After the draw with Bournemouth, Diogo Dalot seemed to disagree with Manchester United manager Erik ten Hag, indicating he has concerns about the team’s defense.
Manchester United and Bournemouth draw 2-2.
Ten Hag is unconcerned with his team’s defense.
Dalot claims that the back takes “too many risks.”
Consequently, what happened?
Another lackluster performance from United on Saturday saw them come back from behind twice to draw 2-2 at the Cherries. The hosts’ 20 shots on goal at Vitality Stadium means the Red Devils have faced almost 600 attempts this season, which is the lowest average for the division. The Dutchman Ten Hag said last month that he was not concerned about the amount of goals and chances they were giving up. Defender Dalot pointed out that they are too open at the back, which somewhat contradicts what Ten Hag said.
THOUGHS OF DIOGO DALOT
“I think it’s a fact, something we are looking for,” he said to the Manchester Evening News. Sometimes there is a little bit too much space between the defense and midfield, so perhaps we are taking too many chances. We are hoping to use this as a learning experience and improve moving forward, even though at times we are giving up too many shots and getting counterattacked too frequently. I’m not happy. Our goal in coming here was to obtain the three points. We were hungry to fight for the game after going down twice. I believe that was the match’s script and that we lost control in inappropriate situations. We gave up two goals in the first half and lost a little bit of control, particularly when trying to build up from the back in situations where we shouldn’t have, but overall we have the mentality to fight for the win, so that’s something positive to take away.”
THE LARGER IMAGE
Despite having the fifth-best defense in the Premier League, United has still given up 48 goals in 32 games and is facing an equal number of shots as Sheffield United and Luton Town, two teams that are in danger of relegation. This appears to be yet another reason why things are not looking good for Ten Hag, the manager under pressure, whose team dropped to seventh place in the table following Saturday’s outcome.
“WE DO NOT GIVE UP MANY GOALS”
Ten Hag stated: “As long as we get results, no” following their 1-1 draw with Brentford in late March, in which they had over 30 shots on Andre Onana’s goal. I reiterated what I had said: we had to defend the box and we occasionally defended low due to Brentford’s aggressive style of play. We also lost a lot of second balls. We must also mention that we had a fantastic goalkeeper tonight; he was outstanding. From January on, our performance has been fairly stable, but we give up shots but not many goals.”
Next?
Next Sunday, United will play Championship team Coventry City in the FA Cup semi-finals at Wembley, taking a break from Premier League action. The Red Devils’ only chance to win a trophy this season is in that competition.
