think it works against teams where there's
09:09 an onus on you to have the ball and break them down. I don't think it works at all against
09:13 one of the better teams in the Premier League because you've just not got defensive cover
09:17 there. The other situation for Mount was he played well on the right wing for Chelsea
09:21 in a few games, gone at you as monopolized there. So the two positions he was signed
09:25 to sort of fill have been taken up by two academy players. What is interesting is ahead
09:30 of their trip, they've got Chelsea on Thursday night. What do you do with Mount? Because
09:36 he was good from the bench against Brentford. He gets his goal, confidence would be high,
09:40 but someone else has to be dropped and it's really hard to see that now. Like you said
09:44 on transfers though, I can't have any sympathy with Ten Hag. He's spent so much money. Lots
09:49 of the players were his guys and it's sort of prevented them from doing further work
09:55 in the windows ahead. You look at that Anthony deal. United paid a criminal amount for him
10:00 and that, the amount they spent on Anthony so late in the window meant that last January
10:05 they had to loan in Subitza and Vegehorse. They couldn't buy midfielder or a striker.
10:09 It's also dehabilitated them going forward of FFP and profit and sustainability. And
10:13 it meant that this January there was no money whatsoever. So while I have a little bit of
10:17 sympathy with some of the players not working out for injuries, United spent so much. They
10:21 paid well over the odds for Mount who would have been a free agent this summer. They paid
10:25 well, well in excess of what Anthony was worth and that's how the knock on effect. So yeah,
10:29 I have no sympathy with United and not spending enough money.
10:32 Just one midfielder that hasn't been mentioned is Scott McTominay. And I think from an outside
10:41 point of view, every time I see him play, I think he does a really good job no matter
10:44 what role he plays. And where do you see him going forwards? Because to me, he can fit
10:48 in any midfield role that Ten Hag wants, but he just seems to be quite underrated at the moment.
10:53 Yeah. Again, I think he's similar to Maguire that he's effective, but he's effective. United
10:58 aren't playing the way Ten Hag wants them to be. He's great at making those drive and runs.
11:01 In the chaos and lack of control, he thrives. But if you want to play nice football and break
11:08 teams down, McTominay just doesn't have the skill set. He doesn't have the passing ability to do
11:11 that. So I think there is a place for him in the squad. He's the type of player Ferguson would have
11:15 loved. He's got the right attitude, the right mentality. Throw him on, he can make something
11:19 happen. But I think ultimately for Ten Hag's own style of play, he's a contradiction to it. So
11:24 yeah, it's a shame really. But the ultimate question on him is, do you cash in the summer
11:28 while his stock's so high?