McKenna or Tuchel?

padzilla

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Knowing the Glazers it will be whoever is cheapest and out of contract.
 

NWRed

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But I thought McKenna and Carrick were the worst coaches in the history of football.
 

foolsgold

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Too early for McKenna. Managing United requires a big personality that can handle a big dressing room and the massive pressure from outside.
I'm not saying that he's ready, but I don't think we have a "big" dressing room of established stars anymore. Most of them, except Casemiro who I don't expect to be here next year, have won nothing in the game. Who are the "big figures" in the dressing room that could cause problems? Rashford? Bruno? I just don't see it.

Honestly, it's not like he'd be coming in and having to deal with a Ronaldo or Roy Keane.
 

mikeyt

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Not a Tuchel fan but if it stops Southgate coming here I'd take him.

McKenna would be a great longer term solution but I think we need to sort the culture out before we look his way.
 

Borys

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McKenna. I'm done with managers that are supposed to bring success right here right now. ETH broke me tbh.
Bring in a manager that is flexible enough to work with what DoF gives him. We need to change modus operandi. ETH with his stubbornness is not the guy, Tuchel is too big ego.
I would risk De Zerbi as well.
 

OmarUnited4ever

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I would go for McKenna, if the idea is for him to simply be a Head Coach with zero involvement in decision making for players recruitment, he can be consulted, but the DoF will outline to Mckenna the way of playing and what is expected and the DoF will be tasked with ensuring the right profile of players are brought in.
 

Herschel Krustofsky

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McKenna. I'm done with managers that are supposed to bring success right here right now. ETH broke me tbh.
Bring in a manager that is flexible enough to work with what DoF gives him. We need to change modus operandi. ETH with his stubbornness is not the guy, Tuchel is too big ego.
I would risk De Zerbi as well.
Pretty sure Erik’s objectives weren’t success right here right now.

He talks repeatedly about a process of rebuilding
 

Wilt

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Yeah let’s give one of the biggest jobs in world football to a championship manager.
 

davidmichael

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Depends on what would be wanted by Ratcliffe and his team, do they want a quality head coach who’s worked with the biggest names and won the biggest trophy on a two year deal to steady the ship and lay the foundation or do they go straight in with the long term option of potentially three years with a slow subtle improvement but one that could see genuine long term success if supported correctly ?

Personally as much as I want McKenna I do think allowing him a year in the PL with Ipswich would do him good and if he was to keep them up and have a second season that would coincide with Tuchel having his two years laying the foundation at United, as a succession plan going from Tuchel to McKenna would be great planning.

The footballing structure will decide our style of play, our recruitment and scouting to identify what’s needed and the job of the head coach will be simply to coach the players in that system and style so there wouldn’t be concerns of head coaches playing different styles and us having a mismatch of players anymore, everyone would be singing from the same hymn sheet.

It hasn’t worked for Tuchel at Bayern, although there’s clearly big problems behind the scene there, but that doesn’t take away the fact that he’s actually a world class coach and excels when just being allowed to do that and not saddled with extra roles, I’d personally give Tuchel a two year deal and say to him ‘we trust you to lay the foundations and be the start of the building blocks being put in place and you’ll be simply a head coach’ and tell McKenna ‘we want you to be our long term option in a couple of years, we see you as our future once you’ve completed your Ipswich journey’ so everyone knows where they stand.
 

Insanity

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There is only one right answer, and it's not Tuchel.

I am glad that he is finally being linked by a semi-credible source. He is in my top 2 or 3 to take over the job this summer. Would be delighted if it happens.
 

Dans

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If McKenna, then with a full reset and a focus on young players please.
 

bosnian_red

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Tuchel now, give McKenna time in the prem. Too soon for him. Tuchel can at least get us back to being a good club, the structure should help us build a good foundation, and then McKenna in a few years when he's more experienced at this level if he shows he's good enough can come in with less chance of failing. Right now as is, we are a massive risk of ruining managers, and it only makes sense for an extremely experienced manager to come in.
 

saivet

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Tuchel for me, not an exciting choice and doubt he would win us the PL or CL but I'd have confidence in him making us a solid team.

I think the upside with McKenna is greater but the downside is bigger too. As it stands I think there a greater chance that McKenna fails than him being a huge success.

I would monitor his progress and possibly appoint him if he continues to show promise in the PL (at Ipswich or somewhere else). McKenna should be attainable in the future - it just feels like a big gamble when you've got a relatively safe pair of hands available in Tuchel for a couple of years.
 

Borys

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Pretty sure Erik’s objectives weren’t success right here right now.

He talks repeatedly about a process of rebuilding
As does every manager that is failing.

You might be right, however the way he acts seems to me like he wanted to go from A to Z in a straight line in terms of building a team. Maybe some external pressure caused ETH going mad this season.
 

MadMike

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I prefer a young promising manager with less baggage over a veteran who changes jobs every 2 seasons. I also don’t like the football Tuchel plays. For me it would be McKenna.
 

RC89

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I feel INEOS would probably want Tuchel to come in and steady the ship while they sort this shit out.
Kind of what I'd hope to see too. And if he's majorly successful, no reason why he can't stay longer. Feel like it's too early for McKenna. Many of the players there he's probably quite friendly with. Difficult to come in and then be their boss too.
 

IrishRedDevil

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Only us would have McKenna on the books as a cheap stand-in option but let him leave then have to pay him £10m a year to come back.
 

MadMike

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Pretty sure Erik’s objectives weren’t success right here right now.

He talks repeatedly about a process of rebuilding
We’re in a process with Erik, that’s for sure. Now if the process is building or destruction, that’s highly debatable.

At a ratio of 3/4 his signings are a failure and the players who are bailing him out are the ones he found here. The team plays worse football not only compared to last season, but compared to the worse periods under Ole or Mourinho. We’re heading for worst league total in decades.

At this rate, letting him finish the job might be to let him put us through a relegation battle.
 

Insanity

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Tuchel for me, not an exciting choice and doubt he would win us the PL or CL but I'd have confidence in him making us a solid team.

I think the upside with McKenna is greater but the downside is bigger too. As it stands I think there a greater chance that McKenna fails than him being a huge success.

I would monitor his progress and possibly appoint him if he continues to show promise in the PL (at Ipswich or somewhere else). McKenna should be attainable in the future - it just feels like a big gamble when you've got a relatively safe pair of hands available in Tuchel for a couple of years.
I think there is very little downside with McKenna. As we are led to believe, the recruitment is going to be a community effort with the Dof, head of recruitment etc. and the manager is going to be only a small part of it. In that kind of structure the manager becomes easily disposable and is not allowed to cause long term damage like they have been with us for the last eleven years. If Mckenna doesn't work out, we can easily let him go without needing much churn when the next manager comes in. If he succeeds, then nothing like it.
 

Telsim

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Tuchel, of course. Has experience with managing big clubs and tactically astute. He comes with his own brand of risks, but so does most of everyone who is left.

The fawning over McKenna is a bit much for me. He has done well at Ipswich, historical for them even. Then again, so did Steve Cooper and Rob Edwards at their respective clubs but I don't see anyone clamoring for them to be hired. Let's see how he does in the top flight first before anointing him, no? He is well supported in his job by Ipswich, and Manchester United is the opposite of that. It will be some time before this club can support a young coach, if ever. Coming into this shitshow is not exactly a bright early career move either. If he fails, which chances are very good he will, he will be eaten alive and shit out first by the squad, then by the media. He should stay put where he is or join a proper mid-sized club first to get some experience and see if he can hack it. The jump from Ipswich to Manchester United is significantly bigger than Brighton to Chelsea, or Ajax to Manchester United, and both Potter and Ten Hag failed miserably when making it.

Having said all that, I'd take McKenna in an instant if the only other alternatives are Gareth Southgate, Graham Potter, or, God forbid, Erik ten Hag. Luckily, they are not. Seriously, just bring Tuchel in. Worst case, he falls out with everyone in 18 months, but at least in the meantime INEOS could have done some work to prepare the club properly for the next one, assuming they can do that. And with him in charge at least United have a realistic chance to qualify for the Champions League.
 

big_jeffstar

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I think they’re lining up McKenna as the manager after our next appointment, it makes far more sense.. let him build experience in the league with Ipswich and also by that point hopefully some of the more toxic personalities here that called him a P.E teacher will have finally fecked off.
Someone needs to steady the ship for a while and just help us look competent again.. I’d trust Tuchel to do that, I just don’t see him going on to win everything
 

AngeloHenriquez

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Neither - We need someone with a proven record of turning around a bad situation, being able to handle big ego's and creating a new culture with a strong personality that won't back down, ETH seemed like that at first but now seems to bow to pressure regularly.
 

Wilt

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You could have said this about Pep, Zidane, Arteta, and Xabi too.
He’ll be eaten alive at United.

Let’s see how McKenna gets on in the Prem before giving him one of the toughest jobs in world football.
 

Zlatan 7

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I don’t see the logic in people saying give him a year at Ipswich to see how he does in the prem first. It’s a total different kettle of fish and wouldn’t prove or show anything. They were league 1 just a year ago, they’re going to get smashed in the prem no matter what or who is there I’d feel.

As for Tuchel or McKenna, I’d go McKenna everytime, Im not getting the Tuchel love and never have really.
 

Zlatan 7

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Neither - We need someone with a proven record of turning around a bad situation, being able to handle big ego's and creating a new culture with a strong personality that won't back down, ETH seemed like that at first but now seems to bow to pressure regularly.
Big Sam?
 

RedIan

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Tuchel 100%. Mckennas not ready and probably not a strong enough Character to manage prima donors.
 

dogwithabone

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McKenna would be a very brave appointment but is it anymore brave than Arsenal giving the job to Arteta? McKenna has a more impressive CV - non playing - than Arteta did when he was given the Arsenal job.Perhaps we do need that bigger name to oversee the reset for the next 2 or 3 years but there area lot of names being linked far less appealing than McKenna.
 

devilish

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Ole broke his job into specific roles. He took man management with an oversight on the rest. That sounds easy at face value but considering how many prima donnas we had it was like working for the UN. Meanwhile Carrick took over the day to day training alongside Fletcher, Phelan took the administrative work while Mckenna took tactics.

I always took that information with a pinch of salt TBH. Sure those who shared that information were close to United's ranks. However they were staunchly pro Ole (and still are) and the like hood was that they were being heavily biased. However as time go by, with Carrick and Mckenna carving their career elsewhere, its becoming increasingly obvious that they might have had a point. What Mckenna did at Ipswich is extraordinary. He took a team who was struggling at league one and he earned two back to back promotions. That's something only 4 clubs had done before. Ipswich play a very modern game whose high press and very aggressive. He implemented that style immediately despite not having the resources and talent United had. On top of that Mckenna had shown that he can switch things around and the results are there to be seen. Their left back had produced more assists then most of our forward line put together.

If we were still under Glazer's regime then I would rule out Mckenna. SAF's seat was too big even for the likes of Mourinho and LVG let alone for Mckenna. However its becoming increasingly evident that the role had now changed. Admin will go for Ashworth, the youth setup will probably go to Wilcox and we're probably hired a head of recruitment as well. United are set to revamp everything else including the medical and fitness team which in turn will make it easier for the manager, now head coach, to work.

Mckenna's style built around the 4-2-3-1 formation suits us greatly. The guy has already shown that he's tactically versatile and he understands the EPL. The latter is quite an asset as that means that he won't be doing LVG/ETH's mistakes of completely disregarding how ridiculously physical the EPL is. But most importantly he had already seen United's squad implode....TWICE. Thus he knows what triggers this squad and which players are more likely to bury a dagger behind the manager's back. Mckenna himself came under fire from these same players at a time when he was between jobs. Therefore those who were banking on a new manager as it would mean another clean sleet for them will probably end up disappointed.
 

CM

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McKenna may have the higher ceiling as a coach but I also think there's a larger margin for error in the short-term with a coach of his experience (or lack of). While McKenna has done an incredible job with Ipswich, United are a different beast and he hasn't even managed a top division game yet. It's a difficult task for a manager of any experience to inherit the situation Ten Hag and the Glazers have left us in, never mind one who is just starting out.

I'd take Tuchel for a couple of years to tide us over and manage the uncertain transitional period then maybe look to make a more ambitious appointment like a McKenna further down the line once they have more experience and a larger body of work behind them. I don't think now is the right time to be taking chances on a risky appointment. In a way it should work to our benefit because there are a few younger coaches being spoken about in glowing terms at the moment. In a couple of years time we will have a better idea about which ones actually justify the hype, if any.