Tim Sherwood has slammed Manchester United’s approach in their 2-2 draw with Tottenham and claims Erik ten Hag’s side are playing without a game plan.
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United led twice at Old Trafford through Rasmus Hojlund and Marcus Rashford but goals from Richarlison and Rodrigo Bentancur sealed a deserved point for Spurs.
Scott McTominay missed an excellent chance to win the game late on for the hosts but Sherwood was heavily critical of United’s overall display, and even accused Bruno Fernandes of ‘pretending to press’ in midfield.
‘He [Timo Werner] had an opportunity, we believe, to go to Man United as well, I wonder if he regrets that decision… absolutely not,’ Sherwood told Premier League Productions.
‘He could’ve been out there today playing left-back or right-back for Man United because there’s absolutely no game plan for their strikers.
‘I talked about Rashford and Garnacho, we hardly saw them, you see them on the counter-attack, they’re having to take the ball 50, 60 yards up the field, leave them up the field, that’s what Tottenham do, leave their strikers up the field, conserve their energy and do what they do best in the final third. There’s no game plan at Man United.
‘Timo’s done well there today, he’s a threat in behind, he will get better with game time, and a bit of knowledge of his teammates which he’ll get in training, because obviously they work to a game plan, every training session they’re learning something which is relative to what they’re putting into a match day.
‘I can’t say the same, on evidence, about Man United when watching them play.
‘He [Ange Postecoglou] gives them that belief, the players who come in are asked to play the same way, he doesn’t say all of a sudden, ‘we going to get more bodies behind the ball and sit a little bit deeper because you’re not good enough’, he doesn’t send out that message, what he says is, ‘this is the way we play, this is my identity, whoever plays, whichever XI or whichever player comes off the bench, will continue playing this way and we will push Man United back at Old Trafford’.
‘You’ve got Pedro Porro and [Destiny] Udogie on the left side, they pushed [Alejandro] Garnacho back, they pushed Rashford back, they stepped in from centre-back positions and overloaded in the midfield area. Bruno Fernandes was pretending he was putting a press on, he was getting near no-one, Hojlund doesn’t know where he’s going to go, when he has to go, if he goes he goes in isolation and no-one follows him behind, and they pulled them around all over the pitch.
If they [Tottenham] had their first-team players there they would’ve won comfortably, it could’ve been embarrassing, the only reason they got a draw out of the game is because Tottenham were not clinical in the final third.
Former United goalkeeper Peter Schmeichel, who was working as a pundit alongside Sherwood, said: ‘I think you’re right, if Son [Heug-min] was there, [Dejan] Kulusevski, if they were there today they would’ve taken Manchester United apart.
‘It felt like everyone was out there for themselves for United, I’m trying to win this game, I want to be the hero, I’m going to put that pass in or I want to dribble.’
Sherwood then added: ‘Have they got a choice though, Pete? There’s no other player, they do it on their own or they don’t do it.
‘There are no triangles, there are no patterns, there’s nothing what looks like it’s been worked on the training pitch.
‘All of a sudden it has to be an individual, we know they’ve got individuals, it has to be that.
‘You look at the games they’ve won this season it’s from a bit of genius, an overhead kick from Garnacho, or a worldie from [Diogo] Dalot at Sheffield United.
‘It’s moments, it’s nothing to do with their cohesion and their fluidity or their team play because they have none.’
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