Erik ten Hag - Manchester United manager / awaiting clarity from the club over his position

[Gandalf Greyhame]

I loved the last line. It does feel like a long overdue era has finally begun.

https://www.theguardian.com/footbal...ro-balance-midfield-manchester-united-chelsea

 

[Parma Dewol]

I’m amazed how quickly he has managed to steady our rapidly sinking ship. Thought it would take a few seasons and multiple transfer windows, yet here we are looking like a proper team after just a few hectic months.

I am convinced and completely behind Erik. My manager.

 

[Regulus Arcturus Black]

Fans wanting all of our players sold last summer are morons. We have good players and a strong squad, that has been complemented further by the summer signings. You could re-run last season a hundred times, and you’d have only got a couple of worse outcomes. Appointing Rangnick was a terrible decision in hindsight (and there were a few dissenting voices who were spot on in foresight too).

I’m commenting on how that it feels as if ETH is swimming uphill in trying to build our side due to the form of our attack-minded players. We’re more than a quarter of the way through the season and I couldn’t really suggest that any of Bruno, Rashford, Sancho, Eriksen, Martial, Ronaldo and Shaw look like they have started in great form and are set for a great season, relative to their historic performance and peak age etc.

Bruno’s trending to have the least productive season since his Serie A years. I love Rashford, but he’s still way back from his peak under Ole, but is at least headed in the right direction. Sancho is just a husk of what he was in Germany. Eriksen’s been tidy enough, but still a long way short of what he has previously delivered at Spurs and Brentford. Martial can’t stay fit. Ronaldo is done. Shaw’s been indifferent and only really established his place in the side this week.

This post is fecking bonkers.

Rashford is in his best form in 3 years, has already scored 5 and assisted 3 in 13 games, including goals v Liverpool & Arsenal. He looks dangerous like I haven’t seen him in years.

ETH can’t stop Martial from being fecking injured. Likewise he can’t do too much about an ageing Ronaldo who has desperately wanted to get the feck out of the club.

Shaw’s in absolutely brilliant form the last month so you’re cherry picking just to wum.

All that aside, expecting a manager to pick up the clusterfeck of last season and restore everyone’s confidence and get them in career peak form in just 11 PL games, including players new at the club expected to play as well as they did after a few years at Spurs; or in the fecking Bundesliga is the most bonkers things I’ve ever read on here. You’re either wumming or you live in your own warped reality.

 

[Escobar]

Our spells of good football last much longer. We are getting there, no doubt. Brilliant manager

 

[Yakuza_devils]

First time in a decade, we play consistently like a team. We can move, hold, pass and press as a team. Never again we play as if the 11 players never met each other before the game. We played like complete strangers at times under Ole, can't string 2 passes together. Took ten touches before making a simple 6 yards pass.

This is only the beginning and it's reasonable to expect we still have lots of room for improvement.

We were the better team against Newcastle and Chelsea and should have beaten both.

 

[flameinthesun]

I was being sarcastic clearly. The fact 4th would be celebrated by some is what I have an issue with.

ole had us comfortably in the top 4 twice as you say. Of course last season is all that matters though, despite 90% of the personnel being the same.

What is your tangible requirement for Ten Hag this season in terms of league position, trophies, playing style etc?

As you seem to just criticise for the sake of criticising (often without a shred of evidence, facts etc to back it up). So why don't you switch things around and tell us exactly what you expect from Ten Hag this season.

 

[pratyush_utd]

I find it astonishing that some cant see our progress. If we had a decent finisher, then we would be at least had 3-4 points more.

Issues still remain but I am loving this brand of football which I have to say, I didnt enjoy our football that much after 2008.

 

[AndySmith1990]

I loved the last line. It does feel like a long overdue era has finally begun.

https://www.theguardian.com/footbal...ro-balance-midfield-manchester-united-chelsea

Welcome to modern football, Manchester United. We’ve been expecting you.

 

[tenpoless]

Casemiro went bananas. But not only him, the manager and the rest of the team also celebrated like mad WITH the fans.
I love this team's spirit. Hopefully this is the beginning of something special and that we'll be ready when Pep and Klopp PL domination ends.

 

[Buster15]

The press and intensity is at a much higher level than I've ever seen. It has relieved pressure on our defense which is also doing far better than I've seen in a long time

Spot on. It is not only the intensity but the increasing intelligence of the pressing and the obvious improved fitness.
We are definitely seeing what a proper coach can bring to United.

 

[Gandalf Greyhame]

Welcome to modern football, Manchester United. We’ve been expecting you.

United are suddenly much more watchable again. We play beautiful football in longer phases of the game, look like we enjoy being on the ball.

The board needs to back this manager in the coming windows, as they have done in his first. I feel this will be their highest return of investment in a decade - both on and off the pitch.

 

[Buster15]

Our spells of good football last much longer. We are getting there, no doubt. Brilliant manager

My thoughts too. EtH is capable of taking Manchester United back to where we should be. Challenging for trophies. Maybe not this season but definitely quite soon.

 

[Gandalf Greyhame]

It's an absolute tragedy that you know who turned out to be a despicable human being, he could have been phenomenal under EtH.

 

[Escobar]

My thoughts too. EtH is capable of taking Manchester United back to where we should be. Challenging for trophies. Maybe not this season but definitely quite soon.

One more striker and midfielder and we compete for trophies

 

[Buster15]

One more striker and midfielder and we compete for trophies

Yes indeed. To be able to challenge, we have to be far more clinical up front.

 

[TMDaines]

This post is fecking bonkers.

Rashford is in his best form in 3 years, has already scored 5 and assisted 3 in 13 games, including goals v Liverpool & Arsenal. He looks dangerous like I haven’t seen him in years.

ETH can’t stop Martial from being fecking injured. Likewise he can’t do too much about an ageing Ronaldo who has desperately wanted to get the feck out of the club.

Shaw’s in absolutely brilliant form the last month so you’re cherry picking just to wum.

All that aside, expecting a manager to pick up the clusterfeck of last season and restore everyone’s confidence and get them in career peak form in just 11 PL games, including players new at the club expected to play as well as they did after a few years at Spurs; or in the fecking Bundesliga is the most bonkers things I’ve ever read on here. You’re either wumming or you live in your own warped reality.

You are creating a strawman argument. Who’s necessarily blaming ETH here? I’m observing that so far (A) our attack as a team has not performed consistently under the manager, and (B) that we are yet to really see any of any attacking players hit the ground running and perform at the level we know they can. That’s swimming uphill when trying to build a new team surely?

If you are a glass half full guy, you can just switch off and be very optimistic about what that means for our football when our attacking players click and play at their best.

But it is also entirely legitimate to ponder a few things? Does the manager view some of these players as square pegs in roundholes for his desired approach? Do further tactical tweaks need to be made to unlock the potential of some of the players? Will some of these players never thrive in an ETH system long term, and should they therefore be replaced? Is it just a case of this group of players needing time to further adapt and grow in confidence?

 

[Elcabron]

One more striker and midfielder and we compete for trophies

If we could only find a striker in January, I think we would see a trophy of some sort this season.

 

[Jeffthered]

Our spells of good football last much longer. We are getting there, no doubt. Brilliant manager

This.

It will take time, and there will be some difficult moments, I worry about depth of squad, although it is getting better. What I can see is that ETH is changing the mentatlity of the players. They need to play for him ...(just like all the better managers..), Shaw's interview last week was interesting when he made that point. Better players are making an impact too, and the consistency of Dalot, the competition introduced for Shaw seems to be working. Shaw should be a powerhouse of a left-back, as we have had in recent years. There should be no hesitation in his play.

But we do need better goalscorers. Martial, Sancho, Antony, Rashford... all technically decent (not outstanding.. but good), but none play like they really, really want to score goals, be the match-winner.. they want to create chances bla, bla.. None are single minded, clinical, I-always-want-to-get-in-the-penalty- box player that we really need. Yesterday we played v v well against Chelsea, but I couldn't see us scoring, which is a shame, and concern.

 

[Redfrog]

Id be happy with comfortably in the top 4. Going down to the wire to finish 4th isn’t something I can get excited for.
And seriously.. miracles? We’ve spent 240m and have an expensively assembled squad already.

Being almost on a par with spurs and Chelsea is nothing to rave about.

You look as someone who doesn’t watch the games but only results.
I don’t remember with any manager post Fergie that we played in a dominant manner.
You deserve a José or a Conte.

 

[cyberman]

You are creating a strawman argument. Who’s necessarily blaming ETH here? I’m observing that so far (A) our attack as a team has not performed consistently under the manager, and (B) that we are yet to really see any of any attacking players hit the ground running and perform at the level we know they can. That’s swimming uphill when trying to build a new team surely?

If you are a glass half full guy, you can just switch off and be very optimistic about what that means for our football when our attacking players click and play at their best.

But it is also entirely legitimate to ponder a few things? Does the manager view some of these players as square pegs in roundholes for his desired approach? Do further tactical tweaks need to be made to unlock the potential of some of the players? Will some of these players never thrive in an ETH system long term, and should they therefore be replaced? Is it just a case of this group of players needing time to further adapt and grow in confidence?

You’re a strange poster. It’s not even October and you’ve constantly been shitting on De Gea despite him not yet making a mistake of note, claimed Arsenal and Liverpool weren’t convincing wins, saying Ten Hag will be lucky to see the end of the season and we’d be lucky to finish 6th. That’s just a handful of your glass half empty posts.
Surely the evolution of your own pessimism shows the teams improvement in a short period of time so why should stats at this moment in time mean much for the progression of the season? Why should improvement stop now? The form of an attack doesn’t just depend on goals.

 

[Redfrog]

The best we have looked against the other top 6 since van gaal, hopefully with the tough run if fixtures out the way we can go on a good run of winning games before the wc

We looked so good with LVG winning 1-0 against Arsenal with no shot on target.

 

[Adnan]

It's funny to read some people are bringing up Mourinho and the second place finish on 81 points as some sort of barometer to judge what's happening now under ten Hag. But the truth is, and I said so at the time, the Liverpool team that finished 4th that season looked the team more likely heading towards success due to the proactive attacking playstyle Klopp was implementing at the club. So this Liverpool team that had finished two places below us in 2017/18, were playing better football and were starting to transition into a team that was adept at playing a high tempo/high intensity playstyle where they were making rapid progress towards creating a well oiled attacking machine that was making huge strides towards controlling both the offensive and defensive transitions in a front foot dominant approach which saw them sacrifice defensive stability for goals.

So Klopp not only schooled Mourinho on how to implement a modern day playstyle in the EPL going forward, but he also schooled him as far as having the vision and know how on how to structure the football side of a club by improving the existing structure which had become a laughing stock before his arrival at Liverpool. And hence Klopp at Liverpool with less financial backing than Mourinho had comfortably created a well oiled, cohesive team that played with high tempo/high intensity with solid structural and team foundations which were beginning to take shape in a changing EPL. And Liverpool may have finished below United that season but the vision and know how of their head coach was too much for a manager like Mourinho who had been left behind in history and was obsolete with the rise of the new breed of manager that had started to arrive in the EPL.

 

[nickm]

Not wrong though am I? Squad has been massively underperforming. I won’t sit and applaud 4th this season (if we get it).

Given where we were, this is not the season for top 2 finishes. This is the season for CL qualification and with that, the ability to bring in some top tier recruits for a proper challenge next season - a transitional season.

I will applaud that, especially since we have a manager who obviously knows what he'd would do with them.

You can't run before you can walk. And you can't judge progress against the wrong target.

 

[Cassidy]

Not wrong though am I? Squad has been massively underperforming. I won’t sit and applaud 4th this season (if we get it).

You overrate the squad if you think top this season isn’t a good result

 

[tenpoless]

It's funny to read some people are bringing up Mourinho and the second place finish on 81 points as some sort of barometer to judge what's happening now under ten Hag. But the truth is, and I said so at the time, the Liverpool team that finished 4th that season looked the team more likely heading towards success due to the proactive attacking playstyle Klopp was implementing at the club. So this Liverpool team that had finished two places below us in 2017/18, were playing better football and were starting to transition into a team that was adept at playing a high tempo/high intensity playstyle where they were making rapid progress towards creating a well oiled attacking machine that was making huge strides towards controlling both the offensive and defensive transitions in a front foot dominant approach which saw them sacrifice defensive stability for goals.

So Klopp not only schooled Mourinho on how to implement a modern day playstyle in the EPL going forward, but he also schooled him as far as having the vision and know how on how to structure the football side of a club by improving the existing structure which had become a laughing stock before his arrival at Liverpool. And hence Klopp at Liverpool with less financial backing than Mourinho had comfortably created a well oiled, cohesive team that played with high tempo/high intensity with solid structural and team foundations which were beginning to take shape in a changing EPL. And Liverpool may have finished below United that season but the vision and know how of their head coach was too much for a manager like Mourinho who had been left behind in history and was obsolete with the rise of the new breed of manager that had started to arrive in the EPL.

100%. On top of it all Jose was never a long term manager. He fought with everybody to achieve that one "success" then left a broken squad.

 

[Cassidy]

Turns out not listening to Rangnick has been the right call.

Im not sure thats correct. In fact Im quite sure its wrong.

 

[redNATION]

A quality striker who finishes the 1-2 chances we create a game for him? Unless it’s prime Messi who will beat 3 and score then I don’t think that’s the solution. I’ll take a winger who can beat a fullback though.

A quality striker does much more than take chances, a great striker drags defenders all over the place and holds the ball up effectively, creating more opportunities for himself and others to move into space and create more goal scoring chances.

Only Martial has the ability out of our current crop to do this, and it’s no surprise he scores when he plays because the system suits him. Look at what Jesus has done at Arsenal, he doesn’t always score but he is a nuisance to defend against and gives saka and martinelli more space to work with.

And in any event, we clearly create way more than 1 to 2 chances per game, Rashford should have had a hat trick against Spurs.

 

[cyberman]

Im not sure thats correct. In fact Im quite sure its wrong.

He wanted 10 players and for most of the squad to never play for us again. He was applauded on here but we went into the season with 4/5 of his squad still here and doing very well for themselves. Squad he couldn’t get a tune out of, a squad that he did worse than Ole with.
Although he did say what we wanted to hear at the time so it’s hard to let go of our own bias. Played us like a fiddle in trying to save his own reputation

 

[Rolaholic]

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Baldy is slowly restoring that old feeling, belief and spirit. You can clearly see that his players are ready to go to war for him and the badge.

I haven't taken to a manager of ours such as this since the great man retired, truly feel he's capable of building us back up to the top.

 

[Marcus]

I love it that there are only two options under EtH now. We either win or we deserve to win.

 

[redNATION]

He wanted 10 players and for most of the squad to never play for us again. He was applauded on here but we went into the season with 4/5 of his squad still here and doing very well for themselves. Squad he couldn’t get a tune out of, a squad that he did worse than Ole with.
Although he did say what we wanted to hear at the time so it’s hard to let go of our own bias. Played us like a fiddle in trying to save his own reputation

We’re basically headed in Ragnicks direction anyway, in time (quite soon) the likes of Rashford, Sancho, Shaw, DDG will be replaced, and we’ll have a whole new 11. Whatever you think of Ragnick he was right that the team needed complete overhaul and if we’re serious about challenging City then that’s where we’re headed.

 

[Adnan]

All Rangnick did was get the low down on potential transfer targets from head scouts he had put in place to run the recruitment at his clubs. At Hoffenheim he had Christian Mockel running recruitment and it was Mockel who provided Rangnick with potential new recruits. So it's fine skipping Rangnick and going straight to the source at hand which is normally the chief of scouting/head of recruitment who will ultimately decide how capable the recruitment is in the mid to long-term.

 

[Hughie77]

11 games in and there is an improvement there is continuity in our play along with intensity, the players are buying into it. 1 window he's had January window a Striker needed imo . Summer window will be interesting depending where we finish in league. ETH comes across well I don't think the press can bully him either.

There's a long way to go injuries and suspensions are a factor as well because imo he knows his top 13 players.

 

[nickm]

A quality striker does much more than take chances, a great striker drags defenders all over the place and holds the ball up effectively, creating more opportunities for himself and others to move into space and create more goal scoring chances.

Only Martial has the ability out of our current crop to do this, and it’s no surprise he scores when he plays because the system suits him. Look at what Jesus has done at Arsenal, he doesn’t always score but he is a nuisance to defend against and gives saka and martinelli more space to work with.

And in any event, we clearly create way more than 1 to 2 chances per game, Rashford should have had a hat trick against Spurs.

Anyone who can remember the difference in our team play between RVN and Saha... We were so much collectively better with Saha in the side, even though RVN was the better finisher.

 

[Cassidy]

He wanted 10 players and for most of the squad to never play for us again. He was applauded on here but we went into the season with 4/5 of his squad still here and doing very well for themselves. Squad he couldn’t get a tune out of, a squad that he did worse than Ole with.
Although he did say what we wanted to hear at the time so it’s hard to let go of our own bias. Played us like a fiddle in trying to save his own reputation

He said we needed open heart surgey and could need up to 10 players (because we had many leaving for free). He also said we should focus on signing younger hungry players instead of big names.

Not sure what he was wrong about there. We’re clearly lacking a CF right now and have no cover at RB. Unless you think the rebuild is complete and were winning the title this season. He wasn’t wrong

 

[cyberman]

We’re basically headed in Ragnicks direction anyway, in time (quite soon) the likes of Rashford, Sancho, Shaw, DDG will be replaced, and we’ll have a whole new 11. Whatever you think of Rangnick he was right that the team needed complete overhaul and if we’re serious about challenging City then that’s where we’re headed.

You see I don’t think we do. A new, top striker is arguably all we need to be a contender.
We are currently playing a style of football with players that nobody on here thought could play this way and we are just a few months into Ten Hags reign.
Listening to Rangnick and he’s talking about a major overhaul in one window. Absolute idiotic. Ok Forest part 2 at the very least.

 

[Slevs]

Again, the progress is clear.
We're pressing more, we're more solid at the back compared to previous seasons, we're creating and other teams are having to make adjustments BECAUSE of our play (instead of vice versa).

Get a clinical striker or 2 and this team might be going places.

 

[golden_blunder]

The improvement in passing, pressing and movement is so damn obvious; if only our attack was more clinical

Makes you wonder what the feck Ralph was doing with his division 2 coaches

 

[Bestietom]

That and an improved defence. Which we should hopefully have now, main reason for the -2 is the Brentford and City defeats. Even when taking those out, we'd still only have a GD of +5. A top CF could definitely get that to at least +10 which is more in line with the top 4 challengers/title contenders like Arsenal, Spurs and Liverpool (not City cos they're ridiculous with +23).

It's a very simplistic view admittedly, but the truth is we just need more goals.

Exactly.. A top CF in January and Rashford moved to the wing and we could be fine. Yes we need to tighten up at the back also.

 

[golden_blunder]

Like the scattered and ultimately average results? Football is better no doubt but if just for a top 4 challenge is disappointing.

Patience for gods sake