Erik ten Hag - Manchester United manager

TheRedDevil'sAdvocate

Full Member
Joined
Dec 7, 2013
Messages
3,632
Location
The rainbow's end
With all the Arteta comparisons flying around I think there’s an important point to be made. With the fecking ludicrous schedule of fixtures (because of the fecking ludicrous World Cup) ETH is really only getting to work with the squad on a fixture by fixture basis. Bouncing from rest days to specific preparation for the next game. No time at all for more general work on shape or patterns of play.

Arteta had a full season where Arsenal basically only played one match each week. 5 full days between games every week on the training ground. Can you imagine how much ETH could improve us with that luxury?
You don't even have to go that far. ETH has been here for just six months. Arteta has been at the Emirates for three years, and when asked about Arsenal's title form, even he admitted that they are way ahead of schedule. ETH has shown that he deserves our patience. If you know the way, despite the hardships, you will eventually get where you want to go.
 

Jeffthered

Full Member
Joined
Oct 7, 2015
Messages
2,678
Arteta has only fully implemented his prefered style of play after getting rid of half the squad he actually inherited and the club backing him with signings.

Ten hag needs the same exact backing to be honest. Maguire, mactominay, de gea, awb, jones, van de beek etc need to be sold or just let go and replaced with better players who offer something different to the team. So many fans have been talking about how poor some of these players actually are for a long time now esp maguire and mctominay but there were always some weird fans using the fact that ole plays them as proof that they were good. They never were. We need them to either be bench players or be sold...esp someone like mctominay who you can see doesnt have the basic passing skills needed to be at manutd
I know it's an incendiary area, but Manchester United have spent a lot of money on players. A lot. If I was the owner, I'd probably be pretty cautious considering the last few years tbh. The problem is we have bought poor players, suffered from dreadful team management, at the same time of seeing a huge decline in the club culture (professionalism etc..).

ETH and his team have come in, and in a matter of months, begun to address that. I think it's incredible work, incredible. We are punching above our weight with what we have, so let's see.

I must add, some of the comments I have read about Christiam Ericksen I find quite strange... the guy has recovered from a near fatal incident, and is now an instrumental reason we are performing as we are. Let's look at those who cannot even seem bothered to even run when they wear a United shirt. Ericksen is a star. Super purchase.
 

Jericholyte2

Full Member
Joined
Oct 6, 2004
Messages
3,536
The fact that we went to The Emirates, having been the only team in the league to beat Arsenal, believing we could still do a job on them without our primary midfielder and only one forward looking dangerous, shows how far we’ve come under ETH.
 

Adisa

likes to take afvanadva wothowi doubt
Joined
Nov 28, 2014
Messages
50,315
Location
Birmingham
Back this man to the hilt.
And backing him is not just about signings. We need rid of a lot of players.
 

Revaulx

Full Member
Joined
Mar 17, 2014
Messages
6,031
Location
Saddleworth
Keep up mate. Good signings the club were responsible and bad signings ETH is at fault.
I’m sure this happened (and vice versa) in the Woodward era.

The notion that manager and club aren’t on the same page signings-wise these days is completely ridiculous though.

I'd sack him if we don't beat Reading by 3 or 4 goals.
Only 3 or 4? Anything less than 6 proves that he’s a fraud :)
 

Loon

:lol:
Joined
Aug 17, 2011
Messages
9,129
Location
No-Mark
Five months in the job and was toe to toe with the in-form team in the league on their ground until we showed tiredness from a midweek game.
 

roseguy64

Full Member
Joined
Aug 21, 2010
Messages
12,172
Location
Jamaica
People are being a bit too precious about some of the criticism. Yeah the people going way too extreme we can rightly admonish.
But most of the criticism I've seen is just about his game management recently.

I get that he might not fully trust the bench options but I'd prefer if he was braver and tried to make a change. Same like I was with Ole. The game was clearly going against us and doing nothing was gonna bite us in the end. It's not like we're playing a bad team so if you leave it status quo they're gonna break through eventually.

Take the game to the opposition and force them back. Or go fully defensive and bring on another defender. Doing nothing ends up with the results we've seen the last couple games. Plus the players are tired because of the number of games. Fresh legs will help. He made positive changes against City and they worked. Do it against Arsenal.
 

nickm

Full Member
Joined
May 20, 2001
Messages
9,123
People are being a bit too precious about some of the criticism. Yeah the people going way too extreme we can rightly admonish.
But most of the criticism I've seen is just about his game management recently.

I get that he might not fully trust the bench options but I'd prefer if he was braver and tried to make a change. Same like I was with Ole. The game was clearly going against us and doing nothing was gonna bite us in the end. It's not like we're playing a bad team so if you leave it status quo they're gonna break through eventually.

Take the game to the opposition and force them back. Or go fully defensive and bring on another defender. Doing nothing ends up with the results we've seen the last couple games. Plus the players are tired because of the number of games. Fresh legs will help. He made positive changes against City and they worked. Do it against Arsenal.
Maybe. He settled for an away draw, the right decision I think, and it backfired with a last minute winner. Shit happens.
 

TrebleChamp99

Full Member
Joined
Dec 27, 2021
Messages
993
ETH working miracles that was 6 months progress Vs 3 years. First half we looked like the home team was incredible to watch.

Henry latest comments suns it up for me.

Give him everything and we’ll be back.
 

Yakuza_devils

Full Member
Joined
Oct 30, 2016
Messages
2,841
I'm still 100% behind ETH. This man is a magician. The squad looked dead last season in need of major rebuild for at least 3 seasons. He came in and corrected almost 80% of the flaw. Next season after another summer window we should start challenging again.

Having said that yesterday the whole team defensing was criminal. Saka was allowed too much time to dribble into the box and make crosses and also cut to his left to make shots. The same can be said for Martinelli. I'm not blaming the RB and LB, the whole team must defence much better.
 

TheReligion

Abusive
Joined
Nov 22, 2006
Messages
51,446
Location
Manchester
I think it’s only natural to be disappointed by the last two results at Palace and Arsenal but it’s also important to be realistic in our expectations.

Playing City and Arsenal back to back was always going to be tough. Both teams like to dominate the ball and you have to chase possession and concentrate for 90 minutes throughout. We really needed the weeks rest between fixtures so a tough task was made even harder when the PL dumped Palace away slap bang in the middle on short notice.

Not only did the extra fixture stretch the thin squad further but it resulted in us losing our engine room (Casemiro) for the tie at the Emirates. Going in to that game with a tired set of players, whilst missing Casemiro and Martial, was far from ideal.

That said I think we did well up until we inevitably faded second half. It took a fully rested Arsenal side until the 91st minute to get the win and we gave them plenty of problems of our own even under the circumstances described.

You can clearly see this team is heading in the right direction under Ten Hag. We are as well drilled and organised as I’ve seen us in recent times and have fighting spirit. The squad is still thin and we are still adapting to what Ten Hag wants but we should be very positive when looking at the bigger picture.

After 7 months Ten Hag is holding his own with the likes of Pep, Arteta, Klopp, Conte all of whom have a massive amount of experience working in the PL.

Getting CL football back and picking up a trophy would be a phenomenal achievement in a first season and I genuinely think given more time to coach this squad, and with another summer window, we’ll be even closer again.
 

romufc

Full Member
Joined
Apr 30, 2019
Messages
12,555
That is spot on. Look at the number of games we have had since the WC, for us to go to the Emirates and play the way we did is brilliant.

ETH is the best thing that can have happened to United. We as United fans have spoken alot about standards over the last 3/4 seasons and this man has not just aid we need to meet a certain level of standards, but he is enforcing them.

Post game, talks about you cannot make silly mistakes, all 3 goals were our mistakes. Obviously this team will learn and become mentality monsters, I really believe in Ten Hag.
 

BlueHaze

New Member
Joined
May 20, 2018
Messages
4,453
This summer Erik has seen enough of them all to come to the conclusion which ones should remain and which ones should go.

I hope he is ruthless. The faster he gets rid of the passengers and brings in his own players the faster the progress will be.
 

DJ_21

Evens winner of 'Odds or Evens 2022/2023'
Joined
Aug 31, 2015
Messages
11,281
Location
Manchester
The times have changed since fergie was here. It’s all about modern football now and implementing style of plays. Guardiola and hopefully us, even arsenal are all trying to play a possession based attacking style.
 

Hugh Jass

Shave Dass
Joined
Apr 16, 2016
Messages
11,245
The fact that we went to The Emirates, having been the only team in the league to beat Arsenal, believing we could still do a job on them without our primary midfielder and only one forward looking dangerous, shows how far we’ve come under ETH.
Agreed. Disappointing not to win or draw, but we have come on leaps.
 

DJ_21

Evens winner of 'Odds or Evens 2022/2023'
Joined
Aug 31, 2015
Messages
11,281
Location
Manchester
Yeah because our football under SAF was so dull and negative compared to sexy Arsenal. Jog on Henry.
It wasn’t dull, but he’s right though. Don’t think we ever played a set style under fergie. We certainly weren’t a possession based team under him which is obviously what the main style of play is nowadays for top teams. ETH will improve us in possession and try to control games once we get the right players in.
 

bosskeano

Full Member
Joined
Dec 8, 2020
Messages
5,110
tell me the last time you went into a match against one of the big 6 and actually thought...hey let's have a go at this b/c we can win the match.

we've beaten city, arsenal, liverpool, spurs and drew with Chelsea this season. I'd say some damn good progress has been made in the first half of the season and that's basically with one forward scoring the goals and our two big forward signings(antony and sancho) pretty much not giving us much in terms of assists and goals. A midfield that is only a mid table level group of players when Casemiro isn't available along with a dodgy keeper.

one saving grace is our defensive group has been solid since taking out lindelof and maguire.

we find ourselves a couple decent attackers and another solid midfielder plus EtH getting some real time on the training ground with them and this is a team who'll be fighting for trophies again
 

Zen86

Full Member
Joined
Jul 1, 2007
Messages
13,871
Location
Sunny Manc
It wasn’t dull, but he’s right though. Don’t think we ever played a set style under fergie. We certainly weren’t a possession based team under him which is obviously what the main style of play is nowadays for top teams. ETH will improve us in possession and try to control games once we get the right players in.
We'll probably play more possession based football than we did under SAF, yeah. That doesn't automatically equate to more attractive football.
 

bosskeano

Full Member
Joined
Dec 8, 2020
Messages
5,110
It wasn’t dull, but he’s right though. Don’t think we ever played a set style under fergie. We certainly weren’t a possession based team under him which is obviously what the main style of play is nowadays for top teams. ETH will improve us in possession and try to control games once we get the right players in.
when we had rooney, ronaldo and tevez....our football wasn't much different than now where we use our pace on the counter to rip teams apart
 

DJ_21

Evens winner of 'Odds or Evens 2022/2023'
Joined
Aug 31, 2015
Messages
11,281
Location
Manchester
We'll probably play more possession based football than we did under SAF, yeah. That doesn't automatically equate to more attractive football.
True it doesn’t. Was just Henry’s prediction. We’ll find out year by year I suppose.
 

DJ_21

Evens winner of 'Odds or Evens 2022/2023'
Joined
Aug 31, 2015
Messages
11,281
Location
Manchester
when we had rooney, ronaldo and tevez....our football wasn't much different than now where we use our pace on the counter to rip teams apart
That’s constantly how we played a lot of the time under fergie though. ETH is trying to get us to control games and have a lot of possession even against the top teams we’re trying.
 

bosskeano

Full Member
Joined
Dec 8, 2020
Messages
5,110
That’s constantly how we played a lot of the time under fergie though. ETH is trying to get us to control games and have a lot of possession even against the top teams we’re trying.
true...fergie was never really a possession based coach like how you see these modern ones. He also had scholes and keano.

He's trying to be a possessions based team and build out when honestly he doesn't have the players who are comfortable doing that.
 

RedSky

Shepherd’s Delight
Scout
Joined
Jul 27, 2006
Messages
74,145
Location
Hereford FC (Soccermanager)
That was Arsenals sixth game since the WC, we're already on nine.

By the end of Ferbruary we'll have played seventeen games compared to Arsenals eleven.

We don't have the largest squad and have some injuries, it's actually insane how many fixtures we've had since the WC.
 

BorisManUtd

Full Member
Joined
Nov 4, 2013
Messages
3,652
There - sense. Something this forum was lacking yesterday (though I can understand fans being pissed off right after defeat). I mean I'm never most optimistic and positive person when it comes to United but some negativity on here we saw yesteday was beyond ridiculous.
 

RuudTom83

Full Member
Joined
Sep 30, 2013
Messages
5,439
Location
Manc
That was Arsenals sixth game since the WC, we're already on nine.

By the end of Ferbruary we'll have played seventeen games compared to Arsenals eleven.

We don't have the largest squad and have some injuries, it's actually insane how many fixtures we've had since the WC.
Its a totally valid point! Arsenal had an entire week to rest/prepare for United.

But there is no good complaining about it...but I wish fans would take that on board before the endless player x is shit and needs replacing with a shiny new 100 million pound player every week.
 

Shark

@NotShark
Joined
Feb 1, 2012
Messages
26,416
Location
Ireland
when we had rooney, ronaldo and tevez....our football wasn't much different than now where we use our pace on the counter to rip teams apart
Imagine ETH with that kind of quality up front, what he currently has is absolutely nowhere close.
 

Flexdegea

New Member
Newbie
Joined
May 28, 2013
Messages
2,342
People have to understand, Arsenal had the most touches in our box than in any other game this season.

How he decided to defend that deep is still a mystery. His game management is wanting to say the least.

Also how he's handled the team this past week has been shambolic..

Maybe he thought he would autopilot through the week, but alas we have been stung in the tail properly.

Jesus the Caf never fails to amuse.


Avoided this thread after the match, and now regret reading it, some of the comments are mind boggling to be honest.
 

pseudo_canadian

Full Member
Joined
Jun 19, 2013
Messages
18,725
Location
New England
I think it’s only natural to be disappointed by the last two results at Palace and Arsenal but it’s also important to be realistic in our expectations.

Playing City and Arsenal back to back was always going to be tough. Both teams like to dominate the ball and you have to chase possession and concentrate for 90 minutes throughout. We really needed the weeks rest between fixtures so a tough task was made even harder when the PL dumped Palace away slap bang in the middle on short notice.

Not only did the extra fixture stretch the thin squad further but it resulted in us losing our engine room (Casemiro) for the tie at the Emirates. Going in to that game with a tired set of players, whilst missing Casemiro and Martial, was far from ideal.

That said I think we did well up until we inevitably faded second half. It took a fully rested Arsenal side until the 91st minute to get the win and we gave them plenty of problems of our own even under the circumstances described.

You can clearly see this team is heading in the right direction under Ten Hag. We are as well drilled and organised as I’ve seen us in recent times and have fighting spirit. The squad is still thin and we are still adapting to what Ten Hag wants but we should be very positive when looking at the bigger picture.

After 7 months Ten Hag is holding his own with the likes of Pep, Arteta, Klopp, Conte all of whom have a massive amount of experience working in the PL.

Getting CL football back and picking up a trophy would be a phenomenal achievement in a first season and I genuinely think given more time to coach this squad, and with another summer window, we’ll be even closer again.
Agree completely.

All things considered, he’s done a great job considering the squad depth we have and the sheer amount of games we’ve played. Hiccups are going to happen, especially when you’re playing the in-form team in the league.

He needs to be completely backed in getting the right players in (and out) going forward. He will absolutely get this club back to the top.
 

2cents

Historiographer, and obtainer of rare antiquities
Scout
Joined
Mar 19, 2008
Messages
16,174
Not surprised to see that from Henry, he’s always loved United.
 

DJ_21

Evens winner of 'Odds or Evens 2022/2023'
Joined
Aug 31, 2015
Messages
11,281
Location
Manchester
There - sense. Something this forum was lacking yesterday (though I can understand fans being pissed off right after defeat). I mean I'm never most optimistic and positive person when it comes to United but some negativity on here we saw yesteday was beyond ridiculous.
Ye there’s no need… especially when we’ve lost once in like 11 games. And against top of the league. Some fans are ridiculous.
 

Strootman's Finger

New Member
Joined
Jun 24, 2013
Messages
1,661
Shocking how much criticism I have seen towards Ten Hag for us essentially being out of the title race now. What these people fail to realize is no sane person would have predicted us even being part of any title race this season, and the fact we briefly were, is solely down to Ten Hag.