Erik ten Hag - Manchester United manager

amolbhatia50k

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Hopefully he's even more demanding of the board now. We can't afford to start players like Dalot and Mctominay anymore
 

PlayerOne

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Why does feel like the managers we get have never watched this team before? They all play the same bunch and expect different results. Like didn't ETH stop for a minute and think this bunch got 3 managers sacked, maybe I need shake things up?

But no, starts a team Ole would have picked.
 

bond19821982

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You need better wide players for his level of tactics. A player who can actually roast full backs on 1:1. Unfortunately we have Rashford on one side and Sancho is double marked or out of form. So what happens is, the wide players pass the ball inside and then you have Fred and McT.

End of the story . Start again !
 

CarbonStoolBites

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All you moaners do not deserve any success. A manager has played one match and you want him out. feck this environment that you’ve created.
Absolute joke, people already having a go at him after one match.
I must’ve forgotten Klopp and Pep cruising to the title in their first seasons, or SAF winning the treble in his first match in charge.

Good stuff kids.
 

KirkDuyt

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What's with the triple sub in injury time. I know Ajacieden always fumed at him for not making subs in time, but this almost seems like taking the piss.
 

Dominos

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There were some baffling decisions today

- No changes at half time
- Keeping Mctominay on for basically the whole game when he was so close to a red card and his performance was so so bad
- 3 subs in the 90th minute and they didn't even touch the ball. How were they ever going to have an impact with so little time?
 

cyberman

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I think we're clearly seeing, to some degree it is, hence who we're targeting in the market. Of course we can't fix it all in one summer though, that was never likely or reasonable due to how we're run as a football club.
I’m starting to go the other way. I think we have to rely on Ten Hag because we’re struggling to get the clubs targets in.
It’s like the Pau Torres story. Everybody took that as an either / or but even that transfer would be extremely difficult to make. That was our first choice solution, targeting a player who has repeatedly turned down other clubs to stay at Villarreal. That’s after taking two years to sign Sancho.
At this stage though he has to push the club. It can’t be FDJ because he’s the best player in the world for that position v nobody because they aren’t as good as him so we have to play Fred instead. Emergency 33 year old strikers for feck sake, it’s like I’m stuck in a never ending nightmare
 

holdsteady

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Why does feel like the managers we get have never watched this team before? They all play the same bunch and expect different results. Like didn't ETH stop for a minute and think this bunch got 3 managers sacked, maybe I need shake things up?

But no, starts a team Ole would have picked.
He's not going to start with Garner or Iqbal in the middle to begin with. No Martial and Ronaldo half-fit. What was he supposed to do?
 

syrian_scholes

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Dear ETH,
I know you are reading redcafe and I am sending this message to you. I can’t believe you expect different results/performance with the same pile of dross on the pitch. No manager will win with these lack of talent bottlers especially Shaw McTominay Fred Rashford Maguire. You cant polish a turd. I hope you understand the enormity of the challenge laid there for you. As a Utd fan supporting this prestigious club way before you start coaching, take my advice seriously. Stop chasing FDJ and bring someone that can play for the role, chasing ball and pressing opponents. If you listen carefully FDJ associates seem to be leaking it to anyone who will listen that he wants to play his football in Spain. Why does Manchester United always have to be embroiled in a diva crisis. Get rid of Ronaldo and bring another striker who wants to play for the club. Make sure to sign a right winger and a right back before the transfer window closes. Good luck for the rest of the season, you’re gonna need it.
This place has become so cringey. :lol:
 

IhabX7

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Absolute joke, people already having a go at him after one match.
I must’ve forgotten Klopp and Pep cruising to the title in their first seasons, or SAF winning the treble in his first match in charge.

Good stuff kids.
Online Man United fans are the worst set of “supporters” around. Been the case for a long while.
 

thegregster

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Nobody can defend him if its true that he wants 33 year old Arnautovic. He really is out of his depth if its true.
 

TMDaines

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The De Jong chase, and now choosing to play Fred as a holding midfielder in a 4-3-3 has expended a lot of capital and goodwill early on.

That XI looked confused pre-match and never looked rational throughout. There’s a reason every previous manager has played McFred as double pivot and not with either player being the fulcrum in a 4-3-3: neither of them are capable of doing it. They don’t have the playmaking instincts, the innate ability to find space and make themselves available, before progressing the ball. Both players are assets, but they are high energy, box-to-box, combative ball-winning midfielders. Asking either one to hold alone in midfield and be a focus of the passing is a poor selection.

A terrible first match at Old Trafford to compound a desperate couple of weeks.
 

maximus419

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You took a head coach who wasn't in charge of transfers and put him in charge of transfers. You should have brought in Overmars alongside him who was director of football at Ajax. Why did Ajax have a better recruitment team than United have now?
Because they are a proper well run club, not a plastic commercial sports team like utd have become.
 

Sir Erik ten Hag

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Dear ETH,
I know you are reading redcafe and I am sending this message to you. I can’t believe you expect different results/performance with the same pile of dross on the pitch. No manager will win with these lack of talent bottlers especially Shaw McTominay Fred Rashford Maguire. You cant polish a turd. I hope you understand the enormity of the challenge laid there for you. As a Utd fan supporting this prestigious club way before you start coaching, take my advice seriously. Stop chasing FDJ and bring someone that can play for the role, chasing ball and pressing opponents. If you listen carefully FDJ associates seem to be leaking it to anyone who will listen that he wants to play his football in Spain. Why does Manchester United always have to be embroiled in a diva crisis. Get rid of Ronaldo and bring another striker who wants to play for the club. Make sure to sign a right winger and a right back before the transfer window closes. Good luck for the rest of the season, you’re gonna need it.
Thanks for the advice. But I work with Murtough on these matters, not you.
 

Tom Van Persie

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Dear ETH,
I know you are reading redcafe and I am sending this message to you. I can’t believe you expect different results/performance with the same pile of dross on the pitch. No manager will win with these lack of talent bottlers especially Shaw McTominay Fred Rashford Maguire. You cant polish a turd. I hope you understand the enormity of the challenge laid there for you. As a Utd fan supporting this prestigious club way before you start coaching, take my advice seriously. Stop chasing FDJ and bring someone that can play for the role, chasing ball and pressing opponents. If you listen carefully FDJ associates seem to be leaking it to anyone who will listen that he wants to play his football in Spain. Why does Manchester United always have to be embroiled in a diva crisis. Get rid of Ronaldo and bring another striker who wants to play for the club. Make sure to sign a right winger and a right back before the transfer window closes. Good luck for the rest of the season, you’re gonna need it.
I am Erik. Thank you for your message.
 

Vapor trail

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Absolute joke, people already having a go at him after one match.
I must’ve forgotten Klopp and Pep cruising to the title in their first seasons, or SAF winning the treble in his first match in charge.

Good stuff kids.
I agree that's it's far to early to make critical judgements against ETH but why does every fan refer to this ridiculous Rome wasn't built in a day analogy as an example. Klopp, Pep and SAF reach heights probably less than 5% of managers do in their respective careers, time is not the aspect that has given them success because then time would be the factor of success behind any manager. We heard the exact same thing for Ragnick and Ole.

If ETH is a successful manager it will be because he would have proved himself to be so, not anything to do with similarities between Klopp, Pep and SAF. It's almost like fan thinking has become robotic and mechanical.
 

PlayerOne

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He's not going to start with Garner or Iqbal in the middle to begin with. No Martial and Ronaldo half-fit. What was he supposed to do?
Asked for more midfielders? If De Jong is not keen on joining then get another player. We needed 2 midfielders anyway, De Jong + DM.

Being fine with this midfield going into the season is very naive. How much can you improve a 25 year-old average midfielder and an ok 29 year old midfielder?

Eriksen should have been viewed as a good addition to the squad and not a starting CM in this team.
 

Sir Hag de Ten

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My first post here though I’ve been lurking here for as long as I can remember. I’m obviously disappointed in the result but happy with Martinez. Obviously we knew all about our deficiencies in midfield and full backs. But it’d be bad man management if MacT and Shaw were not given a chance to prove themselves. Let’s see if Malacia starts the next game and obviously McT can’t complain if he’s never selected again after that showing
 

#07

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I know that Ten Hag is a great coach. However, today I didn't see evidence that his ideas had managed to sink in. Which was a bit of a shame. In the preseason the lads looked like they had got his football into their feet. We said at the time it was only preseason. Still, you had hoped that we'd see more of it today.

There was nothing. We played, mostly, as a broken team. There were spells when we could keep Brighton in their half. However, it was a million miles away from what we know Ten Hag wants to do.

It was a reminder of how much Ten Hag is going to have to try and change. Honestly, I hope he gets the time. I fear this season is going to fizzle out long before May and, in classic Man Utd fashion, Ten Hag will be blamed for not being able to turn Fred and McTominay into Carrick and Scholes.
 

sparx99

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The first half was terrible. No way around that.

The players seemed nervous and weren’t doing the positive things we’d seen in pre-season. Most notably the lack of overlapping from the full backs and the general slow pace of play when in possesion.

If we are taking positives we were up at 65% possession overall which is marked improvement from rangnicks games where it was often 50%-ish. The important thing is to do something with it of course and we lacked threat. The improvement once we had a striker and midfielder able to pass was significant.
 

IhabX7

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The problem with us losing in the manner we did is that the media will go all out to dismantle him. That’s why a win today was very important.
 

Sandikan

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Van Gaal started with a home defeat against a worse team, and got us top 4.
So we have to try and remain slightly balanced one game in.

Especially as Eriksen and Martinez only joined half way into pre season and Martial's injury left us with a semi fit Ronaldo only.

We could easily make an Arsenal esque start and lose the first 3 though, putting him under huge pressure wayu too early.
 

Forevergiggs1

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He may as well just go back to fecking Holland if he thinks McTominay should be anywhere near our squad. Another manager given impression we can possibly start football games with 10 men and win them. Wake up Eric now!
Maybe he's playing McT to show the Glazers just how bad some of our players are so they get the cheque book out before the window shuts.

I'm 100% behind TH but his in game management was terrible today. I didn't expect miracles from his first games in charge but I certainly didn't expect what I just witnessed. Very early days though but unfortunately everything hangs on what the Glazers do in the next 3 weeks. It looks like they thought he could turn water into wine when the reality is very different.
 

city-puma

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I'm not sure if we can pick up any wins.

Brighton H Lost
Brentford A (Draw)
Liverpool H (Heavy Loss)
Southampton A (Draw)
Leicester A (Draw)
Arsenal H (Loss)
Palace A (Loss)
How can you think Brighton is a
I'm not defending them? :confused:

They were all shite too.

I'm just saying, we've hired a manager who wants to sign a bunch of players who have only achieved success in a crap league.

Who left that Ajax team and went on to look good elsewhere?

De Ligt and De Jong were the 2 shining stars. Both disappointed and were/are being already shipped out by their new clubs.

Ziyech, hasn't done a tap. Van De Beek - barely exists anymore.

Even look at the rejects who have gone there and looked like stars - Haller was terrible in the PL, Tadic was decent - both were among the best in the league at Ajax.

Blind - milktoast at United, leader at Ajax.

Seeing our current marquee signing Martinez - who legs not forget we paid an absolute fortune for - run ragged today just makes me realise we're putting a lot of faith in Ten Hag who needs to realise he's not competing with Feyenoord or PSV anymore, it's Liverpool, City, Chelsea etc.
Seriously? This game has show why Martinez will help us play the way ETH wants us play. He is really calm with bags of simple tricks to dissolve opponent’s press. Match fitness still needs to improve though.
 

ayushreddevil9

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I know that Ten Hag is a great coach. However, today I didn't see evidence that his ideas had managed to sink in. Which was a bit of a shame. In the preseason the lads looked like they had got his football into their feet. We said at the time it was only preseason. Still, you had hoped that we'd see more of it today.

There was nothing. We played, mostly, as a broken team. There were spells when we could keep Brighton in their half. However, it was a million miles away from what we know Ten Hag wants to do.

It was a reminder of how much Ten Hag is going to have to try and change. Honestly, I hope he gets the time. I fear this season is going to fizzle out long before May and, in classic Man Utd fashion, Ten Hag will be blamed for not being able to turn Fred and McTominay into Carrick and Scholes.
Things should take time. His ideas wont be clearly seen early in the season. But there are evidences for certain players just not capable of playing football. You just can't ignore that.
 

Tom Van Persie

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One result doesn't define a season. We smashed Leeds at home first game last year under Ole and look how that season turned out. It's going to take ten Hag some time to sort this out it was never going to happen overnight. We need to continue to back him in the transfer market and get some more signings in.
 

1988

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His biggest mistake was starting with Eriksen as a false 9. I can't grasp the thinking behind it. We spend the entire first half without any threat going forward allowing Brighton to play their game.
 

Rake

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Nobody can defend him if its true that he wants 33 year old Arnautovic. He really is out of his depth if its true.
I really doubt we had a list of 5-6 top players and he told the board that we should ignore them and sign Arnautovic. This is a sign of our poor transfer dealings by our board rather than EtH's wishes.
 

BlueHaze

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The first half was terrible. No way around that.

The players seemed nervous and weren’t doing the positive things we’d seen in pre-season. Most notably the lack of overlapping from the full backs and the general slow pace of play when in possesion.

If we are taking positives we were up at 65% possession overall which is marked improvement from rangnicks games where it was often 50%-ish. The important thing is to do something with it of course and we lacked threat. The improvement once we had a striker and midfielder able to pass was significant.
Second half was equally terrible. Sure the ball was around their box more but we still couldn't create any clear cut chances, still looked shaky in the back and they just saw the game out and took the piss out of us. It was appalling.