I think he's just looked at the players we have and decided we can't fully commit to playing that way as the best players are direct like Bruno. Unfortunately if Frenkie De Jong arrived that summer, I imagine we would be playing a different style.
Erik ten Hag - Manchester United manager
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In the latest episode of the United Hour Podcast, Nik (@Rood) was joined by comedian Ali Woods to look back at the best and worst moments of a rollercoaster season with the annual United Hour Awards.
Has Ten Hag been sacked yet? We're not sure and we hope not, but it's looking more likely as the days pass.
Who should replace him and why is it taking so long to make a decision?
Yeah, I can only assume it’s a personnel issue. He seems like a manager that has a defined way of playing so I can’t imagine he’s just decided to switch it up for the sake of it. I think had we signed Pavard and Amrabat this window we’d take another step towards his ideal way of playing but unfortunately that doesn’t look like happening at the moment. Certainly not Pavard anyway.
Other teams seem perfectly capable of playing possession football just fine without De jong though, so cant accept that as an excuse. He should of found somebody else.
I agree with you there. I also think he wanted to play that way when he first came but not getting FDJ and Casemiro instead also played into it.
I think he realised to stay in the job he had to play the way he did last season and now he's forced to continue to play this way. United fans aren't patient enough with managers and if he had results comparable to Arteta (finishing 8th twice) he wouldn't last long at all.
I just can't wrap my head around the Mount/Bruno/Casemiro midfield that he's trying to do. Not going to lie it was the Mount signing that gave me legitimate concerns about Ten Hag in terms of what type of football he's even going for but also the players he targets because how did we go from De Jong who was everything we needed in a midfield signing to Mount who's strengths aren't what we needed.
We badly need to be able to mix up our play when something isn’t working. Having a physical 9 should in theory give us a direct option to beat a press instead of going to the full backs and playing around the sides. We also might need to consider playing two at the base of midfield while we wait for Mount Bruno and our forwards to pick up form and fitness. Shore up the middle, If we have to grind it out for a few weeks then so be it. I do think it’ll be easier for us and we will look better against teams who try to dominate possession against us and aren’t sitting in waiting to press and counter. It’s the low blocks we struggle with and we always will with players like Marcus Martial and Sancho who aren’t physically dominating and are lax in the counter press. We do play into more physically intense teams hands.
I'm starting to get sick of the excuses being made too. I'm also starting to think he should be getting a bit more out of the players we have, average though some of them are. Our style of play hasn't changed radically from Ole's days.
It isn't true and never has been, you only have to look at the players we have tried to sign and failed to do so in the last 30 years to see that
Well the thing is United despite being one of the biggest Club hardly ever competed in terms of wages at Global stage earlier or even now for that matter So we definitely missed out on talent despite being highly successful even under Sir Alex .
You need to understand other clubs are spending heavily too. Getting into CL is not the minimum anymore: Liverpool and Chelsea missed out last season.
The thing getting us into the CL next season will have to be performances on the pitch, not 200 million spent.
Yet apparently we pay too high wages and can't get rid of players!
I don't think we've learned any of the managers post Fergie.
The FDJ saga was so reminiscent of the Fabregas one under Moyes. We make a bid, Barcelona want to sell but the player has no interest in joining us.
Yup and other clubs are also perfectly capable of scoring more than 58 league goals without a Harry Kane up front too. These are such poor excuses.
Both can be true we definitely pay high wages but I don't think we ever paid the highest wages or even close to that ever . Do you believe it was always the lure and Prestige of Madrid or Barca or before that Italian Clubs which attracted the highest tier talent or the whole package of Success on field as well as highest wages which does that .
There had to be 'something' there. ETH obviously knew the player, even if they weren't super-close, and presumably enough to gauge initial interest. The player also has an agent who you can contact directly or through 'intermediatory' in order to ascertain if and what it would take for FDJ to move , so between those two factors, he must have been amenable to transferring under certain circumstances. The Fabregas thing was not being able to agree a fee early enough, I think, combined with Fabregas in the meanwhile getting assurances that he would, in fact, be starting games regularly, so once the fee was agreed, he'd become more inclined to stay at Barca.
Did we actually submit even a concrete for Frenkie last summer, I don't recall ever seeing a so certain report by some Tier 1 source that we had submitted a concrete bid. I recall it all being somewhat weird and us lurking on the sideline on case if Barcelona screws himself financially and has to offload some players, Frenkie was the #1 on our list to bid for.
The fee was agreed between the clubs, I think, but before an official bid was submitted for the confirmed amount and for payment terms to then be agreed), Frenkie had to sign off on the move by giving assent to both sides, where one of the conditions for in principle doing so was that Barcelona first paid him what was owed.
You two are like the Meeseeks episode of Rick and Morty.
We have the highest in EPL though. In world football, probably Real, Bayern, Barca and PSG have higher (not sure for PSG now that everyone is leaving, and not sure about Barca anymore).
The main difference is that other clubs pay their few superstars a lot of money (to some of them more than us) while we pay crazy salaries to everyone. When you have a large roaster, that adds up quickly and you end with a mammoth salary bill.
De Gea at 375k, Sanchez to over 400k, Sancho at 350k, Henderson at 120k, Maguire at 190k, and Brandon Williams at 65k are some terrible examples.
You need technically excellent players, primarily midfielders who don't give the ball away to dominate and control games. Bruno too often goes for the killer pass to be a possession based team player, Mount is similar and we dont have a striker (currently fit) to hold up the ball and maintain possession.
It therefore shouldn't be a huge surprise that we are still playing the same kind of football.
Depends on the player TBH, for some the prospect of playing in England and the shit weather was enough, especially before the pitches improved, the physicality of the game was much higher in England as well which IMO was also a factor.
That was exactly the point I was trying to make .
Wolves outrun and outplay United.
Outrun = higher fitness level
Wolves more calm and better with the ball. Both isolate and collective.
Ten Hag still has a lot of works to do
Outrun = higher fitness level
Wolves more calm and better with the ball. Both isolate and collective.
Ten Hag still has a lot of works to do
Somehow he has made Mount a signing you can’t miss out on. Like he was some special talent/player. At least in the past when we made signings like this when other positions were more urgently needed, it were special/top players like RvP or Berbatov. And Fergie loved his strikers and knew how to create chances for them. So it still made sense.
Either Mount works out for him as most likely he will keep playing him even if this means playing others out of position, or it will be his downfall as a manager here.
But all is not lost yet. Probably too late this summer, but our next big signing needs to be a CM, a proper 8 (not a 10 who ETH thinks he can play as 8), even if we have to pay around 100 mil, we need to get this kind of player. Mount and Co. will still get enough games, so all good (hopefully).
Even Newcastle have the midfield balance right. They are mostly hard to beat, they are rarely overrun in midfield and now they have also started scoring goals regularly.
So shouldn’t be that difficult for us with the money spent.
Either Mount works out for him as most likely he will keep playing him even if this means playing others out of position, or it will be his downfall as a manager here.
But all is not lost yet. Probably too late this summer, but our next big signing needs to be a CM, a proper 8 (not a 10 who ETH thinks he can play as 8), even if we have to pay around 100 mil, we need to get this kind of player. Mount and Co. will still get enough games, so all good (hopefully).
Even Newcastle have the midfield balance right. They are mostly hard to beat, they are rarely overrun in midfield and now they have also started scoring goals regularly.
So shouldn’t be that difficult for us with the money spent.
Yes, and that's happened a lot before, I don't disagree. But I also don't think the level of some of the players is high enough to take advantage, esp on right. As he said in the vid, teams know who aren't a threat, which makes it easier for them to focus on Case, Shaw, Bruno etc. Garnacho had an off-day, and I guess that's partly your point, but I don't think Antony has it at all. No right foot, (although someone's had a word, as he's varying it slightly more) but maybe more importantly he just doesn't come across as disciplined or steely. There's no fight, no edge. And when combined with Wan Bissaka, although much improved, it's not something we can rely on to cause a consistent threat. Essentially when our best players don't perform, or we're trying a new system, the rest can't pick up the slack. Sounds like I'm making excuses for ETH but I'm not – the biggest culprit right now is his biggest signing.
So that one game has ultimately confirmed that ETH was wrong?
Can we be sure now that redcafe was always right and we never needed Mount while ETH woke up this morning finally seeing his brutal mistake? Very good! Hope he learns from it.
Well, you can see the scapegoats being wheeled out already and we're 1 game into the season which we won. God help us when we lose.
Supports the reintroduction of MG into the squad according to The Athletic
Antony has plenty of fight: his biggest issue is decision making and confidence. I saw him skipping easy passing options against Wolves.
He falls back on holding the ball and dribbling because he feels secure doing that. He does come around the right side a bit more, but needs to do it more, and play passes immediately when they are on.
My remark about exploiting the sides more against Wolves has more to do with passing out the back. Varane or Martinez can dribble in and play it over the top, or Onana can do it. Sometimes going long is the right thing to do.
This, 100%. What if you get the player and he gets injured?
Watching Mount several times for Chelsea and England has confirmed that he is not and never will be a top CM / 8.
He is a (defensive/hard working/pressing) 10. And neither is Bruno an 8. He is an attacking 10.
The way I see it against lesser teams maybe we can get away (if it works) with the fullbacks and CBs helping out in midfield but against the better teams even this won’t be enough as our midfield balance is not right. This won’t change unless ETH magically turns Bruno or Mount into players they are not / into Scholes.
Yes ETH knows more than us but that doesn’t mean that we need to agree with all his decisions.
SAF managed extremely successfully for 3,5 decades and won everything there was to win several times and we still didn’t agree with all his decisions either.
I've done some change management work for large organizations before, and if there's one thing I've noticed it's that regardless of how you design and define an operating model, inertia is a bitch and people have a tendency to default to the "old way" of doing things.
United has made some significant changes on paper to its transfer policy and recruitment operations, but all the evidence we've seen so far suggests that not much has changed in practice, and that recruitment is still, for all intents and purposes, largely manager-driven.
Rashford gets away with murder. He's an egomaniac - does it when it suits him and goes in slow motion otherwise
ETH gives him a free ride I think
Incredibly disappointed in him. I know he had nothing to do with his suspension in the first place, but for a man who is strict on team spirit and atmosphere, he now has a tendency to support vile human beings because they can kick a ball well (Promes, Greenwood).
Didn't he also want us to sign a forward.. **Arnautovic was it? That didn't happen after fan backlash because they were racist.
It's a very disappointing
I don't agree with the decision personally but recent reports have suggested that the squad support the decision to bring him back so I doubt it will effect team spirit much.
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Arnautovic.
You‘re not allowed to discuss MG folks.
No one gets a free ride under Ten Hag. Put that out of your head.