Premier League 2023/24 club previews: Man Utd

Ahead of the 2023/24 Premier League season, Alex Keble takes an in-depth look at each of the 20 clubs.

Manchester United

To appreciate the scale of Erik ten Hag’s success at Old Trafford, listen to the silence.

His debut season slipped by almost unnoticed, a decade of struggles shrugged off by the eerily quiet efficiency of a manager remarkably at ease in a role many considered impossible.

That was certainly the feeling after Man Utd lost 4-0 at Brentford last August to make it two defeats from two. Another cycle of crisis had begun, or so it seemed, but instead Ten Hag stuck calmly to the plan and before long Man Utd - implausibly in the modern era - simply were not the story.

United moved into the top four on 31 December and remained there. The Red Devils won the EFL Cup final without conceding a goal or ever looking remotely in danger.

Perhaps most important of all, Ten Hag began to overhaul the squad, a process that he appears to have completed this summer.

The transitional year was almost perfect, but in football nothing ever stays the same. The peace cannot last. Phase two brings pressure to close the gap on their rivals.

Performance last season

2022/23 final positions

Position Pos	Club	Played Pl	GD	Points Pts
2	Arsenal ARS	38	+45	84
3	Man Utd MUN	38	+15	75
4	Newcastle NEW	38	+35	71

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PL performance last five seasons

How to improve on 2022/23

Ten Hag navigated the first year with small incremental changes; nudges here and there, slowly reconfiguring the dressing-room and raising standards. It was not at all what we expected.

Recognising the size of the task at hand, he put on hold the tactical revolution his Ajax years promised, instead leaning on the looser and more individualistic principles laid down by his predecessor Ole Gunnar Solskjaer.

This is the season we will see Ten Hag’s Man Utd. Improving on 2022/23 means plunging into the finer details of his footballing philosophy, made possible by an excellent transfer window that leaves a young, intelligent, and highly motivated squad ready to learn.

Beyond the broader tactical ideas, Man Utd need to improve their attacking set-pieces, having scored only five goals this way in the Premier League last season, the lowest in the competition.

Key transfers

For the next stage to work, Ten Hag needed to boost his squad with agile and dynamic players fit for a title challenge.

Goalkeeper Andre Onana could be the most significant of these, after signing from Internazionale Milano to replace David De Gea, who ended his 12-year stay earlier this summer.

Onana's ability with his feet marks a dramatic upgrade on De Gea and allows Ten Hag to begin crafting complex patterns of play from the back, the foundation of any modern elite team. It’s a transfer that could have the same kind of instant and dramatic impact as Alisson and Ederson had at Liverpool and Manchester City respectively.

See: Andre Onana: Man Utd's new 'holding midfield' goalkeeper

Mason Mount is precisely the kind of thoughtful, hard-working, and space-invading midfielder essential to upgrading the sophistication of this team. This would also be true if interest in Fiorentina and Morocco midfielder Sofyan Amrabat translates to a move.

The headline arrival is the biggest risk. Rasmus Hojlund, signed for a reported £72million from Atalanta, draws comparisons to Erling Haaland because of his speed and powerful shooting style, but Hojlund has not scored anywhere near as many goals. He is raw, and, at such a price, there is the question as to how pressure will sit on the 20-year-old's shoulders.

See: Why Man Utd back Hojlund to become a top-class striker

Tactics

Last season United were surprisingly hard to read. In big matches they tended to sit back a little and play on the counter-attack. But even against lower-ranked teams Ten Hag’s side rarely showed a consistent pattern of play, relying instead on Casemiro and Christian Eriksen to dominate, and Bruno Fernandes to come up with the goods.

But as the season progressed the manager began to turn the dial, emphasising his belief in playing vertically, in lulling opponents with rhythmic possession before suddenly changing the tempo with line-splitting passes.

Man Utd topped the Premier League charts last season for “direct attacks”, with 102.

This season that number should be higher. We will also see more Pep Guardiola-like detail in the positional instructions given to players, as well as an increase in pressing intensity from the front.

Reasons to cheer

United’s points tally of 75 in 2022/23 was the second-most since Sir Alex Ferguson’s retirement in 2013, and the upward incline is likely to continue after a highly efficient transfer window.

Ten Hag has now built a squad in his image, and a rare moment of tranquillity is descending over Old Trafford.

Reasons to fear

Questions remain as to whether the proposed sale of the club has affected Ten Hag’s ability to further the evolution of the team.

If the Ten Hag project stutters, this delay may speed up the mood turning sour among Man Utd fans.

Opening six matches

CRY

3-2

MUN

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TV Info - Broadcasters

There is a notable split in difficulty between Man Utd’s opening home and away matches. Wolverhampton Wanderers, Nottingham Forest and Brighton & Hove Albion visit Old Trafford in the first six matches, but Ten Hag’s side have to travel to Tottenham Hotspur, Arsenal, and Burnley.

Predicted XI v Wolves

4-2-3-1: Onana; Wan-Bissaka, Varane, Martinez, Shaw; Casemiro, Eriksen; Fernandes, Mount, Sancho; Rashford.

See: Each club's 2023/24 preview