Next permanent manager | Poll updated

[Adnan]

Wonder if Ten Hag would be poachable mid-season or if he's someone you'd have to wait until the summer for.

I would assume we'd have to wait until the end of the season unless Ajax are knocked out of the CL early.

 

[glazed]

I was on about if Blanc comes in. I was answering another post.

fair nuff

 

[MrSingh2002]

Ten Haag it is. Well that's agreed then.

Put it in the meeting minutes and let's get it done.

 

[The Brown Bull]

Bielsa is insane. He might actually bench Ronaldo because he doesn’t press.

Bielsa is about a million times saner than the ex manager if Cardiff City & Molde.

 

[Devil_forever]

Marco Rose is at Dortmund now and is in a job where he's gonna be tested. He still has a lot to prove and it would be unusual to see him jump ship from a club where he's still trying to make a impact.

I think for us all roads lead to Ten Hag. We have two prominent Dutchmen in our recruitment structure in Marcel Bout who has vast experience of the European game and he's the head of global scouting. We also have Henny de Regt (ex Ajax) who is the head of European scouting. And both men I feel could make things easier for Ten Hag, due to their understanding of the football Ten Hag implements.

Potter is also a interesting shout due to his approach to the game, which is proactive/front foot. But the most important thing for us as a club is to appoint someone who will work with the likes of Murtough, Bout, Court, Lawlor, De Regt etc who are the key players in the recruitment structure which is still fairly new in a lot of ways.

Watch how our club still ends up with Zidane because that's probably the only name Woodward and co recognise. Oh and the whole he won 3 CL, so he must be the best, simple way of thinking.

 

[The Brown Bull]

I second Ten Hag for all the reasons above and simply because we would finally see Donny play and we would probably be able to poach De Jong of Barcelona.


They did. Scroll a few pages back to see people seriously discussing Bielsa.

Bielsa is a football manager. Respect is due.

 

[Adnan]

I agree. Ronaldo is a great player obviously, but his signing was not needed and just showed United’s obsession with recreating the past.



I imagine that Murtough, Bout, and Court wouldn’t have wanted Ronaldo as it shows a complete lack of planning. Are they really in charge of recruitment, and would they have influence over the next managerial choice?

I think Ronaldo was a deal we had to do due to his status at the club. But unfortunately I don't feel the coaching staff know how to get the best out of a very good squad.

 

[FatTails]

Bielsa is about a million times saner than the ex manager if Cardiff City & Molde.

Bielsa is 100% the better manager but I’m not sure if he can actually work with someone like Ronaldo.

 

[AneRu]

Laurent Blanc as a caretaker? He’s not the very best but surely much better and more proven than what we have.

There must be someone decent we could give a contract until the end of the season before it becomes a write-off.

Problem with the bellends in charge is that if they get a caretaker in they are likely to jump the gun again and make them permanent after a few good results. But I agree, assuming we are still in Europe, there is a lot to play for after January for us to just write off another season like we did when LVG and Moyes went off the rails.

 

[hobbers]

No Blanc as caretaker.

He'll do another Ole and then the idiots on the board will give him a permanent deal.

If we ever get another caretaker they have to be unconnected to the club and contemptible.

 

[Sparky_Hughes]

In regards to Ten Hag specifically, he's being linked to Barca as well so we'd probably need to be decisive if we wanted him.

I have very little faith in the club's ability to make a call on Ole before results force their hand though. Or indeed their ability to identify the right successor.

Barca can't afford the 12 million to sack koeman

 

[glazed]

I really feel like some folks here have a pretty unsophisticated view of the club. Just saying manager x has done well so will immediately do well here is dumb. Manager x probably spent years working behind the scenes building that success in a particular style. A lot of this stuff is non transferable in the short term because manager x relies on a club structure we don't have. And frankly our club structure is a bigger problem than Ole, lame as he might be.

 

[giggs-beckham]

Yeah, bringing in actual winners is putting too much pressure on the manager. Would managers at Chelsea, City, or Madrid ever have fans try to coddle them like this?

I've been thinking something like this. The pressure, it seems to get to ole and the team in the big moments. And maybe it explains why we've been poor this season.

 

[Fitchett]

Bielsa is insane. He might actually bench Ronaldo because he doesn’t press.

And re-sign Dan James to replace him. Actually, we've played shit ever since selling James ...........

 

[AneRu]

I think Ronaldo was a deal we had to do due to his status at the club. But unfortunately I don't feel the coaching staff know how to get the best out of a very good squad.

The Ronaldo deal wasn't a bad idea, he is consummate professional and the greatest goalscorer ever. We have a few young players that could learn lots from him and he is more than carrying his weight.

Ole is failing to manage his time, which he should given that Cavani is also very useful plus he isn't fielding the right combinations around him. I don't think Ronaldo and Greenwood can play well together because their instict is to score, compounded by Bissaka being hopeless in attack. Then you have Pogba going Hollywood with every pass and it all becomes too easy to defend.

I'd urge more rotation of the older players, an urgent solution to the midfield fiasco and deciding on the right combinations in the forward line. For example Greenwood and Bissaka on the same wing means no creativity or link up play from the right so try to ensure that Greenwood, when he is not the center striker, plays more with Cavani/Martial, Ronaldo more with Sancho to blend different styles - a playmaker plus a shooter not a shooter plus a shooter.

 

[giggs-beckham]

His contract expires in 2023 from what I've read.

Heard his name a few times. Don't know about him, any good.

 

[choccy77]

Maybe Ole needs a better Assistant Manager who has experience as a manager

 

[Ish]

Sacking Ole won't make McFred any better. Or make VDB into a DM or make Matic's legs work again.

And if you plan to fix that by buying, then why sack Ole anyway since you've fixed the actual problem?

It's not that I rate him, I just don't see the point of changing him for someone who will face the exact same problem.

Simply throwing money at a problem doesn’t resolve “the problem”. That should be apparent to everyone at this point.

 

[glazed]

Simply throwing money at a problem doesn’t resolve “the problem”. That should be apparent to everyone at this point.

The problem is that we spend money with a big big eye to recouping it. So two thirds of buys are very young or old and no transfer fee. And if we can't get a DM into that then no DM. This year we got Varane.

 

[sullydnl]

Heard his name a few times. Don't know about him, any good.

Here's an excerpt from a Forbes piece on him when he was being linked with Spurs. You can see how much of what they describe would appeal to us.

Spoiler

The time would seem right for a move. Ten Hag has won everything domestically in the Netherlands and forged a reputation for constructing teams that play intelligent, attacking football. A move to the Premier League would be a step up and the Spurs job a significant challenge, but one he has done enough to earn.

Most Spurs fans will remember Ten Hag as the Ajax boss from the Champions League semi-final in 2019, when Tottenham beat the Dutch side in the most dramatic fashion to progress. But what else is there to be said about him, and what would he bring to the role?

Ten Hag very much fits the attacking manager template that Levy is reportedly following in the search for Mourinho’s replacement. Unsurprisingly, given the club he represents, Ten Hag is very much committed to a high-pressing, quick-passing, possession-heavy style of football based upon the ideas espoused by Johan Cruyff and his natural heir Pep Guardiola, with whom Ten Hag worked in his capacity as Bayern Munich reserve team boss from 2013 until 2015.

Importantly, though, Ten Hag’s Ajax have never had only one way of playing. In the Dutch league, when faced with sides that sit back and defend, Ten Hag will encourage his team to use the wide men, generating two-on-ones down the flanks by pushing his full-backs up the pitch. In European football, when playing teams that come onto them and leave space in central areas, they look to play with combinations through the middle, as they did in the 2018-19 Champions League campaign with the fantastically talented midfield of Donny Van De Beek and Frenkie De Jong.

Unlike Mourinho, Ten Hag also has a very clear strategy in attack. He sets out specific patterns and works on pre-determined passing movements that will help his players advance the ball on the pitch. That is something that the players would likely welcome after the give-it-to-Harry-or-Son-and-hope attacking plan that predominated under the Portuguese coach. In true Dutch style, Ten Hag also encourages his players to swap positions to draw markers and create space, whether they are wide or central.

In terms of formation, Ten Hag favours a 4-3-3, but has played a 4-2-3-1 when he has had the players to suit the formation, so there could be space for a No.10 if he feels he can inject some new life into the ailing career of Dele Alli. Other players likely to benefit if he arrives would be intelligent creators like Tanguy Ndombele and Giovani Lo Celso and possibly passing controller Harry Winks.

The wingers would also become significant parts of Spurs’ plans, with someone like Steven Bergwijn perhaps being the most obvious potential beneficiary.

Ten Hag is also focused on youth development. He has worked with the likes of De Jong, Van De Beek and Matthijs De Ligt and more recently has mentored young South Americans like Lisandro Martinez, Antony and David Neres, bringing them on leaps and bounds and showing he can with players from around the world.

Asked how he works before Ajax played Tottenham in 2019, Ten Hag is quoted by Football.London as having said, “We prepare our team thoroughly, on the basis of our own strengths. We need to have respect for the opposition – we take that into every match. That is how we do our work.

“We want to be confident on the pitch, but we can’t be naive…. I don’t have superstitions. I believe in my team, the players on the pitch and the plan we have gone through together. They can make their own independent decisions if something changes on the pitch.”

It also appears his former players enjoyed working with him. In an interview with the Guardian, De Jong praised Ten Hag’s “positive energy” and “great football vision”. De Ligt, meanwhile, told the BBC that Ten Hag had “a really big role in the success” they enjoyed together in 2018-19.

Also worth underlining, his Ajax side play some nice football.

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[hobbers]

Maybe Ole needs a better Assistant Manager who has experience as a manager

Someone more qualified to be United manager than him?

 

[choccy77]

Someone more qualified to be United manager than him?

Wouldn't be hard to find, but more so to help tactically whilst Ole does that brilliant man management he does.

 

[Adnan]

Heard his name a few times. Don't know about him, any good.

I think the potential for him to succeed is there, he's a proactive head coach who implements a brand of football that is pleasing to the eye and he's done very well with a young Ajax team who were seconds away from reaching the Champions League final. And he's since lost many of those players and has rebuilt the squad with the aid of Ajax's recruitment staff and also brought more young players through and his team look like it could go far again in the CL.

He ticks a lot of boxes and his brand of football (some call it Total football 2.0) is something that excites me as a football.

 

[tob]

Just my opinion, but I think they will be consulted and a while back I read a report that United were monitoring several coaches which included Nagelsmann, with Bout and data analyst Mick Court compiling the list. Bout in particular is someone that has vast knowledge of the game and was even a coach and match analyst under the great Jupp Heynckes at Bayern.

I think our fans have become paranoid since Fergie retired and due to a broken structure/outdated scouting and a non existent data analytics department, we as a club were left behind. So that meant the managers we brought in post Fergie, were given control of the recruitment and they made a very poor job of it. So with each managerial change the squad kept getting culled and the football side of the club became more and more destabilised until Murtough (Sports Scientist) finally created the mechanisms to modernise the club and create numerous roles which oversaw the work of around 50 to 60 scouts which included a analytics department who are reported to be a team of 5 working under Mick Court. And when all that came to fruition, the club created a transfer committee which gave the likes of Bout, Court and Lawlor significant power when it comes to the recruitment side and Mourinho had a breakdown.

I think it's very important the people who head the recruitment side are given the opportunity to select a potential incoming head coach. Because the new head coach will have to work with them, and bringing someone in (head coach) who is accustomed to working with a club's existing structure is very important imo. And I honestly believe with the current setup we will go very close to winning the league, if not win it with a new coach who is comfortable working as a head coach rather than a manager. We need to see training ground drills manifest themselves on match days which we haven't seen for too long.

To build a successful club, or company, you need to have the basics in order. Every position should be easy to replace. This is what I hope they’re doing in the background.

The clubs job is to build a squad, including the coaching staff, that suits the direction and potential of the club.

Chelsea is a good run football club. They can change managers however they like, and still keep winning titles. The money helps of course, but money can’t always buy you titles.

We’ll also see how City has progressed as a football club once Guardiola leaves. He’s taken them to a new level and the real test for them will be after he’s left.

Maybe appointing Ole was a good choice in this aspect. Helping the club move towards the right direction. However, now it seems like his managing skill (and the coaching staff) is not up to par on this squads capabilities. If the club feels that they’re in a good position, then they should act.

 

[Foxbatt]

Here's an excerpt from a Forbes piece on him when he was being linked with Spurs. You can see how much of what they describe would appeal to us.


Also worth underlining, his Ajax side play some nice football.

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Don't we have on the bench someone who is used to this kind of football? He never plays.

 

[giggs-beckham]

I think the potential for him to succeed is there, he's a proactive head coach who implements a brand of football that is pleasing to the eye and he's done very well with a young Ajax team who were seconds away from reaching the Champions League final. And he's since lost many of those players and has rebuilt the squad with the aid of Ajax's recruitment staff and also brought more young players through and his team look like it could go far again in the CL.

He ticks a lot of boxes and his brand of football (some call it Total football 2.0) is something that excites me as a football.

He sounds absolutely perfect and looking at that vid I know it's a tiny sample, is how I've longed for us to play for over 10 years.

I know nothing is guaranteed in football. Just like success with ole isn't guaranteed...

 

[Adnan]

To build a successful club, or company, you need to have the basics in order. Every position should be easy to replace. This is what I hope they’re doing in the background.

The clubs job is to build a squad, including the coaching staff, that suits the direction and potential of the club.

Chelsea is a good run football club. They can change managers however they like, and still keep winning titles. The money helps of course, but money can’t always buy you titles.

We’ll also see how City has progressed as a football club once Guardiola leaves. He’s taken them to a new level and the real test for them will be after he’s left.

Maybe appointing Ole was a good choice in this aspect. Helping the club move towards the right direction. However, now it seems like his managing skill (and the coaching staff) is not up to par on this squads capabilities. If the club feels that they’re in a good position, then they should act.

Agreed.

 

[groovyalbert]

All this Ten Haag talk is complete waffle.

He manages in an absolutely dire league at a club whose football philosophy simply doesn't match ours. If he was going to a City or Barca, maybe, but what on earth would he do with our squad?

We are a rubbish possession side who have no deep lying playmakers bar an aging Matic.

He would be a disaster.

The only available managers (fecking pains me the way we've allowed our rivals to end up with who they have whilst we've been a circus for the best part of 10 years) who could work with what we've got are Zidane and Conte, and I'd much rather Zidane from a footballing perspective.

 

[GledTheRed]

Luis Enrique

 

[mav_9me]

All this Ten Haag talk is complete waffle.

He manages in an absolutely dire league at a club whose football philosophy simply doesn't match ours. If he was going to a City or Barca, maybe, but what on earth would he do with our squad?

We are a rubbish possession side who have no deep lying playmakers bar an aging Matic.

He would be a disaster.

The only available managers (fecking pains me the way we've allowed our rivals to end up with who they have whilst we've been a circus for the best part of 10 years) who could work with what we've got are Zidane and Conte, and I'd much rather Zidane from a footballing perspective.

What about his success in CL?

The whole point of hiring someone like him is to improve our entire play thru coaching and not just buying a whole new central midfield.

 

[In Rainbows]

All this Ten Haag talk is complete waffle.

He manages in an absolutely dire league at a club whose football philosophy simply doesn't match ours. If he was going to a City or Barca, maybe, but what on earth would he do with our squad?

We are a rubbish possession side who have no deep lying playmakers bar an aging Matic.

He would be a disaster.

The only available managers (fecking pains me the way we've allowed our rivals to end up with who they have whilst we've been a circus for the best part of 10 years) who could work with what we've got are Zidane and Conte, and I'd much rather Zidane from a footballing perspective.

How does it not match United's? Isn't United's football supposed to be based on entertaining football?

 

[bond19821982]

Here's an excerpt from a Forbes piece on him when he was being linked with Spurs. You can see how much of what they describe would appeal to us.


Also worth underlining, his Ajax side play some nice football.

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Would just love him. A possession based but with specific purpose unlike LVG. He is very adaptable as well with all kind of formations.

 

[bond19821982]

All this Ten Haag talk is complete waffle.

He manages in an absolutely dire league at a club whose football philosophy simply doesn't match ours. If he was going to a City or Barca, maybe, but what on earth would he do with our squad?

We are a rubbish possession side who have no deep lying playmakers bar an aging Matic.

He would be a disaster.

The only available managers (fecking pains me the way we've allowed our rivals to end up with who they have whilst we've been a circus for the best part of 10 years) who could work with what we've got are Zidane and Conte, and I'd much rather Zidane from a footballing perspective.

In that case none of the manager is going to be a right fit because McFred isnt the level which everyone expects from a top team. This is what the team is and the manager should be able to work with it now. We will sign someone next summer for sure.

No team is giving a perfect team for any new managers. They just instill their style to the existing team and make changes later.

 

[pocco]

Potter for me. Give him a chance, if he implements what he's done at Brighton with our squad then we'll be great.

If he fails then we sack him. Simple as that. But that's the issue with Ole. If he never played for us he'd have been sacked a few times already and would be out this time too.

 

[Sviken]

If he club is smart, they would have already agreed a pre-deal with ten Hag. There are others such as Potter, Rodgers and Gasperini that play very attractive football and deliver results. They are also easily obtainable and should be looked at. The point is, the club should already be looking at Ole's replacement because there is no turning it around. Even if Ole takes us to top 4 this season, he has to go, unless he delivers some spectacular results in cup competitions and we know that is not happening. Find a manager that is a winner, has a clear style of play and is preferably playing attacking football. You don't need 500 million more and another world class starting lineup, all you need is a competent manager at this level.

 

[Eddy_JukeZ]

I really feel like some folks here have a pretty unsophisticated view of the club. Just saying manager x has done well so will immediately do well here is dumb. Manager x probably spent years working behind the scenes building that success in a particular style. A lot of this stuff is non transferable in the short term because manager x relies on a club structure we don't have. And frankly our club structure is a bigger problem than Ole, lame as he might be.

You keep going on and on about our club structure, but it's stabilized and in a much better shape than 3 years ago.

 

[Eddy_JukeZ]

All this Ten Haag talk is complete waffle.

He manages in an absolutely dire league at a club whose football philosophy simply doesn't match ours. If he was going to a City or Barca, maybe, but what on earth would he do with our squad?

We are a rubbish possession side who have no deep lying playmakers bar an aging Matic.

He would be a disaster.

The only available managers (fecking pains me the way we've allowed our rivals to end up with who they have whilst we've been a circus for the best part of 10 years) who could work with what we've got are Zidane and Conte, and I'd much rather Zidane from a footballing perspective.

Complete nonsense.

The run his Ajax team made in the 2019 CL was incredible. They were unlucky to have not made the final.

What is our football philosophy?

Playing attacking and attractive football? Ten Hag does that.

Ole isn't even an attacking/proactive manager.

And we're a rubbish possession side, because Ole doesn't care about positional play nor controlling the game via measured possession.

 

[Eddy_JukeZ]

Potter for me. Give him a chance, if he implements what he's done at Brighton with our squad then we'll be great.

If he fails then we sack him. Simple as that. But that's the issue with Ole. If he never played for us he'd have been sacked a few times already and would be out this time too.

I like Potter, but him having zero CL experience would put me off.

And the step-up from Brighton to Manchester United can't be understated.

 

[Sviken]

I like Potter, but him having zero CL experience would put me off.

And the step-up from Brighton to Manchester United can't be understated.

Going by that logic, you'd miss out on 99% of the managers that turned out great. Brighton are performing magnificently at the moment and are playing a much better football than us with a much inferior squad in terms of talent. He has proven PL experience but unlike Moyes, he is also a winner. He doesn't go out there to "make it difficult" for the other team but to win and he expects that. This is the kind of manager that United needs.

 

[BlueHaze]

I'm baffled by all this Potter talk. A massive club like this who's main target should be to challenge for titles should hire a nobody like Graham Potter based on the fact that Brighton plays "entertaining football" Are people just ignoring what a massive step it is going from a club like that to ours where you are expected to win things and never have proven in your career that you are able to do so? The guy has literally done nothing being worthy enough of managing a top 4 club.

Now if he had managed let's say Spurs and have had them playing good and have won a few titles along the way I could understand why so many would see him a candidate but it's truly bizarre how a manager of a bottom table team who has never won anything apart from maybe a swedish cup is seen worthy enough of managing this club let alone even being mentioned as a candidate.