Erik ten Hag | Currently unemployed

I imagine he is. He's a proud man, and very confident in his own self worth. That FA Cup final post match seemed like he was on a "feck you" tour, after all the shit he had gotten.

Arguably bordering on the delusional, if his post match comments, and later team selections are anything to go by.

I'm sure he's a decent bloke but he hasn't covered himself in glory here. The results were a problem, but he hasn't (in my opinion) come across well towards the end. The last few weeks have been dire, but to hear him you'd think it was all fine. Fans (and I suspect the board) want to see some acknowledgment of the problem, and some idea of how it's going to be rapidly fixed, not vague comments glossing over what everyone could see. If he's in any way surprised how things have turned out given results, I'd find that incredible.

By the end he seemed like someone who just didn't know what to do.
 
Hans Kraay jr. (pundit and ex teammate of Ten Hag) said that he was devastated and down in the dumps (or something like that, when translated from Dutch).

This express headline looks sort of copied from that. Hans Kraay knows him well, so I'm sure it's true.

Hans Kraay is a bit of a clown who does like to embellish his stories though :lol:
 
I don't know about this Hans Kraay guy but his first mistake is to let express publish his story.
His second is to potray Ten Hag as if he's becoming a hobo.
 
I've a feeling he'll be Bayern Manager in very short order. I think they or another big European club may have enquired about Amorim and that probably prompted United to move earlier than they had planned.

The circumstances around Eric's departure seem to me to be more based around the sudden "Availibility" of a credible replacement when INEOS had been previously been happy to "wait and see".

Erik will be more suited to their environment and will be able to use his skills in planning an approach against his opposition to his hearts content.

He'll probably win some silverware and be able to rehabilitate his reputation a bit.
 
The United gig's poisoned chalice reputation just keeps increasing for every manager we sack while still being in a shite state.

That works in ETH's favour, clearly.

If I were to look at his United stint, though, as a potential employer - I dunno. I would probably conclude that this guy ain't all he seemed to be at the time when United decided to hire him. He certainly is not someone you should hire in anything but a pure coaching role (allowing him any significant input with regard to player recruitment should be a huge no-no). And I personally would be somewhat concerned about his pure coaching ability too.

(But happily for ETH I definitely won't be his next employer.)

And, for the record, I do wish him luck - no hard feelings on my part. Glad he's finally gone, but it is what it is...and so forth.
 
Don't get how any of this would be surprising/shocking for him. Surely, he knew it was coming. I mean, he wasn't really believing all that nonsense he'd been saying, right?! Right?
 
Don't get how any of this would be surprising/shocking for him. Surely, he knew it was coming. I mean, he wasn't really believing all that nonsense he'd been saying, right?! Right?

Well, if it truly came as a shock to him, that can only mean he was misled by his employers.

If that actually is the case, I'm not sure how I should feel about it - to be honest.

On the one hand, I appreciate that they - finally - sacked him.

On the other hand, I don't appreciate the (possible) lack of communication between the owners/upper management and ETH. Which would (possibly) look very similar to what we saw under Woodward: an SMS pretty much out of the blue to announce you're fired.

I would like to think that ETH kept his job after last season on certain, specific conditions (e.g. if you have the team lingering in the bottom half of the table after ten rounds, yer fecked - that sort of thing).

But if that is the case, what's happened now shouldn't be a shock to him.
 
Well, if it truly came as a shock to him, that can only mean he was misled by his employers.

If that actually is the case, I'm not sure how I should feel about it - to be honest.

On the one hand, I appreciate that they - finally - sacked him.

On the other hand, I don't appreciate the (possible) lack of communication between the owners/upper management and ETH. Which would (possibly) look very similar to what we saw under Woodward: an SMS pretty much out of the blue to announce you're fired.

I would like to think that ETH kept his job after last season on certain, specific conditions (e.g. if you have the team lingering in the bottom half of the table after ten rounds, yer fecked - that sort of thing).

But if that is the case, what's happened now shouldn't be a shock to him.

This shouldn’t be a shock to him regardless. If he’s in touch with this planet he would have known performance wasn’t anywhere good enough and his position was threatened/untenable with those results.

And I mean, part of managing will, sometimes, involve “deceiving” the people you’re managing. Even if he was told his position wasn’t threatened, he should have known better and been able to evaluate what has been happening - like, what?

Surely he couldn’t have been that naive?! I mean that would just highlight why he was so completely out of his depth
 
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This shouldn’t be a shock to him regardless. If he’s in touch with this planet he would have known performance wasn’t anywhere good enough and his position was threatened/untenable with those results.

And I mean, part of managing will, sometimes, involve “deceiving” the people you’re managing. Even if he was told his position was threatened, he should have know better and been able to evaluate what has been happening - like, what?

Surely he couldn’t have been that naive?! I mean that would just highlight why he was so completely out of his depth
Absolutely spot on.
 
If he gets hired by a decent team, it'd be a great litmus test for how much of the blame lies with factors outside the manager's control (squad building, player power etc)

Cue the 'eritage rant though. Ole, Jose, Moyes, LvG haven't amounted to much after getting sacked.
 
If he gets hired by a decent team, it'd be a great litmus test for how much of the blame lies with factors outside the manager's control (squad building, player power etc)

Cue the 'eritage rant though. Ole, Jose, Moyes, LvG haven't amounted to much after getting sacked.

He might do well in other leagues but don’t think he gets another Premier League job to be honest. And think he has too much of an ego to manage relegation tier.
 
He's too stubborn, is surprisingly tactially naive (I thought this was suppossed to be a strength of his), and can't manage the match day bench. Had he been more flexible and recognized things were not working, he would have had more time. But to continually bring up the cup wins just shows a stunning lack of self-awareness and what the standards are at United (or at least what they should be). I thought his man management was good, he handled the Ronaldo situation pretty flawlessly imo. I'm sure he'll be back coaching soon.

Not that it should be his job, but his talent evaluation is also terrible and having inputs on transfers was a detriment to him as the club got him many of the targets he wanted and they have been awful.
 
If he gets hired by a decent team, it'd be a great litmus test for how much of the blame lies with factors outside the manager's control (squad building, player power etc)

Cue the 'eritage rant though. Ole, Jose, Moyes, LvG haven't amounted to much after getting sacked.

We all saw Ten Hag be backed with north of half a billion, new executive committee/managerial set-up, new transfer structure, new technical and medical staff. Doing well elsewhere doesn’t negate that the kind of support he got here most managers can only dream of.

If he does well elsewhere it just means he wasn’t good enough to make it here, not that he didn’t succeed due to factors out of his control. I mean, at some point it’s him that’s just not good enough. Even TheAthletic article said the hierarchy argued the following: “but they reasoned there comes a point when the manager is responsible through a deficiency of motivation or communication.”
 
He's too stubborn, is surprisingly tactially naive (I thought this was suppossed to be a strength of his), and can't manage the match day bench. Had he been more flexible and recognized things were not working, he would have had more time. But to continually bring up the cup wins just shows a stunning lack of self-awareness and what the standards are at United (or at least what they should be). I thought his man management was good, he handled the Ronaldo situation pretty flawlessly imo. I'm sure he'll be back coaching soon.

Not that it should be his job, but his talent evaluation is also terrible and having inputs on transfers was a detriment to him as the club got him many of the targets he wanted and they have been awful.
The fact he could not, or would not, recognize the value of playing Casemiro in a more offensive 8 ish role, along side a proper 6, is unbelievable, or just stupidly stubborn. They've play together twice in that formation and we've scored 11 goals. Even a plank like myself could easily see this.

Should've been sacked in the summer.
 
but they reasoned there comes a point when the manager is responsible through a deficiency of motivation or communication

Oh yeah he absolutely needed to be sacked and I buy that argument. He was trying a lot of things by the end of it all - sometimes the fullback inverts, other times he doesn't. Sometimes the fullback pushes upto the oppo winger on the press, other times he doesn't. On buildup, he needs the #6 to be able to receive the ball from the CB, turn under pressure from the press and play it out. And yet he plays Casemiro there. We all know the defensive line doesn't push up and makes a donut in the middle. It was obvious to every single person watching the game and yet they don't step up. Ten Hag himself acknowledged it and complained that they were not listening to his instructions. He changed the whole damn system at the end of last season when he started playing McT upfront and went to a 4-2-2-2 system.

He can be the smartest tactician in the world, but if he doesn't get his ideas across, it's not very useful.

It'll still be interesting to see him in a situation where most other external causes are minimized - the squad's been built correctly, there aren't big egos that won't listen to him etc. and evaluate him purely for his tactical ability.
 
Let’s face it. He didn’t come here intending to do poorly. He clearly cared greatly about the club and I don’t doubt he is deeply hurt by how it’s all ended and in himself.

Going on about money is utterly irrelevant. When you have the drive and ambition to reach the top of your profession and fail it will hurt and he’ll need time to recover.

Not sure why some here have so much hatred. Glad its a minority and I wish him well.
 
However, Kraay Jr, a former Dutch footballer turned coach and TV presenter*, has claimed he is in no celebratory mood the 64-year-old has revealed that INEOS' dramatic U-turn** months after deciding to back Ten Hag with a new deal***, refreshed coaching staff****, and £200m in the transfer market has left him distraught.

* A nobody who has probably never even spoken to ETH
** Were rejected by their first and second choices in the summer, no u-turn
*** No new deal
**** Replaced staff ETH wanted to keep, including McCarthy and Van der Gaag

Classic tabloid trash article
As @KirkDuyt said, Hans Kraaij Jr apparently knows Ten Hag well, so he might actually have some real information. But all the same, until Ten Hag himself has commented, I wouldn't take anything others say for granted. So for something like this:
Don't get how any of this would be surprising/shocking for him. Surely, he knew it was coming. I mean, he wasn't really believing all that nonsense he'd been saying, right?! Right?
And maybe he wasn't. Another tweet I saw yesterday said that Ten Hag had expected to be fired after the FA Cup final - in which case it doesn't make sense that he's surprised or shocked now.

I guess he'll give an interview soon enough where he talks about this.
 
It'll still be interesting to see him in a situation where most other external causes are minimized - the squad's been built correctly, there aren't big egos that won't listen to him etc. and evaluate him purely for his tactical ability.

But this is what I’m saying. That kind of optimal environment doesn’t exist. And if it did - what’s the point of Ten Hag? Many managers could potentially succeed in said circumstances.

I mean, his squad here was built in a heavily collaborative manner with him. He was described as having decisive say so. Also, which big club/decent team won’t have big egos/personalities that are hard(er) to manage? That’s one of the core responsibilities at the top level, highly gifted individuals know that they are highly gifted and that they have options.

It’s like wanting to see how a 6’4, multimillionaire, 7% body fat, full head of hair, baccarat rouge smelling, electric GLC coupe driving, night-life promoter knowing, minority and feminist studies qualified, Bell Hooks reading, left-leaning lad would fare with the ladies.
 
Next Bayern manager once they get rid of Kompany?
I do not think he will get a Job at any major club, he proved during his time at the club, that he is unable to get best out of players at his disposal. Too stubborn tactically, asking players to do a job in an unfamiliar position, whilst having talent club paid millions for on the bench.
 
He’s probably gone with a gagging order written into the settlement. He will unlikely go full Mourinho anyway.

I had such high hopes for him and the sentiments expressed on the Cafe before his appointment had an erierily familiar sound to those currently being expressed about Amorim.

So disappointing he could not get it right.
 
Want to feel bad for him but can’t. We never saw what he was trying to build. Min boggling decisions, substitutions, blind favoritism and Mazroui at 10 was just too much to handle. I stopped caring about Utd under him.

The only time i felt for him after his sacking was when these feckers scored 5.
 
I think he can work his way back up to another top team.

He was too stubborn at United with his approach but I do believe he's tactically astute and can evolve himself to an even better level. Managers do also evolve and improve, like players, and there are countless examples of it. I can see him restarting his career in the Bundesliga, and do well enough for the likes Bayern or Barcelona to consider hiring him in a few years' time.

However, the bigger issue is that he needs to grow some cojones and not crack under the pressure of a big club when things aren't going well, like he did at United.
 
Surely he couldn’t have been that naive?! I mean that would just highlight why he was so completely out of his depth

I would think he probably isn't that naive - and that the statement is more, let's say, tactical.

But regardless, it does indicate that he wasn't on the same page as his employer.
 
Should have gone long before he did and I suspect that with a lot of fans he won't win a lot of sympathy because of that.

I didn't think it could get worse than how it ended with Mourinho, I was wrong.
 
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He's a good coach.

What would you say are his strengths as a coach - and how did he show/prove that he's a good coach during his United stint?

This isn't a wind-up, I come in peace 100%

I just want to hear what you actually think:

Do you think he's a "good" coach (but perhaps not great, perhaps not fit for the highest level)?

Do you think he is fit for the highest level - but the circumstances at United just weren't right?