Erik ten Hag - Manchester United manager

[Thom Merrilin]

We settled into a game because of (yet another...) moment of individual brilliance. Then we couldn't two passes together against an extremely average Everton team. This is what concerns me. I still, still do not see anything to convince me of how ETH wants Manchester United to play. He isn't improving players either. Rashford and Bruno are getting worst.

Don't get me wrong, a good day for him, but the next few games will be the challenge. Everton were rubbish and we struggled for long periods in this game.

When we play the better teams, that is the test of ETH in my opinion.

It was a moment of brilliance but it came from a pretty clear pattern of play that we've seen repeatedly this season. Go back and look at the first goal against Copenhagen away, that's how we're trying to play and it worked again today.

Rashford had the best season of his career under EtH so that's a strange example. Dalot, Wan Bissaka, Maguire, Garnacho have all improved under EtH.

The goalposts keep shifting, it used to be said that Man Utd can't get results against teams that sit back, now that we're getting those results people shift to a different line of attack.

 

[Sweet Square]

Have to wonder about the type of “fans” who first thing to do after winning a game is to moan.

Maybe try to enjoy the win first.

 

[Berbaclass]

Have to wonder about the type of “fans” who first thing to do after winning a game is to moan.

Maybe try to enjoy the win first.

It was during the game, they didn't even wait till full-time to start crying

 

[Shinjch]

Brave team selection that paid off in the end. Coming away from Goodison with a win is always nice - didn't see a 0-3 coming.

 

[RuudTom83]

Leave the manager and players alone to sort it out and this is what happens.

The over reacting has been ridiculous so far this season from the media and fans. I hope everyone just chills with the negatively a bit now, the team will be fine.

 

[crossy1686]

Two things, can we play Everton every week, and can we extend Ten Hag's touchline ban for the entire season?

But seriously, he seems to get it right when he has the right balance of youth in the team, lads that have fight and desire in them and are desperate to prove they've got what it takes to play for United. I'm not saying that we would beat the likes of Arsenal with that team, we'd probably lose convincingly but he still needs to lean into that and develop a side that looks like this otherwise he's just going to end up joining the long list of failed managers at United who thought they could buy the league.

 

[fallengt]

"Rashford keeps playing, 80mil Antony, Bruno is out of position, where's the pattern of play, why X player isn't playing (he's actually injured), teams outplayed us, Y manager is better (he actually just lost 3 games in a row)"

I swear, the first thing people do after game is to circle these in this thread.

 

[RedOrange]

They just seem to refuse to play the ball forward. Even if they receive the ball facing the Everton goal, they turn away to pass square or backwards. Rashford once again anonymous when not playing on the left, Fernandes also doing feck all but give the ball away repeatedly.

He's had loads of minutes playing on the left this season and he's been utter shite there, too.

 

[Eddy_JukeZ]

Good win, but these type of performances have a cap on a team's ceiling long-term.

We can't control games at all nor pin back teams with sustained controlled possession that results in waves of attacks.

 

[always_hoping]

We just won 3-0 away and we're only six points off the top, having endured an absolute plague of injuries. I swear some of our fanbase would quit posting if there was nothing to moan about.

Injuries and off field issues seemed to be totally ignored by a few alright. I wouldn't bother following the sport at all if I was a big moaner like that.

After 13 league games the last 5 seasons.

2019/20 - Points 17
2020/21 - Points 26
2021/22 - Points 18
2022/23 - Points 23
Now - Points 24

 

[Borys]

ETH is silencing his haters right now

Is he?
Do you think he's happy with that performance?

I am glad he trusts Mainoo and Garnacho, that's all I will say about Ten Hag today.

 

[Pickle85]

Injuries and off field issues seemed to be totally ignored by a few alright. I wouldn't bother following the sport at all if I was a big moaner like that.

After 13 league games the last 5 seasons.

2019/20 - Points 17
2020/21 - Points 26
2021/22 - Points 18
2022/23 - Points 23
Now - Points 24

Agreed...context is important. I can see why some would be unhappy with a perceived lack of progress this season but a) weird game to come on here and continue to bang that drum b) ignores how unlucky we've been with injuries while broadly managing to get points on the board.

 

[FrantikChicken]

We’ve got Newcastle, Chelsea, Liverpool, villa, and West Ham coming up before Christmas. The last few games were easy and we’ve got the points which is great, but this next set of games will be much more telling on our actual level at the moment.

 

[Red Dreams]

6 points off the top.

 

[Dannn411]

GOOD: We're beating the teams we're supposed to beat which means we will still finish top half at the minimum if that continues.

BAD: The football is as bad as its been since he joined with no sign of improvement which means the better teams will continue to beat us which means we will not be contending for anything meaningful for the foreseeable future.

 

[always_hoping]

We’ve got Newcastle, Chelsea, Liverpool, villa, and West Ham coming up before Christmas. The last few games were easy and we’ve got the points which is great, but this next set of games will be much more telling on our actual level at the moment.

The end of the season final table won't lie, 4th at best I'm expecting and it will be challenge in itself to finish 4th as I don't expect to have much luck with injuries in the 2nd half of the season and will required more of the experienced players to step up and show a bit more leadership the most leadership on the field today came from a 18 year old!

 

[LawCharltonBest]

Historically, throwing youth in has always worked for United.

Glad to see Ten Hag do it

 

[flameinthesun]

Having a midfield made of players like Mainoo and getting martinez back as well as another passing CB would potentially make his tactics work. You'd have the CBs able to play the ball through midfield and you'd have midfielders who can take the ball in tight spaces or drive through midfields allowing us to then take advantage of having 4 attackers on the opposition defensive line. At the moment with injuries etc we don't really have that. Hopefully if Mainoo kicks on and Martinez gets back, along with Shaw now hopefully over his issues we should see better football. Think it was such a big loss not getting De Jong.

 

[GMoore23]

That's the easy run finished now. Great to take all the points but our football was dire.

Much harder set of fixtures leading up to the new year. Let's see how he does.
I think we'll get battered.

 

[Irwin99]

Second half was good and the first ten-fifteen minutes of the first half we played some really good passes before things started to get very shaky after that.

For a team that hasn't had a settled centre back or midfield partnership all season (Martinez and Varane at the back and the Eriksen, Casemiro, Bruno combo last season) we're only two points off top 4. Incredible when you think about it

 

[Valencia Shin Crosses]

I extensively disagree with him starting Lindelof over Varane, as well as McTominay apparently being one of the first names on the team sheet. But at least he finally unleashed Mainoo, as we probably lose that game (or draw) without him.

 

[TheGame]

Moments FC. As usual.

18 months down the line, and £400 million spent and he still hasn’t got us looking anything like a cohesive team. And the best two players on the pitch today were youth players that he had no influence in signing. It’s just not good enough.

What an embarrassing post.

 

[el3mel]

That 2nd half was good. Hope we build up on this. Let's see.

 

[Greyfog]

Title challenge back on! No team looks good at the moment. Even City don't look as fluid as usual. 3 points on the board is what matters. Most in-form team in the league baby.

Trust the process

 

[Judas]

Moments FC. As usual.

18 months down the line, and £400 million spent and he still hasn’t got us looking anything like a cohesive team. And the best two players on the pitch today were youth players that he had no influence in signing. It’s just not good enough.

Being this miserable feels so utterly pointless. Why are you wasting your life with something you seemingly struggle to enjoy?

 

[el3mel]

The end of the season final table won't lie, 4th at best I'm expecting and it will be challenge in itself to finish 4th as I don't expect to have much luck with injuries in the 2nd half of the season and will required more of the experienced players to step up and show a bit more leadership the most leadership on the field today came from a 18 year old!

It will be a miracle finishing 4th considering our form this season. We shouldn't have been in this position but as we are in it now, can't do anything about it.

 

[bosskeano]

We’ve got Newcastle, Chelsea, Liverpool, villa, and West Ham coming up before Christmas. The last few games were easy and we’ve got the points which is great, but this next set of games will be much more telling on our actual level at the moment.

that's a difficult run of games even with how poor Chelsea has been they won't be easy neither will West Ham....we'll know by the end of that 5 match run whether or not we have a chance at making the top 4

 

[Mickeza]

Moments FC. As usual.

18 months down the line, and £400 million spent and he still hasn’t got us looking anything like a cohesive team.

350m of that 400m spend weren’t available today due to injury. I swear some of you just moan for the fecking sake of it.

 

[city-puma]

Second half was good and the first ten-fifteen minutes of the first half we played some really good passes before things started to get very shaky after that.

For a team that hasn't had a settled centre back or midfield partnership all season (Martinez and Varane at the back and the Eriksen, Casemiro, Bruno combo last season) we're only two points off top 4. Incredible when you think about it

Well, 4 pts off.

 

[HookedOnAPhelan]

Moments FC. As usual.

18 months down the line, and £400 million spent and he still hasn’t got us looking anything like a cohesive team. And the best two players on the pitch today were youth players that he had no influence in signing. It’s just not good enough.

What an idiotic thing to say. How much of that £400m was available today, genius?

 

[Licha-Vidic]

I refuse to believe he sees Rashfords off the ball work every game and still picks him. Literally, get one of tech guys make a compilation of him backing out of challenges, show it to him and say "This is why you don't play next game".
This needs traction, anyone can get a plane fly over stadium our next game?

He can't do anything about Rashford now. A mutiny would occur if he touched another player.
He needs to kick the can down the road till the end of the season.
Then be extremely ruthless.

 

[SirCactus]

Klopp has won the league and the CL. He's one of the best managers in the world. I really wanted ETH to succeed, but he made a lot of mistakes which got us where we are now.

I don't think comparisons with Klopp are needed. He is an elite coach, everyone knows this, regardless of who he is coaching. What we have to be concerned with is ETH and the type of football he represents. It is very hard to define his philosophy or the current grand strategy, but today was another good result and we are climbing the table again. I think the dressing room has some dubious characters but that ETH may yet prove to be top, top, coach. Lets leave the direct comparisons with Klopp out and focus on our own business

 

[Toshey]

With the insane amount of injuries we've had this season, any team would completely collapse.
Yet we are 6 points off top of the table.

And people are clowning in this thread as usual, desperate to moan and complain.

 

[InfiniteBoredom]

that's a difficult run of games even with how poor Chelsea has been they won't be easy neither will West Ham....we'll know by the end of that 5 match run whether or not we have a chance at making the top 4

We can get just 4 or 5 points out of that and still finish top 4.

It’s top 4, you only need on average ~70pts for that so anytime a contender go on a bit of a run they are in with a chance, and for all our faults we often beat those we are supposed to beat. Need to pick up some points against big teams eventually though, last season we beat city arse pool once, it does look a bit grim replicating it this time around, but we can hardly play worse than we already do so fingers crossed.

 

[Fridge chutney]

Is he?
Do you think he's happy with that performance?

I am glad he trusts Mainoo and Garnacho, that's all I will say about Ten Hag today.

Yes, given the adversity of the season so far, i think he would be.

 

[RORY65]

The performances are not convincing, although the 2nd half was better today, but we're beating the lesser sides in the league consistently. The next week is going to be a test but credit to the manager for the fact that he's kept the team together despite the negativity around them, now is the time where the performances need to follow.

 

[Borys]

Seems to me like in the last period he completely gave up trying to build a functional team, and focused on getting results (that's just a fancy way of saying I am surprised McTominay is a regular and Bruno keeps playing no matter what). I don't blame him because we did get the points and somehow (with other teams dropping points) the situation has been stabilized.

That said I think we're going to suffer in December as we look shite in this setup, and any decent teams will just create a lot of chances. Martinez might help but Casemiro will not (if we throw him as a lone midfielder in default system ETH has been using this season).

 

[Stack]

The performances are not convincing, although the 2nd half was better today, but we're beating the lesser sides in the league consistently. The next week is going to be a test but credit to the manager for the fact that he's kept the team together despite the negativity around them, now is the time where the performances need to follow.

Im pretty critical of ETH but here we are just 6 points off the top with the majority of the season still ahead. If he can improve our play we stand a good chance of making top 4. Momentum matters sometimes and even though its been mostly against the weaker teams we seem to be building some sort of momentum. Hope it continues

 

[VP89]

Seems to me like in the last period he completely gave up trying to build a functional team, and focused on getting results (that's just a fancy way of saying I am surprised McTominay is a regular and Bruno keeps playing no matter what). I don't blame him because we did get the points and somehow (with other teams dropping points) the situation has been stabilized.

That said I think we're going to suffer in December as we look shite in this setup, and any decent teams will just create a lot of chances. Martinez might help but Casemiro will not (if we throw him as a lone midfielder in default system ETH has been using this season).

His adaptive approach still has more than enough service to the front men. They just haven't been anywhere near good enough in their on quality.

We will need Rashford or Bruno (probably both) to hit a December purple patch for us to maintain the good form with the fixtures ahead.

 

[Stadjer]

What an idiotic thing to say. How much of that £400m was available today, genius?

That is actually a good point and also quite funny. Onana was the only big money signing available and he played an important part in the win. Amrabat was there too but his cost is nothing compared to the quoted 400m.

The best goal came from a youth player that ETH is developing and the best players was another youth player that was trusted to start by ETH.