Erik ten Hag - Manchester United manager / awaiting clarity from the club over his position

[miliebrowndivorceattorney]

Harry Kane was the only other striker on the market last summer and we tried our best to sign him, spurs weren’t having it. Other than him who was there?

I remember last January saying we should sign Taremi from Porto, someone with a great track record at a decent age who wouldn’t cost the earth. I’m assuming we scoured Europe for a while before opting for a 20 year old who’d scored 9 goals in serie A. If someone better was available, surely that’s who we’d have got.

We didnt do our best. The Glazers thought Kane was too old.

This is what Rene Meulensteen said a few weeks ago in The Guardian.

“The only thing you can question is the backing of the managers – and, yes, they’ve backed them with finances. But you saw Ole Gunnar Solskjær come out and say ‘I wanted X player, X player’ and none came. For example, signing Harry Kane this summer was guaranteeing 25 to 30 goals, but they didn’t do it because they thought he was too old."

You can hire Barack Obama as coach, if you dont back him up with top players, the one you expect at a 6 billion dollar club...

And please dont go to the 'wed never sign him, Levy would never let him go". If the former Man United assistant to Sir Alex, a man he still talks to regularly, says the Glazers decided not to get him, and gave other examples with other managers like OGS not getting what they wanted, then this is a fact.

 

[giggs-beckham]

I wish there were some freeze frames of our midfield in the second half and the yawning chasm between Amrabat, McTom, and Bruno.

Amrabat was sitting very deep, virtually level with the centre backs, and McTom and Bruno were nowhere to be seen.

Especially if we go behind in a game, the two attacking eights clutter up the attack and leave us wide open to counter attacks.

All of this is so obvious to anyone watching, but he persists with it game in, game out, and here we are, being pumped at home to Bournemouth.

He's not a very good manager

 

[Parma Dewol]

It’s possible, but then how many of them have achieved anything as good/better than the United job since they got the sack?

This is also a good point, and in a way, even worse as it implies Old Trafford is the place managers, players, coaches and senior figures come to ruin their careers. I guess they all think it’ll be wonderful if they turn it round, but every one has discovered that’s an enormous if. Good luck is all one can say to old Jim.

 

[2 man midfield]

To be fair, Amad and Pellestri were last minute panic signings because we flopped on Sancho - and Amad looks like he's got a big future with us. Telles was far better than Reguilon or Malacia have appeared to be. Ole clearly didn't want Donny.

Cavani, not sure what the beef would be there. He scored 17 goals in his first season and was brilliant when he played. Completely done out by the return of Ronnie but he's been our second best striker, Zlatan aside, since Fergie retired for me

Based on what? I think he’ll be back at Sunderland permanently before long tbh. Telles was shite btw, I think I’ve seen Reguilon offer more this season than Telles ever did. One goal against Villarreal doesn’t mean he was any good.

So if Ole didn’t want Donny, why does he get excused while Ten Hag has to take heat over Casemiro? A player he didn’t ask for, and was apparently a Murtough signing after he’d fecked up on De Jong.

Agree on Cavani, he was decent for us. But it was criticised as yet another short term striker. Zlatan, Ronaldo, Ighalo, Cavani…Ten Hag signs our first long term number 9 since Lukaku and people still moan about it.

 

[Zen86]

We talk about ETH losing the dressing room, but that seems to be a regular occurrence at this club. He had the players fully on board after his first few weeks and people were praising the way he managed the squad and how he dealt with situations like Ronaldo and Sancho. ETH isn’t faultless, but if the players are so quick to throw in the towel then if feels like they’re the problem more than the manager.

 

[The Mitcher]

Exactly, I don't even know what people are waffling about. What the feck is going on?

They are delusional, nothing more.

 

[bosnian_red]

your last paragraph I can’t agree more with, it’s not a case of downing tools but it’s the natural feeling of losing some belief in what you’re doing. Realising you’re running around like headless chickens and your head dropping as a result no matter how had you’re trying. That’s why I said a few posts ago that I think someone with better man management skills that could galvanise the squad and set them up tactically better and we would see a different side to these players.

I’m gutted it’s gone this way with ten hag as even though I knew hardly anything about him before he came bar some Ajax champions league games I could see how other posters were raving about him, honestly though and you would probably know, I haven’t been all that happy since half way through last season, I gave him the pass last year as we had a crazy fixture schedule, but this year it’s got worse. I’ve no idea why he’s actively made it worse by changing it so drastically when it’s clear it’s not working and we’re open as feck but I keep hoping it’ll change. But ultimately I don’t think he has the skills to win over the dressing room, whether that’s his team/man management or his tactics.

I don't even think anyone can criticize his man management skills. He has the belief of the squad and they run for him (in my opinion) despite the absolute rankings we've received. He's done well at plenty of aspects. It's his coaching which has been tumescent. Transfers shouldn't have anything to do with him, so I don't want to judge him on that at all.

At United you need to be an elite manager though, and he is competing with Pep and Klopp. It's hard. But he's been here long enough to show if he can or can't figure it out tactically

 

[Fortitude]

Haven't seen the game, but I'll be surprised if it surprises me.

 

[Roboc7]

I wish there were some freeze frames of our midfield in the second half and the yawning chasm between Amrabat, McTom, and Bruno.

Amrabat was sitting very deep, virtually level with the centre backs, and McTom and Bruno were nowhere to be seen.

Especially if we go behind in a game, the two attacking eights clutter up the attack and leave us wide open to counter attacks.

All of this is so obvious to anyone watching, but he persists with it game in, game out, and here we are, being pumped at home to Bournemouth.

It’s so obvious and yet we repeat the same mistake again and again, it makes the manager look completely inept. The only surprise is that more teams haven’t managed to exploit it, if we persist with it in the next three league games I can’t see us getting a single point.

 

[AltiUn]

Mount signing alone was a sackable offence.
I’ve never seen such an obvious blunder.
He isn’t that good. But more importantly we didn’t have the space to accommodate him.
Every Utd fan saw it coming how delusional must you be to think it’s a good transfer.

You still have people defending it. It’s December and he’s spent more time injured than he has on the pitch. Joke of a decision.

 

[Parma Dewol]

This is what annoys me with the rabid "sack the manager" crowd.

They make out that everyone we've hired has been unqualified for the job, when Mourinho, van Gaal and Ten Hag almost certainly were, at least on paper. There's even a decent argument for Moyes in that regard.

But in a way the rabid sack the manager crowd, as you eloquently put it, doesn’t come as a surprise. The club might be rotten in many key areas, but the manager is the easiest head to chop. It’s not like we can jettison the bulk of the squad, and trying to get rid of the owners, well the less said about that the better.

Sacking the manager may cost a few bob, but it’s the easiest way to quieten the discontent, and there’s always a good chance we’ll see a new manager bounce. At least for a season or two.

 

[Mwooyo]

Said

It’s so obvious and yet we repeat the same mistake again and again, it makes the manager look completely inept. The only surprise is that more teams haven’t managed to exploit it, if we persist with it in the next three league games I can’t see us getting a single point.

Exactly this is what I do not understand. How dumb is ETH. Every single week, there are massive spaces in the midfield and he continues to push for mctominay. If you fail to learn you will be forced to learn. ETH should have even known that the result against Chelsea and everton where total flukes....they created soo much to beat us, they just have lousy strikers.....but I think he gets swept away by the results. Like I said, he will fire himself. You can't gas up players like mctominay week in and out and hope to win consistently. Every single game we lack Control and he cant see it. Yikes

 

[ayushreddevil9]

Exactly, I don't even know what people are waffling about. What the feck is going on?

We won against a god awful Chelsea side and Mctominay scored 2 goals. We're so good!

 

[V.O.]

It’s so obvious and yet we repeat the same mistake again and again, it makes the manager look completely inept. The only surprise is that more teams haven’t managed to exploit it, if we persist with it in the next three league games I can’t see us getting a single point.

Yeah, we've basically been relying on the opposition missing sitters.

Onana has had to make about as many saves as fecking Luton and Burnley's keepers.

 

[Big Ben Foster]

We won against a god awful Chelsea side and Mctominay scored 2 goals. We're so good!

Probably the only match we played all season where the other side also didn't have a midfield.

 

[Ceteris]

Again and again he blames the players alone. This time it's the players need to change their mentality

When he's got several things wrong. Is it a surprise that we played well against Chelsea because they played 2 in midfield as well.

We have been dominated almost every game and he just stands there.

Can't impact games when it's not working no wonder we have had some hiding under him. I believe we have a hiding coming in our next 4 games.

He will still setup the same way home or away

 

[groovyalbert]

He's probably not good enough, but who the feck would do better?

 

[honirelandboy]

Cademiro, Martinez and Eriksen all immediately improve the team when fit. The rest have been dogshite and Hojlund will be a good signing but not what we needed for now. We needed an immediate fix.

An immediate fix doesn’t work when signing players who are basically finished. Liverpool signed three midfielders in Gravenbach, McAllister and Szoboszlai and got rid of the deadweights in one Summer. That was a quick fix in my books of good quality young players and can focus on a truely world class midfielder next Summer.

Scott fecking Mctominay is still getting games for us which is fecking scandalous. Midfield should have been sorted properly in Ten Hags first summer and it’s still not sorted after his second summer with long term players, not quick fixes.

It’s utterly not good enough.

 

[Alex99]

But in a way the rabid sack the manager crowd, as you eloquently put it, doesn’t come as a surprise. The club might be rotten in many key areas, but the manager is the easiest head to chop. It’s not like we can jettison the bulk of the squad, and trying to get rid of the owners, well the less said about that the better.

Sacking the manager may cost a few bob, but it’s the easiest way to quieten the discontent, and there’s always a good chance we’ll see a new manager bounce. At least for a season or two.

Oh, absolutely. I've said as much a few times. You can't oust the board/owners and replace them with better decision makers, and it's impossible to bin 15-20 players in one go and bring in an equal number of suitable replacements.

There will always come a tipping point with a manager (and we're likely to reach that this week with Ten Hag) where even the most patient fans, who understand the whole picture, say enough is enough.

The issue is that mob often ignore the obvious shortcomings elsewhere in the club, and think the problems begin and end with the manager.

 

[groovyalbert]

An immediate fix doesn’t work when signing players who are basically finished. Liverpool signed three midfielders in Gravenbach, McAllister and Szoboszlai and got rid of the deadweights. That was a quick fix in my books of good quality players and can focus on a truely world class midfielder next Summer.

I mean, you're right but the question was which of his signings have done well. All of them have when fit. The problem signings have been those that we've tried to sign for the future. They're all pretty shite.

 

[Ballache]

This single pivot set up is going to be the end of him.
It simply doesn't work.

 

[Marwood]

He can't keep blaming mentality.

Players don't just constantly rotate mentality game to game. It's not possible. Players are what they are.

They're just not good enough. If everyone was fit yeah we'd be somewhat better but the bunch we've had available this season aren't upto it.

 

[ayushreddevil9]

This single pivot set up is going to be the end of him.
It simply doesn't work.

It works. It won't work with a YT shorts player, an invisible midfielder and a no.10.

His complete disregard of setting up a solid midfield will be the end of him.

 

[ItDoesntEvenMata]

Based on what? I think he’ll be back at Sunderland permanently before long tbh. Telles was shite btw, I think I’ve seen Reguilon offer more this season than Telles ever did. One goal against Villarreal doesn’t mean he was any good.

So if Ole didn’t want Donny, why does he get excused while Ten Hag has to take heat over Casemiro? A player he didn’t ask for, and was apparently a Murtough signing after he’d fecked up on De Jong.

Agree on Cavani, he was decent for us. But it was criticised as yet another short term striker. Zlatan, Ronaldo, Ighalo, Cavani…Ten Hag signs our first long term number 9 since Lukaku and people still moan about it.

For the record, I don't give Ten Hag much grief over signings and I think Casemiro was/ is a class signing - my issues with Ten Hag this season are tactical and that he seems to be hypocritical dropping players like Sancho for not hitting standards but then playing Martial, who hasn't been at the standard for years. Ole clearly didn't want Donny - I think he was signed in the not getting Sancho panic too!

Amad - based on being Championship Young Player of the Season last year and then picking up an injury and being about to come back into a squad with woefully inconsistent wingers.

Telles played every game in our Europa League run and looked really good and then was a victim of the Ole/ Rangnick shite spell -perfectly fine back-up LB.

Ten Hag signed Hojlund, which I like, but the structure of our club shouldn't allow a lad with 9 goals in a top league to be our new no1 striker. The way I see it, we lost Ronaldo and De Gea and whatever you say like for like replacements for them are at least 100 million for a striker and 50 for the keeper. Our spend this season should have been the 150 to replace them with best in class and then a further 150 for squad depth (which should have included a second striker in Hojlund). This doesn't take away from the fact that Ten Hag has played his hand awfully this season though

 

[Kostov]

As opposed to no style, no possession & alongside an inability to create & score a porous defence.

It’s become en vogue to shit on LvG but feck me he’s the last manager with a consistent philosophy. It was flawed but it was never this bad.

LVG was an absolute imbecile and the worst of the post Fergie bunch.

 

[Nicoseth]

I love ETH, but it's hard to see him come back from this. 3-0 at home to Bournemouth is just not acceptable - as others have already stated. If it was a shock result in isolation it would be terrible, but given the sheer number of games we have already this season I just don't see him coming back from it. There's a strong possibility we will get hammered twice in the next week as well. He might be gone after that.

 

[Red00012]

He's probably not good enough, but who the feck would do better?

Someone who won’t play a single pivot .
Someone who doesn’t put one of the best left backs around at centre back.
Someone who realises Maguire and Varane can play together
Someone who won’t give Martial game time

I can continue…

 

[Parma Dewol]

There will always come a tipping point with a manager (and we're likely to reach that this week with Ten Hag) where even the most patient fans, who understand the whole picture, say enough is enough.

I think you’re right, sadly. I do wonder however if he’ll linger on until the end of the takeover saga. We feel like we’ve been in some bizarre footballing holding pattern ever since the potential sale was announced.

 

[AFC NimbleThumb]

LVG was an absolute imbecile

Debatable

the worst of the post Fergie bunch.

Nonsensical

 

[Revan]

Curious to whether you thought we were well coached last year when you continually defended him? This isn’t a dig, just wondered what you think has changed for the results and performances to get so badly worse

Last season? He was defending him like he was a family member this season too.

 

[VP89]

It's everyone's fault and everyone should be thrown to the wolves. Sir Jim should be throwing them all out and gutting the squad.

I honestly think the injuries excuse has been overplayed. We didn't suffer many injuries post League Cup Final and yet we still struggled badly. This season we haven't had our forwards out injured, the only attacking miss we've had is Eriksen (can't really say Hojlund has been a miss given he hasn't even scored in the league for us. It's just excuses at this point, it's certainly hampered our defense at times but we aren't scoring the goals. Honestly, I think it's a crap excuse to stop us looking at the bigger picture which is Ten Hag cannot set us up properly in the League.

I don't think the injuries have been overplayed. Ange has lost a couple of his key players and registered 1 point in 15? If ten hag had those results his pants would be pulled down far more than it already has.

 

[Revan]

Imagine Martinez, despite being our best player last season, turns out to be a dud too.

He won’t start with another manager. Time will tell but I have been saying this for a long time. He is a good player like Gabriel Heinze was, but a good squad player, not a starting one for a top team.

 

[hobbers]

Casemiro - good when fit
Eriksen - great when fit
Antony - jury’s out
Onana - jury’s out

Is this a joke

The jury's not out they are categorically worse than who they replaced. And Antony didnt even replace anyone.

And we signed two over 30s in midfield who gave us 6 months of decent performance level, and are now both finished.

 

[Semigoodlookin]

I mostly defend ETH because the players have a lot to answer for. Decision making on the pitch is horrendous and it has been happening to most players before Erik was in the role. However, his inability to correct games once they start going away from us is very worrying. I am also starting to think the reason the players no longer respond to him is because he changed what was expected. Last season he was building a specific way, which was more reminiscent of his Ajax team albeit with it being clear this was a first season project. For some reason, he decided to switch this in the summer and go to the greatest transition team etc, and now says he can't play the way Ajax played with United's players. I really think if we had stayed on the same path as last season things would be looking better.

 

[Blood Mage]

Enough with the players are letting him down bollocks. They ran themselves into the ground against Chelsea. The excuses that get made for our shit managers honestly, nobody is forcing him to persist with such a chaotic midfield that teams just casually stroll through.

 

[TsuWave]

The issue is that mob often ignore the obvious shortcomings elsewhere in the club, and think the problems begin and end with the manager.

Legitimately think these accusations of a "mob that ignores obvious shortcoming elsewhere in the club", is just people doing up Don Quixote. I'm yet to see a post here saying United doesn't also need structural change and that this is all on the manager. Structural change and getting rid of a clearly underperforming manager aren't mutually exclusive things, however.

Are people supposed to make a fist to sky and shout "Glazers!" or "Arnold/Murtough" when Ten Hag doesn't realise/address/fix the gaping holes in our midfield that cede so much control of the game and allow bottom half of the table teams to just stroll past?

 

[gaffs]

We can’t carry on like this. There were rough times under previous managers, but are getting beaten convincingly by any half decent team. The only teams we can beat are relegation fodder or team like Chelsea who are massively inconsisten. Play against a well setup and drilled team, and we are done.

I was at the game today. Today’s loss was not down to effort or application by the players. We play with no structre or real patterns of play. Our midfield is wide open With only Amrabat covering.

The manager can’t get a tune out of this team and when teams built on a shoestring like Brighton and Bournemouth come to Old Trafford and embarrass us, there can be no excuses from the manager.

 

[led_scholes]

We had Ronaldo, Tevez, Rooney and berbatov and still Saf was not afraid to use Weldeck and Macheda. Yet ETH insists with players like Martial.

 

[M Bison]

Someone who won’t play a single pivot .
Someone who doesn’t put one of the best left backs around at centre back.
Someone who realises Maguire and Varane can play together
Someone who won’t give Martial game time

I can continue…

Please do...

If only it was that easy: "Someone who wins stuff and gets us dominating the world"

 

[RVN1991]

I had high hopes after the Barca tie but it feels like it's been down hill since then, too many red flags, from the shocking transfer business, to the lack of style of play, to the shocking performances on the pitch.

I think he's a decent manager who could do well in certain teams but this club definitely isn't it.