Something the best coaches have done from the age at which I could understand tactics and nuance is show why they are the coaches and you, as a fan, are armchair, playing catch up after the fact.
Fergie could field a lineup that would have the fans in uproar upon announcement as some anomalous piece or other was relied upon in lieu of the logical component, on paper. Come full time, more often than not, fans and media alike would be purring and pawing over what they had witnessed and became masters of hindsight when nary a person had called the intent prior to the outcome.
Mourinho ushered in a few concepts that left you in no doubt he was the man, no matter how contemptuous he was perceived as.
Benitez at his best would tweak and adjust non-stop and the pieces moved around the board in a manner that had him able to compete and be a thorn and obstacle to any team.
Klopp has had the ability to create sieges and onslaughts, which force the opposition to cater to his game and his plan as well as weather his prepared storm. At his best, his adjustments keep the screw turning for the entirety of a match and win or lose, the way his plans and will are imposed on a game have him acknowledged as no less than 2nd best in the world.
Pep basically moonwalks on concepts and takes to the extent he could announce any seemingly nonsensical system and the world would have to wait and see whether it has grounds in reality before renouncing it. The key being Pep is a master of contingency, bait and switch and what may seem to be could be illusory or his plan for the opposition to excitedly fall into.
There are so many more managers (Sacchi, Capello, Lippi, Van Gaal, Hiddink, Heynckes, Del Bosque, Simeone and on and on) throughout the years that have carried their own nuanced approach to the game that perfectly outlined why they are what they are. I expected exactly the same from ten Hag - whatever his niche was going to be it was going to be as special as what brought any of the aforementioned to the table as peers prepped and ready for battle.
By now, I think it was folly on my part and that he's simply not of that stock. All my assessments and belief was based around him being of that stock - like how there's a serious suspicion and inkling Xabi Alonso is going to be - and if he's simply not of that standing and capability then everything else has to be adjusted accordingly.
There's not a single manager listed who at their best was able to be humiliated or routed or outcoached or left to look amateur as a game unfolded, and their adjustments and understanding got to grips with the task at hand, their influence was clear.
You don't need to look toward results; they are prerequisite; what you know with any of the managers mentioned is exactly what you're getting in terms of football played, passion, implementation, execution, intensity, focus, aggression and/or composure. Every single one of them you can close your eyes and envision what their team will bring to the table, at their best, mid or worst. Everything is clear and defined. At their best, and also during their ascent, there is no such thing as being routinely smashed or outcoached.
Quite frankly, if the manager or whoever comes in isn't of this classification where the expectation is they have it about them to be the next who comfortably sits at the table as a peer with the best of their era, I don't want them here. ETH 'winning me over' is via proving he should be spoken of like the peers of this time: Pep, Klopp, Simeone, Zidane, Ancelotti and so forth. If you're about it, your name and standing or even potential threat to breach should be without question and I think that is what ten Hag came here with the aura of. Xabi Alonso has had that baton handed over to him with talk of him being fit enough to be successor to Ancelotti or Pep, and this is exactly the presence and feeling that ten Hag either reestablishes or the search continues.
Just so there's no confusion or misunderstanding; that full house those destined for the very top carry. A young Clough; a Fergie at Aberdeen; a Mourinho at Porto; a Klopp at Dortmund and so on and so forth - ten Hag had exactly this coming from Ajax, so what in the feck went wrong? How has he kamikaze'd a second season and gotten a reverse midas touch? How has he been outcoached by managers of no repute? Why does he have such dire in-game management? Why does he not show the capability of the elite to run contingencies or parallels? How is it possible to be a supposed elite and get routinely exposed tactically? Rolling back to the opening paragraph; how is it that swathes of fans can consistently pre-empt the disastrous set up, flaws and weaknesses in what they're seeing, calling calamities well before they occur?
The best coaches silence fans and are proven right to such an extent that they earn an almost blinding loyalty, certainly until they wane and fade anyway. From preseason and even prior to that with the summer signings, there has been clear and justified doubt about what waa unfurling and it's been nothing but compounds since. As much as some of us want this guy to be what he was billed as, we're far too long in the tooth to be playing Emperor’s new clothes and calling the maladies has dulled to the point of redundancy.
I have lost faith that ten Hag is in that special bracket and it'd take the stuff of movies to turn that around, should he get the remainder of the season. Perquisites would be:
- team look better than the sum of parts (default of all managers listed)
- Respect and control midfield. There are zero excuses for us to have the midfield competence of a relegation level team.
- Proactive and fluid tactical competence; not only exert to win, but then kill games. We've had about four games all season that fit this billing - the majority of our wins have looked like struggles; nothing sustainable or suggestive of a capability to go on a imposing run.
- in-game management and contingency. This is where I’m of the opinion ten Hag is not of the calibre to be one of the foremost managers in football.
- The boldness and endeavour to keep trying to crack the attacking problems. Outside of Rashford's golden run, we've shown zero capability to be a coherent attacking threat. I don't believe we'd be so offensively flaccid with other coaches handling this exact same team and set of injuries. I don't think it's a coincidence that ten Hag's football generates so few chances, like LVG's did. The approach play is nowhere near good enough and is reliant on a higher class of player performing at a higher class of output to be effective - Rashford last season was ETH's equivalent of Robben at the WC for LVG, and without that quantum leap in ability and form in the final third, organically composed and constructive football is found wanting. To the sum of parts, ten Hag isn't going to be capable of making inferior players look like an attacking unit, like we see countless managers in the league doing. This is not going to be resolved by ten Hag unless he's given a world class front line to work with, ergo it's nothing I expect to see the kind of upswing with that states ten Hag is a special manager.
- I think playing good football ties in with controlling midfield, but yeah, aesthetic football that entertains would pique interest.
- learn and assimilate. Making the same mistakes over and over again is the opposite of endearing, in fact it segues into competence and whether someone is up to the job or exasperated and out of ideas. I lost a lot of faith in the manager because of this. Top coaches adapt.
Ten Hag basically has to revert back to the manager I thought we were getting and purge the calamities he's overseen throughout the season to win me over. Personally, I don't think he's capable of that, but if by some miracle he is, then yeah.. this ½ season can be written off and considered the anomaly.
