Erik ten Hag | Bayer Leverkusen Manager

Zehner said:
My biggest issue with him was that he didn't set up the United team the way he set up his Ajax one. Most coaches are associated with one style and they adapt it to the players they have available but I had never seen that a coach abandoned the style which made him successful because he wanted the playstyle to fit the club culture. He was in charge of that and he enough money at his disposal to buy the players needed for it. He obviously didn't want to be less successful for stylistic reasons and thought he could be every bit as successful with transition football as he was with positional play but to me that is a huge, huge misconception and I automatically doubt a coach who makes such terrible decisions.

In Amsterdam, he has proven that he's able to coach a possession-oriented system to a high standard so the optimist in me thinks that there is still hope that we'd get the Ajax Ten Hag and not the United or Utrecht one. But I very much prefer a coach who is convinced of his tactical approach and doesn't change it based on what the fans and media want to see. I want somebody like Pep or Alonso who are convinced that positional play is the best and most successful way of playing football. Somebody with visions instead of pragmatism.

That he came across as very vane and small-time comes on top of that. As said, I could somehow live with his appointment and see the positive sodes but I'd prefer that I don't have to.
Click to expand...

Yup, apparently he was brought to make United play that way but then he gave up so what was the point? He should have been sacked at that point but United doubled down on him and in return he set the team in a downward trajectory they haven't recovered from yet.
 
Zehner said:
My biggest issue with him was that he didn't set up the United team the way he set up his Ajax one. Most coaches are associated with one style and they adapt it to the players they have available but I had never seen that a coach abandoned the style which made him successful because he wanted the playstyle to fit the club culture. He was in charge of that and he enough money at his disposal to buy the players needed for it. He obviously didn't want to be less successful for stylistic reasons and thought he could be every bit as successful with transition football as he was with positional play but to me that is a huge, huge misconception and I automatically doubt a coach who makes such terrible decisions.

In Amsterdam, he has proven that he's able to coach a possession-oriented system to a high standard so the optimist in me thinks that there is still hope that we'd get the Ajax Ten Hag and not the United or Utrecht one. But I very much prefer a coach who is convinced of his tactical approach and doesn't change it based on what the fans and media want to see. I want somebody like Pep or Alonso who are convinced that positional play is the best and most successful way of playing football. Somebody with visions instead of pragmatism.

That he came across as very vane and small-time comes on top of that. As said, I could somehow live with his appointment and see the positive sodes but I'd prefer that I don't have to.
Click to expand...
I don’t think he was molding his tactics to club culture. We gave him license he’d never had before and I think he tried to flesh out some really grandiose ideas which were never going to work. Like Pep in big matches at times but obviously he is not on that level, had no idea what he was doing in the transfer market and unfortunately had little to no accountability from the absent United club structure.

I think he would do fine for Leverkusen as he will have to stick to what he did best previously at Ajax.
 
EtH said:
I don’t think he was molding his tactics to club culture. We gave him license he’d never had before and I think he tried to flesh out some really grandiose ideas which were never going to work. Like Pep in big matches at times but obviously he is not on that level, had no idea what he was doing in the transfer market and unfortunately had little to no accountability from the absent United club structure.

I think he would do fine for Leverkusen as he will have to stick to what he did best previously at Ajax.
Click to expand...

Yep after 150 years of evolution of football tactics Erik thought he would reinvent the wheel with a half baked tactical set-up that it was clear wasn't working only 8 weeks after implementing it, yet he carried on with it for 18 months.
 
stevoc said:
Yep after 150 years of evolution of football tactics Erik thought he would reinvent the wheel with a half baked tactical set-up that it was clear wasn't working only 8 weeks after implementing it, yet he carried on with it for 18 months.
Click to expand...
And was allowed to do so. That’s the worst part.
 
EtH said:
And was allowed to do so. That’s the worst part.
Click to expand...

The first 6 months of last season there was no one steering the ship with the takeover going through. And I can understand the new ownership not wanting to come in and sack the manager right away. After that not sacking him in June was bad enough but allowing him to continue the madness into the next season bonkers. He should have been told to ditch the tactics and employ something more sensible.
 
If nothing else highlights the disaster of an appointment this bloke was, and his disturbingly poor judgement of players, it's his treatment of Amad.

9 league appearances under him, even putting Forson in the team ahead of him. He'd still be rotting on the bench. Absolute clown.
 
In the meantime it looks like he might not get the Leverkusen job. Some reports speculate that Sandro Wagner (until now Nagelsmann's assistant at the national team) could get it.

It seems to be sure that Wagner will take over a BL team next season but it is not yet known which one. Only Hoffenheim are known to have had an interest in him, but apparently he rejected them due to having another agreement already.
 
stefan92 said:
In the meantime it looks like he might not get the Leverkusen job. Some reports speculate that Sandro Wagner (until now Nagelsmann's assistant at the national team) could get it.

It seems to be sure that Wagner will take over a BL team next season but it is not yet known which one. Only Hoffenheim are known to have had an interest in him, but apparently he rejected them due to having another agreement already.
Click to expand...

Wagner has been ruled multiple times already, Fabregas seems to be in the pole position with Xavi and Ten Hag as alternatives. Hürzeler would also be ahead of them but unlikely he leaves Beighton.
 
stefan92 said:
In the meantime it looks like he might not get the Leverkusen job. Some reports speculate that Sandro Wagner (until now Nagelsmann's assistant at the national team) could get it.

It seems to be sure that Wagner will take over a BL team next season but it is not yet known which one. Only Hoffenheim are known to have had an interest in him, but apparently he rejected them due to having another agreement already.
Click to expand...
Impossible, I was told multiple top clubs would be crawling over miles of broken glass to hire this guy
 
Hester_manc said:
If the rumors about ETH to Leverkusen are true, I think it will be a good match for him. The expectations are not nearly as high.It is also not impossible that ETH could bid for Højlund, who would also be a better fit at that level and in the German league.
Click to expand...
Think it'd be more likely they go for Garnacho who is actually a big talent and did well under Ten Hag. They have CFs but will switch systems and lose their main dynamic attackers with Frimpong and Wirtz leaving, probably others.
 
Hester_manc said:
If the rumors about ETH to Leverkusen are true, I think it will be a good match for him. The expectations are not nearly as high.It is also not impossible that ETH could bid for Højlund, who would also be a better fit at that level and in the German league.

https://www.facebook.com/fabrizioromanoherewego/posts/--bayer-leverkusen-have-now-made-contact-with----to-replace-xabi/1344659404128214/
Click to expand...
Leverkusen have paid more than €27m for a player once in their history. I don't think that will help regarding Hojlund's current book value.
 
Hester_manc said:
If the rumors about ETH to Leverkusen are true, I think it will be a good match for him. The expectations are not nearly as high.It is also not impossible that ETH could bid for Højlund, who would also be a better fit at that level and in the German league.

https://www.facebook.com/fabrizioromanoherewego/posts/--bayer-leverkusen-have-now-made-contact-with----to-replace-xabi/1344659404128214/
Click to expand...
I don't think he'll have control over transfers if he joins them, unless they're run by the stupidest people on the planet
 
Hester_manc said:
If they hire him, they must trust him, I guess. Otherwise, it would be foolish not to choose another manager.
Click to expand...
"Trusting" the manager for a club run like Leverkusen doesn't mean the same thing as it means for a club run like ours.
He's not going to make transfer decisions, and if he insists on making them he'll not get the job.
 
FortunaUtd said:
"Trusting" the manager for a club run like Leverkusen doesn't mean the same thing as it means for a club run like ours.
He's not going to make transfer decisions, and if he insists on making them he'll not get the job.
Click to expand...
This. Ajax "trusted" him, and yet they kept him far away from transfer decisions.
 
Hester_manc said:
If they hire him, they must trust him, I guess. Otherwise, it would be foolish not to choose another manager.
Click to expand...
Well, they wouldn’t hire him as a manager, just as a head coach. Which means transfers wouldn’t be part of the job. Just like Alonso didn't decide on transfers despite being a legend for his invincible season.

Simon Rolfes makes the decisions there. He buys players, he signs his head coaches. Just like Overmars did at Ajax.
 
Think Onana and Antony could do well there funnily enough, but he must be smarter than that.
 
He's been made to look better by Utd getting even worse after he left. His overall win % at Utd was 56%, post Fergie that was actually the best bar Mourinho by the look of it.

The club shouldn't have sanctioned the crazy money transfers for quite a few players. Can't blame him for that, I think he'll do very well at Bayer.
 
Mb194dc said:
He's been made to look better by Utd getting even worse after he left. His overall win % at Utd was 56%, post Fergie that was actually the best bar Mourinho by the look of it.

The club shouldn't have sanctioned the crazy money transfers for quite a few players. Can't blame him for that, I think he'll do very well at Bayer.
Click to expand...

Imagine sacking the lunch lady to save a couple thousand and then spend 10 million to sack the manager, only to end up with an even worse manager. INEOS masterclass!

I think EtH will do well at Leverkusen, it suits his playing style.
 
Mb194dc said:
He's been made to look better by Utd getting even worse after he left. His overall win % at Utd was 56%, post Fergie that was actually the best bar Mourinho by the look of it.

The club shouldn't have sanctioned the crazy money transfers for quite a few players. Can't blame him for that, I think he'll do very well at Bayer.
Click to expand...
Plenty of wins in first season kept the percentage at that level, also think we rarely drew (especially in 2nd season) but either won or lost.

If Mount proves to be a bad transfer then summer of 2023 will look terrible and that's on him.
 
He may be good at Leverkusen. But his time at United was definitely failure even with 2 trophies and 3 finals. Transfers look the most annoying thing, especially summer of 2023 which may be 3 wrong and quite expensive transfers, even more expensive given how many mistakes Onana has had, how poor in front of goal Hojlund has been and how many games Mount has missed.

Good luck to ten Hag anyway. Do believe league like Bundesliga could suit him better than the Premier League.
 
Let's hope he uses the £100mil from the sale of Wirtz to buy some of his ex players from Utd.
 
Please come and take some players!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.