Don't blame him one bit but the policing of doubt is annoying. I don't come to read the same comment over and over. Those posts are a sliver of a minority anyway.
Do the fans actually trust ETH or is he walking the Green Mile?
- Thread starter Red in STL
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Of course. He's an excellent manager and the perfect guy for us. No manager is perfect though, they all have weak points and areas to improve. We aren't a cult ffs, we are allowed to say that a manager has a blind spot and currently Ten Hags very clear weak spot is that he refuses to rotate his key players.
Why is everyone so desperate to hold hands and sing kumbaya. Just because I or someone else may not agree with some of the managers decisions doesn't mean he is not wanted or trusted. I love my car but damn does that thing guzzle petrol, have no plans to sell it though.
I trust him and I am enyoing the ride. Finally we have manager with winner attitude who is going for everything.
And we are playing good. Didn't enjoy oour matches like this since Fergie days.
And we are playing good. Didn't enjoy oour matches like this since Fergie days.
Nah. He trusts Fred enough to start vs Spurs and vs City (and give great performances) but can't start ahead of Eriksen 1 game and Bruno the other? Midfield of Casemiro, Fred and Eriksen or Bruno not good enough for Nottingham forest or reading?
It's as simple as doing that and then just starting 1 young player - one of the wingers ahead of Rashford 1 game, and Antony the other. That way Rashford gets a game off, Antony gets 1 game off, Bruno and Eriksen each get 1 game off but in both games, the other is on the pitch so it's a strong team all the same. Full rotation is dumb and rarely works. Partial rotation where we start a Brazil international next to his midfield partner Casemiro and literally just 1 young player is perfectly fine and should be done more often to manage the squad. If he wanted to rotate in the slightest, he'd do that. But he doesn't - which to me points to an area that he will need to improve in, in time, as no manager can just not rotate across 4 competitions. That level of fitness doesn't exist. Klopp learned to do it, Sir Alex always did it, Pep learned to do it and Arteta does it now too.
It's low tolerance. Before the game I thought starting Cas in that game last week was the right gamble, he knows he's on a card and the manager must have warned him to be careful. By fulltime I could see what dissenters meant. In hindsight (for me at least) Casemiro is not the type that can be asked to give only 70%. I feel like even ETH would play those cards different if he could.
The wisdom is knowing this does not take away from the fact that ETH was why we were in this position in the first place. It doesn't have to be treated like heresy. Disagree and move on, we don't need an inquisition.
Edit: just saw the Eriksen situation and I don't disagree with that either. Like why is this thing so cult like? He is allowed to make rational gambles that don't pay off and people are allowed to point it out. It's only a problem if the poster has an agenda. Some of the mistakes SAF owned up to in his biography are things people would have been calling heresy at the time. The real faith is knowing ETH is so good that the hits will overshadow the few misses.
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He is not in a position to rotate key players, otherwise he will lose games, which he doesn’t want to do.
If and when the club has bought in sufficient quality to allow for more rotation then I am sure that will happen.
He will rotate against Forest next week because we are 3-0 ahead. That’s how bad our second string are in key positions.
He has no issue rotating Varane, for example. He does this because Lindelof and Maguire are good enough to come in and do a job. He has no such luxury elsewhere.
Again. There's a medium between full rotation and literally just starting Fred ahead of one of the 2 midfielders (which he will likely have to do for every minute over the next month now). That, and give Garnacho or pellistri a start and give rashford 1 game off. If you don't have faith to do that vs Reading, it has nothing to do with required depth, it just points to a manager that doesn't want to rotate ever.
Absolutely fans will say that, and that is including the people who 'trust him without question' right now.
Only in our fanbase are managers infallible while they are on a good run. Nothing wrong to question (or have doubts about) a manager. They are not superhumans. In general the feeling is of trust/support, but dont forget he's still new to the league, came from managing the best club in his country while we are a shambles here, no surprise fans will have reservations about overplaying our older players. Nothing wrong with expressing that so long as they aren't being rude about it.
Eriksen comes off for Fred. Who started doesn’t really matter; that’s the way of things in important games. Garnacho is getting plenty of minutes.
Ten Hag is in the business of winning trophies, and he’s at a club who has forgotten how to do exactly that. He’ll play his best players when he can. A shite tackle from Carroll, which could have happened to anyone, doesn’t change that. Fred will start midweek. So will Garnacho.
You’re yelling at clouds.
Some of the criticism was OTT but even though he's almost unanimously supported and adored (rightly so) it would be weird if he'd be above an iota of criticism.
We were told by Ajax fans before he came here that he doesn't like to rotate and that his subs and in-game management can sometimes be a bit questionable but that he's brilliant at basically everything else - and that's what we're seeing.
The best managers make a few dodgy calls or gambles that don't pay off, and you can discuss those when they happen without it being seen as some strange 'lack of trust'. City fans owe everything to Guardiola (second only to the sheikh, of course), but they're still entitled to ask questions when he goes mental and names 9 centre mids in a CL knockout game again.
The best managers make a few dodgy calls or gambles that don't pay off, and you can discuss those when they happen without it being seen as some strange 'lack of trust'. City fans owe everything to Guardiola (second only to the sheikh, of course), but they're still entitled to ask questions when he goes mental and names 9 centre mids in a CL knockout game again.
Yeah you have totally nailed it with last paragraph
Of course. It’s obvious.
If Ten Hag had players to come in for the likes of Casemiro and Eriksen then he would play them. Thing is, we don’t. Fred is champion, but he plays every week in some capacity. He’s a huge part of the rotation that already takes place.
We saw what happened when Casemiro was out last weekend. McTominay replaced him, played like a tosser, and we conceded three goals.
Blame recruitment, not Ten Hag.
That's like Phil Jones, i'd keep it too. Sunk-cost fallacy.
I think ETH is winning people over, but I think you'll find that after he has managed to raise the bar - and our expectations change with that, he'll get a lot more haters and divide even if he's doing a great job at that time. If he manages to unify the fanbase, I would love that because it's really what we need going forward.
He has rotated every position fairly frequently except central midfield and that's because with the exception of Casemiro, every midfielder in the squad has glaring flaws.
The gulf in quality between the midfield starters and backups means midfield substitutions involve a fair bit of risk that most fans completely ignore. Fans will say that we won a match comfortably and thus should have taken off Casemiro, not considering that the the team doesn't ever look comfortable without Casemiro on the pitch.
For the Palace match in particular, subbing Casemiro and Eriksen off for McFred (or especially just starting McFred) would have made a loss far more likely. How many posters criticizing the use of Casemiro in that match would have defended the decision to not start him or to sub him off at 60 minutes or earlier had we lost? None, because their criticism is of the result in hindsight, not of the decision made based on the information available at the time.
This is why I find most of the "criticism" of substitutions and and starter selections here so tiring and pointless. Rarely does anyone take into account all of the considerations. They criticize the result, change one manager decision and assume that would have changed the result.
I'm not aware of a single United supporter who has anything but the highest praise for the job that ETH has done so far.
Were you around back in Fergie's heyday?
There wasn't a soul on here who didn't worship him. But everybody still knew what he could and should've done to make us even better.
It's just the name of the game.
i went to watch the charlton game at ot and the kids wanted to watch the team arrive so we waited for the bus. as erik disembarked i shouted “i trust you, erik , catch me!” and closed my eyes and began to fall over backwards, expecting him to save me from the concrete. i awoke several hours later in hospital.
Not in the forums but I was there when Fergie started at OT
If we win the league cup and manage to have a squad ready to press forward for the remainder of the season then he'll have got it right. If we manage to beat Barcelona even better. If we however fail to beat Barcelona, lose the final of the league cup and have a serious problem with energy and fitness for the final third of the season then I think the criticism of Ten Hag not rotating will be fairly justified.
That still doesn't mean that people don't trust him, simply that they don't agree with his current risk averse strategy. I admire him for going all in to get a cup, but feel like medium/long term it's going to do serious damage to the squad. We'll see who's right in the coming weeks.
That still doesn't mean that people don't trust him, simply that they don't agree with his current risk averse strategy. I admire him for going all in to get a cup, but feel like medium/long term it's going to do serious damage to the squad. We'll see who's right in the coming weeks.
If you can’t trust this guy with whats gone on so far, who the feck can you trust?
The people that don't are probably the one's that were pounding the table for Conte when OGS was on the verge of being sacked and then were pounding the table for Pochettino before ETH was appointed.
the recent City game, was the first time in years, I wasn't going into that game with them with some kind of trepidation. We are a work in progress, we know that but finally we seem to be moving forward with a coach that knows what he is doing.
Hell Pep arguably cost them that final with that insane lineup he trotted out against Chelsea. They were right to blast him for that. Doesn't mean they don't like Pep
Yes.
And no one around you ever questioned him, ever? I'm sure the answer to that is no, which makes your puzzlement at people questioning ETH even odder.
Not after 6-7 months in the job they didn't that I recall
Yes. Can’t believe it’s even a serious question. I bet he’s not even had his name engraved on the office door yet ffs.
I feel like the OP may have taken isolated posts out of context to insinuate a general lack of support for Ten Hag.
And posters here are falling for it.
And posters here are falling for it.
We've had nothing but false dawns for 10 odd years and we've suddenly got a manager performing like Fergie and he's got Rashford playing like Ronaldo and you' still get clueless feckwits doubting him. Madness!
Me either but when you see numerous posts calling him naive and such like you have to wonder!
Surprised if anyone has doubts about ten Hag currently, he's got a 70% win rate with us.
Yup. That is how a public forum works. You don't see everyone agreeing on everything. That would be boring. Also caf is one of the best run fan forums and it allows negative comments and criticism without thread bans or site bans.
And match-day and post match comments section is a bit wild because everyone is so involved. So they make sweeping opinions (like the manager is a fool) when they just don't agree with his subs or something specific like that. Doesn't necessarily mean they hate ETH.
On match day forums I'd expect it, but TBH days after a game I'm a little surprised but there you go
You seem to forget, most online "fans" are absolute cnuts
There's that!
Don’t get the obsession with rotation.
When Liverpool won the league you could name the 1-11 before the teams were announced. Very similar with Arsenal at the moment.
Im pretty sure all those who ventured out on a Saturday night to watch a cup tie against Reading weren’t bothered about the strong lineup
When Liverpool won the league you could name the 1-11 before the teams were announced. Very similar with Arsenal at the moment.
Im pretty sure all those who ventured out on a Saturday night to watch a cup tie against Reading weren’t bothered about the strong lineup
It's not there hasn't been any rotation either!
The perception on here is overwhelmingly positive on EtH. I'd by lying if i said i wasn't a bit worried about injuries to the forward and centre midfield options but i completely trust him. Think he knows a bit more than me and the rest of us 
In fact this is probably the most unified i've seen the fan base for many years. Jose and Ole divided the fans, Moyes was kind of inflicted upon us and we suffered it as best we could, and LVG's style annoyed a lot of people.
In fact this is probably the most unified i've seen the fan base for many years. Jose and Ole divided the fans, Moyes was kind of inflicted upon us and we suffered it as best we could, and LVG's style annoyed a lot of people.