Erik ten Hag - Manchester United manager

[Gene Loblaw]

Will be surprised if he lasts till Boxing Day

 

[James35]

I don’t know how anybody could want to sack ETH after a few games. The amount of injuries we’ve had to start this season, including taking our time to get a striker, and another number six meant that we went into this season both of those players not ready to go.
I almost think this season is just to bed in these new players hopefully get rid of more deadwood and sell the club. Realistically, the squad as is is not capable of competing for much. Rasmus has looked bright, but we still only have one striker, whereas other clubs have three options.
We have too much to rebuild. And it was always going to take 3 to 4 seasons. The bright spot as we were able to get a cup last season and get to play some champions league football this year.

Whilst this is true, getting spanked every week cannot happen regardless of injuries or signings coming in late. There is a time when the manage has to manage what he has AND do it better.

I 100% want him to stay by the way but he does make mistakes himself with his tactics and stubbornness - even last season. It’s a results business after all, win or (draw) ugly if we have to. He needs to know how to adapt and to me doesn’t look capable right now. Still very early and I’m sure he will turn it around but it will come a time where he will have to go if we totally go down the pan and are struggling in mid table.

 

[Raoul]

But they were (relatively speaking, obviously any manager in top leagues is in top 1% of managers worldwide).

Moyes, after failing here, got quickly fired by Sociedad, then relegated Sunderland, then didn't get contract extended for West Ham. He is now doing well, but he needed 8 years between him getting fired and him doing well. And well is quite relative again, no big club would touch him.

LVG after getting fired here, said that he is looking for the right job. But the right job never came, and the only job he got was Holland's manager again, when he bore everyone to death with his brand of football. He also won his UCL 2 decades before joining United, so it is pretty much irrelevant.

Mourinho was unemployed for a year and then best he got was Spurs. He then got sacked by Spurs. And the best he got after that was Roma. He obviously was not a top manager when he was here.

ETH had a very good UCL season when he reached semi. The next season, Ajax couldn't pass the group stage of UCL. The season after that, they couldn't pass the group stage of UCL. The season after that, they passed the group stage but got eliminated by Benfica. So that season looks more like an one-season wonder, rather than him being consistently good in UCL. And let's be fair, many managers got a single good season in UCL, but they were not that great. A couple of years before him, Jardim reached UCL eliminating City in the process. A year after EtH, Nagelsmann reached UCL semis with Red Bull. And last year, Simone Inzaghi reached the finals with Inter (a better funded club than Ajax, but still nowadays not a club that has lots of money and thus not many top players). It happens for an ok, but nothing special manager to have a decent season in UCL, but that well, does not mean much.

I think a better way of judging managers of United is how well they did at United. EtH did relatively well last season, guiding us to third in a season where Chelsea, Liverpool and Spurs were shit. Saying that, we got enough points to end in UCL zone in most seasons. He also won the smallest of Cups. The football for most part was awful, which is always a sign that things are not that well. And the consistent humiliations we got in away matches were a sign of fundamental problems that people pretended they did not exist. The signings looked to have large problems from the beginning (at least to me and another few who do not blindly trust the manager), and this season you need to be blind, and switch off the brain to pretend that the signings were anything except genuinely awful (and no, we do not need to wait for 3 years to confirm it).

So yep, like for the other managers, the less we say about him, the better. He will be a footnote in our history together with our other managers post-SAF, as a mediocre manager (relatively speaking) who failed here, despite spending a fortune in the process.

I wasn't really talking about Moyes. Everyone knew he was bobbins from the start.

 

[carlbcfc]

Big Ang is the man you want boys.

 

[Revan]

Come'on, Skills. I swear I've only ever seen you complain and call for our managers head no matter whos at the helm.

Because whoever was at helm, was not that good. EtH, in theory, should have been good. But so should have been Nagelsmann/Ancelotti to Bayern, AVB and Potter at Chelsea and so on. Sometimes things don't work, and the club should try to rectify the mistake instead of pretending that all is good.

 

[BobFromParva]

This.

I’m not sure that TH is the second coming of the messiah but he’s the first manager with a possession based / high line philosophy you’ve had and it will quite obviously take time and yet more signings to get your squad comfortably versed in this new style of play.
Until that happens you’ll have your pants pulled down now and again - you should all get over it, this is how it goes and it’s a sign of progress because it’s indicative of a side going through a reset.

It seems that an awful lot of supporters on this forum can’t quite get to grips with this stunning revelation.

 

[BarstoolProphet]

Keep as I fail to see anyone that can get us out of this mess under the current structure. Also even if the results gets even worse, then it would add more pressure on the Glazer cnuts.

 

[Daily_Blind]

Keep of course although it just underlines that Ole was never the problem either. It is the structure and until it changes we are fecking doomed to go around and around.

I don’t think Ole was the answer. He saddled us with Maguire and Ronaldo. But I agree the structure is the main problem.

 

[croadyman]

Well we aren't seeing any style of play after a year so hard not to feel on the fence. Only thing saving him is the fact we don't have anyone to replace him with right now

 

[fergieisold]

I can’t believe this is even being considered by some. Of course we keep him, he’s done a very good job so far and the club is suffering from the fallout of the Glazers selling/not selling. There’s a collective depression amongst fans that is likely the same internally at the club.

 

[Devil_forever]

Keep, wait for him to have Mainoo and Amrabat fit first, it’ll make a world of difference to solidifying that midfield. He did more than enough at Ajax to show that he deserves the time to get it right.

 

[Isotope]

Do you really think they own anything in those trophies we won under Fergie?

Yes. THey were the CLub owners at that time. They're functioning similar to now.

 

[JimiboyX]

Keep. We need to give SOMEONE time. I like his attitude, "I'm the boss" I liked him getting rid of Ronaldo, I like what he is doing with Sancho because we can all see what Sancho is like at least on the pitch. I'd like to see what a full "EtH 11" can actually do. His record compares well Vs first few seasons of klopp and guardiola. Let's just get an actual style of play down and go from there. BUT...there's only so many thrashings away from home we can take!

Keep

Agree that we need to give someone time and agree he shouldn't be sacked right now. But I'm finding it harder to convince myself there is any kind of upward trajectory here.

Brighton turned us over at home last season. Compared to that game (ETH's first), today's line-up was the same except for Lindelof replacing Maguire, Hojlund (EtH signing) replacing Sancho and Onana (EtH signing) replacing De Gea. Admittedly it was also minus Shaw and plus Regullion.

In spite of that, Brighton battered us more convincingly than last season.

 

[mu4c_20le]

Yes, it's almost as if Chelsea actually had a decent squad with players people wanted to buy and United didn't! Incredible how that works!

They released a bunch of players for free actually

 

[Revan]

I wasn't really talking about Moyes. Everyone knew he was bobbins from the start.

Mourinho and LVG were have been managers, I do not think this was a surprise. Especially in the case of LVG, he had won one big title in this century.

 

[lsd]

He's doing exactly what you expect from a manager his age who has never managed outside the dutch league to do.

 

[Robbie Boy]

I hope people stop forming cult like followings around managers

Damage is well and truly done unfortunately. We still have crazy Jose and Ole fan boys running rampant around here.

 

[buckooo1978]

some questionable decisions by Ten Hag but he's had chalkenge after challenge since taking the job. Honestly thought at the end of last season we might kick on but we've had a shit storm on a near weekly basis.

think when we get some back from injury we will see improvement

 

[Rojofiam]

Keep of course although it just underlines that Ole was never the problem either. It is the structure and until it changes we are fecking doomed to go around and around.

I think we fecked up with Moyes, LVG and Mourinho. Especially the latter two.

However, our last 2 managers are both good enough to win major trophies at a big club with major backing and a good setup behind them. Ole was sacked (mostly because of Ronaldo but still), I hope ETH will survive and bring us back to the top.

 

[DomesticTadpole]

Think all this has done is highlight the issues at the club, the manager is well down the list if on the list at all.

 

[ScholesyTheWise]

I don't think he survives this season, or that he'll be here beyond the next one, if he did survive this one.
Maybe he gets fired, maybe he walks.

Good managers (which I think he is, stubborn and limited as he is, too) have bad and sometimes disastrous spells. Most have mixed results when you look at their careers.
Did Ancelotti set the world alight at Napoli or Everton (relative to expectations)? hardly so, and just as an example.
Would you call Ranieri good, average or shite, based on his achievements throughout the years?

 

[Ceteris]

His post match interviews are starting to bore me, fans aren't stupid

We all saw our team getting outclassed, how about hold up your hands and apologise for getting it wrong?

 

[lex talionis]

Apologise for what exactly? Grow a set of bollocks.

As though it’s a serious question to ask in mid-September???

 

[Mainoldo]

Even if he stinks up the place we know this board doesn’t do sackings.

But if you are going to do this job you have to die on your sword. It was clear in the summer who needed to be in and out. Yet he’s in a press conference talking about his 5th choice CB and his first choice striker is playing against us next week.

 

[Annihilate Now!]

I am not sure what would make him lose the dressing room support. They kind of ended the season on a high note compared to our previous seasons. The recent dramas were not of his making, and he dealt with them the best he could.

The Sancho one arguably was (though I don't think he did anything wrong in that situation) but it might just be a collection of all the shit that's going on plus on field Tactics/decisions.

Just think there's a chance something might not be quite right there... plus footballers don't need much excuse to start throwing toys.

 

[Gavinb33]

No one can ever look at a bigger picture, if anything that's what's holding us back more, Arsenal finished 8th and 8th under Arteta every single person on this forum and the United board would have likely sacked him after his 2nd 8th finish and now look at Arsenal, football is not a linear path spend x = x performances its a journey if we fail to see that we will keep doing the same and being in the same situations we have been in, back the manager he is going to be great just needs some time

 

[BarstoolProphet]

Big Ang is the man you want boys.

We would get a honeymoon period where we think he is the right man, the slowly getting back to being shit again. Rinse repeat until we do a hard reset in terms of ownership/structure.

 

[fergosaurus]

Keep until the end of the season and then review, although patience is wearing thin. He still has credit in the bank after last season and deserves a chance to turn things around.

 

[RedDevilQuebecois]

Be serious for once: Who else would you hire as a replacement? And would you trust this ownership to do the right thing and find the right man?

We have a family of Dan Snyders at the top of the pyramid. They are the ones who deserve the axe first.

 

[Telsim]

So far he has created a team that is completely inert. I don't see any improvement whatsoever since 2 years ago, which is unacceptable. This will be reflected in the results going forward, unless immediately amended.

Let's see how he does this season, once more players become available.

 

[soapythecat]

Start of the end for him today. Getting beaten by Brighton is no biggie in the current climate, but getting tactically outclassed for 70% of a game at home, by a side that cost the same as Sancho’s dental work is not acceptable.
He has done little to give us hope since the League cup final and I don’t see us getting in the top 8 this season.
In game management is a bad as we’ve had for some time. Very predictable.

 

[Carolina Red]

Would seem a bit to me like blaming a new driver for a 2nd hand car falling apart.

There are so many broken pieces to this squad and to the football club as a whole that I’ve been convinced that it doesn’t matter who the manager is.

 

[groovyalbert]

Those who think ETH is the issue are fecking short sighted and insane. A million issues to fix before the manager should even be taken into consideration.

 

[Cathy Ferguson]

Keep of course although it just underlines that Ole was never the problem either. It is the structure and until it changes we are fecking doomed to go around and around.

De Zerbi has proven his pedigree in the PL so unless ETH turn things around, which I don't believe, we should target him. Too early to sack anyone now, but we have started the season poorly. Stay away from arrogant Dutch coaches (apparently the system worked today). Unless ETH can get his CM to work he will be gone by Christmas.

 

[Pronewbie]

New owners would have kept him and let him rebuild for at least a season. But they'd also hire a competent DOF, negotiator, executives etc. to run the football club and not min-max based on financial creativity.

 

[DomesticTadpole]

Even if he stinks up the place we know this board doesn’t do sackings.

But if you are going to do this job you have to die on your sword. It was clear in the summer who needed to be in and out. Yet he’s in a press conference talking about his 5th choice CB and his first choice striker is playing against us next week.

Wonder if Maguire will be thinking he is too good for WHU if we plummet down the table. Nobody with any sense will take a chance on Martial.

 

[Raoul]

Mourinho and LVG were have been managers, I do not think this was a surprise. Especially in the case of LVG, he had won one big title in this century.

Managers vary over time. Mourinho had recently won a league with Chelsea. Being older doesn’t matter much either given what a guy like Ranieri pulled off at Leicester.

 

[Andycoleno9]

Damage is well and truly done unfortunately. We still have crazy Jose and Ole fan boys running rampant around here.

Liking the manager in general and accepting that he is doing bad job are two different things.
Manager should be rated by results. And nothing else.

 

[keithsingleton]

Jesus Christ this fanbase is insufferable.

Totally agree with you. So many knee jerkers and stupid threads.

 

[Daily_Blind]

Arterta lost the first 5 premier league matches of the 2021-2022 season! They stuck with him though and it has paid off. ETH definitely deserves some criticism. I can see what he’s trying to do though and I think he’s been a bit unlucky with injuries and dead wood players from previous regimes holding him back. He deserves time to turn the ship around. I think next year is the make or break season. Dead wood like Martial, Maguire, and Sancho will likely be gone and we’ll have to see who he brings in to replace them. If results aren’t improved next season then all bets are off.