City Stroll It At Old Trafford | Does Ten Hag Have Long Left? - United Hour Podcast

[Vault Dweller]

Nik(@Rood) and Imran(@Annihilate Now!) have the unfortunate task of discussing United's dismal derby defeat at the hands of Man City. They discuss that starting XI, our play style (or lack thereof) dodgy penalties and how much of the blame ETH has to take Untied's terrible start to the season.



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What are your thoughts, troops?

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Hope you guys enjoyed the episode! Any questions or thoughts for next time?

 

[Vault Dweller]

My own view:

Great pod and discussion lads. Starting to waver on ETH myself, after being one of the lads on the pod who named and wanted him a lot. I don't understand the decision making when picking the starting 11 at times, and the comments on style of play have worried. Like, why buy who we have bought and spend that money, to then not even try and implement the style you want and say 'I need to adapt to the players I have'. He bought them? So that doesn't make sense. It also makes me question if that is the case, and we look this bad with no direction or style on the pitch, what is the point in retaining him? He's just another gaffer now worried about the next game entirely, not someone trying to take us in a certain direction.

A lot I am unhappy with and unfortunately, a lot arrives at ETH's door. Not saying I want him sacked by any means, but I'm certainly not as confident in him as I was.

 

[Toddler]

Hannibal is so green its unreal.

 

[Vault Dweller]

Hannibal is so green its unreal.

Far too inexperienced but Ashwin made a good point last night, that's where an experienced player gets a hold of him and gets him to calm down and re-focus. No one on the team does that at all and it's a recurring theme.

 

[Rood]

My own view:

Great pod and discussion lads. Starting to waver on ETH myself, after being one of the lads on the pod who named and wanted him a lot. I don't understand the decision making when picking the starting 11 at times, and the comments on style of play have worried. Like, why buy who we have bought and spend that money, to then not even try and implement the style you want and say 'I need to adapt to the players I have'. He bought them? So that doesn't make sense. It also makes me question if that is the case, and we look this bad with no direction or style on the pitch, what is the point in retaining him? He's just another gaffer now worried about the next game entirely, not someone trying to take us in a certain direction.

A lot I am unhappy with and unfortunately, a lot arrives at ETH's door. Not saying I want him sacked by any means, but I'm certainly not as confident in him as I was.

Everyone was pretty content with ETH last season, but obviously no one can be as confident in his abilities at the moment

It's déjà vu of course as we have been here several times before with Ole, Jose, LvG and when the vultures start circling then it's often difficult to recover

As I said on the pod, the only one who survived a season of serious doubt was Ole, but the year after it all went to shit anyway

Still I don't see any point in sacking the manager at this point, if he'd had a fit squad and had these results then there is no excuses but so many of the major issues are out of his hands anyway

 

[Amir]

Great pod, but I'm sorry @Rood, I think you had a trainwreck there when you explained why you like it that the manager picks the players we sign - because then he'll have no excuses. It's like saying you're more focused on us having a clear reason for the manager failing than on us actually doing well...

This day and age, managers - or head coaches, as they are known elsewhere - just don't have that sort of full control ETH got. That's the way clubs succeed. So OK, no one at City signs a player Pep doesn't want, but he doesn't just go, find and pick them up all by himself.

So I'll prefer a system that improves our chances our success over the one that leaves the manager without excuses for the failure.

 

[Rood]

Great pod, but I'm sorry @Rood, I think you had a trainwreck there when you explained why you like it that the manager picks the players we sign - because then he'll have no excuses. It's like saying you're more focused on us having a clear reason for the manager failing than on us actually doing well...

This day and age, managers - or head coaches, as they are known elsewhere - just don't have that sort of full control ETH got. That's the way clubs succeed. So OK, no one at City signs a player Pep doesn't want, but he doesn't just go, find and pick them up all by himself.

So I'll prefer a system that improves our chances our success over the one that leaves the manager without excuses for the failure.

Well it's more because we now hear the likes of LvG and Jose saying they didn't get the players they wanted so it's not their fault.

Plus we seem to have tried various options with transfer committees, manager veto etc and none worked out so now we go full circle to the way Sir Alex had full control. I know it is not ideal but, like I said, at least we know who is responsible.
Although even then we know he wanted FDJ, did he then choose Casemiro?

Jury is still out on his transfers and it could work out as yet - Antony a definite waste of money but the others we shall see.

 

[Amir]

Well it's more because we now hear the likes of LvG and Jose saying they didn't get the players they wanted so it's not their fault.

Plus we seem to have tried various options with transfer committees, manager veto etc and none worked out so now we go full circle to the way Sir Alex had full control. I know it is not ideal but, like I said, at least we know who is responsible.
Although even then we know he wanted FDJ, did he then choose Casemiro?

Jury is still out on his transfers and it could work out as yet - Antony a definite waste of money but the others we shall see.

The important thing isn't knowing who is responsible. It is to find a way to succeed. And giving all the power to the manager isn't the way. It may well be worse when your new manager comes from a weaker league like the Dutch one and has no knowledge and experience in building a Premier League top side. Can he still turn it around, along with his signings? Yes, technically, but I would be astound.

I don't think LVG ever said he didn't get players he wanted. More like he didn't get his first choices. But if you think we can get Muller from Bayern, well, good luck. I also think Mourinho very much got his own players, at least for the first two summers - even though he's baby enough to moan he didn't just because he missed out on one (Perisic).

As for Casemiro, I doubt ETH chose him. More like approved it when United got wind he's interested.

 

[Annihilate Now!]

Great pod, but I'm sorry @Rood, I think you had a trainwreck there when you explained why you like it that the manager picks the players we sign - because then he'll have no excuses. It's like saying you're more focused on us having a clear reason for the manager failing than on us actually doing well...

This day and age, managers - or head coaches, as they are known elsewhere - just don't have that sort of full control ETH got. That's the way clubs succeed. So OK, no one at City signs a player Pep doesn't want, but he doesn't just go, find and pick them up all by himself.

So I'll prefer a system that improves our chances our success over the one that leaves the manager without excuses for the failure.

100% agree with all that

 

[Rood]

The important thing isn't knowing who is responsible. It is to find a way to succeed. And giving all the power to the manager isn't the way. It may well be worse when your new manager comes from a weaker league like the Dutch one and has no knowledge and experience in building a Premier League top side. Can he still turn it around, along with his signings? Yes, technically, but I would be astound.

I don't think LVG ever said he didn't get players he wanted. More like he didn't get his first choices. But if you think we can get Muller from Bayern, well, good luck. I also think Mourinho very much got his own players, at least for the first two summers - even though he's baby enough to moan he didn't just because he missed out on one (Perisic).

As for Casemiro, I doubt ETH chose him. More like approved it when United got wind he's interested.

Hopefully in the future we can get a successful recruitment structure, but at the moment I'd have little faith in anyone currently above Ten Hag making those decisions anyway

Even now if we blame the manager for bringing in Antony, was it his decision to pay £85m? Probably not - it was another last minute panic buy after poor start to season

I'm assuming he's giving a list of players and then it's up to Murtough, Arnold etc to decide on budgets with Joel Glazer - until all this changes then we are probably doomed anyway

 

[RedBanker]

Hopefully in the future we can get a successful recruitment structure, but at the moment I'd have little faith in anyone currently above Ten Hag making those decisions anyway

Even now if we blame the manager for bringing in Antony, was it his decision to pay £85m? Probably not - it was another last minute panic buy after poor start to season

I'm assuming he's giving a list of players and then it's up to Murtough, Arnold etc to decide on budgets with Joel Glazer - until all this changes then we are probably doomed anyway

It's not like Ajax were ever not going to fleece us or give him for 30 mils. Also his pursuit of a bang average player "he knows" tells a lot about his acumen tbh.

 

[Amir]

Even now if we blame the manager for bringing in Antony, was it his decision to pay £85m? Probably not - it was another last minute panic buy after poor start to season

I'm sure he wasn't involved in the decision to pay so much, but I'm less concerned with the fee and more with the qualify of the player. If we had paid half, we'd still have an expensive and underwhelming figure on the right wing.

 

[Rood]

It's not like Ajax were ever not going to fleece us or give him for 30 mils. Also his pursuit of a bang average player "he knows" tells a lot about his acumen tbh.

I'm sure he wasn't involved in the decision to pay so much, but I'm less concerned with the fee and more with the qualify of the player. If we had paid half, we'd still have an expensive and underwhelming figure on the right wing.

No doubt Antony is average and manager has to take responsibility for that, but if we'd got him for half the price then expectation are lower for a squad player.

He did at least get 12 G+A last season so not totally useless, but the fee was absolutely mental and not the first time the board wastes money at the end of the window. I remember we had a Dutch football expert on the podcast last summer and he said Antony is worth £50m at absolute max.

Anyway 1 dud transfer we can handle, Mount is the big question mark this summer

 

[Murder on Zidane's Floor]

Martinelli moves like Ashley Young