Erik ten Hag - Manchester United manager

[Irwin99]

Question is, is this a one off? Will we see this style of play and commitment for the other games?

This game doesn't ease any of my concerns, it does show this team can get top 4 if they are set up well if anything

I'm just enjoying tonight but in the back of my mind i guess i am a bit worried that Villa kind of played into our hands really. Massive credit to the players and the manager though for making it happen.

The first half was everything wrong about our season in a nutshell: the terrible decision making and poor quality in attack, the uncertainty around the goalkeeper and the defence, the awful goals we conceded. In fairness we still pressed them really well and forced a lot of errors in the first half but it just summed us up really. Even the Garnacho offside in the second half -so frustrating to watch the decision making sometimes. Second half showed what can happen when it does actually work though.

I think it's very obvious what EtH is trying to do with the team and the way he wants to play- whether it's possible to do that week in week out and set a template for next season remains to be seen.

 

[JagUTD]

I guess we have been absolutely terrific this season then I dont know?

Far from and nobody would claim other wise.

But we are 6th, top 4 is still very much open and we've done this while at rock bottom, playing numerous kids, footballing OAPs and players we banished while scoring so few goals it's actually impressive in a way.

The 10 league wins are why. Other teams with similar numbers of defeats have won 3 or 4 games which is why we have double the amount of points.

The defeat stat really is twitter nonsense designed to get people angry or opposition fans taking the piss. It's shite.

 

[Plant0x84]

Bald is best mother feckers! Stick with Erik, he will see is right!

 

[bond19821982]

I think the next 2 games are key for him tbh.

Best case scenario is we beat Forest, Cas and Martinez are back for Spurs and we beat them. We're back in the top 4 race.
Worst case scenario is we lose both games, Martinez and Cas still aren't back and we're officially out of the top 4 race.

We just have 1 match in Jan. Hopefully they all should be back for February

 

[Marwood]

Him signing Casemiro, Eriksen and Martinez was a great sign that he wanted more quality on the ball.

Things have wobbled a bit with injuries since and he's been tempted by McTominay, Wout etc.

I'm hoping tonight's selection, ball player focused, is a return to what Utd should be about.

 

[Fortitude]

What has happened to credit where it is due? My stance on ten Hag has changed massively over the season, but I always try and call a spade a spade; the Chelsea game seemed like a false dawn at the time, and it turns out they are godawful so that was warranted, but Villa are no slouches at the moment and we looked good all game, which I'm surprised to read so many stating this is not the case, and I'm wondering if that's due to being entrenched in the 'out' position or being fed up of us losing so only focusing on whether we are goals up/down.

The football was cohesive and constructive, and having a threatening RWF made a massive difference to the shape and runs other attackers could make. Rashford looking like a PL player also helped as well as Eriksen and Mainoo's stranglehold of midfield. This game was not like most of the ones that got us to this position in the first place, so it's strange to see it being treated like another one on the pile when it was clearly not.

The manager needs to not revert now and actually try and build off this; there is at least something to work with off the back of this.

 

[r0663664]

That's the right team selection. Even when we were 2-0, we looks better in midfield and attack. If the players were more accurate with their passing we would have top Villa at half time. Please serve more of this, it looks like a proper United team. Both wingers attack fullback and functioning midfield pinging balls left, right and center. Forwards playing breakingng the high line. More than this and you can stay in your job.

 

[RyRy11]

Keep that intensity and we'll be in the hunt for top 4 at least. Like others have said, best performance this season and more akin to what we saw in parts last season.

 

[Frosty]

Playing for him? Did he raise them or did he teach them to play football or did he drive them to training when they were training? They’re playing for themselves and their own professional pride.

The result today was Emery bottling it as per and Villa’s atrocious away record. They don’t press aggressively, they play a very high-line without much pressure on the ball and their build-up isn’t great especially with the technically deficient Dendoncker in for Kamara or Tielemans.

It was a rare instance where the opponents tactics played into our hands (like Chelsea). One win doesn’t change the horrors we have seen since August.

 

[NLunited]

It is absolutely hilarious that a fanbase literally worships the manager while at the same time refuses to lay any blame to the manager for this horror. While claiming that the United manager has the hardest job in the football. I mean, you can get trashed 7-0 against your most bitter rivals, lose more than half the matches, and still the fanbase is gonna sing your name while booing the players.

It is the easiest job in football. You just need to be mediocre so the fanbase worships you. And if you fail at that and are pathetic, like ETH is, the fanbase is still gonna worship you.

United is a cult to worship the manager, it is not a football club.

United has great fans, who know how to support their team and manager. Feck off.

 

[fallengt]

imagine getting mad after 3-2 comeback on boxing day
Can you at least hold it until team lose, which may very well be next match in 3 days?

 

[VP89]

It is absolutely hilarious that a fanbase literally worships the manager while at the same time refuses to lay any blame to the manager for this horror. While claiming that the United manager has the hardest job in the football. I mean, you can get trashed 7-0 against your most bitter rivals, lose more than half the matches, and still the fanbase is gonna sing your name while booing the players.

It is the easiest job in football. You just need to be mediocre so the fanbase worships you. And if you fail at that and are pathetic, like ETH is, the fanbase is still gonna worship you.

United is a cult to worship the manager, it is not a football club.

Worst post in a while

 

[Chumpsbechumps]

United has great fans, who know how to support their team and manager. Feck off.

Exactly, although some of them are in pain after this win, generally United fans are very patient and it’s great to see in such fickle times.

 

[NLunited]

Our best performance of the season coincides with him fixing two errors he’s been making all season.

I’m going to hold off criticising as a manager learning is better than one who never changes their bad tactics and there was definitely much more sign of a structure today. However, he needs to keep the structure he’s hit on now. Front 3 should be set so far as they are whenever fit and balance maintained in midfield.

What a condescending naive post; what qualifications do you have to talk down Ten Hag like that?

 

[NLunited]

I'm coming to the conclusion that getting rid of him whilst the players are quiet obviously playing for him would actually be a big negative.

- applause -

 

[Teja]

He's fine till the end of the season. My take was always how he navigated the past 3 would define if he got sacked or not.

If we were blown away by Pool, loss / draw against West Ham and loss against Villa at home I think it would've sealed his fate. 4 / 9 pts was pretty good all things considered.

Rashford seems to be hitting form, more balance in the midfield with Mainoo and Eriksen, players coming from injury, kind fixtures coming up, it should be enough to see him through to the end of the season.

NFO (A), TOT (H), WOL (A), WHU (H), AVL (A), LUT (A), FUL(H).

We'll get a run going is my prediction.

 

[Mr Pigeon]

Tonight doesn't change much but for all their flaws, the players keep saving his job.

By this logic that means whenever we lose it's 100% the players' faults? Since they get credit for the entirety of the win.

 

[pascell]

I have been critical of him recently but he got it spot on tonight. Take away the two lapses of concentration and it was a good win, where we attacked with real aggression and recycled possession well, which is the system I thought we'd get under ten Hag when we appointed him as manager.

He needs to stick to this system now and go for it, if there are frailties within certain positions, SJR, Brailsford etc will see that for themselves and will hopefully provide him with the funds to put the players he needs in those positions. If he reverts back to sitting back and trying to counter, it will be the end of him, we need to keep being proactive and aggressive with the ball.

 

[sepulturite]

Jesus can ye miserable sods not just enjoy a great win for a change instead of rehashing the same crap in here again. I'm very unsure about ETH but I'm buzzing tonight, like the rest of ye should be. Agenda posting at its finest by the usual suspects.

 

[SuperiorXI]

We played some sexy football tonight, that's on ETH and the players.

 

[AshRK]

A loss could have been the end for him. It definitely buys him another 3 games before the winter break. Beat forest wigan and Spurs and we may have a turnaround.

I seriously hope he doesn't bring back underperformers like Mctominay or Lindelof, Antony or even Amrabat. Be a bit more ruthless. Hopefully with Martinez mount case returning we will be even more strong.

 

[Eddy_JukeZ]

Very good win. Best win of the season.

Just hope we build on this though.

 

[Oranges038]

Jesus can ye miserable sods not just enjoy a great win for a change instead of rehashing the same crap in here again. I'm very unsure about ETH but I'm buzzing tonight, like the rest of ye should be. Agenda posting at its finest by the usual suspects.

You'd think they'd be happy.

The longer he stays in the job, the more they have to moan about.

 

[TheReligion]

The " we aren't playing that bad" brigade is the new excuse I see. Going back to those fantastic 20 minutes against Spurs soon I bet

Yeah but, we aren't playing that bad. Welcome to the new United, wins don't matter, just as long there's a few good counters, we are happy

Once again, all this exposes to the rest of the footballing world is how clueless the majority of our fanbase actually is.

We must have the most clueless out of any top level sporting team? It's crazy, that this is the club that had the greatest manager ever for 26 years and the enthusiasts/fans who follow this club can't differentiate between a good and a bad manager

The standards are on the floor. Playing like a league 2 side sitting back vs Villa and only beginning to play after going 2-0 down is 'playing okay' according to some. Baffling.

It is absolutely hilarious that a fanbase literally worships the manager while at the same time refuses to lay any blame to the manager for this horror. While claiming that the United manager has the hardest job in the football. I mean, you can get trashed 7-0 against your most bitter rivals, lose more than half the matches, and still the fanbase is gonna sing your name while booing the players.

It is the easiest job in football. You just need to be mediocre so the fanbase worships you. And if you fail at that and are pathetic, like ETH is, the fanbase is still gonna worship you.

United is a cult to worship the manager, it is not a football club.

This thread is toxic I see.

Yuck.

Viva Garnacho!

 

[bond19821982]

He isn't going anywhere atleast until Feb end. You guys are boring - the ETH out brigade.

By that time, we should have hopefully the whole team available and if the team is still performing badly, he deserves the sack at that point.

By then we will have the INEOS boys too.

 

[Gator Nate]

This thread is toxic I see.

Yuck.

Viva Garnacho!

As bad or worse than the gameday thread.

 

[Grande]

Today we overturn the best tream in the league bar City for 2003, fielding Mainoo (18), Garnacho (19), Højlund (20), Mejbri (20), Gore (19) and Kambwala (19).

Can the crowd claiming Ten Hag doesn’t play kids retreat to a room with those who claim we’re not that badly hurt by injuries and not come out until they all agree?

 

[sglowrider]

He isn't going anywhere atleast until Feb end. You guys are boring - the ETH out brigade.

By that time, we should have hopefully the whole team available and if the team is still performing badly, he deserves the sack at that point.

By then we will have the INEOS boys too.

He will be here till May at least. There is no way Ratcliffe will sack him mid-season. That would be a dumb move.

 

[bosnian_red]

I really hope he can turn it around. Him/the club definitely need to make some hires in terms of set piece coaching as we are pathetic with that, and the club should/hopefully will strip away his transfer responsibilities as that should never have been on the manager anyway. Hope once the injuries and off the pitch stuff now settles over the next few weeks, he'll be able to figure it out tactically as well and things click and we start pushing on again. I'm sure he'll get the rest of the season (unless the previous month of form continued) and this is essentially his audition for Ratcliffe's guys to show he can be the right manager.

 

[Big Ben Foster]

imagine getting mad after 3-2 comeback on boxing day
Can you at least hold it until team lose, which may very well be next match in 3 days?

Jesus can ye miserable sods not just enjoy a great win for a change instead of rehashing the same crap in here again. I'm very unsure about ETH but I'm buzzing tonight, like the rest of ye should be. Agenda posting at its finest by the usual suspects.

This is classic Caf logic.

Can't criticize the manager after a win: you need to enjoy the win instead of moaning.

Also can't criticize the manager after a loss: that would be "knee-jerk".

Anyway, much improved performance and result today. Hopefully going forward, we will see more Eriksen and less McTominay. Clearly the players haven't downed tools so there's no reason we can't go on a run and start getting results now. The ownership situation being sorted out should also be one less distraction hanging over everyone's heads.

 

[sepulturite]

This is classic Caf logic.

Can't criticize the manager after a win: you need to enjoy the win instead of moaning.

Also can't criticize the manager after a loss: that would be "knee-jerk".

Anyway, much improved performance and result today. Hopefully going forward, we will see more Eriksen and less McTominay. Clearly the players haven't downed tools so there's no reason we can't go on a run and start getting results now. The ownership situation being sorted out should also be one less distraction hanging over everyone's heads.

It's more a case of why would you bother being really over critical like as if we have lost, just enjoy the win ffs. If your first thought is to come in here and bitch about the manager after a good win then that's just weird behaviour. But some posters just enjoy being miserable clearly.

 

[Yakuza_devils]

It has been a long time since we attack relentlessly and a great come back.

However, it was partly Villa played into our strength. Our team has pace and good in counter attacking football. Villa played a very high line that got picked apart by Rashford, Garnacho and Hojlund pace.

Hope we too can find a solution to teams that sit deep against us. This is where we always struggled to score unless someone comes up with individual brilliance.

 

[sglowrider]

Hope we too can find a solution to teams that sit deep against us. This is where we always struggled to score unless someone comes up with individual brilliance.

Its pretty clear that we have not found a solution yet despite having spent £400 million. We are best as a counter-attacking team and have been for a long time -- even under Fergie.

 

[Judas]

As bad or worse than the gameday thread.

It’s obviously worse. Match day thread is as it happens when people anre emotional and reacting in real time. Everyone makes stinkers in there. But this thread the posts are more considered and not so much in the moment. I just find it sad that there’s Utd fans waking up this morning annoyed, and they wildly feel like they’re the better ones

 

[United888]

We've struggled with injuries, that's for sure. He has had chances to use Amrabat and Mainoo behind Bruno for some weeks though. But I agree that injuries hasn't been kind to us.

Mainoo is an ideal no 6 for ten Hag to be involved in our very first phase of the attack because he’s press resistant. Amrabat isn’t press resistant and Amrabat can’t play as no 8. If we want to play attacking, I don’t think Amrabat and Mainoo partnership is the option.

 

[Wumminator]

Now we are playing once a week we are going to have a phenomenal end to the season. Better fitness, less injuries and proper tactics.

 

[SAF is the GOAT]

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[Woziak]

He's fine till the end of the season. My take was always how he navigated the past 3 would define if he got sacked or not.

If we were blown away by Pool, loss / draw against West Ham and loss against Villa at home I think it would've sealed his fate. 4 / 9 pts was pretty good all things considered.

Rashford seems to be hitting form, more balance in the midfield with Mainoo and Eriksen, players coming from injury, kind fixtures coming up, it should be enough to see him through to the end of the season.

NFO (A), TOT (H), WOL (A), WHU (H), AVL (A), LUT (A), FUL(H).

We'll get a run going is my prediction.

He got 7 points from 18 available in December that’s shocking, he got knocked out of Europe and has a 48% loss rate for the season but here’s the most telling stat Luton Town have scored the same amount of Pl goal this season as Man United after 19 Games!

Bournemouth are only 6 points behind, having played a game less and ETH has lost 42% of the pL games this season and 40% at home, the fraud needs to be sacked end of !

 

[GreatDane]

Mainoo is an ideal no 6 for ten Hag to be involved in our very first phase of the attack because he’s press resistant. Amrabat isn’t press resistant and Amrabat can’t play as no 8. If we want to play attacking, I don’t think Amrabat and Mainoo partnership is the option.

Amrabat would have provided more than McTominay I'd say, at least helping Mainoo out with the defence, intercepting the opposition and giving us more control in the midfield.
Would have been interesting to test out instead of persisting with something that clearly was not working.

 

[flameinthesun]

Loads of people (fans and opposition) saying they can't see what Ten Hag is doing, yet this season more than last you can see what his potential end goal is. Playing with two 8s pushed a bit further up does split the team into a defensive line and an attacking line which is where we are seeing the CBs and the one holding midfielder with the midfield kinda being vacated (a common complaint but a tactical choice). Then one of the full backs pops into the centre to add an extra body which gives you that box midfield of a DM and FB with the two 8s ahead. The opposition then has a choice to make which is drop back and let us have the ball or press us knowing that their defence will potentially be outnumbered with our 5 attacking players. Sometimes its been working, but for the most part those who have been playing have been making silly mistakes and turning over the ball causing us to get countered pretty easily this season.

Its a very risky way to play and clearly you need more technical and/or intelligent players to play that way. Its not a surprise that when you have Eriksen and Mainoo in the centre it looks a lot better. Not saying Eriksen is the answer but Mount potentially would offer similar. For me this season has been more about the squad not being able to play this style with all the injuries. Put Casemiro in as DM, Mount for Eriksen, Licha back at CB, give them a run and I'd imagine we would start to see the team implement the tactics more consistently. It's more important that in the summer we get the right players in who can not only play the way Ten Hag wants but also suit the league and at the same time we get rid of those who cannot play this way. Just as important is that if as a club we are set on playing this style of football/Ten Hag's philosophy, then even when there is an injury crisis like this we shouldn't just abandon it and go back to a 4 2 3 1 which would suit the likes of Bruno, Rashford etc.