You can't argue with his results and he has Ajax playing fantastic football, though he also has the benefit of Ajax being run exceptionally well for years now.As things stand we need to changer something. In my opinion Ten Hag would be the perfect replacement for Ole, and here's a couple of reasons why:
He plays the 4-2-3-1 formation that transitions to a 4-3-3 during attack
Our players are used to both of these formations. Last thing we want is someone coming in mid season and flopping because they don't have the necessary players to fit their desired formation. With Ten Hag we won't have such an issue as he plays the formations mentioned above.
We have the perfect players for his formation
Pogba can play the De Jong role perfectly. He can drop deep to pick up the ball and use his deadly short and long range passing to start attacks.
He likes to play with 2 ball playing CBs. One that pushes up into midfield and one that covers. Well, we have 3 really good ball playing CBs in Varane, Maguire and Lindelof. So Maguire can push up while one of the other 2 can sweep the lines.
He likes to play with an AM that drops between the lines and makes runs of the shoulder of the CF. He used to play Van den Beek in this role at Ajax, but we also have Bruno who can play this role.
He plays with 2 wide forwards. One that cuts inside with pace and the other who acts sort of like a playmaker from the wing. For the cutting inside we have Rashford and Greenwood. Sancho can play the playmaker role.
He has a well defined system or patterns of play if you will that will help a lot of our players
Our squad relies too much on individual brilliance to gain a result. As a result we have a lot of players who look absolutely clueless in possession while others are constantly underperforming. The explanation is that those players are garbage or flops, but in my book some players need more guidance then others.
It's one of the first things that Ten Hag will change. I expect Sancho, Mctominay, Fred, Shaw to improve massively under him. Also he might benefit Bruno, as of right now he looks erratic and seems to try too hard. A manager that is going to clearly define what he has to do and what he should stop doing might do him a world of good.
He is a young and up and coming manager that technically adaptable
We've never had one of these. So far our managers(bar Ole) have been proven candidates. The only thing they've proven is that they're past it. For once it would be refreshing to see a manager that is on an upward trajectory.
One of the things that remained constant during his time at Ajax is that he would lose his key players. As a result he would have to adapt and change for his system to work. For example: In his 2018-2019 Ajax side, the fullback would always push up. Right now though because they're not as lethal in attack they actually drop in front of the CBs while the CMs push up. So this might actually work for someone like Wan Bissaka.
Has continental experience
A lot of the grief with Dutch managers run away with the Eredevise only to flop in Europe. Ten Hag is the exception. Everyone remembers his 2018-2019 run with Ajax where he lost the semi-final literally with the last kick of the game. I'm fairly certain that is he progressed to the final Ajax would have won it instead of the dippers.
As things stand Ajax is first in it's CL group level on points with Borussia Dortmund. So far they hammered Sporting 5-1 in Portugal and dispatched Besiktas with a 2-0 win. His next 2 matches are against Marco Rose, another up and coming manager we should be looking at. Will be interesting to see how he fares in those 2 matches. The battle of the hipster managers if you will
That being said would you consider him as the next manager? @KirkDuyt @AjaxCunian and everyone who watches Eredevise on a regular basis. How do you think he will fare at United?
I like your write up, but if you think Pogba can play remotely as well as De Jong then you're going to be massively disappointed.
I think you always give a manager a full first season without much aside from very realistic objectives but the main hope is you see a marked difference from game 1 to game 38 on playing style. If that’s there you back them. If someone like Ten Hag came in we’d see a huge shift, there’d be growing pains for sure but I struggle to see how trying to play more proactively could ever be a negative.
I’d take him at UTD within the proverbial heartbeat. Don’t know him too well, but with the squad we’ve got anyone with some real tactical skills should be ok. Also, we could try hiring him for less than 200 years, our usual time-allowance for managers doing a ‘rebuild’. Finally, we’d have to let him bring his own coaching assistants with him- anyone would be hampered by the present lot…
Right? It kind of sounds like 'make me an offer'.
Is it
This comment is underrated
Al coaches who play possession football have a strong positional game. That's not saying all that much. Mind you, the positonal game is vastly different to the one preferred by the Michels/Cruyff/Pep school There are quite a few key differences between how a Pep team plays and a Ten Hag team.
1st and 2nd in their league.
I have a fear Enrique would turn us into City light.
The styles require personnel in order to enact them though. Everyone holds up Tuchel as a good example of just coaching well, but he basically just reverted to Conte's style because the squad has the perfect personnel set up for it. Our forwards don't press, so we need the midfield to pick up that slack, but subsequently don't have the quality in midfield to cover the ground or keep possession. If we want to use our more expansive midfield that can retain possession, but doesn't cover the ground, we then need proper pressing forwards. Either way, a direction needs to be chosen, new personnel need to come in. I think Ten Hag would require more people to enact changes, which ultimately lengthens the cycle for us all and still no guarantee he can even make effective in the prem.
Tbf this can be applied to any manager out there, Pep, Klopp, SAF, you name. But there is a difference between seeing how a team plays and coach a team to play that way.
I think we’d all be surprised how many good players we actually have for that kind of system.
He’d be my choice. Allows teams to counter but bases his attack on dominating the ball.
Hey, I hope you're right, I'm just not so sure.
Of course there's a difference between Michels, Cruyff and Guardiola when it came to playing the game because with time concepts evolve over time. But the concept itself is similar and both Cruyff and Guardiola were heavily influenced by Michels. Guardiola indirectly via Cruyff. So when I mention positional play in the quest to exert zonal/positional play, then the concept is the same which is to attempt to open up space for the freeman ( 3rd man). So it's saying a lot. Whether one wants to approach the game via a vertical or horizontal axis is up to them. But the end goal is the same which is to open up space for the free man via dominating possession.
I agree that not all our players fit his style of football, at least they'd need to really adapt quite a lot (Pogba - totally disagree with the OP on Pogba being some kind of de Jong type of player. Not in the slightest). But that's not an argument against really. Do we only want a manager who can make this team more functional? Personally, I want a manager who is going to elevate the way we play quite dramatically. I'd expect any manager with a clear vision to not fancy a few of our players and want to shift them. Which is why I really don't want any player's contract extended (Pogba, Lingard) or increased (Maguire). We can't be repeating the same mistakes with regards to succession planning. Let's make this newly established structure work proactively.
Exactly.
Wilson!
Whatever.
