Man Utd: Lineker believes Ten Hag ‘very difficult to buy for’ with only one sensible signing named

Gary Lineker believes Manchester United manager Erik ten Hag is difficult to buy for in the transfer market as “he plays a different system all the time”.

Ten Hag has spent over £600million on new players since joining Man Utd in the summer of 2022.

The Dutchman’s record signing is Antony from his former club Ajax, spending around £80m on the Brazilian winger, who has been a colossal disappointment at Old Trafford.

His transfer philosophy leans towards signing players with Eredivisie experience and it’s even better if he has managed them at some point.

Sir Jim Ratcliffe’s arrival as owner earlier this year hinted at a change in transfer philosophy but Ten Hag still got his paws on two of his former Ajax players in Noussair Mazraoui and Matthijs de Ligt.

While Ten Hag – who unsurprisingly leads the Premier League sack race – likes signing these players, it is still a very inconsistent bunch that have signed for the club during his reign as manager.

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Man Utd manager Ten Hag ‘difficult to buy for’ – ‘What is their identity?’

The reason for the inconsistency is that the Man Utd bosses are not buying players for a specific style of play on the pitch, as Ten Hag “plays a different system all the time”.

This is according to former England striker Lineker, who has no clue what “Ten Hag’s type of player” is and might have a very good point.

“I think it’s very difficult to buy a player for Erik ten Hag because he plays a different system all the time,” he said on The Rest Is Football podcast. “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 [Tottenham boss] or Brighton who do really well, or Brentford or someone like that, those kind of clubs… Or 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.

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“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, and 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.

“Therefore, they just seem to buy ad hoc. You know, ‘I had him at Ajax and he was really good there,’ I’m sure he was! Any of those players that he’s bought from there. But where do they fit in?

“Someone like [Rasmus] Hojlund, yeah that was obvious, he’s a striker, you’ve 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.”

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