Man Utd ‘genius tactical switch’ lost in noise of Hojlund and Garnacho nonsense

Man Utd dominate the media again – of course – and now it turns out that the fans can spot Erik ten Hag ‘genius’ before the nonsense began.

A tweak is a long time in football
There was a point on Wednesday night when it looked very much like Manchester United would cruise through in Copenhagen and presumably it was roughly that point when The Sun decided to write this complete bum-dribble:

Man Utd fans spot Ten Hag’s tactical tweak working immediately as Hojlund fires Red Devils in front but calamity strikes

How the f*** did they ‘spot’ the ‘tweak’ that was Marcus Rashford literally playing on the right from the very first minute? That’s not a ‘tactical tweak’, that’s a positional switch that Ten Hag actually tried four times last season too.

They even call it a ‘genius tactical switch’ in the opening paragraph. And put a little red circle around Rashford in the image to help the reader ‘spot’ it too. We needed that because otherwise the complexities really were beyond Mediawatch.

Only Man Utd fans
We’re not saying that The Sun website is over-reliant on social media for their content but…

‘Man Utd fans spot Ten Hag’s tactical tweak working immediately as Hojlund fires Red Devils in front but calamity strikes’

‘Man Utd fans baffled by Uefa’s explanation for Marcus Rashford’s red card against Copenhagen’

‘Eagle-eyed Man Utd fans blast ‘corruption’ as they spot reason Copenhagen goal ‘should have been disallowed’’

‘Man Utd fans rage ‘how was this not checked’ by VAR over decision ‘Casemiro would’ve received death penalty for’’

Man Utd fans – all of them – sure are eagle-eyed balls of rage and bafflement. And The Sun really are grateful for that.

Snap, crackle, poop
But why quote a plethora of Man Utd fans when you can quote one fan who has 450 followers on X?

Marcus Rashford sent off for Man Utd after ‘ankle snapping’ challenge on Copenhagen player

The Daily Star there, casually throwing in the words ‘ankle snapping’ because ‘ItsScottfree #GlazersOut’ described it thus.

And you wonder why journalism is absolutely f***ed.

Hoj Polloj
Rasmus Hojlund said some very nice things about Erik ten Hag on Wednesday night, which is absolutely not what you are supposed to think when you see this headline on the Mirror website:

Rasmus Hojlund gives Erik ten Hag verdict after angry sub reaction and ‘going ballistic’

His ‘verdict’ was that the Dutchman is a “really good coach”. Woah there, fella.

This despite an ‘angry sub reaction’ that actually came four days before at Fulham. It’s technically ‘after’, but it’s quite a long time after.

As for the ‘going ballistic’…you have probably already worked out that this is entirely unrelated to the ‘angry sub reaction’/Ten Hag and actually, it’s a quote from the Manchester Evening News about his reaction to Diogo Dalot’s mistake in Copenhagen.

So technically, Rasmus Hojlund gives Erik ten Hag verdict after angry sub reaction four days before and ‘going ballistic’ at Diogo Dalot.

But ain’t no f***er clicking on that.

Cock of the walk
Over at the Express website, the big news from Manchester United’s defeat in Copenhagen is not that they are bottom of the Champions League group but that, well…

Man Utd star Alejandro Garnacho’s cocky gesture comes back to haunt him vs Copenhagen

It turns out that Garnacho shushing the Copenhagen fans at 3-2 (which was silly) means he was ‘left red-faced’ at the final whistle.

Garnacho was visibly distraught after his gesture backfired and needed to be consoled by his team-mates as he sat helplessly on the pitch after the full-time whistle.

Yep, pretty sure he was ‘distraught’ because Manchester United threw away two leads to lose and face Champions League exit, rather than because he had been a bit cocky half an hour before.

Life is not a meme. Not even at Manchester United.

Relegation form
Manchester United’s form is rotten but Mediawatch really does need to add some perspective when we see passages like this one from Sky Sports:

We are in November and Manchester United have lost more than 50 per cent of their matches this season. The last time they experienced that many defeats in their first 17 games of a season was in 1973/74 – the last time they were relegated.

No one is suggesting United will repeat that nightmare – not yet, anyway – but their current form is staggeringly bad.

They have conceded 30 goals in just 17 games across all competitions. Their last four matches alone have seen them ship 10 goals, while only Celtic and Antwerp have conceded more than them in the Champions League this season.

All true. But what’s also true is that they are literally two points behind where they were in the Premier League at the same stage last season. And have conceded exactly the same number of goals. They finished third last season.

Close enough, Jan