MANCHESTER, England — Alejandro Garnacho was given top billing by Erik ten Hag against Brentford and the Manchester United winger repaid his under-fire manager with a performance to match.
Both Garnacho and Marcus Rashford want to play on the left and, more often than not, Ten Hag has given preference to Rashford. But United haven’t been scoring or winning and so the Dutchman made a change to put the England international on the right instead. It worked and Garnacho scored a crucial equaliser from the left to help United to a much-needed 2-1 win.
The Argentina international tormented makeshift right-back Sepp van den Berg and was easily the home side’s best player. He would have had at least two assists to add to his goal had his teammates been more alert to a couple of crosses fizzed across the penalty area during a brilliant second half.
Garnacho went off late in the game to a standing ovation from the supporters inside Old Trafford. Thanks largely to the 20-year-old they finally had a good day in Manchester’s Autumn sun, and so did Ten Hag.
“I know what he’s capable of,” Ten Hag said afterwards. “He’s a threat and has scoring abilities, but also a threat in one-versus-one situations. The end product is definitely what we need and missed that in the first games of the season.”
After five games without a win, Ten Hag desperately needed one. But it looked for a while that Brentford would hammer another nail into his coffin with a first league win at Old Trafford since 1937 as they went into half-time 1-0 up.
Matthijs de Ligt had already been ordered off the field twice after suffering a head wound in a collision with Kevin Schade. With blood still colouring his hair and face red, the centre-back was sent to the touchline for a third time in first-half stoppage time. While he was off the pitch, Ethan Pinnock got away from Diogo Dalot from a corner and headed past André Onana.
De Ligt spun round in a fury and booted a ball into the stands; Ruud van Nistelrooy’s protests earned the assistant coach a yellow card and he was lucky to avoid a second as he continued his argument with the fourth official in the tunnel at the break.
So often United under Ten Hag have failed to deal with setbacks. This time, though, the perceived injustice seemed to fire them up.
“We were mad,” Ten Hag admitted. “Definitely, we were angry at half-time.”
Brentford have made headlines for starting quickly in the last month, but it was United who started the second half with a bang. United’s tactic for most of the game appeared to centre around getting the ball to Garnacho as quickly as possible and in the 47th minute it got Ten Hag’s team back in the game.
Rashford picked up the ball on the right and arrowed a pinpoint pass towards the far side of the penalty area; Garnacho has scored spectacular volleys before and added another to his collection with a guided finish into the net before the ball had touched the ground. It was the type of clinical finish Ten Hag has been begging for — and it was one of seven shots Garnacho attempted, three more than any other United player.
Sometimes criticised for his work rate, he defended as well as he attacked and topped the stats sheet with six ball recoveries before being substituted.
With United 1-0 down and Southampton 2-0 up against Leicester, there was a point during the afternoon when Ten Hag’s team were officially the Premier League’s lowest scorers. But Ten Hag has said repeatedly that he is confident his forwards will eventually click and for 45 minutes against Brentford they did.
The second goal was one straight from Ten Hag’s drawing board. United’s press pinned Brentford into their own corner, Lisandro Martínez collected a loose pass high up the pitch, Christian Eriksen fired forward a quick pass, and Rasmus Højlund added a deft finish after a clever flick from Bruno Fernandes.
Ten Hag’s beaming smile said it all and he embraced both Van Nistelrooy and fellow assistant Rene Hake. There was a certain amount of relief in the celebrations after a bruising international break that has seen more speculation about his future.
“The stats show we play good football but don’t score enough,” Ten Hag said. “Today, we scored two brilliant goals. The two goals we score are high quality. This team has the capacity to score very good goals and when you score and win you add some confidence.
“The start of the season, we had some good performances. We had chances but didn’t score enough and then everyone is negative. Today can help us, but it is only one win and we must build on this.”
And there lies the challenge for Ten Hag. Victory over Brentford will stop the questions about his position for a couple of days, but Fenerbahce and Jose Mourinho are waiting on Thursday in the UEFA Europa League. Only a consistent run of wins between now and the next international break will quiet the talk around whether he’s the right man for the job.
He can at least point to the development of Garnacho as one of the things he has got right at Old Trafford. Garnacho has needed Ten Hag to show enough faith to play him regularly since breaking into the first team during the former Ajax coach’s first season in Manchester. Now it’s Ten Hag who needs Garnacho to keep performing like he did against Brentford and keep the pressure off the manager’s shoulders.
