Yep right now
Erik ten Hag - Manchester United manager
- Thread starter sewey89
- Start date
It’s only 6 games in lads . Way too early to be making judgements but so far I am impressed by ETH.
When Rangnick came in to takeover as the manager, he quickly identified that one of the biggest weaknesses (if not the biggest) is the team's quality off the ball. Often times when the the opposition counter attacked us, our players were found terribly out of position. And then, rather than busting gut to make sure the attack did not lead to a goal, our players seemed happy to just jog backwards and hope that either the goalkeeper or someone else deals with the said attack. Our team press (when the team did try to press) mostly looked utterly disorganized and chaotic with players like Bruno and Fred running around like headless chicken. It was cake-walk for PL defenders and midfielders to bypass our press with only a simple shoulder drop. Our defense appeared timid and players barely communicated with each other. Maguire and De Gea communicated the most in terms of giving each other an exasperated look after a goal went in as if to lay the blame squarely on the other.
While the team sure can improve in terms of keeping the ball and playing out from the back, I think even EtH has identified aforementioned issues as the ones he needs to deal with first. Especially after what he saw in the first few games. The team appears to communicate a whole lot more now and the team appears that much more organized. Despite being dominated in terms of possession, the defense doesn't look shaky and chaotic. I do not expect us to play like a team that camps in opposition box and breaks the opposition defense down with crisp passing. We have seen glimpses of it but there's some way to go. What I am glad about is the improvement in off the ball IQ and organization. Rest will follow soon.
Some people on here are too negative, or too impatient. We have won our last 4 league games after a horrible start including Liverpool and Arsenal, which are both opponents that have been used to playing dominant attacking football whereas our players have not. People should not expect us playing them off the pitch. We could definitely be playing better, but it's not like we've been bad. There's new players, a new system, all-time low confidence levels after last season and we're still getting results after just two months of playing. Saying ETH has been "OK" is fair, but I think he's been doing a good job so far, primarily because of the way Dalot, McT and Rashford have progressed thus far in comparison to last year and the fact that he showed the cojones to make roster changes that our previous managers were afraid to make.
Theres a big chance City will make it look easy tomorrow, but I wouldn't be surprised either if we steal point(s).
Theres a big chance City will make it look easy tomorrow, but I wouldn't be surprised either if we steal point(s).
Good post mate.
The bolded was my biggest take away from in particular the Arsenal game. EtH has had 6 league games in charge [5 by that point] where as someone like Arteta has had what, 3 years & also a sizeable budget, I’d expect them to look more cohesive in the most part.
The encouraging thing with EtH is how fecking clear it is that players our players are now being coached. The 3 players you mention are prime examples.
Good post because this is where things start. Work off the ball is the foundation.
I expected this from Rangnick but extremely disappointed it never materialized.
This break has been brutal. Just the timing of it, almost feels like the season didn't really start. But hopefully it will benefit the manager.
Plus the fact that Arsenal have had a very clear footballing philosophy for over 20 years (except for when Gudebenin was running the show), their own academy players have been playing the same brand of football in their ranks for years as well. Meanwhile we have had a wide variety of playstyles over the years, we went from Van Gaal his possession-over-everything to parking the bus under Mou to emphasizing the counter under Ole and a big part of our squad has played all of these systems, having to adapt constently.
I hope we finally have found the manager that can bring some stability on the pitch and in the dressing room. I think we did, I just hope the owners and their lackeys in charge think so too. We can build from there.
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I've always believed in Ssembatya Alex Jessie Morgan.
Wonder if Guardiola is praising in the hope that it will distract him before the game,however if he did really want Erik as his replacement then his style of Football is obviously eye catching which bodes well for us in the future.
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ETH is here to knock City and Liverpool off their perch!
If Pep wants a replacement he can go for Lego Pep at Arsenal. A ready made replacement for him. Arteta will be bald in a few years time too.
If Pep wants a replacement he can go for Lego Pep at Arsenal. A ready made replacement for him. Arteta will be bald in a few years time too.
I wonder how many kilometers will our player have to run after today. I guess we might be in for some old school running in cold river.
Will do well to reset the mood after perhaps the most gutless display we've witnessed - although there are plenty to choose from.
Running aint solving this though. Our front players just don't have the quality to do anything against this kind of team.
We have 70 and 100m wingers and we could not even threaten them once...
It’s worrying that he didn’t find it necessary to set us up differently for this game. Just used the exact same line-up as he would against any other team.
Could have been good with both Casemiro and McT in midfield perhaps?
Could have been good with both Casemiro and McT in midfield perhaps?
The handful of anti ETH must be creaming themselves.
Said in the match thread, it seems it’s always the same with these players- they’ll go on a run where they play well and you think they’re fulfilling their potential under another coach and then they collapse. Happened under Jose, Ole and it will happen under this guy.
Shite approach to the game today. Now's the time we needed to keep building our momentum and belief. Batten down the hatches, park the bus and hope to make it a game on the counter. Feck it, it's only one game and people would understand. Then we could escape with some belief and positive momentum again.
Hopefully we all including the players just forget this ever happened and carry on to the next one.
Hopefully we all including the players just forget this ever happened and carry on to the next one.
Back down to earth with a bang. As some of us said, the 4 previous wins flattered us despite many getting carried away.
Damn you ole
He'll also have to look at his shit tactics. Imagine going on against City at Etihad with Eriksen and Bruno in midfield together.
Even when we were shit in recent years, I don't remember us conceding 4 against City in one fecking half.
Pathetic from him. Sitting dead at the bench, which is mirrored onto the players.
He'll only get so far with these players.
Let's hope Casemiro can come into some form at least
Let's hope Casemiro can come into some form at least
that midfield selection away to the best team in the league is straight out of the Wenger final years playbook
He has all to do. Yet to convince. Talks good but getting embarrassed regularly isn’t going to fool anyone.
Casemiro sitting on the bench whilst City walk through the middle again & again with such ease. Terrible tactics.
Anyway, I'm sick of this but the only reason I hate watching Man City play is because they remind me United don't even play the kind of football the rest of the world does. Whatever "sport" United is playing, it's definitely not related to football.
Exactly. Leicester and soton away could easily have been draws. Against Arsenal let's be honest we got lucky!
My biggest concern isn’t particularly the team choice, bad as it is, but what exactly was he trying to do with the team he chose? From the first minute we looked lost.
He has to be play Casemiro here, he's the only one with experience of disrupting a top-level side like this at an elite level. Poor decision.
100m antony doing nothing
60m casemiro still on the bench
not looking good is it
60m casemiro still on the bench
not looking good is it
Well I hope he's learning a few lessons at least..
This.
It’s literally the improvement of McFred which defensively performed vs City previously.
Beginning to think the club is cursed and it makes literally no difference who we hire as manager nor who we sign. It's more or less been the same crap football with the same issues for over a decade. How's that even possible?
You actually sound happy wtf
Exactly. He went with what worked but not what the game needed. The City midfield against Eriksen and Mct had a great time, couldn't be any easier.
Man City 6:3 Man Utd
Deflecting from the fact that he got it completely wrong today. City would have won either way, but he's made it easy for them with the way he set the team up, as if he thought the two sides are equals and wanted to go toe to toe with them.