DENVER -- Every once in a while, when things look good but feel a little bit off, Denver Nuggets coach Michael Malone will turn around in the middle of a game and ask a team staffer how many shots Nikola Jokic has taken.

Like everyone on the Nuggets' staff, Malone has learned to trust Jokic to read the game, what the defense is giving him and when it's time for him to start attacking. But sometimes it's still hard to wait.

Take Game 1 of these NBA Finals when Jokic took just one shot in the first quarter and three shots in the first half of Denver's 104-93 win against the Miami Heat on Thursday night at Ball Arena.

Jokic was still in complete command of the game with 10 assists in the first half as the Nuggets led by 17, but still -- three shots from your two-time MVP in the first half of the first NBA Finals game in team history would test anyone's fortitude.

"I learned a long time ago, the defense tells you what to do, and Nikola never forces it," Malone said after the game Thursday. "If they're going to give him that kind of attention ... he's going to just pick you apart. Now it's up to the other guys to step in and make shots."

In the first half, that was Jamal Murray (18 of his 26 points), Aaron Gordon (14 of his 16) and Michael Porter Jr. (10 of his 14).

"That's the craziest thing about Joker," Porter told ESPN. "He can have such a big impact and shoot the ball three times. He doesn't care at all. ... He's just always going to take what the defense gives him."

This is the choice every team must make when they play the Nuggets, and none of the options are all that appealing.

Either try to slow Jokic down by sending multiple defenders at him, playing zone or assigning a burly, athletic power forward to shadow him everywhere he goes (Los Angeles Lakers star LeBron James actually did a reasonable job at this in the Western Conference finals). Or, let Jokic score as many points as he wants but try to stop everyone else (which the Golden State Warriors did well in 2022).

Miami mostly tried the former in this game, using Bam Adebayo, Cody Zeller and zone defense to force Jokic into more of a passing role the first three quarters, when Jokic was perfectly content to pick the zone apart.

"I don't force it. I never force it, I think," Jokic said afterwards. "A couple guys had it going, AG was playing really good, and we had advantage there.

"I just take whatever the game gives me."

Everything would've continued this way had the Heat not gone on an 11-0 run to open the fourth quarter to cut the lead to 84-74. That prompted an adjustment from Malone to post up Jokic so he could catch the ball closer to the basket and look to score or continue to draw fouls once Miami was in the penalty.

Jokic responded by scoring 12 points in the fourth on 5-of-7 shooting to close the game out with 27 points, 14 assists and 10 rebounds -- joining then-New Jersey Nets point guard Jason Kidd as the only players to record a triple-double in their Finals debuts.

It was clinical -- the same kind of precision one guy sitting in the crowd Thursday night used to do to NFL defenses when he quarterbacked the Denver Broncos to a Super Bowl in the 2015 season.

That would be Peyton Manning, who received a raucous applause from the Ball Arena crowd when he was shown on the JumboTron during the game. As sports royalty goes in Denver, Manning is near the top of the list, along with John Elway, Terrell Davis and Colorado Avalanche stars Patrick Roy and Joe Sakic.

Jokic is quickly joining that list.

"He literally controlled the game," assistant coach Ognjen Stojakovic told ESPN. "He controlled everything, then he picked out the right moment to score, which for me is really the highest level of basketball."

About the only thing that seemed to bother Jokic was the wait for the game to start. The nine-day layoff between the Western Conference finals and start of the NBA Finals was interminable.

"To be honest, I couldn't wait to start just because when the game started it felt abnormal," Jokic said. "Everything else didn't feel -- felt abnormal, and the whole media day [Wednesday] -- I think people are making something bigger than it is.

"When the game started, I felt really comfortable."

KAMLOOPS, British Columbia -- J.R. Avon scored at 10:54 of overtime and the Peterborough Petes beat the host Kamloops Blazers 5-4 in the Memorial Cup tiebreaker Thursday night to advance to face the Seattle Thunderbirds in the semifinal.

Avon took a drop pass from Owen Beck and beat goalie Dylan Ernst with a shot into the top of the net.

Ontario Hockey League champion Peterborough will face the Western Hockey League champion Thunderbirds on Friday night for a spot in the final Sunday against the Quebec Remparts.

Connor Lockhart, Brennan Othmann, Samuel Mayer and Brian Zanetti also scored for Peterborough and Michael Simpson made 43 saves. Down 4-1 early in the second period, the Petes tied it on Zanetti's goal with 1:10 left in the period.

Peterborough beat the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League champion Remparts 4-2 on Tuesday night in their round-robin finale to avoid elimination and force the tiebreaker game.

Logan Stankoven, Olen Zellweger, Harrison Brunicke and Logan Bairos scored for Kamloops. The Blazers dropped into the tiebreaker game Wednesday night with a 6-1 loss to Seattle.

DENVER -- The Miami Heat set an NBA postseason record for fewest free throw attempts in a game, going to the foul line just twice during a 104-93 loss to the Denver Nuggets in Game 1 of the NBA Finals on Thursday night.

Afterward, Heat star Jimmy Butler vowed to attack the basket more heading into Game 2 on Sunday night. He didn't hesitate when asked why the offense struggled so much to find its rhythm.

"Probably because we shot a lot of jump shots, myself probably leading that pack, instead of putting pressure on the rim," Butler said after scoring just 13 points. "Getting lay-ups, getting to the free throw line. When you look at it during the game, they all look like the right shots.

"And I'm not saying that we can't as a team make those, but got to get more layups, got to get more free throws. And whenever you miss and don't get back, the game gets out of hand kind of quickly. We gave up too many lay-ups, which we also can't have happen. But that's it as a whole. We've got to attack the rim a lot more, myself included."

Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said he liked the 3-point attempts his team was getting, but credited the Nuggets' defense for the way they set the tone.

"You have to credit them with their size and really protecting the paint and bringing a third defender," Spoelstra said. "Things have to be done with a lot more intention and a lot more pace, a lot more detail. We are an aggressive, attacking team, and so if we are not getting those kind of opportunities at the rim or at the free throw line, we have to find different ways to be able to do it."

The Heat fell into an early hole against Nikola Jokic and company in large part because the open looks that Butler and his teammates made a habit of hitting earlier in the postseason just didn't fall. Heat guard Max Strus went 0-for-10 from the field, becoming the fourth player to shoot that or worse in a Finals game, according to ESPN Stats and Information research. Caleb Martin, who carried the Heat offensively at times in the Eastern Conference finals, went 1-for-7 from the field.

"I like everything that we did offensively," Strus said. "We can do a little more intentional, but the looks we got, we'll live with those. We know we're better shooters than that."

Martin echoed a similar sentiment.

"I love the looks, and I think we'll get more looks," he said. "I think this game was kind of a figure-it-out game, well, figure it out half. I think we started to figure it out the second half, but the looks that we got, the shots that we missed, it's kind of laughable. We're much better shooters than we shot tonight."

The Heat lost a Game 1 in a series for the first time this postseason, but Spoelstra remained confident, saying he believes his group will rally around each other the same way it has done throughout the last month and a half. He said he did not think he needed to say anything extra to Strus and Vincent to help them find a rhythm.

"They are fine," Spoelstra said. "I mean, they are not going to get sick at sea. If they are shooters, you're not always going to be able to make all the shots that you want. Then you have to find different ways to impact the game.

"Our game is not built just on the 3-point ball. We have proven that time and time again. We can win games. We can win series, regardless of how the 3 is going. But we also have ignitable guys. You see a couple go through and that also can become an avalanche. One way or the other, we have to find a way to get the job done."

Butler said he believes he will respond to the initial setback and set a better tone in Game 2.

"You've got to attack and attack everybody, not just one individual," Butler said. "I have to do a better job of creating the help, one, two guys, and getting to my shooter, otherwise finishing at the rim, making shots.

"But we missed a lot tonight, and we'll be better in Game 2. At the end of the day, that's what it is, and we'll take this and we'll learn from it, and we'll be back in two days."

MINNEAPOLIS -- The Minnesota Twins reinstated second baseman Jorge Polanco from the 10-day injured list Thursday before their game against Cleveland, bringing their regular lineup nearly back to full strength.

That lasted all of four innings.

Designated hitter Byron Buxton was hit by a pitch in the ribs in the fourth and pinch-hit for by Donovan Solano in the fifth.

Then, shortstop Carlos Correa suffered an aggravation of the plantar fasciitis in his left foot on an awkward step while warming up between innings. He was replaced by Kyle Farmer on defense for the top of the seventh, when right fielder Max Kepler was also pulled with a migraine headache. Willi Castro came in for him and played left field, moving Joey Gallo to right.

After the Twins rallied for a 7-6 victory over the Guardians, manager Rocco Baldelli acknowledged he was concerned about his depth after using all 13 position players in the game.

Buxton said afterward he felt "all right" after being plunked by the 95 mph fastball. He was scheduled to be examined again on Friday morning.

Correa's condition was the most worrisome, considering he missed two games last week with the unpredictably painful injury near his heel.

"Throughout the entire inning, all the groundballs, every step I was taking, it was really painful," Correa said. "I was trying to stay, stay, stay, but it kept getting worse and worse and worse. The last thing I want is to miss a lot of time because I'm not being smart about it."

He'll be re-evaluated again Friday, too.

"I wasn't even feeling it today, and that one step, it just completely changed my day," Correa said.

Solano went 2-for-2 with an RBI double and scored the tying run on Royce Lewis' two-run homer in the eighth. Castro had a single, a run scored and the game-ending sacrifice fly in the ninth.

Polanco missed 11 games with a strained left hamstring. He missed the first 19 games while recovering from inflammation in his left knee, stemming from an injury that sidelined him at the end of last season.

DUBLIN, Ohio — Davis Riley opened with a 67 at the Memorial to finish atop the leaderboard after the opening round for the second straight year. And that’s where the similarities end.

Riley birdied three of his last four holes Thursday afternoon when the turf was firm and the wind was swirling and the bad breaks led to big numbers, as Rory McIlroy found out.

Riley was in a six-way share of the lead last year. On Thursday, he led by one over Matt Wallace. Jordan Spieth was in the group at 69, ending his hopes for a bogey-free day by hitting into two bunkers on the 18th hole and saving bogey from the second one.

It was hot. It was hard. And at times it was tough to watch.

Chad Ramey hit four shots that went into the water on the ninth hole, which featured a front pin and a stream in front of the green. He made a 13, the highest score ever recorded on any of the holes at Muirfield Village.

He posted an 88, still shy of the record high score of 92 that Roger Maltbie shot in 1979 in a second round that featured 30 mph wind and a wind chill index of 13 degrees.

Dry and hot is the weather tournament founder Jack Nicklaus always wanted but rarely gets, and there were plenty of comparisons to a U.S. Open except for the generous fairways.

Defending champion Billy Horschel has been in a slump, and Muirfield Village was no place to try to snap out of that. Horschel had four 6s on his card of 84.

“My confidence is the lowest it’s been in my entire career. I think ever in my entire golf career,” Horschel said. “So it’s funny, as low as it feels, it feels like I’m not that far off at the same time. Which is insane to see when you see me shoot 84 today.”

Wallace, who needs a victory this week to avoid U.S. Open qualifying, posted his 68 in the morning before the wind and the temperatures picked up. Shane Lowry had five straight birdies in the morning in relatively calm conditions, but even he wasn’t immune to a fast golf course that could be punishing without notice.

McIlroy was 3 under for his round playing the 18th when his drive went right — not unusual for the shape of that hole — and was tumbling toward the sand until it stopped. That was very unusual. The ball was nearly belt-high and he could barely take a stance. He did his best to chop it out, and it just cleared the bunker into thick grass.

From there, his 9-iron caught a flyer and sailed over the green to the shaggy hill. His flop shot came out clunky and over the green and its front pin. His chip was weak. He missed the putt. And his triple bogey wiped out an otherwise good day.

Spieth almost was in that predicament. At least he was in the sand, but he hit a poor 7-iron that barely got out of the sand, just ahead of McIlroy’s ball. That turned out to be a break, because when Spieth saw that happened to McIlroy’s shot, he went down to a pitching wedge.

It was a flyer, but it at least took a short hop into the sand in front of the green. He came inches away from holing — as he did for birdie from the bunker on No. 10 — and got away with a bogey.

“It’s nice to beat a tough golf course,” Spieth said.

Mark Hubbard also was at 69 and tried to remind himself it was a very good score after his bogey-bogey-bogey finish.

“I guess on paper it wasn’t what I wanted, but I had 5-iron into 16, 7-wood into 17 and 4-iron into 18. Like that’s a little tough coming in there today,” Hubbard said. “So I told my caddie that’s the least mad I’m ever going to be bogeying the last three.”

Jon Rahm and Adam Scott were at 70 playing in the morning. Scottie Scheffler didn’t make a putt longer than 6 feet and shot 74. That was his highest opening round since Las Vegas in October 2021.

The course average was 74, the highest for a first round at Muirfield Village since 2000. Eight players failed to break 80 — that doesn’t include Dylan Frittelli, who was 15 over through 14 holes when he withdrew with an illness.

Riley’s only bogey was nearly a superb par, from the back bunker on the 18th to 4 feet, but then he missed the putt. A very good round turned into a great one when he made a 12-foot birdie on the sixth, hit wedge to 4 feet on the par-5 seventh and finished with a 12-foot birdie on the ninth hole.

His description of the wedge at No. 7 illustrated the difficulty.

“I got 118 yards and I’m landing it 10 yards short of the pin, 30 feet short, and it’s skipping all the way there. And the wind was up,” Riley said. “This is probably one of the more difficult ones all year.”

DUBLIN, Ohio – It’s been a weird few weeks for Jordan Spieth.

He skipped his hometown event, the AT&T Byron Nelson, with a left wrist injury, wasn’t at his best the next week at the PGA Championship, where he finished tied for 29th, and missed the cut for the first time in 11 starts at last week’s Charles Schwab Challenge.

“A place that historically has been, I think, the best place for me as a professional, at Colonial, to miss the cut there was just, was such a bummer,” said Spieth, who won the Charles Schwab Challenge in 2016 and has three runner-up finishes at Colonial.

But the weirdest part of the last few weeks hasn’t been the results as much as it’s been why he’s struggled. For a player whose history has been written largely thanks to a sublime short game, Spieth’s efforts have been anything but special around the greens the last few weeks.

Specifically, Spieth said it’s been his play from bunkers that cost him at Oak Hill and Colonial, where he lost 2.44 shots and 3.58 shots to the field around the greens, respectively.

“I just got thrown off at the PGA. I had a lot of really weird, difficult bunker shots there. I think I just lost a little of my entry point,” Spieth said. “I had a lot of like plugged lies. I had some like 30-yard ones from up-slopes. Then Colonial is normally the best ones – I think I sent one too far once, and then I just bailed on a bunch.”

But now Spieth’s wrist is healthy and he was able to spend the week at Muirfield Village working with swing coach Cameron McCormick on his bunker play. The result? He was 4-of-5 from the sand Thursday at the Memorial and 9-of-10 in scrambling, which was first in the field. He’s second in the field in strokes gained: around the green, picking up 2.77 shots.

The highlight of the round was a 43-footer from the bunker left of the 10th green that dropped into the cup for a perfectly “Jordan” birdie. And he salvaged his day with a shot from the sand short of No. 18 that set up a tap-in for bogey, following a poor drive.

“I just needed to get in, just get in and work on it,” he said. “It's the one part of the game I've worked the least on since I injured my wrist because it's the one thing that hurts the most, is flicking a bunker shot over like that. We held off on that for a couple weeks, and then I put a lot of work in this week with it and it felt fine and it certainly yielded results today.”

Spieth’s opening 69 left him two shots off the lead held by Davis Riley. It also looked a lot more like a “Jordan” round considering that he ranked in the middle of the pack in driving for the day and was even worse with his approach shots, hitting just eight of 18 greens in regulation.

Still, on one of the year’s most-demanding tests Spieth relished in his ability to grind out a score, which has always been his style.

“It felt like a great round. It was nice to beat a tough golf course,” he said.

Perhaps even better than getting the best of Muirfield Village with his lowest round since April’s RBC Heritage was heading into a crucial part of the season without any injury concerns.

“It's fine. I don't notice it,” Spieth said when asked about his left wrist. “It's random little things like pushing a door wrong or getting jammed. It's not a bother out on the golf course at all. I just tape it up to make sure that it doesn't get any worse.”

DUBLIN, Ohio – Billy Horschel opened last year’s Memorial with a 2-under 70 on his way to a dominant four-stroke victory. There was nothing dominant nor familiar about his performance on Thursday at Muirfield Village.

He bogeyed three of his first four holes, made a double-bogey-6 at No. 9 and struggled even more on the second nine, on his way to a 12-over 84 that left in 118th place out of 119 players.

“My confidence is the lowest it's been in my entire career. I think ever in my entire golf career,” Horschel said after his round. “It's funny, as low as it feels, it feels like I'm not that far off at the same time.”

The entire year has been a struggle for Horschel with just a single top-10 finish, at the WGC-Match Play. With just two months remaining before the playoffs start, he’s currently mired outside the top 100 on the season-long points race.

Thursday at Muirfield Village was a snapshot of his troubles this season. He struggled off the tee, hitting just six of 14 fairways and losing 2.11 shots to the field. He was even worse with his irons, ranking 118^th in the field in strokes gained: tee to green (negative 10.8 shots). For the year, he ranks 176^th in strokes gained: off-the-tee compared to 50^th in that category last season.

“As much as I would love to throw in the towel and not come out tomorrow, that's just not in me. I'm just not one of those players. There's plenty of those guys out here on Tour that would make an excuse about being injured and everything,” Horschel said. “But I'll show up and I'll go out there and give it my all like I always do and try and find something, try and play well, and move on. I mean, it's a day and I've had plenty of these days this year.”

CARY, N.C. -- West Ham United F.C. walked off the field during a match in The Soccer Tournament on Thursday, alleging a Dallas United player used a racial slur.

The allegation was made by former pro Anton Ferdinand, who is one of several former West Ham players that made the trip to the United States to represent the club in the inaugural 7-on-7, million-dollar tournament. It is unclear which player on Dallas United -- a collection of mostly amateur players from the Dallas area -- is said to be responsible.

"The match has been suspended between West Ham and Dallas United pending an investigation into allegations of use or intent to use a racial slur," TST said in a statement. "TST has zero tolerance towards racial abuse, and take these allegations very seriously.

"After speaking with members from both teams, officials, and consulting audio from our production team, TST will issue the results of its investigation."

The referee in charge of the match told players he did not hear what was said, therefore was unsure what the proper course of action should have been. The stoppage came near the end of regulation with Dallas leading, 2-0. After a lengthy delay, West Ham players made their way off the field.

Asked what happened on his way off the field, Ferdinand told media members "racism," but did not elaborate. It's unclear what ramifications the incident will have on West Ham's continued participation in the tournament -- they are scheduled to play their third game Friday morning -- or on the result of the match.

On FA Cup final day -- also a Manchester derby day -- it's impossible not to compare the blue half with the red half. Yin to yang. And sure, there are plenty of vantage points from which to do it.

One club (Manchester City) have very popular owners who are under investigation by the Premier League for breaching financial rules; the other (Manchester United) have very unpopular owners who have put the club up for sale, but may end up just loading more debt on the balance sheet. One club won the Premier League in five of the past six seasons; the other haven't won one since before the release of the iPhone 6. One club strengthened by bringing in a tall center-forward named Erling Haaland; the other by bringing in a tall center-forward named ... Wout Weghorst.

There's no question that Man United want to be where Man City are now (in terms of results, not investigations for cooking books). And yes, they're trying. They have a higher wage bill than City, they outspent City (in net terms) in three of the past four years -- in fact, since summer 2018, their net spend has been more than double City's. They changed chief executives last summer, they finally appointed their first ever director of football (welcome to 1998!) and brought in a manager, Erik ten Hag, whom most fans are genuinely excited about. Possibly because he's not a throwback attempt to recapture left over stardust from the Sir Alex Ferguson Era or a pugnacious quick fix.

- Watch LIVE: FA Cup final, Man City vs. Man United, Saturday, 9:40 a.m. ET, ESPN+
- Watch our FA Cup preview show: 8:30 a.m. ET, ESPN+

In his first season, Ten Hag guided United to third place, won the League Cup and came within 14 points of the top of the table, which, incredibly, is closer than United have come to first place than any year since 2013, bar one. And, of course, he got them to this FA Cup final.

More than the results, he has done very well -- well, he far surpassed my expectations, anyway -- in two other key aspects of the job.

First, he instilled discipline and showed excellent man-management skills internally, whether it was navigating Cristiano Ronaldo's presence (and his departure) or Marcus Rashford's contract negotiation (he's set to become a free agent in June 2024, yet that didn't stop Ten Hag from punishing him for being late to a meeting or coaxing his best-ever goal-scoring season out of him). These aren't things to take for granted when you make the step up from Ajax -- where most of your charges are youngsters or club lifers, and unlike United, you have a strong, visible and vocal club leadership backing you up -- to Old Trafford.

Second, he managed the bumps along the way with aplomb, deploying the sort of public messaging that generally resonated with fans. United started the second with back-to-back defeats, got hammered 7-0 by Liverpool and tossed up another stinker in getting eliminated by Sevilla in the Europa League semifinal, yet Ten Hag avoided a lot of the criticism some of his predecessors would have faced in those circumstances. For a guy who didn't appear particularly charismatic when he took over, he again went above and beyond.

But then there's the actual football on the pitch, which, you presume, is the reason United hired him in the first place. And here it's striking how different this United team is from his Ajax side.

If you assume -- and I think it's a safe assumption to make -- United hired him because they wanted to replicate at Old Trafford what he built in Amsterdam, we're a long, long way away from that.

In fact, comparing Ten Hag's 2021-22 Dutch champions with this season's United underscores just how long the road ahead might be. But it also illustrates what United can become.

I chose the 2021-22 side and not, say, the 2018-19 team that reached the Champions League semifinals and did the domestic double (the one with Frenkie de Jong, Matthijs de Ligt, etc.) because that was a side Ten Hag largely inherited, whereas the 2021-22 version is one he built after 3½ seasons at the club.

It's not surprising that his Ajax team scored more goals (2.88 a game to 1.52 a game) and recorded a higher xG (2.48 to 1.51) than United. Some of it, no doubt, is that Ajax were the best team in Europe's sixth- or seventh-best league, whereas United have to compete in the Premier League against tougher opposition. But there are other indicators that stand out. Ajax had the Eredivisie's highest possession numbers (66%). You'd expect United to be lower (and it is) but you wouldn't necessarily expect it to be a paltry 54%, behind clubs such as Brighton and Chelsea. That speaks to style of play and manager instructions as much as anything.

Our resident analytics guru Ryan O'Hanlon pointed me to another revealing difference I wouldn't have thought of: average goal kick distance. Ajax, unsurprisingly, were first with 29.5 yards, United were 16th, with 48.2 yards. That suggests Ajax like to build from the back, whereas United tended to have goalkeeper David De Gea kick it long. And as O'Hanlon explained, this is one stat that reveals a preset tactic and is less dependent on what the opposition are doing.

Two other numbers jump out at you. One is defensive distance, which measures how far up the pitch, on average, each team makes a successful defensive action. Ajax, with their high defensive line, topped the Eredivisie at 48.02, United were 14th in the Premier League, at 42.38. The other is opposition passes per defensive action (PPDA), which is the number of passes you allow your opponent to make before there's a defensive action like a tackle, interception or foul. It's a measure of how intense your pressing off the ball is. Ajax were first in the Eredivisie with 5.37 PPDA, while United were ninth in the Premier League at 10.07.

None of this means that Ajax 2021-22 were better than United 2022-23 (they probably weren't, because United has better players). It does however confirm that the "eye test" of anyone who watched both teams plays will tell you: These teams look nothing alike, and if you didn't know better, you'd struggle to believe they were coached by the same guy.

Which brings us back to Ten Hag and where he wants to take this team. If you assume Ajax 2021-22 is how he wants to play, how did we end up with Manchester United 2022-23? There are several, evident reasons.

For starters, it was his first campaign. It takes time to instill and shape your vision on to a team. Ask Jurgen Klopp. He took over a Liverpool side in 10th place in October 2015 and by the end of the season had gotten them all the way to ... eighth place. Lest we forget, Pep Guardiola -- yes, that Pep Guardiola -- also finished third in his first season at Manchester City, and unlike Ten Hag, he had the benefit of a group that had won the league twice in the previous five years. Plus, he had proven high-quality executives in the front office who shared his vision. And, well, he's Guardiola and Ten Hag isn't.

Second, there's an evident personnel issue. That whole build-up play from deep thing? You can do it if you have a goalkeeper who is good with his feet as well as his hands. Ten Hag's keeper is David De Gea, who may be a fine shot-stopper but won't be mistaken for a "sweeper-keeper' anytime soon. It's a similar story with the pressing numbers. It's simply harder to pull off with players who are unaccustomed or unsuited to doing it, and in the likes of Ronaldo, Bruno Fernandes and Rashford, those are the players he had.

Of course, pressing isn't just about the front men; it's about the midfielders' ability to react, read the triggers and plug the holes. Again, Casemiro arrived late and from a side, Real Madrid, that rarely pressed. Christian Eriksen, for all his industriousness and intelligence, is 31 and coming off major heart surgery. Fred and Scott McTominay? Well...

You can see it in Ten Hag's recruitment. He signed Lisandro Martinez and Antony, two members of that Ajax team. Christian Eriksen came into play the Davy Klaassen role, Casemiro to impersonate Edson Alvarez (both, obviously, at a much higher level). Weghorst was perhaps meant to be some sort Sebastien Haller, with Marcel Sabitzer as an off-brand Ryan Gravenberch. But that's only part of the team, and while it's great to get guys who fit your system, it's also good to get guys who are actually good enough players at this level (and some of the above have not been).

Third, and possibly most important, this is a different context. This is the Premier League. It's not just a competition with better teams and better players; it's also something of a coaching Mecca, and United is one of the plushest jobs. Foreign coaches (and many British ones) don't get the benefit of the doubt for long, not just in terms of media and fan reaction, but with the players, too. For better or worse, it's one of the quirks of this island nation. Even Guardiola, with his three Champions League titles, was doubted and put through the wringer in his first season. And he was Guardiola. Ten Hag was just another bald Dutch guy who had never worked as a head coach in a Big Five league.

In other words, he had to churn out results and to some degree, that meant sacrificing vision and education for wins. Giving the ball for Bruno Fernandes and waiting for him to do something isn't a philosophy, but sometimes it's the best option. The same applies to sitting deeper, not conceding stupid goals and hoping that a through-ball finds Rashford. But the results -- and his man-management -- helped give him credibility and authority, and those are what he needs to build going forward.

- Stream on ESPN+: LaLiga, Bundesliga & more (U.S.)

You assume he's under no illusions. Sure, finishing third in the Premier League is great and all, but it was also the year in which Chelsea and Tottenham imploded with three different managers and the year Liverpool didn't get going until March (they were 10th in February). As for the cup runs, the toughest team they actually beat in the league cup were Newcastle in the final, and in the FA Cup it was Fulham (at home).

Ten Hag can only go so far playing this sort of football, and he knows it. It's not what he wants to be doing and it's not what got him the job. He needs time on the training pitch, and he needs the right sort of recruitment to deliver the players suited to the football he wants.

The good news is that his 2022-23 season has won him time and that his man-management has won him authority and credibility. Now he needs to deliver on the rest.