Gary Lineker picks sides between Dan Ashworth and Erik ten Hag as Man United woes continue

Gary Lineker claims that Erik ten Hag's lack of identity at Manchester United is the reason why they're struggling - rather than their summer spending.

United have been on a downward spiral this season, winning just two out of seven Premier League games and failing to record a win in their Europa League campaign so far. With their latest stalemate against Aston Villa, questions have been asked of Ten Hag and his squad, as fans fail to see a way out of this current rut.

However, Lineker was asked by Micah Richards on the Rest is Football podcast where he thought the Red Devils were going wrong at the moment - and his response was clear. Lineker believes that United's sporting director Dan Ashworth can't win with Ten Hag, as the manager hasn't shown a clear style of football - meaning it is particularly hard to find a player that suits his team.

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The 63-year-old said: "I think it's very difficult to buy a player for Erik ten Hag because he plays a different system all the time. Sometimes they're counter-attacking, sometimes they'll play a little bit of a high press. Sometimes they won't. We've said it many times on here. What is their style of football? What is their identity?

"I don't think you have that. Now, if you were buying for, let's say, Ange Postecoglou, or Brighton, who do really well, or Brentford, or those kind of clubs, or even Manchester City. They have a way of playing that very rarely varies. They don't go from being a counter-attacking team for three weeks and then being a team on the front foot for three weeks.

"So you can go, if you've got Ange Postecoglou, you know exactly what type of player he would want, but you tell me, what is Erik ten Hag's type of player? Can you answer that? I can't. So I think primarily that is the problem, and I think that's been the case for some time, for previous managers. We know they've had problems at the top of the club, and that filters down and all that sort of stuff. And it does, and it's been difficult for any manager, but I think it's exacerbated at the moment by the lack of a style and the lack of identity of the actual playing side of things, and therefore they just seem to buy ad hoc."

Ashworth has spent the guts of £180million on the United squad in the summer - signing Leny Yoro, Manuel Ugarte, Matthijs de Ligt, Joshua Zirkzee and Noussair Mazraoui. And while Lineker wasn't particularly impressed with the business done, he thinks the blame more lies with Ten Hag for United's nightmare start to the season.

He continued: "You know, someone like Hojlund, that was obvious. He's a striker, he's got to have a striker. But in other positions, in other areas, if you play a slightly different system every week, how do you know what you're buying for? So I think that's probably what's happened. And the other thing, we'll see what happens with Erik ten Hag, he was left in the lurch wasn't he?

"He was put in a difficult position. I mean, things hadn't gone well for him last season. Obviously, they were starting to talk to other managers. We knew about that. We got lambasted a bit for discussing that on the pitch after he won the FA Cup, but we knew that the club, at the time, was speaking to one or two managers. We had that information. So it's the whole thing is a bit of a mess. And you thought when these new people would come in.

"Now, they've obviously not been there that long yet, but it's certainly not changed for the better. And the way they handled the whole summer operation, I thought was particularly poor."

United's summer recruits are yet to make a significant impact with de Ligt suffering from inconsistency, Yoro out injured and Zirkzee scoring just once in his first 10 matches for the club. However, Lineker does think it is too early for fans to judge them, especially considering the team is in a tough period.

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He added: "I don't think you can be too judgmental of the players there at the moment, a little bit like I felt Chelsea last season, because they're all over the shop for most of the season, they rallied towards the end, and that improvement has been continued this season.

"But I don't think you can read too much into that side of things. When confidence is low, they don't really know seem to know their jobs on the pitch a lot of the time."

United's woeful start to the season has seen ten Hag's job come under intense scrutiny. The Manchester Evening News understands the hierarchy will hold talks this week about the Dutchman's future with Thomas Tuchel being lined up as a possible replacement.

If ten Hag is given a chance to lead United after the international break, he will no doubt need three points to relieve the pressure when they host Brentford in their first game back on October 19.

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