Unpopular Opinion | Not sacking Ten Hag

[Andersons Dietician]

There's the mad use of that word again. And we can all see where it's going. Nowhere.

But nah you're absolutely right he deserves another season dragging us down because we only pay him £9m a year, and he doesnt have a warm blankety Structure to protect him from his own incompetence, and that's very unfair.

1 cup, 2 x Fa cup finals, last season best defensive record in the league. Then there are all the outside issues he has dealt with. This word incompetence again I’ll repeat how can anyone get much more out of this collection of players even without the injuries?

So you rate his transfer dealings so low that you thought our fully fit first 11 was going to struggle for top 8 but you think he "deserves" another season? I'm honestly convinced no other fanbase is like this.

If you were asked to build a 2nd hand Lego set, but it wasn’t complete and you don’t have the money to buy all the parts you need in one go.
Then you’re told you can’t get the correct parts but you are given the option of these others parts that are cheap and can do a job but there not from the same Lego set what are you going to do? You can build the set as is but some parts don’t fit together and it just looks terrible till you get the other parts.

As for why I figured we’d struggle I just looked at the collection of players and realised that many of them are not fit for purpose and needed moving on and we needed other things.

We would never get the best out of Onana without a total rebuild of defence and midfield. He is encountering the same issues DeGea had with the playing out from the back and that is that defenders and midfield are lazy and don’t give options.

Mount has been injured and so has Malacia. Martinez looks like a good signing. Rasmus has been bought for the future. The only one that really we would be expecting more from is Antony and he has been utter crap and I just can’t see any way of building anything with him in. He has been a major flop but other than that the rest have been opportunistic signings or just people we need to have bodies in positions.

But I’ll repeat we need way more pieces of the puzzle as this is a proper rebuild we are in the middle of and I hope the people coming in aren’t as short sighted as some of the fans.

However if Ancelotti is available then boot ETH out but there aren’t any strong options out there to replace him.

 

[Big Ben Foster]

You're going to ruin another young managers promising career with the current composition of the squad. I think it also sends a good message that United will honor the full length of the contract and let the manager see out his project.

Why does this matter? This is one of those things nobody really cares about outside the Caf.

Managers fully understand that sacking is part of the game. They wouldn't be lining up to manage Real, Chelsea, and Bayern otherwise. I've never heard a manager turn down a club based on a suspicion that they won't let him see out his contract.

 

[Pscholes18]

Justvpoopedy head in here to see what people are saying.

Can't believe I'm seeing posts like "players this timr" or "players not the manager".

Forgive me if I am wrong but wasn't there a brief from all the tier 1/2s saying this summer we are having a proper clear out?

Have we all forgotten that it is planned for this summer?

There seems to be an either or attitude toward it , I think it's obvious to the powers that be that most of this playing squad need to go. It's been briefed and reported in the media.

I'm not sure why people are conveniently ignoring two facts.

- Most of the playing squad are up for sale already.

- Most of our starting 11 is comprised of useless ten hag signings.

Yeah his signings haven't been world beaters, but he had zero fecking help! You had a banker running the club, a DoF who was in way over his head, and had zero profiles on any potential players. Asked for Kane, didn't get him, asked for a FDJ type player, didn't get him. Was ETH finding/signing all the players at Ajax? No, why, because he had a fecking team of people to do that shite for him.

 

[simonhch]

So far all the appointments Ineos have done have happened pretty suddenly without the media having much idea of what was coming. Arnold was gone, and suddenly it was announced we were going to get Berrada. There were speculative links to Ashworth because of previous connections to Ineos sport, but when the approach happened it was sudden. Media were still talking about Freedman and Mitchell as being options. And then Wilcox, it just came out of nowhere in the middle of a Southampton game.

I expect them to hold their cards to their chest, similarly closely, with regards to the manager position. And in the interim, the media have nothing else to do other than speculate. And the lack of briefings, which they usually rely on, leads them to believe that we’ll just keep Ten Hag. So I wouldn’t put any stock in what anyone says right now. We’ll just have to wait it out to the end of the season and see.

I would say, that if ETH is to stay, it’s only going to happen with him being told the way the team has to play. As a coach he won’t be given the freedom to coach the team the way he wants. He’ll have to conform to certain structures and parameters. That much has been made clear already.

 

[BenitoSTARR]

This kinda stuff is why we beat you lot in the war.

 

[kouroux]

If they keep him and next season starts in exactly the same way that this season is ending then Ineos will lose all credibility.

As harsh as that sounds, they have already lost credibility in my eyes. I don't trust this group one bit, seeing how they handled some things at Nice

 

[Yakuza_devils]

My guess is that he will be 100% gone. Ineos is not going to risk their reputation at stake by keeping him. Just imagine next season we start as the way we end this season. I can certainly see that happening. Ineos and the new structure will lose all credibility fast. It will affects their overall plan to takeover the club too. The need to show that they are competent to run the club and give all parties confidence.

 

[Atheist]

I did hear Ten Hag has a pretty rich family. Maybe rich enough to pay folks on the Caf to post for him and defend him? It’s hard to see how a United fan could rationally support him, or they’re actually a Ten Hag fan pretending to support United.

Kick all the players out, as if a large number of the players aren’t actually Ten Hag signings. So kick all the players out, but not the manager, an abject failure who signed them?

 

[Winrar]

When was the last time a Manchester United manager finished a league season with negative GD?

 

[BenitoSTARR]

I did hear Ten Hag has a pretty rich family. Maybe rich enough to pay folks on the Caf to post for him and defend him? It’s hard to see how a United fan could rationally support him, or they’re actually a Ten Hag fan pretending to support United.

Kick all the players out, as if a large number of the players aren’t actually Ten Hag signings. So kick all the players out, but not the manager, an abject failure who signed them?

For someone whose name is atheist that you would believe this is ironic.

I don’t know anyone on here who is a Ten Hag fan. I don’t know anyone on here who would be offended or upset if he left.

Some of us just don’t think he’s that bad and that there are more problems we need to get to the bottom of before we commit to considering him categorically one of them.

 

[hobbers]

1 cup, 2 x Fa cup finals, last season best defensive record in the league. Then there are all the outside issues he has dealt with. This word incompetence again I’ll repeat how can anyone get much more out of this collection of players even without the injuries?

Yes he got to cup finals, even won a cup with the easiest run imaginable. All our previous incompetent managers also got to cup finals or won cups. Best defensive record in the league but City and Newcastle both conceded 10 fewer goals, okay makes sense.


The word incompetence is the precise term for a United manager who guides the club to 4 points out of 18 in an easy CL group with neg goal difference, 13 defeats in 35 games in the league and -3 goal difference in May. And we're incredibly lucky to only be down in 8th based on xg and xpts.


As for how any other manager could have got more out of these players? Fecking easily, let me tell you. *Casual reminder also needed - ETH signed 7 and extended contracts of 2 of the players that started vs Palace*

1. Play a system that isn't utterly stupid and suicidal. One that doesn't have an enormous cavity in midfield, leaving the team endlessly exposed and forcing them all to kill themselves sprinting everywhere to close the gaps.

2. Play in a way that doesn't expose all your players biggest weaknesses. In fact, try and do the opposite, play a system that works to your strengths. Insane idea, I know.

3. Sort out training and fitness/recovery work so you dont injure another 3 players in training every week.

4. Find some charisma and motivate them.

 

[kouroux]

Winning the Carabao Cup has warped the mind of some. The run-in we had was extremely favorable

 

[Lash]

I did hear Ten Hag has a pretty rich family. Maybe rich enough to pay folks on the Caf to post for him and defend him? It’s hard to see how a United fan could rationally support him, or they’re actually a Ten Hag fan pretending to support United.

Kick all the players out, as if a large number of the players aren’t actually Ten Hag signings. So kick all the players out, but not the manager, an abject failure who signed them?

You've rumbled me, he didn't even have to pay me that much.

 

[Atheist]

For someone whose name is atheist that you would believe this is ironic.

I don’t know anyone on here who is a Ten Hag fan. I don’t know anyone on here who would be offended or upset if he left.

Some of us just don’t think he’s that bad and that there are more problems we need to get to the bottom of before we commit to considering him categorically one of them.

Is it? It's not related to religion anyway and was hinting towards incredulity around the reasoning for supporting a manager who's not remotely humble or willing to learn from his mistakes.

Curious what level of bad is acceptable so that he can be sacked? Perhaps 8th place in the league with negative goal difference isn't too bad and maybe relegation to the championship is when the straw breaks the camel's back? None of this leeway was given to previous managers who got sacked and had better achievements (and rightly so).

 

[DomesticTadpole]

I don't know if Ineos will keep him or not, but the idea that there are no managers available to replace him is nonsense.

There are managers available, but would a top manager want to risk walking into this mess of a squad. There will be departures, but not as many as some think. The season after next might show a clearer picture of where we actually want to go and style of play. Otherwise it might just be going for a manager who ends up as yet another stopgap. Ineos really might just want to see how ETH performs with the structure above him in a better place and if they get rid of certain players the manager wants out for whatever reason.

 

[stevoc]

When was the last time a Manchester United manager finished a league season with negative GD?

Ferguson 89-90 -1, did badly in the league but scraped through to the FA Cup final and then won it after a season rife with specualtion he was going to get sacked.

Just like Ten Hag this year, it's a sign.

 

[Rista]

1 cup, 2 x Fa cup finals, last season best defensive record in the league. Then there are all the outside issues he has dealt with. This word incompetence again I’ll repeat how can anyone get much more out of this collection of players even without the injuries?




If you were asked to build a 2nd hand Lego set, but it wasn’t complete and you don’t have the money to buy all the parts you need in one go.
Then you’re told you can’t get the correct parts but you are given the option of these others parts that are cheap and can do a job but there not from the same Lego set what are you going to do? You can build the set as is but some parts don’t fit together and it just looks terrible till you get the other parts.

As for why I figured we’d struggle I just looked at the collection of players and realised that many of them are not fit for purpose and needed moving on and we needed other things.

We would never get the best out of Onana without a total rebuild of defence and midfield. He is encountering the same issues DeGea had with the playing out from the back and that is that defenders and midfield are lazy and don’t give options.

Mount has been injured and so has Malacia. Martinez looks like a good signing. Rasmus has been bought for the future. The only one that really we would be expecting more from is Antony and he has been utter crap and I just can’t see any way of building anything with him in. He has been a major flop but other than that the rest have been opportunistic signings or just people we need to have bodies in positions.

But I’ll repeat we need way more pieces of the puzzle as this is a proper rebuild we are in the middle of and I hope the people coming in aren’t as short sighted as some of the fans.

However if Ancelotti is available then boot ETH out but there aren’t any strong options out there to replace him.

After finishing 3rd we added 200m worth of players without losing anybody we didn't want to lose. You cannot possibly convince me that "struggling for top 8" was a realistic expectation for this team. If it really is, then anybody who had slightest say in that transfer strategy should be sacked on the spot.

 

[hobbers]

There are managers available, but would a top manager want to risk walking into this mess of a squad. There will be departures, but not as many as some think. The season after next might show a clearer picture of where we actually want to go and style of play. Otherwise it might just be going for a manager who ends up as yet another stopgap. Ineos really might just want to see how ETH performs with the structure above him in a better place and if they get rid of certain players the manager wants out for whatever reason.

Where did this myth about him wanting players out even come from?

Ineos want players out. Ten Hag wasnt even aware of that brief, poo-pooed it and just wants Rashford to stay, hit form and entirely bail him out again.

 

[Andersons Dietician]

1. Play a system that isn't utterly stupid and suicidal. One that doesn't have an enormous cavity in midfield, leaving the team endlessly exposed and forcing them all to kill themselves sprinting everywhere to close the gaps.

The system fails in part because the defenders don’t step up leaving a massive gap, Bruno and McT only care about moving forward and don’t drop in to space to plug that space. Then they are lazy to get back. We also lose the ball too easily in stupid places because some players aren’t good enough. Don’t even want to get started on Rashford.

2. Play in a way that doesn't expose all your players biggest weaknesses. In fact, try and do the opposite, play a system that works to your strengths. Insane idea, I know.

I don’t disagree with this, I do think he should have adapted and probably gone back to Ole ball just to eek out the results but then we’d still have people asking for him to be sacked because of doing that. However I’m not really sure what the positives/ strength of this team are. Pretty much everything falls apart because most of them are lazy and unathletic. Throw in their tendency to lose the ball and it’s a disaster.

3. Sort out training and fitness/recovery work so you dont injure another 3 players in training every week.

Thats a hard thin to fix, we brought in Gary O’Driscoll last season to try and sort it and if anything it’s been worse. Cumalitive effect given we played the most games out of anyone last season, World Cup, Covid back log it’s been a hectic schedule for players so it’s mostly bad luck.

I saw a story that we are going to be building a new activation zone in an attempt to try and limit injuries but I’m not sure why they need that when any flat surface would really do.

However in the story I read Odrisccol has requested we hire younger people for Physio and medical positions as they are more familiar with modern techniques and that Carrington and members of the back room are out of date. So there is that.

4. Find some charisma and motivate them.

None of us know what he is actually like with the players. We see a media version of him where he has to choose his words and act in a very diplomatic way. Any showing of emotion and it could be used against him. Keegan.

Like I said I don’t see any good replacements out there that would be available. The only person I’d feel confident bringing in would be Ancelotti. Everyone else is a risk just like ETH was.

 

[Bilbo]

This would be a better thread, and one with an actual point, if it was confined to discussing why we shouldn't, or might not, sack Ten Hag. Instead it's the same arguments from all the same posters in the main thread who everybody already knows want him gone.

 

[BenitoSTARR]

Is it? It's not related to religion anyway and was hinting towards incredulity around the reasoning for supporting a manager who's not remotely humble or willing to learn from his mistakes.

Curious what level of bad is acceptable so that he can be sacked? Perhaps 8th place in the league with negative goal difference isn't too bad and maybe relegation to the championship is when the straw breaks the camel's back? None of this leeway was given to previous managers who got sacked and had better achievements (and rightly so).

I think it’s a tremendously stupid opinion to hold. If you genuinely believe there are posters paid to post on Ten Hag’s behalf then I think you’re absolutely deluded.

Theres better ways to have an intelligent conversation around the reasons some people aren’t knives out just yet and your opener is the complete antithesis of trying to get that discourse.

 

[stevoc]

There are managers available, but would a top manager want to risk walking into this mess of a squad. There will be departures, but not as many as some think. The season after next might show a clearer picture of where we actually want to go and style of play. Otherwise it might just be going for a manager who ends up as yet another stopgap.

Define a top manager though? Which names are we talking about?

What I'm talking about is if we're offering a prospective new coach the same £9m per year salary we pay Ten Hag making them the 4th-5th highest paid manager on the planet. Then we will have no problem hiring someone with at least a similar resume and experience as Ten Hag had in 2022. The idea that Manchester United can't attract a manager who the club thinks with reasonable certainty could improve upon this season is nonsense.

By the way there's nothing wrong with hiring a stopgap manager, hopefully the club will be moving away form the naive plan/hope we can find another Ferguson. The days of managers staying longer than 2-3 years are long gone for the most part.

Ineos really might just want to see how ETH performs with the structure above him in a better place and if they get rid of certain players the manager wants out for whatever reason.

That's possible I suppose but in that case I doubt there being no managers available will influence that decision.

 

[BenitoSTARR]

Every potential replacement would do a better job than Ten Hag though, even Southgate (and I'd give it to McLaren for a season before him, he would also out-perform ETH). They dont need to be Ancelottis or Klopps.

Why do you think this? You know this obviously isn’t factual.

 

[hobbers]

Why do you think this? You know this obviously isn’t factual.

Because I've watched our football all season. I can see how bad his system is. I can see that he's bereft of nous and pragmatism. I can see he doesn't know how to positively affect the outcome of games from the sidelines. And I can see he has the charisma of a damp toilet brush. I also strongly suspect his methods are the biggest single contributor to all the training injuries but I'll have to wait to see if I'm proven right there.

Even the worst suggestions for replacements would have us defending with a proper structure, however boring it might be.

 

[BenitoSTARR]

Because I've watched our football all season. I can see how bad his system is. I can see that he's bereft of nous and pragmatism. I can see he doesn't know how to positively affect the outcome of games from the sidelines. And I can see he has the charisma of a damp toilet brush.

Even the worst suggestions for replacements would have us defending with a proper structure, however boring it might be.

Do you see how by not sacking him there could be some benefit?

 

[Atheist]

I think it’s a tremendously stupid opinion to hold. If you genuinely believe there are posters paid to post on Ten Hag’s behalf then I think you’re absolutely deluded.

Theres better ways to have an intelligent conversation around the reasons some people aren’t knives out just yet and your opener is the complete antithesis of trying to get that discourse.

Interesting because I believe folks who think Ten Hag should be given another season are also similary deluded. No convincing reasons have been given at all in this thread - it's all excuses (injuries, the good old "structure" and "players need to be thrown out" as if he didn't sign many of them) and hypotheticals (we'll suddenly sell all of our squad in one transfer window without replacing them, Ten Hag will suddenly get this tactics right, and we won't have injury problems again) with little basis in fact. Might as well put it to belief and emotions. Is that intelligent discourse?

 

[Andersons Dietician]

After finishing 3rd we added 200m worth of players without losing anybody we didn't want to lose. You cannot possibly convince me that "struggling for top 8" was a realistic expectation for this team. If it really is, then anybody who had slightest say in that transfer strategy should be sacked on the spot.

What don’t you really understand? There is more at play in real life economics of a team than when people play a video game. Sometimes you have to lose people to get people in that maybe aren’t as good individually but will add to the whole once you bring more in.

I think you don’t see how bad this collection of players actually is and how many of them need replaced.

You say 200 mil worth of players but one is an untested striker who is really young and bought for the future and the back up is Martial. And umm that was replacing Ronaldo.

How anyone expected that combo to deliver the amount of goals needed is crazy. Add in the only creativity we had from wide positions was Sancho and we know how that went.

We didn’t get any new CB’s and were relying on an injury prone player who is getting on in years, Didn’t create the platform for someone like Onana to work by replacing that defence and midfield..

So really if anyone bothered to sit and think about it all the signs were there point towards a really poor season.

 

[Sandikan]

Jamie Jackson reckons INEOS will hang on to Ten Hag because there is no suitable replacement available.
https://www.theguardian.com/footbal...d-lead-erik-ten-hag-staying-manchester-united

GNev thinks the same.

That's why it's a pretty safe bet Ten Hag will be out the second the season finishes.

Would be breathtaking if not. It'd show the dumbing down of standards from missing top 4 gets you immediately sacked, to coming 8th doesn't!

 

[hobbers]

Do you see how by not sacking him there could be some benefit?

Nope.

Wont change which players are sold. Shouldnt change which players are signed.

Club would have to very soon commit another £9m to his bank account, or it'd be sabotaging him from the start.

His system doesnt work in this league, we'd never sign enough players of enough quality to compensate for how bad it is. He's proven too arrogant and deluded to change it.

Probably continue stacking up more injuries because he refuses to change his methods. Very real risk he burns out Hojlund, Mainoo and Garnacho and they get a career-altering injury.

The players who stay into next season dont believe in him. Any players signed will be expecting a new manager or signing for the wrong reasons, none of them will be coming to United to play for Ten Hag, that's for sure.

 

[VP89]

Interesting because I believe folks who think Ten Hag should be given another season are also similary deluded. No convincing reasons have been given at all in this thread - it's all excuses (injuries, the good old "structure" and "players need to be thrown out" as if he didn't sign many of them) and hypotheticals (we'll suddenly sell all of our squad in one transfer window without replacing them, Ten Hag will suddenly get this tactics right, and we won't have injury problems again) with little basis in fact. Might as well put it to belief and emotions. I Is that intelligent discourse?

I think there's a fair school of thought that hangs on the fact that hes broadly a very good coach despite the failures of this season. I don't see why people should be called deluded if their argument "he's been really shite this season by his own standards but was very successful last season. Let's see how he fares unless there's another coach who ticks all the boxes"

 

[The Sad Clown]

Do you see how by not sacking him there could be some benefit?

Did you not used to roll out the same schtick when it was OGS in charge?

 

[BenitoSTARR]

Interesting because I believe folks who think Ten Hag should be given another season are also similary deluded. No convincing reasons have been given at all in this thread - it's all excuses (injuries, the good old "structure" and "players need to be thrown out" as if he didn't sign many of them) and hypotheticals (we'll suddenly sell all of our squad in one transfer window without replacing them, Ten Hag will suddenly get this tactics right, and we won't have injury problems again) with little basis in fact. Might as well put it to belief and emotions. Is that intelligent discourse?

Well when you believe they are being paid for their opinion I’d argue you’re not going to take any facts they then present on board.

You consider them excuses when they could well be considered explanations or context behind underperformance.

For example do you accept that the injuries we’ve had would impact the performance of the squad this season?

I ask this because I’m willing to discuss further based on your response.

 

[flameinthesun]

Because I've watched our football all season. I can see how bad his system is. I can see that he's bereft of nous and pragmatism. I can see he doesn't know how to positively affect the outcome of games from the sidelines. And I can see he has the charisma of a damp toilet brush. I also strongly suspect his methods are the biggest single contributor to all the training injuries but I'll have to wait to see if I'm proven right there.

Even the worst suggestions for replacements would have us defending with a proper structure, however boring it might be.

I mean, its quite clear that he is not bereft of nous and pragmatism as his first season was pretty much nous and pragmatism. He was getting praise for his substitutions vs pool and arsenal, and praise for his pragmatism for change tactics and achieving what he achieved. I get not believing that the tactics he is trying to implement this season will not be able to be effectively implemented in this league with this team. However, the guy has shown he is capable of being pragmatic and effecting games with United in the premier league last season. Its more a case of him doubling down with this season's tactics with the squad we have and the injuries, and whether you believe that even with new signings etc that he can be successful.

 

[Andersons Dietician]

Every potential replacement would do a better job than Ten Hag though, even Southgate (and I'd give it to McLaren for a season before him, he would also out-perform ETH). They dont need to be Ancelottis or Klopps.

Sorry but that’s utter nonsense. You’re trying to state facts when there is no basis for it, The fact you’ve even mentioned Southgate is ridiculous.

Anyway I think what many seem to forget or not realise is we want to play a certain manner of football. We want to impose our play upon others like a Man City or Pool do. We could bring in a pragmatic manager like Jose that would just try and win at all costs but that only works for so long.

We want that imposing style where we play people off the park and we are in the process of building towards that. Will ETH be able to get it over the line with another window. I’m not sure. I think it’s at least another 2 possibly 3 summer windows away.

But next season I think he needs to show better performances, especially if we can bring in 3-4 players over this upcoming window.

 

[hobbers]

I mean, its quite clear that he is not bereft of nous and pragmatism as his first season was pretty much nous and pragmatism. He was getting praise for his substitutions vs pool and arsenal, and praise for his pragmatism for change tactics and achieving what he achieved. I get not believing that the tactics he is trying to implement this season will not be able to be effectively implemented in this league with this team. However, the guy has shown he is capable of being pragmatic and effecting games with United in the premier league last season. Its more a case of him doubling down with this season's tactics with the squad we have and the injuries, and whether you believe that even with new signings etc that he can be successful.

Maybe but I would argue that the nous and pragmatism there was 'not actually doing anything'. He didnt implement his own ideas. He just injected 3 huge marquee signings into Ole's system (which got us to 3rd and 2nd and several cup semis in the previous 2 out of 3 seasons) and got rid of Ronaldo. 2 of those marquee signings did amazingly well for 6 months. Rashford had the best purple patch of his patchy career.

If Ole had gone into the season prior with Casemiro and Martinez instead of Ronaldo, he'd have achieved the same result or better.

 

[hobbers]

We want that imposing style where we play people off the park and we are in the process of building towards that.

We're not though. And nobody who has seen us kick a ball this season could think that we are.

 

[DomesticTadpole]

Where did this myth about him wanting players out even come from?

Ineos want players out. Ten Hag wasnt even aware of that brief, poo-pooed it and just wants Rashford to stay, hit form and entirely bail him out again.

He can't say he wants players out when he still needs them to play for him due to injuries. If he doesn't then goodness knows which style he was thinking of playing. He apparently wanted rid of AWB and Maguire and has had to utilise them, Maguire has done reasonably well if still a lumbering, slow player, AWB has gone more and more downhill and the season has gone on.

 

[Rista]

What don’t you really understand? There is more at play in real life economics of a team than when people play a video game. Sometimes you have to lose people to get people in that maybe aren’t as good individually but will add to the whole once you bring more in.

I think you don’t see how bad this collection of players actually is and how many of them need replaced.

You say 200 mil worth of players but one is an untested striker who is really young and bought for the future and the back up is Martial. And umm that was replacing Ronaldo.

How anyone expected that combo to deliver the amount of goals needed is crazy. Add in the only creativity we had from wide positions was Sancho and we know how that went.

We didn’t get any new CB’s and were relying on an injury prone player who is getting on in years, Didn’t create the platform for someone like Onana to work by replacing that defence and midfield..

So really if anyone bothered to sit and think about it all the signs were there point towards a really poor season.

Literally none of that explains why we have regressed so much. Nobody would have predicted us to "struggle for top 8" before this season simply because the team is clearly better than that. As if other sides except for City and Arsenal don't have issues with not all players being the right fit. Since when is "top 8" a thing anyway.

 

[stevoc]

What don’t you really understand? There is more at play in real life economics of a team than when people play a video game. Sometimes you have to lose people to get people in that maybe aren’t as good individually but will add to the whole once you bring more in.

I think you don’t see how bad this collection of players actually is and how many of them need replaced.

You say 200 mil worth of players but one is an untested striker who is really young and bought for the future and the back up is Martial. And umm that was replacing Ronaldo.

How anyone expected that combo to deliver the amount of goals needed is crazy. Add in the only creativity we had from wide positions was Sancho and we know how that went.

We didn’t get any new CB’s and were relying on an injury prone player who is getting on in years, Didn’t create the platform for someone like Onana to work by replacing that defence and midfield..

So really if anyone bothered to sit and think about it all the signs were there point towards a really poor season.

Out of interest did you predict any or all of this before the season started?

Predicted on here in posts I mean, because it's ok to say these things in hindsight.

 

[hobbers]

Literally none of that explains why we have regressed so much. Nobody would have predicted us to "struggle for top 8" before this season simply because the team is clearly better than that. As if other sides except for City and Arsenal don't have issues with not all players being the right fit. Since when is "top 8" a thing anyway.

It was top 2 under Jose. Top 4 under Ole and ETH has now successfully tricked the club and a large portion of naïve fans into thinking 8 teams are now all equally competing for the title. - literally his words.