Erik ten Hag - Manchester United manager / awaiting clarity from the club over his position

[Zed is not dead]

We created chances against Spurs, as we all knew we would based off their change of system and still working on what they're doing. This was clear from their first game, where Brentford created chances against them. Spurs looked nervous and that's when we did well. When they started to play then they dominated.

But can you say it worked vs Wolves? And there will be many games this season where teams easily soak up our attacks and punish our gaping midfield. Teams better than Wolves would absolutely embarrass us playing as we are. City, Arsenal, Newcastle, Brighton, Liverpool will have a field day. Then I'd say it'll be 50/50 against other teams in the league. Chelsea will boss our midfield.

These tactics and system just aren't viable in my opinion.

It didn’t work against Wolves because as I said it’s high risk high reward.
He wanted the team to be really high which left swathes of space for the Wolves midfield. Even then we had some decent chances that could have put the game to bed.
He adjusted against the Spurs by keeping Mount deeper and closer to Casemiro.
I’m not saying he has it all figured it out, but the blame is more on the players than on the tactics in my opinion.

That’s not the kind of football I would’ve developped with this team as I’m not sure our players have the right attitude to play this kind of game.
They seem to lack the grit needed to play it. They need to be hounding and harassing the opponents but we have far too many players just lazingly jogging back, and failing to track runners.

 

[OrcaFat]

Hojlund isn't our main summer signing, he was a desperate signing hence the price. He's not suddenly turning into Haaland and it would be ridiculous to expect that, but that's almost what it would take to make this look even acceptable. And if you think a manager can hit the reset button by changing system and get a clean slate, then you are mistaken. We all saw the performances last season and it has to be taken into account.

Yeah last season does have to be taken into account, in the big picture. However, big picture is we finished third and won a trophy.

Hojlund is our main signing because he cost the most and is a position where we have almost no viable options and had to play WW there last year.

As for hitting the reset button, nobody discounts his first season but attainment was okay under the circumstances. SAF had to re-model and adapt some years and quite often had difficult periods. It was seen as part of the long term business of evolving the team.

It makes no sense to make judgements in current tactics and performance based on two games. It might turn out to be a failure but that simply can’t be concluded at this point.

I don’t aim this at you but there is a huge contingent on this website who leap to judgment based on bizarre interpretations of what’s going on here and at other clubs. Mainly they can only see problems at our club whilst ignoring or excusing the same stuff at other clubs.

99% of managers fail and get sacked. You might as well come out and say they aren’t good enough before they take their first training session as you will eventually be proved right.

Sir Alf and Sir Alex excepted, we sack ‘em all eventually. Might as well play without a manager.

 

[Himannv]

Feels like our problems are with the 4-1-4-1 system, where the players playing in the 1 position are critical. If teams bypass Casemiro they're running at the defence, and that's a surefire way to eventually concede. He has to tweak the system to offer more support to Casemiro, who has not been at his best in my view. On the other side of it, Rashford is not really a number 9.

Another concern is that we're simply not good enough in possession and keep giving the ball away.

 

[Jordan_mufc]

Not having a defined style is killing him. He changed at the beginning of last season due to the disastrous results but if he hadn’t we might be in a better place now.

You think he would have made it through the season playing the way we did at Brentford? He made the right decision to he pragmatic. And now we essentially have to start again as he implements his new style. It'll take time but will be beneficial in the long run

 

[BluesJr]

You think he would have made it through the season playing the way we did at Brentford? He made the right decision to he pragmatic. And now we essentially have to start again as he implements his new style. It'll take time but will be beneficial in the long run

Yes, with time.

 

[Tony247]

Moment Eriksen comes he brings calmness and purpose in attacks. We need more of him than Bruno who just push panic button when team is in trouble. Bruno's erratic passings, panic runs have become far bigger liability than his creativity. He will cost ETH very dearly.

 

[pocco]

You think he would have made it through the season playing the way we did at Brentford? He made the right decision to he pragmatic. And now we essentially have to start again as he implements his new style. It'll take time but will be beneficial in the long run

There's nothing to back up the idea that it will be beneficial. On the face of it, it looks like it won't work due to the lack of balance and underperforming players. The gap to make up to City is astronomical and i don't see this idea clicking and taking us up 3 or 4 levels. All we have is blind hope right now that he's seeing something that us and the pundits can't, but we've seen this story too many times before.

 

[Doracle]

You think he would have made it through the season playing the way we did at Brentford? He made the right decision to he pragmatic. And now we essentially have to start again as he implements his new style. It'll take time but will be beneficial in the long run

But he’s in the same position again, without the fallback of it been his first season and with the added pressure that Mount seems to have been an ETH driven signing. One more defeat in the next couple of games and it’s a full blown crisis.

The fact we look to have no working structure AND look unfit after pre-season is very difficult to explain and both those issues have to land squarely at ETH’s door. I really hope he gets it right but it’s understandable why the start to the season has already blown most optimism away.

 

[astracrazy]

I still expect another signing because something doesn't seem right. As if a piece of the puzzle to the plan is missing. For me anyway.

 

[OrcaFat]

How long before we get a sack poll?

 

[Steve 007]

I think we need to calm down. Two games in we’ve been poor, lucky to have 3 points. It’s Ten Hags job to get this right and if we beat Forrest and Arsenal he’ll be a hero. It’s a terrible start no doubt but he turned it around last season and we’ll be better again. I still think we’ll get second and we are still in the transfer market too.

8th
4th
4th
2nd
1st

That’s the record of Klopp in first 5 years at Liverpool. We’d have wanted him sacked last season if it was us.

 

[Ahmer Baig]

Moment Eriksen comes he brings calmness and purpose in attacks. We need more of him than Bruno who just push panic button when team is in trouble. Bruno's erratic passings, panic runs have become far bigger liability than his creativity. He will cost ETH very dearly.

Bruno is not a captain material. He panics when things dont go his way.

 

[Bestofthebest]

Cannot understand why EtH did not go back to Atlanta and negotiate price reduction after finding Hojlund injury. Can see this turning out to be a real pain, no pun intended, but I feel sorry for the lad. Cannot be nice to be main striker with a back problem. We don’t appear to be good at negotiating.

 

[Buster15]

I wouldn’t pay too much attention to it. Nobody feels good after a defeat. He has pride and is frustrated by the players not taking their chances, not following the rules, losing focus, losing the match. He might be a bit nervous and worried about some of the individual performances and, let’s face it, there is no competition for places in quite a few positions. Like all managers he would like to strengthen the squad but probably has to work with what he has.

All said and done he is probably just disappointed by the result.

That was exactly my thoughts as well.

 

[Buster15]

Bruno is not a captain material. He panics when things dont go his way.

He does indeed and was running round like a headless chicken. His discipline is just not good enough for that role.

 

[Shakesy]

Guys, seriously. The club can't keep changing managers. Most agreed EtH is the manager we need, so let's stick with him

 

[Steve 007]

Guys, seriously. The club can't keep changing managers. Most agreed EtH is the manager we need, so let's stick with him

Bang on. We need a superb game against Forrest and confidence will rise. Trust the process.

 

[ShinjiNinja26]

Guys, seriously. The club can't keep changing managers. Most agreed EtH is the manager we need, so let's stick with him

Exactly. The one constant during all these years of shite has been the owners, until they leave nothing will truly change and we’ll be stuck in this vicious cycle of chopping and changing managers and players without really getting anywhere.

 

[Pronewbie]

It’s like Dyche at Everton waking up one morning and deciding he’s going to play tiki taka then being confused why his players aren’t knocking it around 1 touch like 09 Barcelona

There’s no game plan or setup what so ever to accommodate 5 front players in this ETH ‘tactic’, imagine trying to play with half a team of attackers when the players on the field can barely put 2 passes together or do the fundamental basics of football like make a run off the ball

Embarrassing

Harsh on Dyche. Everton were a pretty good watch last week.

 

[Cassidy]

All those options would certainly have made our squad better (particularly if they come in for players who should have been moved out like Maguire, ETH also gets Lis etc), but the effusiveness of McT praise was pretty concerning...it's one thing to praise mentality - he hides a lot anyway, so mentality is mixed by any standard, at least at club level - another thing to suggest he should not only be in first team squad but captain, hence de facto guaranteed starter.

He would not have started ahead of Kone.

 

[amolbhatia50k]

Bang on. We need a superb game against Forrest and confidence will rise. Trust the process.

Need a win there as Arsenal is not going to be pretty. If Spurs gave us a runaround in the 2nd the Emirates will be brutal with our ability to wilt away from home.

 

[Licha-Vidic]

Moment Eriksen comes he brings calmness and purpose in attacks. We need more of him than Bruno who just push panic button when team is in trouble. Bruno's erratic passings, panic runs have become far bigger liability than his creativity. He will cost ETH very dearly.

Bruno is the cause of all our confusion. He deals with the ball as a hot potato. He has zero Physicality, can't dribble, can't run with the ball, losses possession the most,

I really thought ETH would drop Bruno, with signing Mount and with how he pushed him on the wing last season then he made him captain.

I think ETH fate has been sealed. As maguire sealed Ole's fate Bruno will seal it for ETH.
We can't win anything big with Maguire or Bruno as a captain.

I'm already prepared for the inevitable. Bruno will outlast ETH. Carrick was able to bench Bruno, the only coach in my eyes who knew how much Bruno is a liability.

 

[Son]

I’m not really a fan of Ten Hag’s football style on the whole even when things are going well.

More personal preference as I prefer a deep lying playmaker which we haven’t had since Carrick.

Doesn’t help our attack is god awful.

Squad half full of wingers who either can’t create or don’t score goals. Very hard to get exited about this United team.

 

[OrcaFat]

I think we need to calm down. Two games in we’ve been poor, lucky to have 3 points. It’s Ten Hags job to get this right and if we beat Forrest and Arsenal he’ll be a hero. It’s a terrible start no doubt but he turned it around last season and we’ll be better again. I still think we’ll get second and we are still in the transfer market too.

8th
4th
4th
2nd
1st

That’s the record of Klopp in first 5 years at Liverpool. We’d have wanted him sacked last season if it was us.

Yeah and after that it was 3rd, 2nd, 5th; not amazing. But Oh! the excuses we make for him. Good manager and everything but we don’t seem to judge our own managers by the same standard.

 

[ErikElevenHag]

But we're not 2 games in, we're over a season in and no one knows what our style of play actually is.

'Despite what was produced last season' c'mon now we were terrible in large parts of last season.

We finished 3rd and got to 2 Cup finials with the most part of a squad that finished nowhere the season before. We are 2 games in with a new look midfield, and a new system, how is that hard to understand?

He should be nowhere near getting sacked. When you have a good manager, you should have patience and see what happens. Liverpool held their nerve with Klopp and look at the result there.

 

[kaku06]

Strange take. How do you expect him to be after such a poor performance.

Maybe I’m looking too much into it but he seemed shattered.

 

[Cassidy]

Only thing I’ll say about the midfield and physicality is this is the second summer the club failed to sign Rabiot

 

[Revan]

Same guy who pushed Bruno out wide for half the season to accommodate for Weghorst at 10.

And play our best left forward Rashford as No.9.

 

[Jacky Quacky]

Guys, seriously. The club can't keep changing managers. Most agreed EtH is the manager we need, so let's stick with him

Yes it can and it’s not like any of the managers we’ve sacked have gone onto great things which we’ve regretted. We just need to get lucky once

 

[gfactor86]

Alarm bells starting sound.
Ultimately he will live and die on Antony 80m and Mount 60m.

In the same way Ole had his Maguire and Sancho flops.

ETH needs to adapt quickly. Antony needs to be moved on or dropped. Absolutely cannot start the next game.

 

[Cassidy]

Yes it can and it’s not like any of the managers we’ve sacked have gone onto great things which we’ve regretted. We just need to get lucky once

Pretty silly assessment. Things above the manager clearly need fixing.

 

[Stretfordender786]

A lot of people saying that ten hag is clueless I would love to know who they would want after him and who would take over from his squad ?

 

[buckooo1978]

Early days and we have to trust the manager to identify issues and fix them

I think the style of play we've employed is very high risk, high reward and we are relying on historically unproductive players to be productive in front of goal

Hopefully these games are the catalyst for another signing at least and we can settle into a better system and run of form

 

[Litch]

Not just about the results or the players, its that we look absolutely clueless about what style of football we want to play. Im worried as it looks like ETH has abandoned his football philosophy and is more about not losing than winning.

 

[MaT23]

Yeah I didn't get not going for him either

Because he wanted Mount to play Er

Cannot understand why EtH did not go back to Atlanta and negotiate price reduction after finding Hojlund injury. Can see this turning out to be a real pain, no pun intended, but I feel sorry for the lad. Cannot be nice to be main striker with a back problem. We don’t appear to be good at negotiating.

Is ETH involved in player's price negotiation now?
If yes, we are in big trouble.

 

[Tom Van Persie]

Guys, seriously. The club can't keep changing managers. Most agreed EtH is the manager we need, so let's stick with him

Anyone suggesting that he should be sacked after two games is fecking mental. It's been a rough start but I'm confident he will figure it out. I would not be surprised if we're sitting here two months from now and we're near the top of the table in great form.

The vultures have been circling for a while so no surprise that this thread has jumped over 30 pages in the last day. I understand the frustration with our performances but people need to calm down. We seen him turn things around last year.

 

[DJ_21]

ETH cant take all the responsibility for losing yesterday. If the players especially Bruno finished their chances of in the first halve then it’s a different game and I think we win. Could have been 2 goals up first halve. Should have had a clear pen. Then once we conceded we got rattled and never had control of the game from that point.

 

[crossy1686]

I think we need to calm down. Two games in we’ve been poor, lucky to have 3 points. It’s Ten Hags job to get this right and if we beat Forrest and Arsenal he’ll be a hero. It’s a terrible start no doubt but he turned it around last season and we’ll be better again. I still think we’ll get second and we are still in the transfer market too.

8th
4th
4th
2nd
1st

That’s the record of Klopp in first 5 years at Liverpool. We’d have wanted him sacked last season if it was us.

You're missing a key point, Klopp wasn't spunking hundreds of millions on players from the Dutch league. He relied on his scouting network to find players like Salah, Firmino, Wijnaldum, VVD, Alisson etc

 

[crossy1686]

Guys, seriously. The club can't keep changing managers. Most agreed EtH is the manager we need, so let's stick with him

He shouldn't be sacked at this point but criticism is absolutely just at this point of his tenure, and sacking managers is just something that happens when they aren't up to the job anymore. Not sacking a manager and giving him more shite players he used to manage does more bad than bringing in someone else.

 

[2 man midfield]

He has to go

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