It was about as close as an FA Cup-winning manager has come to a mic drop.

In a room of journalists who had spent the previous few days reporting on his bosses’ plan to replace him, a bruised, embattled but belligerent Erik ten Hag defended his record as manager of Manchester United.

“Two trophies in two years is not bad,” he said. “Three finals in two years is not bad. If they don’t want me, then I go somewhere else to win trophies because that is what I do.”

It was a good line, worth repeating, which he did. After Ten Hag’s contract was extended and his future settled, he sat down with MUTV in July and reiterated his “two trophies” point.

Then he said it again a few days later in Trondheim after United’s first pre-season friendly, adding: “Apart from (Manchester) City, that’s more than any other club in English football.”

He repeated it again after the friendly against Rangers in Edinburgh.

Then again on the tour of the United States.

That was just pre-season. Since the start of the campaign proper, Ten Hag has referenced his two domestic cup wins in six exchanges with journalists during pre- and post-match press conferences, to say nothing of interviews with broadcasters.

The latest instance, after Sunday’s 3-0 defeat to Liverpool, came amid a tense exchange with one journalist who Ten Hag invited to name the “mistakes” his team were accused of making. After the journalist rattled off a long list of repeated errors, Ten Hag retreated to his old faithful.

“I have a different vision. I think we won, after City, the most trophies in English football,” he said. “I am sorry for you.”

He’s right, of course. It is as true now as it was at Wembley. But three games into a new season, an argument with which he neatly skewered his critics in May is fast becoming a crutch to fall back on.

On Friday, having just repeated his favourite point, Ten Hag added: “There’s only one thing in football and that’s at the end of the season if you win prizes, trophies, or not.” But as others have noted, that view is in stark contrast to that of his predecessor Ole Gunnar Solskjaer.

“Any cup competition can give you a trophy but sometimes it’s more of an ego thing from other managers and clubs to finally win something,” Solskjaer said in March 2021.

“It’s not like a trophy will say, ‘We’re back’. It’s the gradual progression of being in and around the top of the league and the consistency and the odd trophies. Sometimes a cup competition can hide the fact you’re still struggling a little bit.”

Solskjaer’s words are those of a manager who had the opposite problem to Ten Hag. Under the Norwegian, United’s league finishes steadily improved — from sixth to third to second — but the trophy cabinet was bare.

Solskjaer was defending his record by claiming that the league is a true barometer of progress, just as Ten Hag is defending his record by pointing to silverware. As to which view is correct, opinions will vary.

As critical as it was for Solskjaer’s United to qualify for the Champions League on the final weekend of the 2019-20 campaign, do you remember who they beat that day? Do you remember the score? Maybe you do, but that 2-0 win behind closed doors at Leicester City is hardly a result that will echo through the ages.

Similarly, memories are not made by being runners-up in the league. Solskjaer’s side finished 12 points adrift of champions Manchester City the year they finished second, in 2021, having not topped the table from late January.

The only trophy United came close to winning that year was the Europa League. Speaking before the final in Gdansk, Solskjaer maintained that silverware sometimes “hides other facts”. But after United lost to Villarreal in a penalty shootout, he admitted he could not consider the season a success having failed to deliver silverware.

Ask some who have known the inner workings of Old Trafford over the years and they would say you cannot survive as United manager without winning trophies. Solskjaer’s spell in charge is arguably evidence of that, while Ten Hag’s proves the inverse: deliver a trophy plus the greatest day of United’s post-Sir Alex Ferguson era and you can survive anything, even the worst-ever Premier League finish.

There was also the 4-3 quarter-final win over Liverpool, of course — one of Old Trafford’s best games and atmospheres this century. Add the Carabao Cup victory on top, and the past two years have given supporters indelible memories, highs to balance out the lows.

But Solskjaer’s view is much closer to how performance is coldly assessed at the elite level in modern football. A league campaign over 38 games home and away is undeniably a truer gauge of a side’s quality, as well as typically the gateway to lucrative Champions League qualification, which affects budgets in a way the FA Cup cannot.

United may be the second-most successful side in English football over the past two years, as Ten Hag points out, but nobody would sincerely argue that they have been the second-best team.

Nor would anybody suggest United are closer to challenging City for major honours than Arsenal, despite Mikel Arteta only adding a Community Shield to his honours list since Ten Hag’s appointment.

That is the reality. In a quieter moment, outside the adversarial nature and pitched battles of a press conference, even Ten Hag would agree that trophies are not enough. You need both pots and points.

United’s decade-plus of underachievement will only have ended when the club are regularly competing for Premier League titles and reaching the latter stages of the Champions League again.

There were mitigating factors last season — injuries, off-field turmoil, takeover uncertainty, the absence of an established left-back — but United were below standard in the competitions that matter most.

That, despite domestic cup success, is why their manager is under pressure to prove progress has and can still be made, and why he will only be able to point to his two trophies for so long. When not staring down a room of journalists and television cameras, even Ten Hag would accept that.

GO DEEPER

Analysing Ashworth and Berrada’s Man Utd transfer briefing – ‘Erik has our full backing’

(Top photo: Erik ten Hag with the FA Cup; by Alex Pantling via Getty Images )

Erling Haaland is frequently portrayed as a lethal Scandinavian footballing machine whose sole purpose is to compute the most effective way to score goals.

It is a tempting way to describe a 6ft 4in (194cm) Norwegian whose goalscoring records are on another level — it’s now 97 goals in 102 appearances for Manchester City if you were wondering.

Most of Haaland’s goals for City are one-touch finishes inside the penalty area — a result of being in the right place at the right time. His exquisite off-ball movement means that he is usually in the correct position, and that is complemented by constant scanning of his surroundings.

They are the type of goals that present Haaland as an inevitable cyborg — but that’s not entirely fair. Looking past his clinical strikes opens up a rich seam of technique and artistry in Haaland’s finishing.

In his first season with City, Haaland scored only once from outside the penalty area, away to Wolverhampton Wanderers in September 2022. That’s not the significance of the goal though, because what he does is more important than where he does it.

Here, Haaland receives the ball with his left foot and it’s Maximilian Kilman up against him…

Kilman is expecting Haaland to shift the ball onto his stronger left foot, which is clear from the centre-back’s body shape. However, the City striker dummies a move towards his left foot…

… and then pushes the ball towards his right, which forces Kilman to change his body orientation by rotating clockwise…

… and losing sight of the ball for a moment.

That fraction of a second is enough for Haaland to strike the ball into the bottom corner.

Interestingly, he shoots towards the side from which Kilman has just rotated away. That makes the shot harder to block because the defender’s torque is moving him in the other direction.

Another feature of Haaland’s game that is often overlooked is his ability to use both feet to create the best shooting angle and finish chances quickly.

In this example, against Nottingham Forest last April, Kevin De Bruyne finds Haaland near the penalty area, and Murillo positions himself in a way that forces Haaland to go onto his weaker right foot. The City striker uses his left foot to dribble into space…

… but then quickly shoots with his right before Forest’s goalkeeper can close down the angle. In this instance, Haaland’s ability to use his left and right foot in conjunction allows him a less-than-a-second advantage compared to dribbling with his left and then shooting with the same foot.

In a much more recent example, against West Ham United last Saturday, Haaland is waiting to receive Rico Lewis’ pass inside the penalty area with Emerson Palmieri the closest defender to the City striker. Lewis plays the pass to Haaland…

… and Emerson moves towards him, but the Norwegian controls the ball with his right foot against the direction of the left-back’s movement…

… and curls it into the top of the net. Again, by receiving with his right and immediately shooting with his left Haaland saves a fraction of a second compared to only using his left foot.

Another key point here is that his first touch moves the ball against the direction of Emerson’s movement, which makes it harder to block the shot because the left-back’s body weight is residing on his left foot and he is trying to block with an unbalanced right.

Haaland takes a risk by controlling the ball back towards the centre, where there is less space, rather than letting the ball roll across him, because the first option provides a better shooting angle. And it works because he takes Emerson out by setting up the shot in the opposite direction of the left-back’s movement, in addition to the speed of the execution as a result of using both feet.

Whether Haaland controls the ball with his left or right foot depends on the situation and where he wants to shoot from. In this example, against Leicester City in April 2023, De Bruyne plays the ball into the path of Haaland on an attacking transition.

Against an unorganised defence, Haaland pushes the ball into space with his first touch by using his left foot to keep it away from Leicester’s central centre-back, Harry Souttar, and the goalkeeper…

… before dinking it over the latter to score yet another goal. The difference is minimal, but if Haaland uses his right foot to push the ball forward, there is a higher probability of it being closer to Souttar and the goalkeeper when he is taking the shot.

In another example, from the 1-1 draw against Liverpool in November, Haaland is positioned between Virgil van Dijk (No 4) and Joel Matip (No 32) when Nathan Ake plays the ball to him.

First, Haaland is positioned outside the goalposts when he receives the ball, which means that pushing it away from Van Dijk and Alisson with his left foot is a non-starter because the shooting angle is already narrow.

Instead, Haaland controls the ball with his right rather than his left to distance it from Matip and allow him to quickly use his left on the following action…

… in which he sets up the shot…

… and puts the ball into the far bottom corner.

The final example is from City’s 2-0 victory against Chelsea last month. Here, Bernardo Silva flicks the ball to Haaland inside the penalty area…

… and the Norwegian controls it with his right…

… but dribbles with his left instead of shooting…

… then uses his right again to be able to quickly shoot with his left…

… which he eventually does when he chips the ball into the back of the net.

The reason behind the delayed shot was that Haaland predicted that Robert Sanchez would stay on his line.

“Last year, Sanchez had a great save on me because he stays a lot on the line,” Haaland told Sky Sports after the game. “That’s why I took a couple of extra touches, then he was rushing out and I knew exactly what to do.”

More often than not, Haaland will score with a one-touch finish because he is in the ideal position and that’s all he needs to do. However, there will be other situations where more work is required and the City striker knows precisely what to do there, too.

Sometimes Haaland’s finishing might look robotic, but look a little closer and the artistry becomes clear.

(Top photo: Henry Nicholls/AFP via Getty Images)

After focusing on the top half of the playoff bracket last week, it’s time to check in on a surprisingly spirited race for the eighth seed. With about two weeks left in the regular season, seven playoff teams are essentially set in stone, though the matchups aren’t yet set.

There is drama at the bottom of the postseason bracket. Chicago has been in a tailspin since the Olympic break, relinquishing what had been a comfortable lead over the lottery teams. The Sky have lost six in a row, suffering from the absence of Chennedy Carter (illness) and already without Marina Mabrey due to the pre-deadline trade. Chicago is still slotted into the No. 8 seed by virtue of a 2-1 head-to-head tiebreaker over Atlanta; however, a Sept. 17 showdown against the Dream looms charge. The Sky don’t have a true incentive to tank out of the playoffs because they don’t own their first-round pick, but they do have a swap with Dallas. If it seems like the Wings also will land outside the top eight, missing the postseason would ensure that Chicago at least gets a lottery pick, even if it’s not the best selection.

The Atlanta Dream (11-21) have now matched the Chicago Sky’s record! 😳 #WNBA pic.twitter.com/ei16oNr1V1

— I talk hoops 🏀 (@trendyhoopstars) September 2, 2024

Atlanta seems to be the betting favorite to make the postseason. The Dream have the fifth-best net rating in the league since the Olympic break and are tied in the standings with the Sky. They also got a gift in the form of Natasha Cloud’s suspension for technical fouls accumulation against the Mercury, improving the possibility of stealing a win in Phoenix to end their West Coast road trip. Atlanta also doesn’t own its first-round pick in the next draft, so it has every incentive to push toward the postseason.

A week ago, it seemed as if only two teams were in contention for this final playoff spot. But recent surges by the Dallas Wings and Washington Mystics added additional intrigue. Dallas had won three in a row — including back-to-back wins over Las Vegas and Minnesota — before succumbing to Indiana on Sunday. Even so, the Wings are only two games out of the final playoff seed spot, and their next three contests are against the Mystics, Dream and Sky, which gives Dallas a chance to make up ground quickly. The Wings also have the most talent among any team chasing the playoffs and the best chance of winning postseason games if they make it there.

Washington also sports a recent three-game winning streak and hasn’t really lost a step since trading away Myisha Hines-Allen. The Mystics have four games remaining against the other three teams in this field, and their recent play suggests they are probably closer to a .500 team than the one that started the season 0-12.

The race for eight isn’t nearly as consequential as how the top seeds shake out, considering most of these teams aren’t really capable of hanging with the New York Liberty in a three-game playoff series, there is always value in seeing how players respond to game pressure and higher stakes. Even if younger squads like the Sky and Mystics don’t advance to the playoffs, merely being in the chase is a useful experience. The games still matter.

Three standout performances

1. White T A’ja Wilson is absolutely terrifying

The two-time MVP and reigning two-time defensive player of the year has become additionally famous for her tunnel fits over the years, dazzling as much off the court as she does on it. But recently, Wilson has taken to a simpler approach, coming to games in a plain white T-shirt and sweats before changing into her Aces uniform. As she told the Las Vegas Review-Journal, “I have to want to put on clothes. Right now, where I am, I don’t feel like I deserve to put on (dressier) clothes.”

No matter what Wilson wears to a game, defenses have no prayer of stopping her. On Sunday against Phoenix — an opponent that boasts Brittney Griner but little other forward depth — Wilson scored 41 points on 16-of-23 shooting, adding 17 rebounds, one block and no turnovers in an 18-point road win. Wilson became the first player in WNBA history to post 40 points and 17 rebounds in a single game, and she tied Breanna Stewart and Diana Taurasi for the most 40-point games ever. As a reminder, Wilson is only 28.

Through 32 games this season, Wilson has 42 turnovers, which belies comprehension. She had to create more of her offense than usual to start the year without Chelsea Gray and still regularly navigates through double teams. She operates with a live dribble considering how often she faces up to score, instead of with her back to the basket. Turnovers should be the price of doing business for such a high-volume scorer (the highest in league history to date, if her average holds for the rest of the season), and she still leads the WNBA in turnover percentage (5.5), more than two percentage points better than second-place Kayla Thornton.

The Aces were 3-4 since the Olympic break (19-12 overall) when Wilson made that statement. That record may have made Wilson feel that she wasn’t performing to her standard — and why I argued last week that she wasn’t the no-brainer MVP — but it’s still worth acknowledging just how ridiculous her individual performances have been. No less an authority than Taurasi called Wilson’s season “unthinkable.” Already one of the game’s all-time greats, Wilson continues to get better.

“What she’s doing right now is unthinkable. … She’s just unguardable. You guys look at her as a post, I look at her as a guard.”

Diana Taurasi to @AlecCipollini about the Aces’ A’ja Wilson against the Mercury (41 points, 17 rebound) and her dominance in the WNBA this season. pic.twitter.com/6dshfeXf1F

— DANA (@iam_DanaScott) September 1, 2024

2. Satou Sabally’s 3-pointer is a difference-maker

The first thing that stood out when Sabally returned to the German national team was how comfortably she stepped into pull-up 3-pointers. The long ball has historically been the differentiator between good and great seasons for Sabally. When she shoots above 30 percent (which isn’t even league-average) from distance, she’s an All-Star.

Sabally is currently canning 48.8 percent of her triples, including nine during the Wings’ recent three-game winning streak. Dallas forces Sabally to the perimeter on offense more so than European teams because of the glut of frontcourt players on the Wings, but Sabally is making that a winning proposition. Even though she’s taken nearly as many midranger jumpers (23) as shots in the restricted area (24), her efficiency hasn’t wavered. Her effective field-goal percentage is a career-best 55.6 (though seven games, admittedly), and Dallas is back from the dead after a horrific start to the season.

Satou Sabally stuffed the stat sheet to lead the @DallasWings to victory!

🔥 28 PTS (10-14 FGM)
🔥 7 REB
🔥 5 AST
🔥 4 3PM
🔥 2 STLS pic.twitter.com/YBA6tH9e3I

— NBA (@NBA) August 28, 2024

If anything, Sabally might be better served shifting more of her shot attempts beyond the arc. In the loss to Indiana, she made 4-of-9 3-pointers but only 2-of-7 2-pointers, as she shared the court the entire game with two other bigs. The Wings’ defense has still been terrible even though they have strung together a few wins, so they need to continue to put up high point totals. More 3s from Sabally, especially if she is shooting the ball this well, could be part of the recipe. It would also save the oft-injured star from taking a beating in the paint, since Dallas needs her on the court as much as possible to close out the regular season.

3. The best backcourt in the league?

The superlatives keep coming for Caitlin Clark, but her backcourt mate Kelsey Mitchell has been no less impressive during Indiana’s surge. Since the Olympic break, Mitchell is the WNBA’s second-leading scorer (she’s ninth for the full season), while shooting 50 percent overall, 40 percent on 3-pointers and 90 percent on free throws. Leave her for a second, as Sabally did when she and Arike Ogunbowale miscommunicated on a switch Sunday, and Mitchell will rise up with no hesitation. She and Clark have an easy chemistry on backdoor cuts as Mitchell is one of the fastest guards in the game, especially when her defender turns her head for a beat. Indiana’s transition attack has been effective with Mitchell running the floor and Clark hitting her with outlet passes.

THE FEVER ARE THE MOST FUN TEAM IN BASKETBALLpic.twitter.com/cRefDPsh4w

— whitney medworth (@its_whitney) September 1, 2024

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Against Dallas, the pair combined for 64 points and 15 assists. To be fair, the Wings’ defense creates some inflated offensive totals, but the ease with which Mitchell and Clark created offense was something to behold.

It begs the question of whether the Fever already have the best backcourt in the WNBA. Neither Clark nor Mitchell is an ace defender, but that isn’t exactly necessary when they’re scoring at this rate. Perimeter players for New York and Las Vegas will have their say in the postseason, but for now, the fact that Clark and Mitchell already entered the discussion is a win for Indiana.

(As an aside, between Wilson and Mitchell, it’s been quite a moment for the 2018 draft class. Even beyond those top two picks, Gabby Williams, Jordin Canada, Hines-Allen, Ariel Atkins and Monique Billings could all play meaningful roles in the stretch run of the 2024 season).

Rookie of the week

Kamilla Cardoso, Chicago Sky

Cardoso had a bit of a lull, taking four shot attempts in each of the Sky’s losses against Washington and Indiana last week. She responded with the best game of her young career against Minnesota (albeit another loss). Part of the change was how she was used in the offense. The Sky generally throw the ball directly to Cardoso in the post; considering she’s 6-foot-7, runs the floor well, and works hard to seal her defender, it’s the most efficient way of getting Cardoso involved. However, it’s also predictable and allows defenses to bring help. Even a team like the Lynx that isn’t particularly tall inside can send a second defender to bother Cardoso at the rim.

What was fun about Cardoso’s performance against Minnesota was that she ran some pick-and-rolls with Lindsey Allen, and Allen delivered a couple of pinpoint pocket passes that gave Cardoso open looks inside. Chicago’s spacing isn’t always good enough to enable clean entry passes into the paint, but if Cardoso evacuates the lane to set a screen, that creates some daylight inside. Cardoso isn’t the most versatile big offensively, but she can definitely do more than catch lobs over the top. The Sky should be using these opportunities to expand her scoring skill set, especially with a roster that doesn’t have a ton of offensive pop.

Kamilla Cardoso continues to improve with each game ✅

The rookie posted a career-high 22 points and 9 rebounds in today’s loss vs. the Lynx!#WelcomeToTheW pic.twitter.com/e14joh3OQx

— WNBA (@WNBA) September 1, 2024

Game to circle

Las Vegas Aces at New York Liberty, 4 p.m. (ET) Sunday

This is the last regular-season meeting between the 2023 WNBA finalists, and thus the last chance for the Aces to prove that the Liberty haven’t passed them by. Getting swept during the regular season doesn’t mean Las Vegas can’t flip the script during the playoffs — for instance, in 2020, the Storm lost both regular-season games to the Aces but swept them in the finals. But another loss certainly wouldn’t be a good omen, especially with Las Vegas now at full strength.

(Photo of Angel Reese: Michael Hickey / Getty Images)