No other manager in any sport has had to deal with unrest and inflated egos in locker room, players not clocking in on time, injuries, and organisational restructuring. Almost sounds like the kind of stuff a manager is employed to deal with. Surprised the poor food hygiene rating at OT wasn’t added to the list.
If Ten Hag can/should only be judged when everything is fine - what is the point of Ten Hag?
I don't think people defending him truly understand his job here. If Real Madrid spent 400m and had a manager who did not have them playing good football, the manager would be sacked. Do you think Ancelotti or Zidane had it easy at Madrid. Ronaldo was stropping any time there were new contract talks. Bale was proving a nuisance. There were player who weren't getting playing time that were disgruntled. In 2017, they literally changed lineups every week due to the amount of injuries they had. Do you think the likes of Marcelo didn't go to clubs during weeks? Do you think at Barca Neymar wasn't going to parties? I'd argue these situations being so public is a result of how badly we've handled it as a club, including Ten Haag.
Every top club has to deal with egos, disgruntled players and high expectations. That's why top clubs pay managers more money. I don't understand this notion that every thing needs to be perfect. It's never perfect. No team has it perfect all the time. Barca in 2011 had large spells where there were defensive injuries, where Keita played the most games for them.
Even at United. We had many seasons where a large portion of our key players were injured. Where defensive injuries hurt our defence/midfield. Every single club in England has to deal with that. City literally had KDB out for half the season, and no one is going excuse Pep or expect bad performances. And before people bring Klopp into this, he had already won a champions league and Premier League title. He had enough credit at Liverpool to last several lifetimes. Plus they had actually seen his system work. ETH doesn't and his system has sucked. Simple.
Why shouldn't we keep him till the end of the season? Because we can't afford to keep throwing seasons away. What are we telling the players? These are people looking to progress their careers and we are hampering them with a manager who we know isn't putting them in the right spots to shine. Unlike us, they don't have a billion years to be a fan, they have short careers and even shorter peaks. Bruno Fernandes for example is at his very peak now. This is his period to build a legacy for himself with great performances. If Ten Haag doesn't allow players like him, Rashford, Licha, Casemiro and Varane to shine, he's literally taking away part of their prime. In addition, we're trying to develop young players. It would again be best to put them in the best positions to succeed. If Garnacho, Hojlund, Amad and Mainoo aren't supported to shine in a good system, they'll lose the opportunity to prove themselves or even improve. It's always a selfish sentiment when fans call for a failing manager to stay on, because its not their careers on the line. This in particular is why I've never been against player power. It's simple people with interest in the success of the club and their role in it. Usually complaints come from older pundits who can't seem to understand people taking charge of their own lives.