They’re not competent owners though, we already know that. But sadly it’s becoming increasingly apparent that ETH isn’t a competent manager either. Which is real shame, as I really like the guy.
Erik ten Hag - Manchester United manager
- Thread starter sewey89
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Until we see what he can do under new owners then he can take us down the League 1 for all I care.
He is not the problem here.
He is not the problem here.
Wouldn't be this place if a thread like this didn't pop up 5 games into a season.
Keep but he hasn't to instill some vision and some personality to the team.
We have been a team devoid of character for a long time now and have not appeared good at anything particular in years and that's with a lot of different managers. Our squad is poor and we've spent so much money.
There's a fundamental issue at United and I don't think ETH is the cause but he was supposed to be a great coach and we've barely seen any improvement. Doesn't help we have some big moment players who are just poor technically. Our main players are ones who just don't perform consistently (Rashford, Case and I'd also add Bruno) and we just don't seem like a team and haven't done for years. The difference between Brighton and us in that regard is startling.
We have been a team devoid of character for a long time now and have not appeared good at anything particular in years and that's with a lot of different managers. Our squad is poor and we've spent so much money.
There's a fundamental issue at United and I don't think ETH is the cause but he was supposed to be a great coach and we've barely seen any improvement. Doesn't help we have some big moment players who are just poor technically. Our main players are ones who just don't perform consistently (Rashford, Case and I'd also add Bruno) and we just don't seem like a team and haven't done for years. The difference between Brighton and us in that regard is startling.
Sadly I've seen it twice with Ole and Mourinho and there is only one way this thing is going, who both had their own periods of success.
I think he could be gone by November.
I think he could be gone by November.
He did, if you exclude the years in Spain, France and Scotland.
I generally agree with this but today he was the problem. Started with a unfamiliar system to our players and refused to change it when it was clearly failing.
It was like he was trying to be too clever. Like last season when he started Eriksen as a false 9 and got dicked by the same opponent. I thought he put those days behind him but nope. Today the blame is all on him even if I think game would have been slightly different if Rashford wasn't a selfish git.
Some say change ETH but for whom ?
We’ll answer is simple tell him, that he needs to have the team in the top 6-7 by End of year or Roberto De Zerbie is the obvious choice and not just because of today however he’s currently won 75% of the games he’s played against ETH and the 4th was a luck draw for us.
We’ll answer is simple tell him, that he needs to have the team in the top 6-7 by End of year or Roberto De Zerbie is the obvious choice and not just because of today however he’s currently won 75% of the games he’s played against ETH and the 4th was a luck draw for us.
We could lose every game between now and November and he wouldn't be sacked.
Keep, obviously.
Last season was our best in probably 4 years and has earned EtH the right to see this one out. We all know that if the club fails to qualify for the UCL, the manager will be fired next summer, but unless we get properly involved in a relegation scrap (which isn't going to happen), he's safe until at least the end of the season (as he should be).
Last season was our best in probably 4 years and has earned EtH the right to see this one out. We all know that if the club fails to qualify for the UCL, the manager will be fired next summer, but unless we get properly involved in a relegation scrap (which isn't going to happen), he's safe until at least the end of the season (as he should be).
Keep.
He's had more problems to deal with than any manager I can think of. Ronaldo, Maguire, Sancho, Greenwood, Antony, the sale, the crap owners, the angry fan base. I think he's dealt with most of them well.
He's had more problems to deal with than any manager I can think of. Ronaldo, Maguire, Sancho, Greenwood, Antony, the sale, the crap owners, the angry fan base. I think he's dealt with most of them well.
The money spent is irrelevant at United. We always overpay and waste money regardless of the manager.
Are we really so short sighted as a fan base that we are going to keep singling someone out to be scapegoated every time something goes wrong? This man worked absolute MIRACLES last season, if anything the start of this season only highlights that further. Firstly, even if Ten Hag WAS the problem, I don't think our owners care enough to do anything about it, and he is not the problem. They are. Manchester United is the biggest job in world football, and the one with the most pressure. Consider the amount of excess baggage Ten Hag has had to deal with on top of his coaching since he started his tenure. The Ronaldo saga, Maguire, Sancho, Greenwood, Antony...the man must be stressed beyond belief. In my opinion we should be getting behind him now more than ever. If he is capable of what he achieved last season under the circumstances, imagine what this guy can achieve with PROPER backing and without all this background noise. This is only the beginning of his second season and already there are talks of sacking. It makes me sick as a United fan. The problems at this club run deep, and those problems affect everything including our performances, inevitably. Pinning it on Ten Hag is stupid and short sighted. What, we sack Ten Hag and someone else comes in and waves a magic wand? Who?
Ridiculous.
Ten Hag in. Glazers out.
Back the manager.
Ridiculous.
Ten Hag in. Glazers out.
Back the manager.
I am in the same camp. At times we look ready to be unleashed but then is a turn in the wind. We just need to figure out why we can’t capitalise in those moments of dominance.
We've reached a point where some fans want the manager sacked whenever we play badly for a month regardless of context. Whoever replaces him will have to deal with the same useless players, directors and owners but they'll forget and then demand that guy is sacked as well as they carry on in a loop.
This exactly. We all hate the Glazers but they can’t be blamed for the manager’s inability to implement a positive and functional playing style 16 months and £400 million into his job.
For me, it’s very simple. I don’t expect us to compete for the title. But EtH needs to show progress from last year. If he doesn’t, he needs to go.
As much money in the bank as he has after the league cup win, straight losses between now and October would have him back in Holland with the second biggest severance package in the clubs history, sadly.
I think he would most definitely be sacked if that happened. If he isn't, then he would certainly be on his last legs.
I was so confident when he first started off. He had us passing and moving in pre season, the players looked to be playing with confidence. When shit hit the fan at the start of the full season we adapted, we stopped playing so statically, he ran with the players during their punishment, he handled the Ronaldo madness. He seemed to be a true leader. When his tactics didn't work he wasn't afraid to do things differently. After the first couple of months we looked like we were going places.
And since then, twelve months on, nothing has changed. If anything we're going back to square one, and the shite he inherited from Rangnick. It's been a complete bottle job, which seems about right for our club in recent years.
I'm usually that annoying person who comes into the different manager threads and says "we need to see an improvement next game, we need consistency". But what's the point? We never change. And that goes for everything at this club. We can get as many record sponsorship deals and pretend that's enough but the reality is that we don't have experienced "football" people at the club at the levels above the manager, and yet they're the ones hiring the wrong people time and again, with absolutely no long term strategic vision. If the people doing the hiring don't have a single clue what a football club needs then what's the point in letting them pick the next inevitably wrong manager, who will be thrown into the pit of madness that our club is?
Our last CEO was an accountant and he's been replaced by his fecking mate, who is also an accountant. Neither of them have any sporting experience before coming here. Our Deputy DoF last worked for a club four years ago as a conditioning coach, before jumping to a head of youth development role for Premier League training programs, to now overseeing all sporting operations with us. His boss is a DoF who hasn't held that role at any other club before being promoted internally into it here. His Technical Director's only relevant previous job is that he used to play for us. None of them should be in these roles at a club with our power and goals.
Even our CFO got his degree in fecking Chemistry of all things, and he worked for sports betting companies before coming here. Our last two CEOs are better suited for the CFO role than the current CFO! Everything about our structure just looks wrong. And at the very top we're owned by a family of idiots, starting off the endless trickling down of shit, inexperienced, uncoordinated decisions that end up with us wondering wtf is going on at Old Trafford when the final whistle blows.
And since then, twelve months on, nothing has changed. If anything we're going back to square one, and the shite he inherited from Rangnick. It's been a complete bottle job, which seems about right for our club in recent years.
I'm usually that annoying person who comes into the different manager threads and says "we need to see an improvement next game, we need consistency". But what's the point? We never change. And that goes for everything at this club. We can get as many record sponsorship deals and pretend that's enough but the reality is that we don't have experienced "football" people at the club at the levels above the manager, and yet they're the ones hiring the wrong people time and again, with absolutely no long term strategic vision. If the people doing the hiring don't have a single clue what a football club needs then what's the point in letting them pick the next inevitably wrong manager, who will be thrown into the pit of madness that our club is?
Our last CEO was an accountant and he's been replaced by his fecking mate, who is also an accountant. Neither of them have any sporting experience before coming here. Our Deputy DoF last worked for a club four years ago as a conditioning coach, before jumping to a head of youth development role for Premier League training programs, to now overseeing all sporting operations with us. His boss is a DoF who hasn't held that role at any other club before being promoted internally into it here. His Technical Director's only relevant previous job is that he used to play for us. None of them should be in these roles at a club with our power and goals.
Even our CFO got his degree in fecking Chemistry of all things, and he worked for sports betting companies before coming here. Our last two CEOs are better suited for the CFO role than the current CFO! Everything about our structure just looks wrong. And at the very top we're owned by a family of idiots, starting off the endless trickling down of shit, inexperienced, uncoordinated decisions that end up with us wondering wtf is going on at Old Trafford when the final whistle blows.
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I'm at the stage now that nothing else matters but the ownership. Not the manager, not the players, but the owners - they need to go to stop the rot. Ten Hag has enough credit in the bank after last season, in my opinion.
He actually did, Pep sold him.
Thats what we thought about every other manager, I guarantee you that if de Zerbi comes in, with the issues regarding player power and shit recruitment still prevailing he will be done here in those 17 months. The issue goes far beyond the manager and his day to ay decisions, granted they have been some shocking ones.
There is a vortex of negativity around the club and its coming from the owners who are just in it to leach our money. The same owners and their flunkies thenake players feel untouchable and now you have players openly defying the manager's instructions on the pitch because they know that the owners would sooner fire the manager than make a £100m player accountable. It's a disease and it spreads to the new signings once they see the shit players like Rashford and Bruno get away with on a weekly basis.
This won't end until we have proper recruitment in place, do you think de Zerbi is such a magician that he will teach our back six to build up play and pass around opponents like they were doing? He will need a few new players and that's where United will let him down and they will also insist that a few are untouchable.
Ten Hag will get the sack before Christmas, we are too far gone and there are still a few hidings coming our way as we haven't played Liverpool, City, Newcastle and Bayern. Add in a plucky underdog and the negativity will spiral out of control and consume him. De Zerbi or Nagelsman will come in and two years later we will be here, in the same place again with the se players that let the previous managers down earning another one the sack. I'd rather ETH be the one to do the dirty work and see where we are two seasons from now.
I'm not an expert on managing/motivating footballers, but I would hazard a guess that picking fights with one of them in public, at the same time as you're losing games where you make such dumb decisions your own fans boo you in astonishment, is probably quite high on the "don't do this" list.
I've got no trust in him at this point which is some going after 5 games, but the Martial sub today is where he completely lost me. If he didn't expect that reaction from the crowd he's a complete idiot and if he did expect it why on earth did he make that change? Aside from it being incredibly stupid tactically, how is it helpful for either player to be subbed on/off to the entire stadium booing?
DO NOT fecking do shite like this to your players when you're already risking a revolt by picking fights with one of them. Preferably just do not do it regardless.
I don't really know where he goes with things now as he's backed himself into so many corners it's not easy to see a route out. He's got to win back the trust of the players, while engaged in a childish public spat with one of them that he started, while working out how to get around his main priority signing making the team imbalanced and much worse due being used out of position, while repeatedly making subs in games that do harm to his players and team.
I've got no trust in him at this point which is some going after 5 games, but the Martial sub today is where he completely lost me. If he didn't expect that reaction from the crowd he's a complete idiot and if he did expect it why on earth did he make that change? Aside from it being incredibly stupid tactically, how is it helpful for either player to be subbed on/off to the entire stadium booing?
DO NOT fecking do shite like this to your players when you're already risking a revolt by picking fights with one of them. Preferably just do not do it regardless.
I don't really know where he goes with things now as he's backed himself into so many corners it's not easy to see a route out. He's got to win back the trust of the players, while engaged in a childish public spat with one of them that he started, while working out how to get around his main priority signing making the team imbalanced and much worse due being used out of position, while repeatedly making subs in games that do harm to his players and team.
Something looked really really off today, from his presence or lack of on the touchline, the absolute basics missing from supposedly world class players to the fans booing his substitution choices.
I wonder how influential the Sancho scenario is, but something seems really really off and I don't like where it's going.
I wonder how influential the Sancho scenario is, but something seems really really off and I don't like where it's going.
I think with me, I just can't bear another new manager boom bust cycle. I'm pretty fundamentally convinced that the same thing would just happen again, and again. We just aren't set up to succeed. We are Sisyphus FC.
Agreed. Some stupid pundits dismiss it as an issue but everyone above the manager seems completely incompetent. The Greenwood situation, the past choices of managers and the last decade of recruitment have been awful.
400 mils are massive amount but it just shows how poorly we have done transfers. With such amount spent but so few in numbers and alternatives, it is a doom for ETH to be successful. If we have new owners, I would like the new owners give ETH an insurance to implement his idea without worrying the league finish for one year or even two. Something has to give. Otherwise, we just keep two year circles again and again.
This is a bit of an issue. We keep starting games on top, pinning the opposition back, yet they adjust and we don’t. This then gets misdiagnosed as players not working hard enough, when it often isn’t the case. We lack the on-field or off-field leadership to shift our formation or tactics to combat the opposition’s tactical tweaks.
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Yeap that looks to be the crux of it,well said.
Yeah, that's my main reason for continuing to back him. Until we fix our structure, no amount of endless rebuilds will ever take us back to the top.
I thought the booing today was defo a turning point today too. I was a little shocked tbh. Has Old Trafford ever done that before to our manager?
EtH is probably one more big hiding from losing the crowd. He should be looking to the City and Liverpool away games in a bit of fear. Another 4 or 5 nil whipping and it could be curtains.
EtH is probably one more big hiding from losing the crowd. He should be looking to the City and Liverpool away games in a bit of fear. Another 4 or 5 nil whipping and it could be curtains.
Attackers not scoring goals. We have good moments but dont score. Spurs game for example...
Hopefully Hojlund can fix some of that. And Rashford regaining some of that form he had last season would be nice too...
All those who are massive fans of ETH, how do you explain playing Bruno at the back ?
After Bayern we have one of those kind run of games that won't say anything about our level even if we win every one of them, until the end of October vs City. So for me it's really Bayern tomorrow and the game vs City at the end of October that are important for him. These others he needs to get a run of wins together and while winning every game is unlikely, it won't say much even if we do.
We only have one proper striker and he's not even fit enough to play a full game
We will be much better than this going forward, but we don't have the squad to deal with injuries and still remain somewhat efficent. Unfortunately.
Personally I don't care about games in isolation, it's pointless, last season was a success given the circumstances, this season has started badly for sure, but people are overreacting as per usual, he'll likely stabalise things pretty quickly, maybe get us a good cup run and in or near the top 4.
My point is that I'm sick of a decent manager been hamstrung by the shitshow United is under the Glazers, and the above been seen as decent season, with the Glazers been able to rinse repeat yet again, so if it all unravelling can hasten the Glazers going then bring it on, ETH is blameless for now from me.
My only explanation for that shit show was he said feck it, game is done by that point so was just saving players for Bayern. Understandable for Hojlund if he's not ready to play full games. The rest was just nonsense subs and the behavior of someone who didn't have a plan and was outcoached.
We have a director of football who is not an accountant. We have chief scouts. The days you are referencing are gone..
At that point it's over anyway. I don't care about small stuff like that.
We have bigger problems.
They did so it's actually pointless moaning about that now.
We need a director of football and have done so for years but Ten Hag didn't want one.
I was driving at that point but was listening to it. Pure madness tbh, the man is prone to completely losing it