Erik ten Hag - Manchester United manager

Red Dreams

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Some going on about the late subs.
The only recognized midfielder we had on the bench was Garner.
To bring on attacking players too early would have been to open us further.
It was a last gasp attempt to get an equalizer.

Lack of depth eh?
 

Big Ben Foster

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Exactly, so why are we trusting his judgment to sign players now?
Because unfortunately the club refuse to hire a competent specialist to take charge of transfers.

Can't blame ETH for that - the club is letting him down bigly with the lack of a proper support structure.
 

spiriticon

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If we wanted proof of the incompetence of these scum who own us, just look at the panic mode of trying to get players in.
This should have been addressed before the pre season even started.
Ralf's report for which he was fired was the go to document that detailed how deep a shit we were in, in as far as the squad was concerned.
Yet. They place this artificial budget to operate within.
The FdJ situation is a failure of the people the Glazers appointed to negotiate.
In business there is always a back up plan. Credible substitutes.
Even in the current situation, it would be cheaper to pay the deferred wages to get the transfer over the line.

Mourinho was right. The club is run as business. Not a football club.

But hey. They took over the club 'legally' so they cannot be all bad right?
Agreed on all your points, really.

Sacking Ralf confused the feck out of me. Why? Who's idea was it? The club's or ten Hag's? I've heard conflicting stories about it. There was a plan last year, why did it have to suddenly change?

Same with the transfer window. We spend all summer sucking FdJ's dick and did not want alternatives. Again, who's idea was it? The clubs or Ten Hag's? I've heard conflicting stories again. Even if the 'Frenkie or bust' plan was questionable to me, it was still a plan. So why did it suddenly have to change after 90 minutes against Brighton? Surely it did not take an actual PL game for Ten Hag to notice McFred shortcomings when we have 38 videos of last years games? If he felt he could coach McFred for the better last week, what has changed this week apart from a loss against Brighton?

So much confusion, plans keep changing. This club. feck.
 

lefty_jakobz

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So much optimism destroyed in 90mins

If we are going to be getting humbled by the smaller teams again this season, drop all first team players and play the youngsters. At least they will play for the shirt!
 

USREDEVIL

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So much optimism destroyed in 90mins

If we are going to be getting humbled by the smaller teams again this season, drop all first team players and play the youngsters. At least they will play for the shirt!
What i see is a manager trying to get the first team regulars to play well together. And yes, a few bad results is likely in that process. They will never gel in his system if they are pulled out the squad after a bad result. We need to suck it up and hope that this will bear fruit soon. And i expect to see some proper signings soon because you cannot get get blood from a rock. McFred aint gonna get better.
 

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Bull…..SAF took a while to observe, try different things, make mistakes and then bring success. People will say oh no not this again bit it is true i was there. Nowadays, one competitive match and we not playing perfect football and everyone moans….get real you spoilt brats….
Kind of a lazy, Top Red take.

‘In your opinion, at what point is it acceptable to discuss a manager’s tactics? 2 years? 3 years?
 

OrcaFat

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He looked a bit shell shocked after the defeat. Made a few questionable selections. I think he is slightly overawed.

He will settle in but I think it’s going to take a while.
 

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Kind of a lazy, Top Red take.

‘In your opinion, at what point is it acceptable to discuss a manager’s tactics? 2 years? 3 years?
It was his first premiership game. I don't think he got it right and we should expect improvement over the coming weeks. But 90 minutes doesn't change my mind just yet that ETH is the right manager for us. I'm far more concerned about the Parasites draining the club and leaving a carcass of what once was a great and well run club.
 

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I think almost all of us were shocked by what happened Sunday.
We were pleased overall with the pre season.
Thus the many emotional responses.
The key here is the analysis that was done on the squad well before ten Hag came.
Was it capable of challenging?

Whose fault is that?

the much talked about restructuring has proven to be cosmetic nonsense.
The got a PR guy who buys pints.
Everyone loves him.

But remember. the same parasites are making the decisions.

If we are going to survive as a club, we have no option but to do whatever we can to get them out.
 

DSG

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It was his first premiership game. I don't think he got it right and we should expect improvement over the coming weeks. But 90 minutes doesn't change my mind just yet that ETH is the right manager for us. I'm far more concerned about the Parasites draining the club and leaving a carcass of what once was a great and well run club.
I agree that ETH is the right manager for us. I criticized his preparation for the match, but I do think he’s a good manager and I support him. It seems some people think we shouldn’t say a single critical word about a manager, and that signals we want him out. Not the case with me, but as a fan, I reserve the right to point out where I disagree with the manager.
 

Jaae

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Underwhelming pre-season
Disappointing summer transfer window so far
Beaten at home by Brighton in the opening game
Tried to sign Marko Arnautovic

''The writing is on the wall.'' Sam Smith, Poet.
 

Footyislife

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The one thing we have to realize is while ETH has shown to be good coach, man manager, & tactician, he is not a competent DOF nor can he perform that role & also be successful at man management of the players. How can you promote unity & build positive culture when you have to uproot half the team?

What needed to happen was a ruthless clearout under Ralf (reduce wages or leave - barca style). Matic, Pogba, Mata, Jones, Lingard, Henderson, Rashford, Maguire, Shaw, Martial, Lindelof, and Bruno all earn far above what they produce.

Then we should have lined up a list of easily targetable players to stabilize the squad so we can still achieve top 4. Then we should plan for a series of key pieces we add over the next 2-3 windows to build the team back up into a contender. We continue to make the same mistakes with overestimating manager/player abilities and not making realistic plans.
 

crossy1686

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Because unfortunately the club refuse to hire a competent specialist to take charge of transfers.

Can't blame ETH for that - the club is letting him down bigly with the lack of a proper support structure.
We have a scouting department that surely have targets they think would fit United? From what it sounds like so far we’ve just gone for whomever Ten Hag wants and not bothered to go with any of the scouts recommended players, like Martinez over Pau Torres.
 

macheda14

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Because unfortunately the club refuse to hire a competent specialist to take charge of transfers.

Can't blame ETH for that - the club is letting him down bigly with the lack of a proper support structure.
i feel like I read this in the athletic but due to our restructuring ETH has been give pretty much absolute control this summer and then over the course of the season they will be bringing in / refreshing the recruitment team who will then give him recommendations a la Liverpool and Klopp.
 

crossy1686

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Is this a serious question?
In his most successful spell at a club, he didn’t sign anyone, and now he’s being entrusted to rebuild United having never been in this position either. I’m sure he knows what a good player looks like, we all do, but all we’ve done at the moment is sign players he’s worked with, which to me suggests he doesn’t actually know what traits he’s looking for and he doesn’t trust the scouts.
 

sullydnl

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We have a scouting department that surely have targets they think would fit United? From what it sounds like so far we’ve just gone for whomever Ten Hag wants and not bothered to go with any of the scouts recommended players, like Martinez over Pau Torres.
We do. And the club has so much faith in that scouting department that they discarded both their Chief Scout and Head of Global Scouting in the closing stage of last season, as part of an intended restructure.

If the club themselves think there's an issue with our scouting set up that needed fixing, why would ETH place his faith in the recommendations compiled by that openly flawed set-up?
 

mu4c_20le

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In his most successful spell at a club, he didn’t sign anyone, and now he’s being entrusted to rebuild United having never been in this position either. I’m sure he knows what a good player looks like, we all do, but all we’ve done at the moment is sign players he’s worked with, which to me suggests he doesn’t actually know what traits he’s looking for and he doesn’t trust the scouts.
Rabiot and SMS are club targets with his approval, so we are not only listening to him and his eredivisie boys. And regardless of who scouts the targets, he's the manager, he's the one who plays them so he'll have the final say anyways.
 

wolvored

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Well FdJ is around 65m
and early In the window it was widely reported that Ajax wanted 70m

In a world where Nottingham Forrest and Leeds are spending 100m there’s no excuses.
I was on about all 3. Would be around 200 mill. Utd would never sanction that.
 

Tom Van Persie

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-Sudden adoption of a false 9 tactic outta nowhere
-McFred, Maguire and Shaw still first choice
-Not vetoing, potentially even suggesting, signing Arnautovic and/or Rabiot

Really testing my patience here. He better know what he is doing.
We played the false 9 in pre-season.
 

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I think he needs to be careful in terms of targeting players he knows. I can understand it given the lack of a proper scouting set up at United though.
 

Tommy79

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Ten Haha: "I'm happy with the current squad - we make good progress. I'm happy with the signings until now. You don't need any player, you need the right player. That's what we're working for."

The right player being what? Some cheap old farts?

Have we gone from the Busby Babes and Fergie's Fledgelings to Ten Hag's Granddads?
Err why do our fans do that and try to rewrite history, as AF took in a fair few "old farts/granddads" or do you forget he took Larson, goram, and lest we forget how he gave an oap who told him to feck off twice in the 90s a final payday 00s when no-one else would touch blanc, now how many has ETH signed.
 

Matt851

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Exactly, so why are we trusting his judgment to sign players now?
It's just like hiring rangnick to be manager then not letting him do what he is best at

If eth is steering the transfer policy the he is making some big mistakes and it could sour his reign. Personally I fund the previous lack of interest in signing a dm pretty baffling. Even if we got fdj and paired him with one of Fred that would have left massive gaps behind our midfield. It strikes me as somewhat naive, I hope that's not also the case with the intention to play a midget centre back

If he was also the one who decided to hang on for fdj despite seemingly not receiving firm assurances thatcluld also be described as naive.

Ultimately a competent dof should be doing this stuff with him I putting into transfer policy
 

Mickeza

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If he is not supported with the transfers he needs he will know they lied to him.
He will walk end of the season.
It’s not just transfers. Literally one defeat brings about a media cycle and Twitter storm that just doesn’t happen anywhere else. The whole club is just steeped in negativity. It’s next to impossible to break that.
 

Greck

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i feel like I read this in the athletic but due to our restructuring ETH has been give pretty much absolute control this summer and then over the course of the season they will be bringing in / refreshing the recruitment team who will then give him recommendations a la Liverpool and Klopp.
That never actually made any sense. It was a hindsight rationalisation to justify the questionable business and limited scouting we conducted over the summer. Not only did it not make sense to leave those roles unmanned for a full year it was the total opposite of what was hyped heading into the summer. Heading into the summer the new Deputy DoF was going to be the hire that would free Murtough up to shift his focus on scouting and he and Fletcher were touted as being the drivers of a newly innovated recruitment structure.

Once that flopped they pivoted to say the real changes were contingent on yet another future hiring. There's always a new reason, except in this case it doesnt even make sense, because once again, how do you leave key roles unmanned during a summer window? This is why they are now panic buying arnautovic, rabiot and co. There was never some elaborate masterplan. If it was a good plan there should have at least been a provisional structure put in place to keep the club afloat till the hirings were made.
 

Matt851

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That never actually made any sense. It was a hindsight rationalisation to justify the questionable business and limited scouting we conducted over the summer. Not only did it not make sense to leave those roles unmanned for a full year it was the total opposite of what was hyped heading into the summer. Heading into the summer the new Deputy DoF was going to be the hire that would free Murtough up to shift his focus on scouting and he and Fletcher were touted as being the drivers of a newly innovated recruitment structure.

Once that flopped they pivoted to say the real changes were contingent on yet another future hiring. There's always a new reason, except in this case it doesnt even make sense, because once again, how do you leave key roles unmanned during a summer window? This is why they are now panic buying arnautovic, rabiot and co. There was never some elaborate masterplan. If it was a good plan there should have at least been a provisional structure put in place to keep the club afloat till the hirings were made.
It's just the kind of press release nonsense we publish every year. Just like how we always used to hear about a well respected dof being recruited
 

Greck

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It's just the kind of press release nonsense we publish every year. Just like how we always used to hear about a well respected dof being recruited
It was always snakeoil, the panicked scattergun business this week should tear down the facade that everything was fine and they knew what they were doing. Bidding then pulling out of the Arnautovic deal is the definition of panic.

We knew we needed midfielders 3 months ago and we knew Ronaldo wanted to leave weeks ago. There's no justifiable reason for sitting on our arses all summer then rushing transfers after an opening day that repeated everything we already saw last season.

I don't know if it's right to lay blame at ETH's door when he met a structure that was incredibly deluded about the quality of the players he was inheriting. He could have done better but it actually also made sense to give them a clean slate.
 

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Some going on about the late subs.
The only recognized midfielder we had on the bench was Garner.
To bring on attacking players too early would have been to open us further.
It was a last gasp attempt to get an equalizer.

Lack of depth eh?

He 100% brought the kids on that late to show the higher ups this is what we got going into season, and to be honest it's painfully thin.

Was a calculated move for sure.

Seem to be some fans painting it as he was deer in the headlights why he left it too late, which is total nonsense.


The options are so limited, as is the midfield as well.
 

Flexdegea

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It’s not just transfers. Literally one defeat brings about a media cycle and Twitter storm that just doesn’t happen anywhere else. The whole club is just steeped in negativity. It’s next to impossible to break that.

This.

It's literally infected old Trafford now as well.


Winning matches is the only way to fix it but how can you build anything over a bit of time to start winning consistently when any defeat or a draw is completely blown up across the board from media, fans and social media.


You also got people from the Caf to real life now questioning does he have a Clue what he doing. Been snide remarks for last load of weeks as well that he only buying Dutch league players, then all the blow back from Brighton game. Total shitshow at the moment.
 

el3mel

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It’s not just transfers. Literally one defeat brings about a media cycle and Twitter storm that just doesn’t happen anywhere else. The whole club is just steeped in negativity. It’s next to impossible to break that.
No, things would have been different if we started the season positively, like with a good performance or a win, however literally the first game of the season had us getting convincingly beaten at home by a midtable team, with a shit performance similar to what we had been seeing last season. Couple this with how shit our transfers business have been this summer and it's not the media's problem.
 

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No, things would have been different if we started the season positively, like with a good performance or a win, however literally the first game of the season had us getting convincingly beaten at home by a midtable team, with a shit performance similar to what we had been seeing last season. Couple this with how shit our transfers business have been this summer and it's not the media's problem.
No. We get this reaction after every defeat.
 

mshnsh

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That first game was an eye opener. Hopefully he learns from that and improves. What I'm looking for is for the team to move in the right direction. Something like Liverpool when Klopp took over; not necessarily immediately winning the league (would be more than welcome but unrealistic at this point) but atleast showing a clear upward trend in performances and results.

My main gripe with ten hag at this point in the obsession over buying players from the Dutch league, which, with all due respect, isn't amongst the best in Europe. I'd only take obviously talented young footballers from there who are using it as a stepping stone to bigger things.
 

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So far this has shades of Louis Van Gaal again.

pining for a midfielder he used to have: Schweinsteiger -> Frenkie de Jong
A left footed Argentinian center back who looks like a red card waiting to happen:
Rojo -> Martinez
My captain always plays:
Rooney-> Maguire

Over reliance on the Dutch market and the players he worked with.

Good preseason in Asia followed by a bad start:

loss vs Swansea then, Brighton now.

hopefully he also gets 4th place and a cup sooner than later.
 

el3mel

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No. We get this reaction after every defeat.
A single defeat wouldn't have caused such reaction. The problem is we're consistently shit, that our defeats isn't because we just had a one bad day or being unlucky in one off game, it's because we're shit.