The Devil’s Diary: Manchester United’s hammer has driven the first nail. But Erik ten Hag needs more to succeed

Wout Weghorst scored his first goal for Manchester United in a cup match against Nottingham Forest. The Red Devils won the opening match 3-0 and are now on course for the final. But let’s take a closer look at the Dutch striker’s performance in his new job.

Ronaldo’s departure has helped many, especially Weghorst

After the departure of Cristiano Ronaldo, it was expected that Erik ten Hag would bring in a striker to his team. After all, with Anthony Martial being the only “classic” spike striker, who spends more time at the doctors than on the pitch, you don’t really have anything else. We can mention Mason Greenwood, who would be really useful now, but he has enough to worry about.

In addition, Cody Gakpo signed with Liverpool, so Manchester United reached for Wout Weghorst, who may well have been helped by the 2 goals he scored in the Argentine net, sending the Netherlands to extra time and penalties, in which they weren’t the lucky ones anyway.

And as it happens, visibility at a European or World Cup very often means better engagements.

And so it came to pass that the lanky striker Weghorst made it to his first big club and second team in the Premier League. In January last year, Burnley brought him from Wolfsburg for just under €18 million.

But while he scored 70 goals and added 22 assists in 144 games for VfL, he only scored twice in 20 games for Burnley. And the opening two games for the Red Devils, unfortunately, do not suggest that anything will change in this statistic. Even though Weghorst did hit the post in Wednesday’s cup game against Nottingham Forest.

What does a game with Weghorst on the tip mean?

Playing with a 197cm tall striker means one thing – slowing the game down. Whether you like it or not, you simply can’t send a long pass to Weghorst behind the defence. The Hag, meanwhile, likes the fast pace of the game, as we have witnessed when Manchester United have celebrated several goals from just such actions.

So there must be a change here. It’s slightly reminiscent of Jose Mourinho’s strategy of not shying away from sending Marouane Fellaini to the spearhead, which was a brilliant move in the Europa League final against Ajax, who of course were still managed by Peter Bosz at the time.

But it didn’t work in the Premier League. We know from history that Burnley were not successful with Weghorst, although in this case it is hard to make any judgement when we are talking about a whole ship sinking that one carpenter, albeit with a proper hammer, cannot save.

The Nottingham game confirmed everything

Weghorst celebrated his first goal, which many would not have given as it was exactly the goal you expect from him. Matching spot selection, power and good finishing…

However, in the match we witnessed many actions that ended up on speed and especially on slow reaction, which you logically can not expect from this haban. Manchester United’s game must adapt to this, of course.

Weghorst belongs at Old Trafford, but not in the starting line-up

Personally, I can imagine Weghorst in the Red Devils team even after the end of his loan spell. He is a player who is well suited to certain types of play. However, having him as a member of the starting lineup is not exactly beneficial due to many circumstances, as evidenced by previous matches.

So hopefully Weghorst will perform better than he did at Burnley, he certainly has the conditions for it. His teammates, however, have to play with him. The question, of course, is how it will be when the rest of the squad has recovered. Even so, he could become a good joker like Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, as he showed at the World Cup in Qatar.

Source: Manchester United, Premier League