Erik Ten Hag's first season : Better than the rest but shy of expectations given the openings

For most part of the spell under club legend, Ole Gunnar Solksjaer, there was this conviction that Manchester United are a world class defensive midfielder away from returning into the company of elites.

However, it was so disheartening that throughout his just less than three years stint at the club, not a single fitting profile was scouted and signed in that position, despite the millions of Euros spent on transfers.

During that period, Manchester United spent needless £40m on the signing of Donny van de Beek, a regrettable move for both parties that has neither go well nor show any prospects of doing so it the near future.

The combination of Fred and Scott McTominay was deemed too weak for a team like Manchester United, whose goal is to compete with the best teams around the world.

Their incompetence costed the club multiple times under Ole Gunnar Solksjaer, and some of the consequences was losing the 2021 Europa League final to Villarreal.

When Erik Ten Hag was appointed the manager towards the end of last season, United started to get linked with players of top teams who play in the defensive midfield position. The most popular of them in the media at the time was Barcelona's Frenkie de Jong.

Since Ten Hag had worked with the Dutchman in his time with Ajax and given how efficiently he was able to utilize his skills, it was thought that United would be able to capitalize on his unsettled status in Spain to lure him to England. 

After a long time lurking but Barcelona remained reluctant to let go, while the player also preferred to stay away from the club, who would not be playing in the Champions League, United had to look elsewhere with time running out in the window. 

They launched an audacious bid to sign Brazilian Defensive Midfielder, Casemiro from defending Champions of both LaLiga and the UEFA Champions League, Real Madrid.

Thankfully, having already signed Aurelien Tchouamnei in a €100m move, Real Madrid were opened to negotiation since Casemiro also wanted the move - a deal of around £60m was completed just before transfer deadline, and in his first season, Erik Ten Hag landed what United had been missing for years.

You'd want to think if Casemiro would have accepted United had Ole Gunnar Solskjaer still been the manager, or if ever the Norwegian would have crop up the idea to try to sign arguably the best in the trade, playing for unarguably the best team in the world.

The transfer pull, which had been Manchester United's biggest strength in years past was restored with that signing, and that might as well be the club's biggest win in Erik Ten Hag's first season.

A lot of impressive numbers for the former Ajax man to commemorate his first year with the Premier League giants - one of them being turning Old Trafford into a fortress as the club has remained unbeaten in their last 28 games in their home ground across all competitions. 

Since losing to Brighton and then Real Sociedad earlier in the campaign, every other team that has visited the Theater of Dreams has left without a win.

Arsenal, Manchester City, Barcelona and Liverpool are top teams to have been welcomed to Old Trafford this season, all of whom were beaten by Erik Ten Hag's minions.

However, despite all these, it could have been a much better season as United had the chances to make it a three horse race for the Premier League title, only to continously bottle it time and again.

Without the same Casemiro, the team's performances bring back memories of the most underwhelming days under Solksjaer.

After their 1-0 win over Brentford in April, Manchester United had 77 per cent win rate with the Brazilian while only 33 per cent win rate without him. It shows the overreliance on the 31 year old.

However, this would not be issue if he had managed to keep himself away from suspension. It also highlights why Ole Gunnar Solksjaer also deserves plaudits for his years with the club, whilst not taking anything away from Ten Hag for pulling off the deal.

In the ongoing season, it has been the impact of Casemiro that has helped the club leveled up from those days. Ole Gunnar Solksjaer is quite unfortunate not to have the same kind of player in his days.

The mercurial form of Marcus Rashford also helped matters as eleven of United's 20 Premier League wins this season have been by a goal differece, and the 26 year old has been on hand to rescue them countless of times. 

Sometimes, they become too predictable. Playing long balls in the hope that the English Englishman can beat both the offside line and the defenders to the ball to have a good chance of scoring.

This makes it difficult for them to kill off games against teams who absorb pressure and spend much time in own half.

Just like under previous managers since Sir Alex, the inconsistency at very crucial stages is retained. In January, only few days after beating Manchester City, they only needed to win at Palace and close in with the league leaders. 

Unfortunately, they were denied a win in added time, after a Michael Olise scrumptious free kick canceled out Bruno Fernandes' first half opener. 

They went on to also drop points against Liverpool, Newcastle United and Tottenham Hotspur, all three who are direct rivals for top four places - that has left them still struggling to secure a finish in the position with three games to go.

In Europe, they conquered teams like Real Sociedad, Real Betis and even Barcelona on their way to the last eight, only to get bullied by a Sevilla side, who are placed deep in the bottom half of the LaLiga standing.

The domestic Cup competitions, both the Carabao Cup and the Emirates FA Cup represent the success for United this season, and the former helped them end a more than five year wait for a trophy while they face-off against their city rivals in the final of the latter, next month.

Nonetheless, the season has shown much improvement and reasons to be optimistic. It is only going to get better as time goes but this season has been close to the bads than the goods for Manchester United. 

But who will mind if the club can add the FA Cup title to its achievement while also securing a place in the next season's Champions League.

It is late in the season but decisive days are still ahead for the Red Devils, both in the soon to end campaign and in the future. 

Author : Kehinde Hassan Afolabi