Erik ten Hag - Manchester United manager

[Oscar Bonavena]

Who said he can’t be dropped? Or subbed?

Well, it certainly appears to be the case.

 

[Berbaclass]

I think he wasn't wrong, but look what happened after he said it. He was probably optimistic on the timeframes though.

He couldn't have been more right.

 

[Yorkeontop]

You can sack him I guess, but we'll probably be here again soon enough.

 

[mu4c_20le]

I think he wasn't wrong, but look what happened after he said it. He was probably optimistic on the timeframes though.

Boehly took his advice too literally

 

[ArmaDino]

Isn’t getting players to buy in and give effort part of the managers job?

Honestly nothing looked good in preseason and it’s no surprise the real games are worse.

Mate, if we need a manager to "to buy in and motivate a player" a player who earns 250k+ in order to close down when someone is driblling 2-3 yards away from you, then we might as well cancel their contracts and kick them out.

Do you think someone who works at McDonalds has to "buy in and give effort" in order not to burn a burger? Or do you think a worker at a tire repair place needs to "buy in and give effort" in order for him to screw your wheel on tight?

What kind of nonsense is this? Picking your players and putting pressure/marking them is something they teach you in the U-13s. It's the absolute basics of football.

The problem is that Rashford and co are clearly not following what the manager told them. And the problem is we can't even bench him because his alternative is even worse: Garnacho is not ready to lead the line and Pellistri is the only other winger that we have.

 

[ReparableTrack0]

I am slightly worried with him. He isn’t really exceptional at tactics, man management or identifying right players.

There is a reason why the diamond formation isn’t popular in modern football. Unless you have a team which is absolutely drilled in it and spatially aware it can be exploited. The Brighton manger figured it out in 15 minutes last match but Erik never reacted. Also, his team setups and midfield composition (Mount, Eriksen as number 8) doesn’t fill me with confidence.

When it comes to man management it’s clear he is not used to dealing with this level of players or club before. He also clearly plays his favorites like Antony even when he doesn’t perform.

 

[Lay]

I’ve realised I don’t think I’ve watched his pre or post game interviews for months. I find his character boring to listen too.

 

[Rozay]

He’s just a shit coach, by all appearances. He has zero offensive ideas. We don’t score any goals because our plan of doing so is hoping that Rashford is simply too fast/strong for his direct opponent and Hojlund can also win personally against his centre half. Nothing in the way of making numerical advantages, putting our players in positions again and again where they have easy goals. Just reliant upon individualism.

He does not realise that this won’t cut it in this league. It can only work, maybe, with the 10 best players in the world. He could never get Gundogan scoring goals from centre forward, he’d instead be in the press conferences saying once he gets a faster, stronger striker back we will score more.

How many coaches have to come in to the PL and turn non-footballing sides into footballing ones within a month before people accept that the entire club doesn’t need to be redesigned from top to bottom in order to expect a coach to fecking coach competently? In the last 18 months alone I’ve seen Ange Postecoglu, Eddie Howe, Roberto De Zerbi, Emery and Gary fecking O’Niell (twice!) teach their football teams how to pass and move and create numerical advantages (or do it better, in De Zerbi’s case) - while we are here saying we can only improve our football if we had a new Chief Executive. I’d also take a bet that we get a spell of Iraola getting Bournemouth passing and moving as a unit before Ten Hag, who of course needs more time and more money, manages the same with us.

Now we’re here saying our players are not physical enough. They are not physical enough for this shite that relies upon overpowering our opponents. Players like Amad and Pellistri could probably fit in comfortably at Brighton or City. Meanwhile we bring Scott McTominay, who has demonstrated over and over again that he can’t pass the ball to his teammates with any regularity, into our team to add ‘steel’, or make Bruno Fernandes the centre of our team, a player who has no technical or tactical control to his game.

We will likely get better. We have some very winnable games coming up, and we will improve. But we absolutely won’t improve enough, with this direction that we’re headed. Other teams are just better organised. They aren’t stupid, even if their defender is weak and slow, they’ll just position it so that if Rashford gets past him he won’t get past the next - and then just like that we’re out of ideas. Nothing else.

 

[Duncan the Great]

Yeah, I’m not sure about all that. Pep can do and could also teach some of us a few things.

One thing you said is true - good players are very important. Coaching and tactics is about getting the best out of them. But you knew that.

Yeah, but what Pep 's teams do above all else has not a lot to do with systems and that is work bloody hard, support one another and run their socks off. He also gets players who are quick over 15/20 metres and that includes the first couple of metres that are in the head. You can only carry one midfielder/playmaker who lacks that pace (i.e, a Casemiro or Busquets type) and definately no one in defence, carthorse Maguire springs to mind. How on earth he's ever got to premiership and international level beats me, but that's another story. Also Pep has very cleverly got all opponents trying to copy playing out from the back when he has the best drilled team at closing down, and you now see City quite happily going long now they have Haaland as a target.
Regardless of all that it doesn't have a bearing on the fact that ETH's United aren't going anywhere gut round and round in the preverbial ever decreasing circles and getting very close to disappearing up their own backsides, the ones stamped Championship!!!!!!

 

[The Hilton]

Interesting video.

I've seen people suggesting we got 'dominated' and 'dismantled' but I never really felt like that was the case too.

Yeah I didn't see that either - Brighton were clinical while we were wasteful, and after going ahead they were able to pass the ball around and make us chase it.

 

[pocco]

People on here talking about tactics in reality haven’t a clue about tactics. There’s so much written which is complete nonsense. And the booing of the Hojlund substitution was frustratingly ignorant. No way should he be playing 90minutes, he’s a 20 year old coming back from injury and has hardly played for a few months. I’m not saying the manager is immune for criticism and everybody is entitled to their opinion. But Ten Hag currently has a depleted squad and several difficult off pitch issues. Finally, tiny Brighton are currently one of the best teams in Europe, let alone the PL. We’re still very much rebuilding.
We have to get behind the manager. Things will get better on the pitch, particularly when Amrabat and Mainoo (who’s going to be a star) are available and Hojlund has got some more minutes under his belt. Hopefully some of the off field issue will also sort themselves out, we should be looking at Brighton as an example of how a football club should be run.

What a crock of shit from start to finish this post is. I'm sorry. The tactical issues that posters are pulling up are entirely viable, you can't possibly say that ETH got it even nearly right yesterday, a blind man can see that. Brighton play the exact same way every game under De Zerbi and ETH hasn't come up with an answer yet. How Brighton can be the best team in Europe, after losing their best players, having a manager for less time than ETH, spending less than us... honestly the excuses are unbearable and the standards are rotten. Yes they're better than us but they shouldn't be. That's the issue. They played us off the park with most of their first choice players missing.

Eventually you will get there and recognise that we're being sold short yet again. I saw these same exact excuses for Ole for so long and it was frustrating listening to them because you knew we were going nowhere fast. But eventually it will get to a point again where enough is enough. We'll have some good days and bad days and probably not finish too far away from the top 4 because we have so many talented players, but there will come a time when even the most ardent ETH defenders get sick of the poor tactics, boring football and ultimately never competing.

 

[pocco]

Interesting video.

I've seen people suggesting we got 'dominated' and 'dismantled' but I never really felt like that was the case too.

I suppose Brighton 'dominated' in the same way we 'dominated' Arsenal. Except they rolled it around whilst winning by 2 or 3 goals.

 

[pocco]

He’s just a shit coach, by all appearances. He has zero offensive ideas. We don’t score any goals because our plan of doing so is hoping that Rashford is simply too fast/strong for his direct opponent and Hojlund can also win personally against his centre half. Nothing in the way of making numerical advantages, putting our players in positions again and again where they have easy goals. Just reliant upon individualism.

He does not realise that this won’t cut it in this league. It can only work, maybe, with the 10 best players in the world. He could never get Gundogan scoring goals from centre forward, he’d instead be in the press conferences saying once he gets a faster, stronger striker back we will score more.

How many coaches have to come in to the PL and turn non-footballing sides into footballing ones within a month before people accept that the entire club doesn’t need to be redesigned from top to bottom in order to expect a coach to fecking coach competently? In the last 18 months alone I’ve seen Ange Postecoglu, Eddie Howe, Roberto De Zerbi, Emery and Gary fecking O’Niell (twice!) teach their football teams how to pass and move and create numerical advantages (or do it better, in De Zerbi’s case) - while we are here saying we can only improve our football if we had a new Chief Executive. I’d also take a bet that we get a spell of Iraola getting Bournemouth passing and moving as a unit before Ten Hag, who of course needs more time and more money, manages the same with us.

Now we’re here saying our players are not physical enough. They are not physical enough for this shite that relies upon overpowering our opponents. Players like Amad and Pellistri could probably fit in comfortably at Brighton or City. Meanwhile we bring Scott McTominay, who has demonstrated over and over again that he can’t pass the ball to his teammates with any regularity, into our team to add ‘steel’, or make Bruno Fernandes the centre of our team, a player who has no technical or tactical control to his game.

We will likely get better. We have some very winnable games coming up, and we will improve. But we absolutely won’t improve enough, with this direction that we’re headed. Other teams are just better organised. They aren’t stupid, even if their defender is weak and slow, they’ll just position it so that if Rashford gets past him he won’t get past the next - and then just like that we’re out of ideas. Nothing else.

Agreed. The bolded part is what infuriates me, I've made this point myself but the ETH defenders won't acknowledge it. Instead they claim these teams are actually probably better than us to begin with or, the worst one, that ETH needs three more years.

People want to point to the club for not upholding standards etc, but how about they hold the manager to certain standards and expectations? The whole lot is a mess and is why we'll never get anywhere near City for a long, long time. In fact I reckon the next time we compete, even if the club is sold, is when we stumble across a good manager that comes in and makes a big impact. And it will be clear to all of us within the first week or two that we're seeing the right things.

 

[reelworld]

I totally don't agree with what Sancho did. But if he being ostracized for not meeting the standards, then what standards are there to be met in the first place with a whole bunch of bottlers who lack mentality?

Bingo. This is my thinking as well. If you're gonna pick publicly criticized with your player about standard, then you better win games to justify your actions. Otherwise the criticized player would easily think: Standard? What standard?.

 

[NZT-One]

Interesting video.

I've seen people suggesting we got 'dominated' and 'dismantled' but I never really felt like that was the case too.

Yeah I didn't see that either - Brighton were clinical while we were wasteful, and after going ahead they were able to pass the ball around and make us chase it.

We were prepared for what we expected Brighton would do. And it worked good for about 20minutes. After which it seemed that some adjustments have been made at Brighton (pushing FBs higher) to exploit the weakness of all diamond formations, the wide areas. Dominated, Dismantled, all just subjective stuff. Some people will see it this way, others won't. At the end of the day, Brighton was clearly the better team and won deserved. A few players left a lot to be desired. The manager tried to adjust to opposition or current squad conditions or both. He didn't have an answer on Brightons adjustments.

In isolation, that is, what the weekend provided on new data samples.

 

[reelworld]

Tweet

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I think this is what he means when he says "players don't follow the plan". Just look at Rashford jogging around like it's a friendly. And I've seen many more of our players do that today as well.

I've seen several times Rashford bow down on his knees trying to catch his breath on the second half against Brighton and Arsenal.
Appaling fitness level

 

[fallengt]

I can't take anybody who says "shiny new toy" seriously. It's one of the Caf's favorite thought-terminating cliches.

More about the fact that supporters ain't offering realistic solutions, only a list of hipster manager of the month whom they want to manage United.
De Zerbi, Hansi Flick, Nagelsmann etc...
Right, I'm sure they could teach Rashford that he must jump in order to win a header.

 

[NZT-One]

Eventually you will get there and recognise that we're being sold short yet again. I saw these same exact excuses for Ole for so long and it was frustrating listening to them because you knew we were going nowhere fast. But eventually it will get to a point again where enough is enough. We'll have some good days and bad days and probably not finish too far away from the top 4 because we have so many talented players, but there will come a time when even the most ardent ETH defenders get sick of the poor tactics, boring football and ultimately never competing.

I agree with the first paragraph but not with the 2nd. The parallels to Ole are premature - way too early to do this. Some behaviour of his fans, I'll give you that, but ETHs situation isn't the same as with Ole. ETH did succeed in building a modern and successful Ajax side playing modern football (Ole did nothing like that - on the contrary, his ideas seemed to be based on superficial levels like passion and determination and effectively playing longball football which was clearly not the current meta). Add to that, ETH also doesn't have all his players available up to now. So even if I share your pessimistic outlook, it isn't substantial because we simply cannot say, if his tactics are going to work.

Creating a destructive environment already is crazy. I am not married to the idea of ETH being Uniteds manager at all and I'll happily agree that I expected a little more in terms of visible stylistic influence but on the other hand I see how thick a few of our players are so it feels unfair to lay it onto Ole.

At least ETH has a plan and at least he was able in the past, to make it work (actually twice because he built two successful teams at Ajax afaik). Do you think, Murtough will find a better manager? Who? Who do you think would be better suited to this POS that is the club these days with negative news left, right and center? You aren't a scout, you don't have to know someone better. And of course you should be able to criticize the manager, but you act as if ETH already had his chance and burned it. Thats crazy

 

[Cassidy]

Well, it certainly appears to be the case.

Or the manager does not want to

 

[Cassidy]

I've seen several times Rashford bow down on his knees trying to catch his breath on the second half against Brighton and Arsenal.
Appaling fitness level

Its not uncommon when you make a high number of full sprints on transition.

 

[NZT-One]

He’s just a shit coach, by all appearances. He has zero offensive ideas. We don’t score any goals because our plan of doing so is hoping that Rashford is simply too fast/strong for his direct opponent and Hojlund can also win personally against his centre half. Nothing in the way of making numerical advantages, putting our players in positions again and again where they have easy goals. Just reliant upon individualism.

Usually I agree to most of your posts but this time I think you are very wrong. Or at least you are way too early. I agree with your observation, our offensive play hasn't really improved. Not last year and certainly not this one. But judging it for this year is crazy. He didn't have the players to make his system work. It is fine if you are not a fan of his idea of Bruno and Mount in front of a DM but thats the plan he recruited and (hopefully) trained the team for. Of course it will take time to implement it. And to our squad of low IQ guys probably even more.

He does not realise that this won’t cut it in this league. It can only work, maybe, with the 10 best players in the world. He could never get Gundogan scoring goals from centre forward, he’d instead be in the press conferences saying once he gets a faster, stronger striker back we will score more.

"Could never" is rarely a sign of a very strong argument. You might be right, you might be wrong. He did make DVB work so there's that...

How many coaches have to come in to the PL and turn non-footballing sides into footballing ones within a month before people accept that the entire club doesn’t need to be redesigned from top to bottom in order to expect a coach to fecking coach competently? In the last 18 months alone I’ve seen Ange Postecoglu, Eddie Howe, Roberto De Zerbi, Emery and Gary fecking O’Niell (twice!) teach their football teams how to pass and move and create numerical advantages (or do it better, in De Zerbi’s case) - while we are here saying we can only improve our football if we had a new Chief Executive. I’d also take a bet that we get a spell of Iraola getting Bournemouth passing and moving as a unit before Ten Hag, who of course needs more time and more money, manages the same with us.

You are right. We should be playing better by now. We don't. Probably many reasons for it. For sure not all connected with solely the manager. Also Ange and De Zerbi took over sides with well drilled players, they hadn't had to start with zero. In Howes case, I am with you, his work has been really good and I had hope, ETH would have a similar effect. But even Howe took over a team with less issues than ETH did (and yes, some of them are partly created due to himself).

Now we’re here saying our players are not physical enough. They are not physical enough for this shite that relies upon overpowering our opponents. Players like Amad and Pellistri could probably fit in comfortably at Brighton or City. Meanwhile we bring Scott McTominay, who has demonstrated over and over again that he can’t pass the ball to his teammates with any regularity, into our team to add ‘steel’, or make Bruno Fernandes the centre of our team, a player who has no technical or tactical control to his game.

Who knows what people talk about. One thing seems clear to me, you can have great tactics and great players, they will always be beaten by players who work harder. This intensity is lacking in our squad for years. I share your concerns with McTominay and Bruno (and probably Rashford as well even though I don't know your stance there). We need intensity. And this certainly is helped by physicality as well.

We will likely get better. We have some very winnable games coming up, and we will improve. But we absolutely won’t improve enough, with this direction that we’re headed. Other teams are just better organised. They aren’t stupid, even if their defender is weak and slow, they’ll just position it so that if Rashford gets past him he won’t get past the next - and then just like that we’re out of ideas. Nothing else.

You might be right. There is really good chance, that we won't be able to have a season with results as good as last year (relatively speaking). But organisation doesn't just manifest itself out of thin air. Not even just by having a preseason. Players have to understand and know their roles. The roles of their team mates. They have to understand their tasks and duties. THEN they have to get confident about it and only then we can talk about synergies really setting in - which would mean reaping the rewards.
All that you say is understandable - but those issues don't just fade away by getting rid of another manager. Not at Manchester United with the setup we have where seemingly nobody outside of the manager has some football ideas. If we had that, I'd be with you but we don't. Getting rid of ETH will mean nothing else than starting from zero again. New players, new ideas. Another year for him to set in bla bla bla. You can't really be asking for that?!

 

[Big Ben Foster]

More about the fact that supporters ain't offering realistic solutions, only a list of hipster manager of the month whom they want to manage United.
De Zerbi, Hansi Flick, Nagelsmann etc...
Right, I'm sure they could teach Rashford that he must jump in order to win a header.

"Flavor of the month managers are unlikely to be an improvement over the status quo" is an infinitely better argument (and one that I would agree with) than "y'all just want shiny new toys".

 

[Pscholes18]

Agreed. The bolded part is what infuriates me, I've made this point myself but the ETH defenders won't acknowledge it. Instead they claim these teams are actually probably better than us to begin with or, the worst one, that ETH needs three more years.

People want to point to the club for not upholding standards etc, but how about they hold the manager to certain standards and expectations? The whole lot is a mess and is why we'll never get anywhere near City for a long, long time. In fact I reckon the next time we compete, even if the club is sold, is when we stumble across a good manager that comes in and makes a big impact. And it will be clear to all of us within the first week or two that we're seeing the right things.

These players failed, Ole, Rag (temporary manager but youre getting paid loads of moeny still need to play how he asks), and now ETH. Maybe we are watching a shite side because these players either refuse or just cant play what he wants. Now I am a ETH defender however he does have a lot to answer for. None of us know exactly what's going on behind the scenes. But history tells us, any manager who comes in, we will get he same result because the common denominator in the last handful of years are these players, and yet its still shit on a stick.

Really the only type of manger who would make a difference is someone who does not absolutely give a toss about ego and weekly wages, and who will sit down a Rashford/Bruno or whoever if not doing what they are asked to do. One who wouldn't hesitate to bring in a youngster that would follow directions and show the hunger of becoming successful. If you know that type of manager who also has an attacking style of play then by all means sack ETH. Until then...he deserves time....he's dealing with a lot of shite at the monent...would love to see how this team performs once we are through all these injuries and they have time to progress together.

 

[reelworld]

Its not uncommon when you make a high number of full sprints on transition.

Really? Because this is the first time I've seen a player do that when the ball is live and just in the middle of second half.

 

[Alcio77]

The upcoming match against Bayern is a timely opportunity to assess Erik's capacity to rally the team during challenging situations. Facing Bayern will undoubtedly be tough, I don't expect any positive outcomes.

However, I do hope to witness a strong response and see the team giving their all on the field.
If this transpires, there might still be a chance for some gratification this season. Conversely, if, as I dread, we are trashed by Bayern, I'll resign myself to another season of pains, awaiting yet another reset

 

[KikiDaKats]

It looks as though he cannot get the players to do what he is asking of them. I wish he would drop every single one that doesn’t toe the line. If that means playing a team full of kids for a week, so be it.

It is possible to bench nearly every player. With Hojlund and Amrabat coming in, we have options to drop Rashford and Casemiro if Erik wants to do that. Hannibal is another viable option. I’m not saying bin the top players, just make them fight for their places.

Benching a star player is not a Manchester United tradition. The solution is to sell a key player he doesn’t think adds value because our fans will turn on him for not playing their favourites.

At United we’ve always sided with players over our manager. SAF knew this and never gave us the opportunity because he gets rid before we even realise there is an issue.

I’ve always insisted a manager play to your philosophy and let the players adapt, if they can’t, use others but don’t stray away from what got you the job. ETH is too busy in his second season trying to accommodate players that will never allow his football to flourish. ETH is currently strayed away from what he is best at and it will get him fired.

Sir Alex got rid of Ruud, in my opinion the best finisher to have ever played for him.

 

[KikiDaKats]

I am slightly worried with him. He isn’t really exceptional at tactics, man management or identifying right players.

There is a reason why the diamond formation isn’t popular in modern football. Unless you have a team which is absolutely drilled in it and spatially aware it can be exploited. The Brighton manger figured it out in 15 minutes last match but Erik never reacted. Also, his team setups and midfield composition (Mount, Eriksen as number 8) doesn’t fill me with confidence.

When it comes to man management it’s clear he is not used to dealing with this level of players or club before. He also clearly plays his favorites like Antony even when he doesn’t perform.

That diamond should have worked perfectly with the set of players on the pitch. They were positioned to their best positions yet we all seem to be blaming ETH for the players not performing in their roles.

 

[BarryWinks]

I’ve realised I don’t think I’ve watched his pre or post game interviews for months. I find his character boring to listen too.

Yeah, very boring. I generally never watch press conferences (and Interviews) though as I find them repetitive and mostly pointless. Managers will say a lot of things while saying very little, but I find him exceptionally boring to listen to both when he's supposedly talking about tactics or just general stuff. Last manager I found at least insightful was Jose in his first season, where he was much more willing to talk about our in-game approach during his post matches.

 

[Sky1981]

Its not uncommon when you make a high number of full sprints on transition.

Stop making excuses for Rashford, show me his run stats. He's one of the laziest player out there.

He neither press, neither making off the ball movement, and for the love of God even Messi runs nonstop in his prime.

Gassed at 70minute when your team was on the backfoot and not even penetrating much. What's next?

 

[amolbhatia50k]

Im willing to give him time as he did very well last season. Just wish he would focus more on possession - for example with Rashford and Bruno having the weaknesses they do you have to imo make up for it by surrounding them by players who can help control the game and aren’t sloppy as they can often be - but our signings don’t quite reflect that.

 

[amolbhatia50k]

Stop making excuses for Rashford, show me his run stats. He's one of the laziest player out there.

He neither press, neither making off the ball movement, and for the love of God even Messi runs nonstop in his prime.

Gassed at 70minute when your team was on the backfoot and not even penetrating much. What's next?

You’ll often see the ball go near him and because he’s in walking mode he’s not able to do anything about it so the rest have to over compensate. He simply isn’t good enough on the ball to make up for his abysmal output off the ball. Teams make big concessions for Ronaldo and Messi - we do it for Marcus Rashford. Says it all really.

 

[FattyFooty]

I think he handled Rona

This Rashford issue is important. Rashford was sensational last season, he tired, but he essentially carried the attacking threat for a massive club. Garnacho also emerged. However, Rashford's game is limited, if, if he refuses to learn and feels he may be a little too big / and or fed up at the club. I am not suggesting he is at that stage yet, and I do feel for him because he has had no one, and I mean no one to assist until Rasmus arrived.

But.. Rashford needs to play with his head... he is fixated with his own needs and abilities. He is good enough to create many goals.. he needs to develop his left foot so he can offer a threat either foot/direction; he needs to attack the ball and be a threat in the air, as he began to last season to great, great effect; and he can drop deep and get us to play (like Kane does). Rashford has the ability to do all of that. But he needs help. And he needs his manager to manage him. I don't see that right now.

And I expect to see Pellestri, Hannibal, Garnacho a lot, lot, lot more now. No excuse.

ETH could lose the changing room if he doesn't address some of these emerging issues. He seems a little lost right now, just a little.

I agree Rashford was good, but sensational?
That seems a bit over the top.

 

[croadyman]

Played 5, lost 3.

I think most of us believe that the combination of injuries and the integration of new players along with significant changes to the playing system amount to extenuating circumstances. But when does the situation become untenable? 5, 6, 7 defeats in, say, 10, 12 games? Bottom half come December?

I’m not talking about the fans. Sounds like some have already decided he’s not up to it. I’m talking about the board. When will they lose faith?

He is lucky that we have any points on the board as could easily have lost to Wolves & Forest too. Worrying that Utd didn't actually look into his game management when interviewing him for the job last year

 

[Sky1981]

Played 5, lost 3.

I think most of us believe that the combination of injuries and the integration of new players along with significant changes to the playing system amount to extenuating circumstances. But when does the situation become untenable? 5, 6, 7 defeats in, say, 10, 12 games? Bottom half come December?

I’m not talking about the fans. Sounds like some have already decided he’s not up to it. I’m talking about the board. When will they lose faith?

I don't really care about points. When you get the basics right, points will come.

Freak results happens, Freak wins too. But at the end of the day 90% of your games depends on how good you actually are and we're so off the mark.

We're playing Sunday league Football where 11 players on the pitch don't have any idea how to play collectively as a unit. All they think about can be summed in 2 flow

1. Can I dribble pass my defender : If yes dribble, If no pass back to someone else
2. If team lose the Ball. I simply wait till someone else wins it and repeat to step 1

We are making basic error coach potatoes can pin point what's wrong

1. Player not pressing
2. Lacking legs in midfield

You don't need to fix everything, fix the most glaring error one at a time. Tell Rashford to press more or drop him. Pack 1 more body in the midfield, if doing to made the attack impotent then we find another solution when it comes to that. If ETH can't do that, we have to find managers that can, or simply sell the players that can't be told to press. There's no middle way in all of this.

When you fix the biggest error in your system, your whole XI would make less error because everything works accordingly. A bombing Full back would have his Winger accommodate him, so to his AM would close his opponent the whole, the CB can concentrate marking their opponent because the DM knew who to close. It really is a team game at the highest level football. Having more than 1 person not doing their Job (Martial, Rashford) suddenly make gapping holes that good team can exploit. It really is no genius from Brighton. At this level, against equally good manager, these things don't go unnoticed. They made a meal seeing these kinds of weak links and exploit it.

We think we lose due to luck or mishaps. It wasn't. Replay this game 10 more times we'd still lose 10 out of 10. Probably we edged it by luck 1 out of 10

 

[Rake]

Multitude of chances ruined by poor decision making or composure. Same situation as last year. I'd reckon that City would have scored at least 2-3 goals from those situations and won the game comfortably.

Rashford always defaults to trying to shoot and this seems to be encouraged/allowed by the coaching staff and it costs us. Just look at the situation in the 33rd minute where McTominay was wide open 10-11 meters from goal.

 

[Sarni]

ETH had managed in a relatively high pressure environment at Ajax, where domestic success is expected, as well as coaching at Bayern. Not quite United, but still high pressure. On joining Ajax he took over a team that hadn't won the league for a few seasons, and rebuilt them into a domestically dominant team (as well as doing very well in Europe too), which is another example of what we needed.

De Zerbi by contrast had been at a few low pressure Italian clubs, getting sacked after 2 months in one, and relegated at the next club, before staying with Sassuolo for a few years, and then moving on the Shakhtar and being their only manager to not win the league for 5 years before or any since. Doing well at Brighton for a year and a bit is pretty much the only worthwhile thing on his CV, and we've seen with Potter moving on how the manager is just one cog in the machine there.

Wait, are you now blaming him for starting the war or am I missing something here? He took over after 2020-21 and did not even finish 2021-22 due to war starting in February.

 

[El Capitano]

Sacking him when it’s not even halfway through the season would be a bad decision and leads to this never ending path and no serious coach would come to such a shit show. Wait until the season is over.

 

[Beachryan]

Missing half a squad, two new signings basically not played, 3 tough matches which could have gone our way...yeah let's sack the guy.

Sometimes I think some United fans deserve the 'new' United on the pitch.

There are still massive problems with the squad, but if EtH gets some damn good fortune with injuries, VARs and finishing we'll be fine. Still playing some decent stuff in matches, and have a whole host of players - some very important - to come back.

 

[fallengt]

We’ve spent close to £200m to sign his former players alone.

Again. Not manager's fault that club massively overpay for players.
Would you still blame him if club paid 300m for some random Brazilian kid that he rated?

He picked the wrong profile, maybe but the inflated number is no way his fault.
fecking bizzare people use it as a stick to beat manager.

 

[OrcaFat]

Benching a star player is not a Manchester United tradition. The solution is to sell a key player he doesn’t think adds value because our fans will turn on him for not playing their favourites.

At United we’ve always sided with players over our manager. SAF knew this and never gave us the opportunity because he gets rid before we even realise there is an issue.

I’ve always insisted a manager play to your philosophy and let the players adapt, if they can’t, use others but don’t stray away from what got you the job. ETH is too busy in his second season trying to accommodate players that will never allow his football to flourish. ETH is currently strayed away from what he is best at and it will get him fired.

Sir Alex got rid of Ruud, in my opinion the best finisher to have ever played for him.

Benching players can work as long as you can win the games.

Hojlund seems to be an instant hit with the fans and we know Garnacho is popular. If we play those two, we could bench Rashford without a revolt, don’t you think?

Then it would be a matter of how Rashford responds. I am not sure if you were suggesting we should sell him? He is a player we might get a few quid for.