The manager\u2019s desire to recruit a defensive midfielder before the 1 September summer transfer deadline is well documented. Ten Hag covets the signing of Fiorentina\u2019s Sofyan Amrabat, yet the club\u2019s position is that they must raise further funds from sales before the 26-year-old\u2019s move can be accelerated. Fred has been sold for \u00a312.9m to Fenerbahce, but West Ham\u2019s \u00a330m offer for Scott McTominay failed to meet United\u2019s asking price, while Donny van de Beek remains for sale but without any apparent suitors. All of this leaves Amrabat, by all accounts keen on the move, in limbo.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The club may well get their ducks in a row in the coming week. But would the Moroccan, who impressed in his country\u2019s run to the World Cup semi-finals last year, prove a panacea to United\u2019s midfield malaise? Against Wolves and Spurs, Casemiro was left alarmingly exposed in front of the back four. Thus, another No 6 such as the Fiorentina linchpin would seem rational. Amrabat, however, was initially targeted by United as a backup (albeit an elite one) for Casemiro\u2019s position, to allow the 31-year-old some respite amid a packed fixture schedule. Given Ten Hag\u2019s preference to persist with just one holding player and Amrabat being a roughly similar profile to Casemiro \u2013 strong, press-resistant, more comfortable sitting deep \u2013 he and United would need to adapt to each other.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Fiorentina\u2019s Sofyan Amrabat is on Manchester United\u2019s wish-list. Photograph: Eva Ko\u0159\u00ednkov\u00e1\/Reuters<\/p>\n\n\n\n Another player linked to the club is Bayern Munich\u2019s Ryan Gravenberch, who is more of an all-rounder and could fill that problematic No 8 spot in Ten Hag\u2019s team, in which Mount currently looks an awkward fit. But such a move remains unlikely and time is running out to explore other options.<\/p>\n\n\n\n United\u2019s formation has rarely changed under Ten Hag. Only on occasion last season, against higher calibre opponents, did the coach switch to a 4-2-3-1 from his usual 4-1-4-1 with Fred brought in alongside Casemiro against the likes of Manchester City, Barcelona and Liverpool. The Dutchman wants United to press high from the middle, with Mount\u2019s arrival further indicating the manager\u2019s desire for two high-energy No 8s, as popularised by Pep Guardiola at Manchester City. It was hoped Mount would prove a more dynamic version of Christian Eriksen alongside Fernandes but he\u2019s been peripheral in his first two matches. There\u2019s plenty of time for the former Chelsea man to adjust, although he\u2019s been sidelined for the next two games with a \u201csmall complaint\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A possible workaround, to add steel to United\u2019s midfield while retaining both Mount and Fernandes in the middle, could be a diamond shape. The two No 8s could play either side of Casemiro, with a No 10 (potentially Eriksen) at the tip of the apex and willing runners such as Alejandro Garnacho and Marcus Rashford further forward. It would at least bring an extra body into the centre of the park without calling upon the unfancied McTominay or Van de Beek.<\/p>\n\n\n\n An exciting option for United fans is waiting in the wings in the form of Kobbie Mainoo. The Stockport-born academy product is only 18 and was limited to just three senior appearances last season, but impressed on United\u2019s pre-season tour of the US. It\u2019s almost certain the midfielder, adept on the ball and likened to Paul Pogba and Jude Bellingham, would have been named in the matchday squads for United\u2019s opening two matches had it not been for an ankle injury sustained in pre-season. He could be out for another month.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Ten Hag said: \u201cI don\u2019t want to raise expectations too high\u201d after Mainoo caught the eye in the 2-0 win over Arsenal in New Jersey a month ago, but it seems the youngster is being earmarked for a semi-regular role in midfield when he returns. He\u2019s got the attributes to play just in front of Casemiro, with either Mount or Fernandes shifted to the right. Yet relying on an 18-year-old to plug a gap in the absence of a marquee signing would be a concern for some, especially those critical of the Glazers\u2019 investment in Ten Hag\u2019s first team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n story by Dominic Booth<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" he current feeling is a familiar one for Erik ten Hag and Manchester United. Their season is just two games old and performance levels have been markedly below expectation, as players grapple with the manager\u2019s tactical demands. Just as they did 12 months ago \u2013 after damaging defeats to Brentford and Brighton in a stuttering […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":29463,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_post_source_name":"","_post_source_url":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3295],"tags":[285,641,1172,10805,7717,1827,1911,169,8927,7478,9331,8908,11381,1992,1349,5494,5557,5346,8123,9026,7470,515,3355,7090,7985,1966,11294,9343,197,12791,11252,501,115,507,3356,10481,6831,6657,2323,11973,349,4082,13256,10535,12103,114,775,1935,5882,8840,7333,723,6348,10885,6218,720,36,5248,594],"class_list":["post-37152","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world-sport","tag-arsenal","tag-barcelona","tag-bayern-munich","tag-bellingham","tag-brentford","tag-brighton","tag-champions-league","tag-chelsea","tag-christian","tag-christian-eriksen","tag-city","tag-coach","tag-complaint","tag-diamond","tag-dutchman","tag-energy","tag-erik-ten-hag","tag-eriksen","tag-eye","tag-fans","tag-fernandes","tag-fiorentina","tag-fred","tag-games","tag-glazers","tag-guardiola","tag-injury","tag-investment","tag-liverpool","tag-manager","tag-manchester","tag-manchester-city","tag-manchester-united","tag-marcus-rashford","tag-mctominay","tag-midfield","tag-missing","tag-munich","tag-new-jersey","tag-one","tag-paul-pogba","tag-pep-guardiola","tag-players","tag-pogba","tag-price","tag-rashford","tag-scott-mctominay","tag-spurs","tag-steel","tag-strong","tag-summer","tag-tottenham","tag-us","tag-victory","tag-west-ham","tag-wolves","tag-world","tag-world-cup","tag-who"],"blocksy_meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37152","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37152"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37152\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":37153,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37152\/revisions\/37153"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29463"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37152"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37152"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37152"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Fiorentina\u2019s](\"https:\/\/i.guim.co.uk\/img\/media\/70558a2ddb4135edab2a5efe5a07051cb3439673\/0_0_2075_1441\/master\/2075.jpg?width=445&dpr=1&s=none\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\nA change of system<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
A wildcard youngster<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n