Erik ten Hag - Manchester United manager

Rusholme Ruffian

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That's reasonable, with home advantage. If you follow our conservations, I was more interested in that EtH's comment about the reasons of our away form, it's because we can't control the game and it's start from behind. So why we can't control the game? UA argued that because we're high pressed in away games. Yes it's understandable.

Our difference is on why away team comes to OT and press lesser, or stop doing high press especially this season. I argued that away teams had came to OT in the past under Ole and RR (both even seasons with fans in stadium) and kept high pressure. Just because they thought they had chance to get result by doing that. Didn't those teams also get the fans pressure?

Most probably because our team play much better football right now, that away teams just didn't have believe of getting result by pressing high. If they believe they could get result by pressing high, they would do it regardless of home or away. Or perhaps they've done it but our play is still too good at home games. So why couldn't we replicate that control in our away games? Is it because the away teams mentality, or just our team mentality, or tactic, or like @ayushreddevil9 about familiarity with environment (pitch size, etc) or combinations of all?
Do you not think it's largely cos we press less away from home and are more likely to try play on the counter attack? That's fine until you lose control of the game through silly errors and getting caught on the ball - and maybe lackign the mentality to deal with the xtra pressure. At home we play more on the front foot, and it is the away team (especially the ones who aren't strictly coached into a way of playing) that is under pressure and liable to panic?
 

Stinkypete

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I kind of agree with both you and @Isotope . We cant ignore the home advantage thing but honestly, the performance being affected by screaming fans is something hard to digest. These are professional footballers to begin with.

I think it has more to do with familiar surroundings for the home team, the pitch staff setting up the conditions. Its important to also notice the pitch dimensions which I believe can be adjusted to some degree by the home team. I might be wrong but i remember reading that somewhere.

Many years ago I remember an interview with Thierry Henry. This was when Arsenal moved from Highbury to the Emirates and Thierry Henry was not as prolific as in previous seasons. The interviewer asked him why, and Henry described something along the lines of looking around him for specific points of interest (I think in this example he used the corner of the stadium) to figure out where he was positioned, how to turn, when to shoot etc the unfamiliarity of the new stadium meant his form suffered.

I imagine at home you know where when how to weight passes, accurately how far from other players and goal you are at any given time at this level. You would lose some of that away from home for sure. The more experienced heads should definetly be better at stuff like this than others, but I imagine it is a factor wether substantial or not.
 
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Isotope

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Do you not think it's largely cos we press less away from home and are more likely to try play on the counter attack? That's fine until you lose control of the game through silly errors and getting caught on the ball - and maybe lackign the mentality to deal with the xtra pressure. At home we play more on the front foot, and it is the away team (especially the ones who aren't strictly coached into a way of playing) that is under pressure and liable to panic?
Yeah. That begs a question. Sevilla came to our ground and still did more intense pressure than us. Why didn't they fear of OT fans pressure?

Also Barca came looking for goals and they actually pressured better than us.

When Brighton came to OT, did they pressure less than when they're at home, or we just played better at home than away?
 

UNITED ACADEMY

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Once again, despite your petty insults, you're ignoring facts that in years under Ole and RR, smaller teams could come to OT and did high press and some just dominated the game, despite all these "home game advantage". So what gave them that mentality?

Because we were worser team in those years than now, most likely. Now we are better and can dominate opponents. So it's back to question of why we can't replicate home form of playing from behind in away form with same set of players.

Would City forgot how to play from the back if they're in away games?
I haven’t ignoring facts, this is the second time I told you already the way how we played under Ole and RR is different to the way how we played under ETH. Under Ole, we tend to play quick counter attack and we didn’t have pattern of play or structure when on the ball, why should the opposition manager be afraid when we are on the ball in old Trafford under Ole? We were worse team in those years so they are more brave back then in old Trafford.

Even at our own home, we aren’t as dominant as City at home because right now, we still haven’t got the full team that capable to play from the back, while City got the full team consists of players that can play from the back when under pressure, hence why they can do it home and away.

We have some few players that capable to play from the back now compared to under Ole which help us at home. However, like I already told you, the home atmosphere has the advantage for the home team while disadvantage for the away team. Because of this, manager decides to play more brave by pushing higher and pressing us high against us when we are in away. This affected some of our players especially the ones who aren’t good playing from the back under pressure.
 

UNITED ACADEMY

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Yeah. That begs a question. Sevilla came to our ground and still did more intense pressure than us. Why didn't they fear of OT fans pressure?

Also Barca came looking for goals and they actually pressured better than us.

When Brighton came to OT, did they pressure less than when they're at home, or we just played better at home than away?
A pressure can lead into players making errors in the game, which lead into this idea where managers think twice to approach the away game. That’s the risk they are taking if they want goals, sometime it works and sometime it doesn’t. If it works then they won like Sevilla, if it doesn’t work then they lost like the Barcelona.
 

always_hoping

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Ten Hag: 'When there is no strategy or the right strategy, money doesn’t work

Fair play to Erik for calling things as they are with the Glazers and their clueless business men buddies who's controlled the United transfers and player contracts.
 

Rusholme Ruffian

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Yeah. That begs a question. Sevilla came to our ground and still did more intense pressure than us. Why didn't they fear of OT fans pressure?

Also Barca came looking for goals and they actually pressured better than us.

When Brighton came to OT, did they pressure less than when they're at home, or we just played better at home than away?
I'm confused now, and I don't really want to get embroiled in this any further. Sides that are well drilled in possession football (like Barca and Brighton - who have the 3rd highest possession stats in the league) are far more likely to play their own way away from home because they are comfortable in possession of the football and don't panic under pressure....which is pretty much what ETH was getting at in his quote. Our goalkeeper and some of our defenders collectively shit themselves when in possession.

As for Sevilla, I'm not sure what game you watched but at Old Trafford we absolutely murdered them for the first hour of the game and should have been about 4-0 up, only to concede two ridiculous goals at the death. there was nothing wrong with our tactics in that game.
 

AlPistacho

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A lot of people complaining that ETH is not on the shortlist for manager of the year. I actually think that while he’s been great for United he doesn’t deserve to be a nominee. Relative to club size and transfer spend etc, Howie and Zebri have done more remarkable things. But of course I wouldn’t swap any of them for him.

If we’d won the Europa Cup, then he’d deserve to be there above probably Emery. If he did a cup treble, then he’d deserved to win it as long as City didn’t win the CL.
 

Rusholme Ruffian

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A lot of people complaining that ETH is not on the shortlist for manager of the year. I actually think that while he’s been great for United he doesn’t deserve to be a nominee. Relative to club size and transfer spend etc, Howie and Zebri have done more remarkable things. But of course I wouldn’t swap any of them for him.

If we’d won the Europa Cup, then he’d deserve to be there above probably Emery. If he did a cup treble, then he’d deserved to win it as long as City didn’t win the CL.
Howe has done very well, De Zerbi has done well but within the parameters of taking over at an exceptionally well run club with a very distinct way of playing - it's not often that managers take over a club in such calm and organised circumstances. IF we were to win the FA Cup, along with finishing third and winning the League Cup - considering the state the club was in last season, the Ronaldo saga, and the fact that we have played most of the year without a recognised centre-forward then ETH would be equal with, or second only to Guardiola imho. I think the issue is that as things stand we could still (mathematically) miss out on the CL, and are not favourites for the FA Cup so I can see that it would be a bit of a risk to nominate him in case it falls apart in the last 3 games of the season. I'm still hopeful that we'll get 3rd place and win the Cup - and if we do then I don't think anyone will have outperformed him this season, even if Pep gets the League and CL double.
 

NLunited

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A lot of people complaining that ETH is not on the shortlist for manager of the year. I actually think that while he’s been great for United he doesn’t deserve to be a nominee. Relative to club size and transfer spend etc, Howie and Zebri have done more remarkable things. But of course I wouldn’t swap any of them for him.

If we’d won the Europa Cup, then he’d deserve to be there above probably Emery. If he did a cup treble, then he’d deserved to win it as long as City didn’t win the CL.
If we end up winning FA cup too, they are going to look stupid not nominating him.

Howie and Zerbie won nothing.
 

AlPistacho

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Howe has done very well, De Zerbi has done well but within the parameters of taking over at an exceptionally well run club with a very distinct way of playing - it's not often that managers take over a club in such calm and organised circumstances. IF we were to win the FA Cup, along with finishing third and winning the League Cup - considering the state the club was in last season, the Ronaldo saga, and the fact that we have played most of the year without a recognised centre-forward then ETH would be equal with, or second only to Guardiola imho. I think the issue is that as things stand we could still (mathematically) miss out on the CL, and are not favourites for the FA Cup so I can see that it would be a bit of a risk to nominate him in case it falls apart in the last 3 games of the season. I'm still hopeful that we'll get 3rd place and win the Cup - and if we do then I don't think anyone will have outperformed him this season, even if Pep gets the League and CL double.
You make good points. But a few of the issues you mentioned like Ronaldo etc, also I’d add phasing out Maguire, are things that tend to only get acknowledged by fans of the club.

But if he wins the FA cup and finishes 3rd then I’d say he’s joint second to Howie. Although what Howie has done in the league is remarkable, just remember only a few months ago people on here thought Newcastle would drop out of the top 4.
 

AlPistacho

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If we end up winning FA cup too, they are going to look stupid not nominating him.

Howie and Zerbie won nothing.
Achievement relative to club size and expectations. The fa cup and league cup are competitions that United historically win before SAF and after SAF.
 

FrankWhite

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We are teribble in possession because most of the players on our team don't respect the ball.
 

AndySmith1990

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Surely he must watch some of these lot and shake his head in disbelief at how unbelievably thick they are. You can't coach players like that
 

Rightnr

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How can we be so bad at football? How are we getting dominated by Chelsea o teams? If he gets another 4/5 players of quality this summer, we should expect a lot better next season
 

Kag

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Surely he must watch some of these lot and shake his head in disbelief at how unbelievably thick they are. You can't coach players like that
There’s a lot of really, really thick players in our squad. Been saying it for ages now. Talented, but fundamentally dead from the neck up.
 

Kag

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Eriksen against the bigger sides with energetic midfields just doesn’t work, to be honest. I hope he beefs up the midfield for the final.
 

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How can we be so bad at football? How are we getting dominated by Chelsea o teams? If he gets another 4/5 players of quality this summer, we should expect a lot better next season
We should be at least 4-0 up at this point.
Story of the season - we create so much and score so little. Hardly ETH's fault.
 

el3mel

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To be fair to him he has made us an unbeatable force at hone. Even when we're not playing well we still win at home regardless.

3-0 today and that's Chelsea supposed be playing better than us. Old Trafford has become a fortress this season. Now if only we can transform half of such form to our away games.

3rd will be a great end to the season regardless of the Fa Cup final.
 
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Parma Dewol

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Chuffed for him. Absolutely deserved top four spot and given the state we were in, he has worked miracles.

Now I just hope he gets the backing he needs. Really want the ownership situation sorted quickly so this man can get to work.

I’m of the opinion the only obstacle to Erik’s United winning more trophies is the mess that is our club hierarchy. Pray the takeover saga doesn’t run all summer.
 

el3mel

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The 2nd half was brilliant from us offensively. Shame we couldn't win 5 or 6 but 4 is still a thrashing.

Need some work on our defense before the final but overall I'm please by how we responded to the WHU loss. We showed up and did our job for the last 3 games when it mattered the most.
 

Judge Red

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Top four and a trophy. Mission well and truly completed for his first season.
 

Idxomer

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More points than the other managers achieved post-Fergie in their first seasons.
 

Fr. Todd Unctious

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Top Four Finish and CL Return ✅️
At least one trophy ✅️
Most wins in 1st season as a United manager ✅️


All in all a successful 1st season for ETH even if we did make hard work of it near the end which arguably was down to running out of steam given the thiness of the squad strengthwise
 
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Zlatan 7

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Well done. Well happy with how the season has turned out after some iffy moments and doubt of top four creeping in. Great first season for him
 

Kag

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Delighted for him. Clueless owners and executives and a stream of shit players in the ranks. Fair fecks.
 

Leftback99

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Good season. Hope we get recruitment right in the summer to kick on.
 

Abraxas

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A very solid season in the PL wrapped up. Can he pull it out of the bag against City? Really tough ask, but we have to think we can do it.

But either way, there has been real progression.
 

DJ_21

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Done a fine job. Potential 3rd place finish, a trophy and another final. Improved some individuals and got us competing to an extent. Back this man!!