What nonsense. That was your idea but the execution sucks.
Erik ten Hag - Manchester United manager
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In the latest episode of the United Hour Podcast, Nik @Rood and Imran @Annihilate Now! start with the good news by celebrating Manchester United Women's emphatic FA Cup win over Spurs at Wembley and the future of manager Marc Skinner.
Then it's the bad news and the ever worsening form of our Men with losses to Arsenal and Palace.
Finally the main debate - ETH Out now or keep him until the end of the season - if not longer. Are you Team Nik or Team Imran?
Like who? Who is fearing for their jobs? Cath on reception?
The thing that is bringing them down is a manager they don't believe in.
Not really sure what to make of this apart from it's pretty defensive.
There is uncertainty across the club. It's a mixture of not knowing if you will be around, not knowing what the structure will be, not knowing what your role will be, upper management pays less and less attention to staff members down the pyramid as they are caught up in their big changes, which in turn leads to more just gossip and people slacking off. Work culture goes to shit if you have a prolonged takeover process. Also you're saying Cathy in reception as a tongue in cheek thing, but you do realize that Manchester United has over 1000 employees, right? The senior squad accounts for 2-3% of the club. Probably all levels of players and coaching staff total up to about 10-15% of the club employees.
Honestly, you wouldn't be asking these questions if you had ever been part of a company undergoing a big change like this. That negative atmosphere expands to every part of the company. Especially when you compound it with the negative publicity of scandals like the Greenwood situation and the Antony situation, and how multiple people at the club are very split and vocal on their opinions about that. Probably the squad as well. So when you have ALL of that. And then add in some injuries, bad luck with officials leading to a few bad results, some holes in a decent but maybe not special tactical system, the whole thing crumbles down very quickly. If the background structure, atmosphere, culture is strong, together and clear... Then you can withstand normal issues that happen in football like injuries and bad luck. You can easily bounce back. With everything going on around the club and within it (multiple reports of a very toxic situation among the staff and animosity between them and the decision makers), then nobody should be surprised that something like this happens.
Thinking that it is literally just players and manager and nothing else is just simple minded really. There is so much more to it, very obviously so given the loop over the last decade.
Take it to the players then.
I understand how it works in big business. I work for one of the biggest financial firms in the world and have been in departments going through changes and reductions in force layoffs. I know from my experience that there is always a group of staff that are the insulated from this because they happen to be the money makers for the business, the fee earners. The MUFC players are the same. Just like our traders, they know that if our CEO decides to cut some of the fat, it will be in middle management, business services or HR. Those who are bringing in the $ will be just fine.
I accept that this is a time of uncertainty, but for the last ten years, we have been told MUFC staff have been equally unhappy about The Glazer ownership. Could some of that uncertainty trickle down to the players? Maybe that is 1% of the story, but when you see them out on the field with what appears to be no shape, no direction and little to no fight, you cant put it all down to the ownership?
As other have said, it is not Joel Glazer, or Jim Ratcliffe, that kept leaving Erling Harland unmarked on the back post.
Thanks but that's not a response, which proves that you have nothing to say so switched to personal insults.
I mean if that's how it worked then United could hire me to tell players what they need to do.
Really lost confidence in this guy. When I hear him talking now it’s just “yeah, whatever”. All these “we’re in this together. it’s not good enough.” stuff just rings out like hollow cliches now
maybe he’ll still turn it around, but it’s hard to get through any videos of him talking right now
maybe he’ll still turn it around, but it’s hard to get through any videos of him talking right now
I see Brighton playing good football every week with an 11 consisting of Welbeck, Lallana and Milner with Jason Steele in goal
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Thought this is an interesting thread that delves into the weaknesses of our squad recruitment and management. Also tries to explain why do we have players injured all the fecking time.
It screams to me he doesn't have time to wait for Mount to get form anymore so instead opted for a reliable option like Scott. If we had been in better position, he would have played Mount into fitness and form.
Either back him fully now, with a new contract or something, or just sack him.
I think it’s worth pointing out regarding the structure of the club, SAF was the king when the Glazers arrived and he was good for business so there was no reason to change. Once SAF went there was a vacuum and the likes of Woodward gladly stepped into the space and assumed the power. Now a sporting person doesn’t make many decisions that a sports person did before so I don’t think it’s all that managers aren’t able to make the calls SAF did it’s that many of those decisions aren’t even in their hands any longer
We're special mate, totally uncoachable. Look at that Liverpool midfield that won stuff, Henderson, Wjinaldum, Fabinho. Some fine footballing pedigree right there. Makes the Juventus 99 midfield look like shit in comparison.
Even our board isn't that incompetent
That's what training is for, training. How are you supposed to learn to do this stuff if you never practice it. Paul Scholes couldn't even play like that unless you coached him to do it.
I understand what you’re saying but even if Mctominay trained 24/7 I doubt he would turn into Scholes. I think players can improve to a certain extent with training but some players just have their ceiling.
Surely the club aren't daft enough to hand him a new contract while we're in this crisis? I hope not. He's probably three losses away from the sack at this point.
I have done that. The performances this year have been unacceptable - and for sure some of that is on ETH. I think the playing squad and their collective weak mentality is a bigger issue and replacing the manager isn't the solution. I am also not dismissing what most people are saying, but there are some on here who are coming up with irrelevant arguments that make no sense just to try to have another take on why he should get the boot. Time will dictate the fate of ETH - he simply cannot keep losing, but he's not the main issue at the club imo.
He took us from our worst ever premier league position to 3rd. It's all relative, but for a club like United it's nowhere.
I thought Cath retired over the summer
This was clearly his pitch at his interview. With so much pressure on him, he's rolling out this prepared monologue to try and calm down the media.
He is just another fraud unfortunately and the sad part is we all saw from his recruitement that he was making poor decisions and we were old shut down. Guy is a collosal fraud
Agree mate.
Fine. Sack him and then what? Rinse and repeat like we've done with everyone from Moyes to Rangnick?
It hasn't worked yet so what's the chance it's gon a work now? Until we have a proper structure up top getting in a new manager and players won't fix us.
He's not being asked to be Paul Scholes, he's being asked to be able to make simply 5 yard passes any professional footballer should be able to complete.
If the players cannot take on board the mistakes they make time and time again, fail to make sure they improve and prevent them happening, then they should not be at United.
You are right she did. She was scared Ineos were coming in.
As I said - they'll be fine, yes. But it's a big distraction all the same. They feel the mood, the atmosphere, the culture. Focus can drop more easily.
The Glazers, the culture, the mood, the lack of proper structure, the facilities being ignored, the scandals within the squad, the animosity within the staff with the higher ups... Those are the big issues at the club. Those are the issues that make everything else incredibly fragile. So when shit does go wrong on the pitch (inevitably happens at one point), if the rest is a shit show, then it's much harder to deal with it, things fall apart more quickly.
It isn't player quality or ten hags tactics as the reason why we are getting outplayed by teams like Copenhagen. It might not be ideal, but our squad is at worst still a top 7 PL team level which should still be comfortable against teams like Galatasaray and Copenhagen. They aren't playing like that. Ten Hag is a good coach, might have some issues with his system but he's not coaching with amateur tactics dragging the team down multiple levels. They aren't able to perform as a whole because of all the other issues just weighing them down, making it fragile so we can't pull together when something goes against us.
The more interesting thing is he gets picked anyway, despite being technically and positionally inept.
I don’t have any particular issue with McTominay but this reminds me of a Fellaini playing despite looking levels below our technical requirements.
I don’t know if this has been posted already, but, if anyone needs scope on how dire the situation is at this circus
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We really do have a physically inferior squad to other teams we are trying to compete with. The midfield consists of physically weak players, forwards who aren’t fast enough over 10 yards and full backs who can’t bomb forward or back consistently.
It’s been an issue for years yet the club sign more of the fecking same.
feck sake. Bantchester United
Can you provide 3 examples from this season where ETH has excelled at coaching? What makes him a good coach? Introducing Eriksen won us the CL game.
Such bullshit. He’s spent a fortune and still can’t play like Ajax? So instead is trying to play a different way that he’s never done before? Makes no sense. Sounds like he’s lost the plot. He was hired based on his Ajax approach but he can’t do that here? Players such as Onana, Varane, Martinez, Casemiro, Eriksen, Mount, Bruno, Rashford, Antony, Hojlund don’t have the technical quality of his players at Ajax? Can’t play possession football? All top internationals, so they clearly can. Three of them are players he coached at Ajax, another four he brought in himself.
Comments like these make me want to sack him, and I am trying desperately not to feel that way. But this guy was brought in because he played progressive, possession orientated, high line, high press, attacking football; and he’s just abandoned that approach because he doesn’t have the “right” players? Onana, Martinez, Casemiro, Eriksen, Mount, Antony, and Hojlund from a potential best starting XI, are all his signings. That’s 7/11 players. Others who might make up that 11, like Rashford, Bruno, Varane, Amrabat are either his signings or top international class players who I presume under proper coaching are able to press and pass. So what the feck Erik?
You’ve either been told by your bosses that the United “DNA” is counter attacking direct football - which would then baffle me as to why they hired you - or you’ve completely bottled it after a dodgy start to the season amid an injury crisis and you are throwing shit against the wall to see what sticks. If that’s the case, then you’re done. You need to stick to your coaching principles and coach the feck out of these players to play football the way you believe it should be played, because I hate to break it to you but the players we have aren’t suited to direct counter attacking football either. Antony, your biggest signing is a possession player, not a flying winger Your midfielders aren’t good all rounders who can contribute to both phases of play reliably. They are position specialists. Casemiro is a holding midfielder. Mount and Bruno are number 10s. Eriksen is a deep playmaker.
You want fast transitions? You need a pass master in midfield to be able to switch play accurately and quickly. You need midfielders who can carry forwards with energy and speed, so they need a lot of legs to go from defending to attacking, and you need pacey forwards to stretch the line, carry the ball at pace, get in behind, go inside and out etc. Yet you’ve built a squad nothing like that.
I was struggling to figure out what you were trying to do, and apparently that’s because you don’t know what you are doing either. No wonder we are such a clown car on the pitch.
If you had kept the same line up and approach that you had for most of last season, 4-2-3-1, possession based, Casemiro and Eriksen sitting deep, and just added Hojlund to the mix up top, we’d be ten times better off right now. Two cup finals and third position with a proper CF added in place of Weghorst. A gradual and sensible progression leading to likely improvement. Amrabat added for rotation and depth for Eriksen/Casemiro.
Instead you ripped up the game plan and started again, and now no one knows what the feck they are doing. Last years team had problems but it was ten times better than this. That was your platform. Build on it. Don’t take a wrecking ball to it. What was the point in everything you did last year?
He doesn't have to be Scholes but if Ten Hag can coach DVB or Tadic to look good I'm sure he can get a tune out of McTomminay if he just tried instead of labelling him as not good enough, needs to be sold ASAP.
Imagine being comfortable airing that view knowing we play them soon.
I mean, it's obviously true: if you're 3-0 up, you can start bringing on players that need minutes or experiment with ideas. Any club would do that, against any other club. But yeah, it's pretty disrespectful to say it out loud and also a great way to fire up another team for your next encounter.
The lack of clarity when Erik explains his tactical approach is demonstrable with the lack of cohesion in the teams performances. It's no wonder the players aren't clicking with one another. We cannot blame the players which is a totally lazy narrative after the manager has made signings because as he stated there was periods last season where the team played good football.