I don't understand how you can defend ETH for the shit that he put up this year. If you had an employee who started well in his job last year and his year, he isn't doing well and dragging down the whole team. Are you going to keep him around saying he did well last year? ETH knows exactly what he is doing. It is not working and everyone can see the result and yet he continues his way, hoping it will change. Has he changed our formation? Should he take more risk with younger players? Good manager will drop players until their form recovers, change formation, and recognize what type of players will do well in EPL. Football is his bread and butter, I expected better, but he is seriously well off the mark. He had 2 transfer windows to address our issues, but nothing has been addressed. He looks puzzled and lost at the touchline once we start losing. He doesn't seem to know what he can do to turn the game around.
I'm not defending him outright as I've acknowledged we've been terrible this year. I'm suggesting that, given all the other mitigating circumstances around this season, the fact there is no real benefit to sacking him now vs end of the year, and that the ineos management team is still being formed and needs time to assess everything, it is best to wait until the summer! We can't keep on paying off sacked managers while also paying for interim managers, we need to get our finances in check!
Regarding your criticisms on what he should and shouldn't be doing, I think some our valid, others are definitley not. Re: changing formation, he's made variations of his 4-3-3 without deviating too much from it. He probably should have and it's the big problem I've had with him. Then again, if he switches every other game to a new formation we'd also criticise that.
Re: more risk with younger players, well we've made Hojlund our only CF for the year, I'd say that's pretty big risk placed on a young player! Garnacho has started the last 16 games. Mainoo starts every game he's available. Kambawala has started games now. Pellistri and hannibal have as well but they're clearly not good enough. Gore got minutes but is now out on loan. Amad has been injured and a few have either left the club or are on loan. What more risk do you want exactly? I'd say that's more risk than most other PL teams.
Re: dropping players to gain form, who exactly are you referring to? None of our back four have been fit long enough to warrant them being dropped. The same goes for our cms over the last 3 months. Earlier in the year people thought mount and bruno are too lightweight and we need someone like MCT for physical presence and goal threat. He was brought in, was good for a bit, then was dropped the last month cause he became anonymous in line with what you're suggesting. We barely have enough strikers to drop any and our wingers have been rotated non stop. Antony who everyone thinks is eths favourite is no longer a starter. Rashford was dropped for a month and when he came back he was put on the right to earn his way back. He was still terrible. The only one I'd agree on is Bruno, but he's your captain, the media would feast on it and propagate the negativity around united.
The signings are not all on him. The manager doesnt have absolute control on who comes in, otherwise we'd had gotten kane and fdj. Having said that, we definitely need to downgrade his influence on signings and that's the big thing that will change. If he doesn't like that, he will leave. Simple.
It's not black and white. He's at fault for how our season has gone but not as much as people are implying. I'm indifferent about him leaving because if barreda and Co, who all appear to be best in class, think he doesn't align with their vision, I will trust that and hope it works out. I am a united fan, not an eth fan at the end of the day.
