Erik ten Hag - Manchester United manager

Rocksy

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ETH is obviously a good coach, and most of this is Murtough’s fault, but sticking with these players and Harry as captain is pretty much suicidal. Martinez at 60 million? He’s got no chance at CB in a back four unless the team is capable of being in possession all the time. So already, you have to hope he can make it in midfield or left-back. It was down to Murtough and the scouts to have this all in place, though. Ten Hag has no experience in recruitment, and United have been down the exact same route with Van Gaal. Murtough was around all the way through…
 

Gordon S

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I was surprised that so many posters were so giddy after a couple of meaningless friendlies.
 

Skills

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The Elanga sub is worrying. It's one of a manager who's scared of failing.
 

iammemphis

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Unimaginable to think now the ownership would invest 300m plus in a single transfer window to fix our squad like Chelsea are doing or have done. Its going to require double that sort this team out and at least 2/3 seasons to challenge for top 4 again under EtH.

Id rather he drop half the squad and just develop the youngsters and build around them instead going forward. Won't be much worse.
 

Skills

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Unimaginable to think now the ownership would invest 300m plus in a single transfer window to fix our squad like Chelsea are doing or have done. Its going to require double that sort this team out and at least 2/3 seasons to challenge for top 4 again under EtH.

Id rather he drop half the squad and just develop the youngsters and build around them instead going forward. Won't be much worse.
The ownership can spend 300m, but if thats mostly made of players like Martinez you're fecked.
 

KirkDuyt

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Thanks, that's interesting yet also depressing. Can you just tell me that he's a Kante regen, stroke my hair and tell me that it's all going to be alright?!
Well he's only 24, he might still have a growth spurt at some point.
 

bleedred

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So what’s your solution? Find a manager which keeps us playing archaic, inferior football because we get better results but without doubt continue to win nothing?

Or, just maybe, we should for once hold firm that our way of playing must develop. And forget about results today, next week, or even this year, and put the time and effort it takes to rebuild this whole abomination to get to a competitive modern position?
So we force this style on these players who cannot do it and eventually replace them with players who can do them and somehow hope that it will be a rebuild in the right direction??

We are clearly in agreement with the fact that these players are useless. That shouldn't be an excuse to absolve ETH of any blame.
 

PepG

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To be fair, I dont think Ten Hag is a bad coach. I mostly kept hammering on the fact he's an awkward numpty.

His problem is his typical Dutch stubborness. Probably multiplied by working under Pep mind you.

Ten Hag would be great with City's team, but seems unable to adapt to a more physical, less technically gifted team like current United.
Exactly. I repeated many times that ETH would be the perfect successor of Pep Guardiola at Man City. Interestingly enough he is making the same mistakes that Pep did when he joined City. Ten Hag overestimated his squad and is paying the price. Guardiola did the same in his first season.. i remember the games against Tottenham in London, Chelsea at the Etihad, Leicester and Everton away when it was very obvious that then the aging City team is just not suitable to play Peps football..
 

Swedish_Plumber

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Some players that ETH are familiar with dont even look as good. Martinez signed by him looks bad so far and Van de Beek can't even get in the team ahead of Eriksen. Same with malancia who he rated highly. The manager definitely is not free of blame
These are horrible results but he’s not been backed in the areas we could see needed improved. Rangnick wasn’t lying about how many changes were needed.
 

Erics_Collar

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Or he'll do an Evra
Everyone says "Oh look at Vidic and Evra, they turned it around after a rough start ".

Look at what they had around them. World class players, world class manager, a team fighting for the top honours in club football.

Literally the perfect infrastructure and surroundings to pick yourself up from a bad first few weeks at the club.

Now look at the absolute shit festival that Martinez has stepped into. What odds do you give him of turning it around?
 

OlivierL

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Everyone knows that Ten Hag did no or hardly any transfers at Ajax, right? Marc Overmars (now Director of football at my club in Belgium, Antwerp) did all the transfers there together with a team of scouts .Of course the trainers will have had influence but Ten Hag had/has no network or scouting team behind him as Overmars did. He was the real transfer guru at Ajax. I actually had no doubts about his abilities as a coach to put a team together, to let them play football, strong organisation etc., but after the current performance with still a 'solid' first eleven, I also have reservations about that.
 

Gawge

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I'm all for buying players that he wants

but look at the players we're linked with, there's also a major risk we buy them and they're worse in the PL. I still think we need to back him and let him die with the players he bought though, so there's no excuses I guess.

If EtH doesn't work out with a team full of his players, it'll be another 5 yrs process getting rid of them. Fecking pray he works here
I think the point is that 'backing him' is not asking ETH "what players do you like the look of?" and giving him them. Actually backing should have been spending the last 6 months(+), with ETH's input, identifying high quality players that would fit his system. That clearly hasn't happened.

Drawing parallels with Klopp is key, because yes his first season was poor, but they had a plan. Where is the plan in supporting ETH? He's just trying to find players he has worked with before. Manchester United should have one of the best scouting networks, and be one of the best clubs of securing players in the world.

Just giving ETH a long contract, not sacking him, and giving him money is absolutely not backing the manager in this day and age.
 

Ayoba

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I have some hope, he realised martinez was getting bullied and took him off. Maybe he can turn things around?
 

amolbhatia50k

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So we force this style on these players who cannot do it and eventually replace them with players who can do them and somehow hope that it will be a rebuild in the right direction??

We are clearly in agreement with the fact that these players are useless. That shouldn't be an excuse to absolve ETH of any blame.
Yes absolutely. We drill it into team repetition and painful mistakes, replace the wrong players with the right ones and eventually become at one with the system.
 

devilish

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ETH is obviously a good coach, and most of this is Murtough’s fault, but sticking with these players and Harry as captain is pretty much suicidal. Martinez at 60 million? He’s got no chance at CB in a back four unless the team is capable of being in possession all the time. So already, you have to hope he can make it in midfield or left-back. It was down to Murtough and the scouts to have this all in place, though. Ten Hag has no experience in recruitment, and United have been down the exact same route with Van Gaal. Murtough was around all the way through…
It's 99% Murtough's fault and I explain why

A- Ole built a team to his image. Its a cautious almost cowardly team built around dull counter attack football. Someone like ETH and Rangnick will require to go on an open heart surgery to make this team functional for them and even then there would be such a high staff turnover that we'll probably struggle during our first year. If United weren't ready to spend then they should have gone for someone like Conte who plays a similar style to Ole's but is 10 times the manager

B- ETH is used to have a DOF who brings players for him. He joined United only to find out that the chief scouts + the only person who understand transfers had been sacked. Murtough is useless and ETH had to identify the players on his own. These idiots can't even sign the players he wants
 

McGrathsipan

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Everyone says "Oh look at Vidic and Evra, they turned it around after a rough start ".

Look at what they had around them. World class players, world class manager, a team fighting for the top honours in club football.

Literally the perfect infrastructure and surroundings to pick yourself up from a bad first few weeks at the club.

Now look at the absolute shit festival that Martinez has stepped into. What odds do you give him of turning it around?
None.
 

Skills

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Exactly. I repeated many times that ETH would be the perfect successor of Pep Guardiola at Man City. Interestingly enough he is making the same mistakes that Pep did when he joined City. Ten Hag overestimated his squad and is paying the price. Guardiola did the same in his first season.. i remember the games against Tottenham in London, Chelsea at the Etihad, Leicester and Everton away when it was very obvious that then the aging City team is just not suitable to play Peps football..
The best signing City ever made under Man City was Walker.
 

RoadTrip

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So we force this style on these players who cannot do it and eventually replace them with players who can do them and somehow hope that it will be a rebuild in the right direction??

We are clearly in agreement with the fact that these players are useless. That shouldn't be an excuse to absolve ETH of any blame.
I’m not saying it’s an excuse to absolve him of blame.

But to your first question, absolutely that’s what we should do. Because this isn’t any longer about trying to win now. It’s about fundamental change. Sticking with a style is much more productive in that regard. Show these players that no longer do we accept crap football. Show these players that if they don’t show determination to learn and develop, they’ll be out. If we bend to their will, all it shows is that any manager can be taken for a ride by them. And that we aren’t serious on change. It’s a well known fact humans are apprehensive of change. Without forcing it down peoples throats, it just won’t happen.
 

hp88

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This is a massive wake up call for him, I think he has underestimated the premier league and needs to adapt quickly, not expecting much of a change for Liverpool but he will be trouble if things don’t improve soon as they have got a hard run of games throughout August and September.
 

Rightnr

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It seems no matter the manager, Maguire, Bruno, Rashford and McTominay play.

This really stinks.
 

Classical Mechanic

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It's not about individual players it's about a team. A team with average players that work well together is better than a team with all star players that don't work together.
So yes Ajax' side would do better with this tactical style than this United squad.
There is only 2 options, either Ten Hag changes his tactics or the board will have to splash the cash to get Ten Hag the players he needs for his style.
I agree in part that he needs that De Jong-esque midfielder for the style but I'm not convinced on the overall point. I mean we've seen players like Davison Sanchez, Davy Klassen, Van De Beek, Steven Bergwijn, Sebastien Haller and Hakin Ziyech in Premier League in recent seasons. I'm just not convinced that they have anything that our players don't. Look at Sancho for example, in the lesser league where he played for the clear second best team his stats were only second to Mbappe and Messi in Europe. Now in the Premier league with stronger, faster and better players on average he's shrank into pretty much nothing. I think confidence is much more important than you think and in a stronger league that is challenged a lot more.
 

BlueHaze

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Cannot absolve him for blame when he is picking Maguire over Varane.... Pairing a midget with Maguire... Starting season with mctom and fred. He can just move Martinez to CDM and put Donny in the team instead of those 2 absolute clown pisstakes Fred and Scott.

Cannot blame him for our GK putting up a shower of shite however.
 

OlivierL

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He is director of football of Royal Antwerp Football in Belgium with Van Bommel as coach.
 

fastwalker

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I thought it might take a while, but I had no idea how deep the rot had set in at United. We still have to play Liverpool, Chelsea City, Arsenal and Spurs twice this season. Our season could well be over by January at this rate.
 

Mike Smalling

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It has been a big mistake though. Eriksen has been majorly at fault for two goals because he doesn't really have that appreciation of what's around him when receiving the ball in that position. It's a very hard position to play as you have to be really aware of what's around you and be brave.
Sure, but I honestly could have seen Fred make the same mistake with the absolute daft passes De Gea makes. In fact we have seen that several times. McTominay wouldn't make the mistake, because he simply wouldn't show for the ball.
 

Amadaeus

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I'm not judging him, or any manager, until we get rid of majority of this squad.
After spending near or over billion to assemble this squad, it isn't going to happen anytime soon. Better to get a manager that has a good track record of improving good/decent players, and slowly build around the new players brought in. If Henderson and Milner can have a turn around in careers, alot of the players in our squad can as well especially with a good manager
 

BlueHaze

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It seems no matter the manager, Maguire, Bruno, Rashford and McTominay play.

This really stinks.
Exactly. Ten Hag was my first choice. You can even look at my history. Long before season started I said if he gives a fresh start to all the cnuts it'll be the end of him.

I never thought he'd be that daft but he actually was and he did. What will happen now is he's already under big pressure with a tough run of games and he'll likely get sacked before the season ends.
 

PlayerOne

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Let's bring in a manager that is not very involved in transfers and ask him to go out there and get players.

What chance did he really have this year under this shambolic and clueless board and DoF?

Of course ETH overestimated his ability and the ability of this team when any fan could have told him those lot out there have no right to wear this shirt. Of course the DoF should be the one laying this out but here we are.