Erik ten Hag - Manchester United manager

Jazz

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Yeah, very true, the cycle is a difficult one to stop, especially with the Glazers in charge and the limited experience upstairs/behind the scenes.

DDG and Maguire are not captains, Ronnie has the experience but has decided United are lightyears away so wants out, Bruno is not the right mustard either.

For me ETH has to be seen as bulletproof for the next 3 years, he has the experience and it might take him a full season to see the full picture.

I fear he will regret wasting so much time chasing Frankie, but then the manager can't put out every fire at once especially when he has only been here a few months.

Hard to see a silver lining at the moment but its never boring at least.
I think the same as I did with Van Gaal. It might be better to get him talented but unknown players and/or use some of the kids as they will be more susceptible to his coaching methods I think. I don't know. Maybe we need to get some 'untouched' players without all the baggage in order for things to work. The bad mentality and lack of confidence has been there for several seasons and I just can't see how it changes. Plus as well the outside distractions.

Firstly though, we need a proven person in to deal with transfers. We need to be clever about this and not encourage the manager to just go with his choices. We also need urgently to find some methods for the team to adapt to deal with all the other pressures associated with current United. It is so essential, I am shocked no one at United seems to have figured out how detrimental it is. Sports is always 50% mental. No matter how well coached, you need the mind to be clear.

One thing worries me is that some of the same players we've seen just going into their shells at the first sign of trouble, did the same today. That's not acceptable. I don't care how much we're losing, you give the maximum effort regardless. Really hard job for ETH. I am routing for him though and trusting in his intelligence to get things going. He does need time though. I think he will have learnt a lot from today though. Hopefully!
 

R'hllor

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This is very weird take on. I mean whether it is on him or not, there was no other way to do it. He couldn't even get more than two first team players. The club does not back him to the point that he wants to sack 15 players from the squad.
No other way to do it!? Ofcc there are other ways and him not being able to get more than 2 players have nothing to do with dropping those already in the squad, you dont need to sell or loan them to get rid of them and if those above come and say no, you cant do that, well if you have pair of balls and integrity just resign on the spot, you will earn money somewhere else.
 

Chief123

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I was just looking at the fixtures, if we don’t win at Brentford we have no chance v Liverpool then it’s Southampton away, Leicester away, Arsenals home then Palace away.
There’s a realistic chance it could be 8 games in v Leeds before we have a chance to win our first league game
That’s looking like a pretty horrific run now.
 

Tibs

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EMBARASSING that we are even trying to sign Arnautovic...

McT, utter dog shit.

The whole lot were crap in fairness but especially him...next game Donny needs to play with Fred. Even if Donny has a bad game and plays with a blind fold on, he'll still do better than McT
 

Greck

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Congrats Caf. It took one game to turn against him. Bravooo!
It's McFred I think. Those two could turn rome against the pope. Midfield killers, Manager killers and now approval rating killer. In Mctominay's case he didn't even need 45 minutes to waste his clean slate.
 

Jazz

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It's McFred I think. Those two could turn rome against the pope. Midfield killers, Manager killers and now approval rating killer. In Mctominay's case he didn't even need 45 minutes to waste his clean slate.
:lol:
 

the_cliff

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My worry as mentioned in the FDJ thread is the insistence on his primary target. People were looking down on Ziyech/Neves/teilemens yet are happy with what we have. We have the worst midfield on the league even with FDJ it's not enough.

People assumed that he'd turn mctominay/Bruno and Rashford into world class players in a month. He's not a miracle worker and it's one thing being comfy in pre season but when the season starts the badge weighs too heavy on these players.

The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results and our players have been given more than enough chances. This transfer window has been absolutely terrible considering what happened last season and yet we're reliant on the exact same names and people are expecting different results.
 

bdspeedy

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You sacrifice the very first game of the season with your new team just to give 90 mins to the shite players instead of giving, say, 70 minutes?
Seems daft unless the point was that these guys were given one GAME to save their starting place, although I can't imagine Sancho losing his place in the first 11. Maybe the message sent was the NOBODY'S job is safe if they continue to suck ass (on the field, anyway).
 

Attila

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Starting to think Conte was the better choice

United job is too big for Ten Hag. Going after the likes of Arnautovic...clueless
 

TsuWave

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I feel super deflated. It’s only one game, but I don’t even think it’s the result, it’s more to do with the shortcomings being stuff that we’ve been screaming about for so long. I don’t think I’ve got another season of being frustrated with McFruno in me. Or constantly stressing that we need a new whole right side, and a striker etc
 

city-puma

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It's interesting that so many were dismissive of potters abilities to do the United job over the summer
Potter has my vote here in that poll, but ETH is my second choice. I believe they can both success here with the upper structure developed properly together.
Even Potter was in charge, you won’t expect the team making giant progress in one month. But it won’t be long for us to become a better team under ETH. Within two months, we will become a good team. The sign in the second half today is promising.
 

RoadTrip

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It’s a long, bumpy road ahead. For anyone who is raged by today, quite frankly I’d say you’ve deluded yourselves in thinking we will turn around so quick.

Ten Hag needs time. He can’t change habits in a month even if pre season looked good. Some of the issues are deep rooted. We all knew this. We all knew there would be disappointing games. Nothing has changed. Sure everyone would love a win in week 1, especially when optimism and hope is at its highest, but this is just resetting our reality.

Having said that, there ARE reasons to be upset - although I don’t think they have anything to do with losing today (although of course they contributed to it). For me, these are:
- Making Maguire captain. Puts him in between a rock and hard place, because Maguire isn’t playing like a starter, there are better defenders on our squad, but he’s now hard to drop. I blame ETH for this one.
- We still haven’t fixed McFred. It’s absolutely criminal that these are still our starting midfield. I know we have been chasing De Jong but this is SUCH a glaring weakness that we really should have had a few targets in the pipeline to give us flexibility. If the window closes without reinforcement there I will be bitterly disappointed. I suspect ETH has a role but it’s probably our wider club staff who take the brunt of this.
- Similarly, we need reinforcement at striker.
 

Ayoba

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I feel super deflated. It’s only one game, but I don’t even think it’s the result, it’s more to do with the shortcomings being stuff that we’ve been screaming about for so long. I don’t think I’ve got another season of being frustrated with McFruno in me. Or constantly stressing that we need a new whole right side, and a striker etc
Me too pal, I feel like I just want football to end, can't face watching our shower of shite
 

AndySmith1990

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I'm really disappointed he's pushed for Arnautovic. I thought he was better than that. Or rather, expected him to be better than that. It's up there (down there?) with Moyes wanting Baines and Fellaini. Just feels small time
 

Big Ben Foster

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Starting to think Conte was the better choice

United job is too big for Ten Hag. Going after the likes of Arnautovic...clueless
Conte would've probably physically attacked the entire board by now. There was no chance they would ever have gone for him.
 

izec

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Job is too big for him, clearly out of his depth. It would be for most managers. Probably all of them, except Fergie.

We dont have the structure in place, like Ajax etc.
It shows when the guy is targeting former players and everyone is watching and flowing with it. We are just mismanaged and rotten from top to bottom. Should have let Rangnick implement a working structure the next 2-3 years. Now it is more of the same, just a different clueless manager. Like LvG said, we are a commercial club, no football structure whatsoever.
 

Castia

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You have to question his transfer targets and the fact that so far in his career he hasn’t really had to deal with the market.

Coach wise he’s 100% the correct man for me but this club doesn’t have the structure to support him.
 

Vapor trail

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I thought it'd be impossible for Erik to squander all the goodwill he's got, at least not within the first 18 months.

But if we turn out vs Brentford and I see McFred, Rashford and Arnautovic on the team sheet... a lot of goodwill is going to evaporate.
I'm within a similar situation not concerning the team sheet but the transfer strategy. Luckhurst's recent tweets all but confirm that ETH is running the show for recruitment this summer and it's actually an outright embarrassment that he is only targeting individuals he has worked with previously. I'm not saying he's a bad manager but surely with the resources at his disposal he can do better to cast a wider net at players concerning new transfers.
 

Lee565

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He is kinda screwed, he has too many players in the first 11 that are not suited to the philosophy that ten hag is trying to implement-

De gea - he is not a sweeper keeper and he showed it again and you can feel in the stadium that everyone worries when the ball is at his feet.

Dalot - he bang average going forward and defending, there was countless times where he should played the ball into the box and he cowardly passes sideways instead.

Maguire - he will never be able to play a high line.

Fred, bruno and mctominay - poor in possession and will never be able to control a match.

Then there is also rashford who is technically poor with constant heavy touches when receiving/dribbling with the ball, as well misplacing passes and holding onto the ball too long.
 

DSG

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Potter is one of the best coaches in Europe playing style-wise. Remarkable.
Frankly, he completely out coached Ten Hag today. The press execution, how they were on McFred in a flash, knowing our weaknesses, the defensive set up.

Ten Hag has a long way to go. I don’t feel we were well prepared for Brighton today.
 

TheReligion

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Job is too big for him, clearly out of his depth. It would be for most managers. Probably all of them, except Fergie.

We dont have the structure in place, like Ajax etc.
It shows when the guy is targeting former players and everyone is watching and flowing with it. We are just mismanaged and rotten from top to bottom. Should have let Rangnick implement a working structure the next 2-3 years. Now it is more of the same, just a different clueless manager. Like LvG said, we are a commercial club, no football structure whatsoever.
:lol:
 

Sarni

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Frankly, he completely out coached Ten Hag today. The press execution, how they were on McFred in a flash, knowing our weaknesses, the defensive set up.

Ten Hag has a long way to go. I don’t feel we were well prepared for Brighton today.
For all the talk about how we need more players, Brighton lost their two best players in the Summer, had Welbeck upfront, had young Caicedo in midfield and the team on paper looked very ordinary. I don’t buy that our team is so weak that we should be getting outplayed by them to this extent.
 

KiD MoYeS

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It is going to take a couple of years to rebuild unfortunately. We need to stick with Ten Hag. I am assuming he will learn that McFred is not a viable option sooner rather than later. The Arnautovic move is very disappointing but I guess we are desperate.
 

Adisa

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Starting to think Conte was the better choice

United job is too big for Ten Hag. Going after the likes of Arnautovic...clueless
The same Conte that pushed for Ashley Young.
Do you think Erik Ten Hag came to United wanting to sign fecking Arnautovich?
 

Sarni

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I dunno, They’re both the same age and Arnautovic has 15 goals and 1 assist in 34 games in Italy and for an average side at that.
Perisic was brilliant for Inter last season, came on a free transfer and will actually compete for the spot in the team with a very young, promising full back who has developed greatly under Conte for the last six months.

Arnautovic will be backup to a 38-year old.
 

Adisa

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For all the talk about how we need more players, Brighton lost their two best players in the Summer, had Welbeck upfront, had young Caicedo in midfield and the team on paper looked very ordinary. I don’t buy that our team is so weak that we should be getting outplayed by them to this extent.
We have been outplayed by Brighton for ages now.
I think some of these players are busted.
 

RoadTrip

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Job is too big for him, clearly out of his depth. It would be for most managers. Probably all of them, except Fergie.

We dont have the structure in place, like Ajax etc.
It shows when the guy is targeting former players and everyone is watching and flowing with it. We are just mismanaged and rotten from top to bottom. Should have let Rangnick implement a working structure the next 2-3 years. Now it is more of the same, just a different clueless manager. Like LvG said, we are a commercial club, no football structure whatsoever.
I don’t understand how the two paragraphs work together in your post. For me this just cements that this really isn’t about ETH. A football club can no longer operate the way we did with Fergie. No manager, including the worlds best, would succeed here. They might improve is enough to scrape a top 4 but never in a million years would we win anything significant without serious change at the club in terms of scouting and structure. You could say the fact we are targeting former players is a stain on ETH. But on the other hand, I’d argue it’s more of a stain on our scouting. I can’t say how, for example, Liverpool and City work. But I’d wager that it isn’t Klopp or Guardiola who bring the targets to the table. I bet it’s a fluent discussion where Klopp and Guardiola set out thematically what they think the squad needs, the scouting and wider club staff will find X targets, with the two groups then working collectively to decide who to pursue.

We just don’t have the latter. So ETH can only go after who he knows because no one is giving him other options. And for me that’s got nothing to do with ETH being out of his depth, it’s all to do with him having no support at all.
 

dove

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People need to chill a bit. I think it was always pretty obvious that it will take time and even with that there are no guarantees for any success. What is worrying though is that we seem to target only the players he has coached before (Sesko being an exception). Don't tell me we can't find any players that would fit into his system and better than some of the crap midfielders/forwards we have now.
 

cyberman

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Perisic was brilliant for Inter last season, came on a free transfer and will actually compete for the spot in the team with a very young, promising full back who has developed greatly under Conte for the last six months.

Arnautovic will be backup to a 38-year old.
Perisic is back up as well? It’s a bit of a reach to say they’d aren’t in a similar position. Both wanted for back up to the starting 11.
This is the same Conte who signed Sanchez and Young off us!
 

RoadTrip

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For all the talk about how we need more players, Brighton lost their two best players in the Summer, had Welbeck upfront, had young Caicedo in midfield and the team on paper looked very ordinary. I don’t buy that our team is so weak that we should be getting outplayed by them to this extent.
I think you grossly overestimate the quality of some of our players. And not to mention, it’s not just about individual quality. We KNOW that this group of players cannot work together. A group of mediocre players that compliment each other will always perform better than better individual players with no chemistry.
 

The United

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No other way to do it!? Ofcc there are other ways and him not being able to get more than 2 players have nothing to do with dropping those already in the squad, you dont need to sell or loan them to get rid of them and if those above come and say no, you cant do that, well if you have pair of balls and integrity just resign on the spot, you will earn money somewhere else.
More weird stuff coming out from you again.
 

matt10000

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Starting to think Conte was the better choice

United job is too big for Ten Hag. Going after the likes of Arnautovic...clueless
Really? 90 minutes of football, first time ETH has experienced the premier league and you already judged his manageeial tenure? Jeez……..