Who replaces Ten Hag?

[AneRu]

Decent should. I’d prefer him to the likes of Potter and Southgate too. Again we really should not be signing Kerian McKenna at this stage with the infancy of his managerial career but given the names branded about, I’d actually be fine with it.

Remove the entitled picks, replace them with younger players and get behind him. At least you know that there is a chance he could do well rather than wasting time on managers you know are limited and would never get out of their comfort zone.

Had INEOS come in last summer and got the structure sorted then we could have he support structure a manager like him needs. Right now it looks like all our targets are tied up in gardening leaves and can't contribute at the most crucial stage of next season - the summer window.

 

[Mike Smalling]

What’s Big Sam up to these days? Maybe give it him for the rest of the season.

 

[Catalandevil]

Too many managers failed here despite being heavily backed. I don’t think another manager is the solution. With all our previous managers the pattern has been quite similar. A new manager comes in, we have a honeymoon period, and after a while, things get bad.

The reasons?

• Our players are quite good, but
• They don’t complement each other well, and
• Our coach's main strengths don’t suit our main players, and
• Our transfer record has been abysmal, and
• We have accepted and rewarded players' mediocrity, creating a loser’s culture

Changing the manager will not solve those issues. INEOS taking over may help. ETH has made mistakes, but has shown potential. Before jumping, and destroying another shiny toy, let’s create a proper environment to help our managers succeed.

 

[AndySmith1990]

• We have accepted and rewarded players' mediocrity, creating a loser’s culture

Changing the manager will not solve those issues. INEOS taking over may help. ETH has made mistakes, but has shown potential. Before jumping, and destroying another shiny toy, let’s create a proper environment to help our managers succeed.

Interesting. You want to solve the issue of accepting and rewarding mediocrity by replicating it with the manager

 

[Sarni]

Bayern and Barca are not taking a coach that comes 6th or 7th with Man United, that’s why Moyes, ETH and Jose never got the gig at these clubs after United and he’s a two time CL winner!

His fans have actually convinced themselves he will be number one on their list because his stock is one of the best managers in Europe of the last two decades.

 

[VP89]

Bayern and Barca are not taking a coach that comes 6th or 7th with Man United, that’s why Moyes, ETH and Jose never got the gig at these clubs after United and he’s a two time CL winner!

You're being a bit presumptious with Ten Hags life post United though I get the sentiment

 

[Leftback99]

It's difficult to see any of the names mentioned having us playing worse football than we do now. Even Southgate.

 

[OleGunnar20]

I’d like to see what Amorim would do with this squad. I genuinely think we have a lot of the parts to make his 3-4-1-2 or 3-4-3 work.

Agreed. CB & LWB would probably need looking at alongside another striker but overall we'd fit his setup well, and he plays really good football.

 

[Jev]

At this point surely it’s just anyone else? We just got totally battered by the worst team in the league. Our football is as bad as it can possibly get. No-one is saying Potter or Southgate has to be our manager for 10 years. They just need to come in, steady the ship and get us in the right direction. Nobody could do worse than ETH.

 

[B. Munich]

I’m pretty sure he’ll turn Bayern down for United after the way they treated him, we should just be getting that done asap.

I wouldn't bet on that. Nagelsmann is born just a few kilometers from Munich. Bayern is his dream club and I'm pretty sure he will want to show his critics wrong (if our board indeed wants him back).

 

[Desert Eagle]

At this point surely it’s just anyone else? We just got totally battered by the worst team in the league. Our football is as bad as it can possibly get. No-one is saying Potter or Southgate has to be our manager for 10 years. They just need to come in, steady the ship and get us in the right direction. Nobody could do worse than ETH.

Plenty could do worse and Southgate is probably one of them. When eth gets sacked (probably after the fa cup final) we need the best manager we can get not someone who hasn't managed club football for more than a decade.

 

[AneRu]

Maybe so, but it's completely unrealistic and basically impossible to do. Who is gonna pay for all that?

Some need to go, obviously, but some need to be worked with and confidence rebuilt. It isn't like we have any choice in the matter either.

The market is just too expensive to do a mass cull and re-buy. It can only happen over a number of windows. Great managers with the right setup around them can do that to players, not just improve their confidence but improve them as players technically and mentally. Fergie and Klopp being the obvious examples, but they are not the only ones.

The best managers don't need to just keep buying more players to improve the team like, for example like Ole (as much as I love the guy, he couldn't do that).

The main issue we've had over the past decade (IMO) is not the managers or the players (whilst some fault is surely on them too) but the setup behind them. feck knows if Ineos are gonna fix that, but if they don't then we're fecked for the forseeable, it doesn't matter who we buy and how much money we spend.

Whilst I agree that it's too expensive to do a major cull and replace all we have to recognize that poor attitude is contagious and toxic especially if it's coming from players who are always picked. Stylistically some aren't suited to the direction we want to take, you can never have a free scoring dominant side with Bruno, McT and Rashford being 3/4 of your forward line.

In as much as we want upgrades in defense; obviously we need better one on one and technical players who are also capable of defending large spaces I think Casemiro's decline has hurt us more. Kobie Mainoo is not there yet to play sole DM at this level. Most of our structural and this is due to lack of a mobile DM who can put out fires and shield the defense.

A rebuild of our defense and midfield could cost anywhere between 150m to 180m. Add a couple of forwards and you are looking at an overall spend of circa 300m. By selling Bruno (40m), Rashford (60m), Casemiro (35m) and McTominay (30m) that's a net spend of 140m which should be doable. We need to add the right profiles with the right mix of technical and physical attributes needed in this league.

We can't postpone the cull either because it will leave us further behind. We need to break and stay in that top 3 then make at least 3 consecutive CL campaigns that go beyond the 2nd round.

 

[pocco]

I don't get why so many are reluctant to consider that the managers we hire may have been simply not good enough, beyond their peak years or, in Jose's case, a bit toxic and self sabotage.

All this talk about them all failing because of the structure etc. Well none of our previous managers have gone on to coach at a top club since. That's quite telling, no? Clearly no other DoF, CEO or anybody in football believes they failed only due to the structure here. The only grey area for me is Jose, but he comes with his own unique issues, even though he's a top level manager. But then, he did actually do reasonably well whilst he was happy.

Moyes - I was happy to give him a chance. Thought he'd done well at Everton and would do well with better players he'd have here, with a bit of backing in the market. Most said he was not up to the job and were right in the end.

LVG - I didn't want him. I didn't like his arrogant, disciplinarian attitude or his football. I read what past players said and didn't think it would go well here where we encouraged individuality from certain players. He was too rigid and strict. That's how it turned out in the end, it was boring to watch.

Jose - We all know the issues. I think he was right when he said finishing 2nd with 80 odd points was a big achievement. In hindsight his achievements were very good. But he obviously decided to burn it all to the ground when he'd mentally checked out.

Ole - not good enough, never proven to be good enough and didn't deserve the job. Was only given it based on feel good vibes and pressure from a clueless fans that thought he was better than he was.

ETH - He was built up as a manager to hang with Pep and Klopp. Based on what? Winning Eredivisie and one half decent CL run? In hindsight I hope everyone can recognise how meaningless that actuality is at this level. He worth a shot, but we had to be prepared for him not being able to dominate at this level, which is far, far ahead of Eredivisie. Another thing that doesn't get mentioned is that Ajax actually didn't do that well in Europe under him other than that one season. They got to the EL Final the year before he arrived and he never managed to do that himself.

Our recruitment of managers has just simply been poor and ill thought out. The structure isn't perfect but the financial backing has been incredible. These guys have been given carte blanche to bring in their guys, being in their own recruitment teams etc and still failed massively. A DoF doesn't necessarily help these guys but allows the club a continuous vision and succession plan beyond these managers.

 

[Jev]

Plenty could do worse and Southgate is probably one of them. When eth gets sacked (probably after the fa cup final) we need the best manager we can get not someone who hasn't managed club football for more than a decade.

Yesterday was arguably our worst performance post-Fergie. It was also a vintage ETH performance. We’re very close to the point where it literally can’t get any worse.

 

[Tarrou]

Whilst I agree that it's too expensive to do a major cull and replace all we have to recognize that poor attitude is contagious and toxic especially if it's coming from players who are always picked. Stylistically some aren't suited to the direction we want to take, you can never have a free scoring dominant side with Bruno, McT and Rashford being 3/4 of your forward line.

In as much as we want upgrades in defense; obviously we need better one on one and technical players who are also capable of defending large spaces I think Casemiro's decline has hurt us more. Kobie Mainoo is not there yet to play sole DM at this level. Most of our structural and this is due to lack of a mobile DM who can put out fires and shield the defense.

A rebuild of our defense and midfield could cost anywhere between 150m to 180m. Add a couple of forwards and you are looking at an overall spend of circa 300m. By selling Bruno (40m), Rashford (60m), Casemiro (35m) and McTominay (30m) that's a net spend of 140m which should be doable. We need to add the right profiles with the right mix of technical and physical attributes needed in this league.

We can't postpone the cull either because it will leave us further behind. We need to break and stay in that top 3 then make at least 3 consecutive CL campaigns that go beyond the 2nd round.

by rebuild the defence and midfield how many players do you mean? Because even if you only mean 4/5 players that's very optimistic budgeting, averaging 30m/35m each. And that's if you get every transfer spot-on which never happens.

How many players would you buy and sell during this summer for the cull?

 

[sglowrider]

He won the league in his first year, did pretty well in the CL and his wining team scored 97 goals from 34 games, his Red Bull Leipzig team came 3rd and 2nd and he reached the CL semi Final, the youngest manager to ever do that, I’m pretty sure he’ll turn Bayern down for United after the way they treated him, we should just be getting that done asap.

Why not Flick then? He was more successful.

 

[stefan92]

I wouldn't bet on that. Nagelsmann is born just a few kilometers from Munich. Bayern is his dream club and I'm pretty sure he will want to show his critics wrong (if our board indeed wants him back).

On top of that look what happened to those who sacked him. They were sacked shortly after because their move to replace him with Tuchel didn't work out as expected. In a way that's already a statement that Nagelsmann was right at the time.

 

[stefan92]

Why not Flick then? He was more successful.

Flick had a single great run during his whole career. Arguably the greatest "purple patch" ever, but nonetheless that's all he really has going on his CV as impressive managerial result. Nagelsmann on the other hand has delivered first ever achievements for both Hoffenheim and Leipzig and managed Bayern reasonably well while the club was in a quite chaotic state (a situation which led Flick to forcing his way out of the club).

 

[Schmeichels pinky]

I hope those responsible for recruiting the next manager have more insight and broader view than our fans, most of which just want some big name. There are many excellent managers out there and we should recruit for the long haul realizing we won’t be title contenders for the next few years anyway. Built a team with a distinct playing style and keep the manager even if we don’t get top 4 or even 6 for a year or two - as long as we can see progress in performances. That’s how I’d like us to go forward from here - if we don’t I fear we’ll keep dragging ourselves through mud with one “big” name after another for another 10 years

 

[Jimmah]

That’s a bit dramatic - it wasn’t the worst performance post fergie whatsoever.

 

[AneRu]

by rebuild the defence and midfield how many players do you mean? Because even if you only mean 4/5 players that's very optimistic budgeting, averaging 30m/35m each. And that's if you get every transfer spot-on which never happens.

How many players would you buy and sell during this summer for the cull?

Two CBs and a DM, both coming in as starters. Shaw and Dalot are OK as fullbacks but we probably need another LB, we will cover that with what we get for the youth sales.

 

[Tarrou]

Two CBs and a DM, both coming in as starters. Shaw and Dalot are OK as fullbacks but we probably need another LB, we will cover that with what we get for the youth sales.

Okay that makes more sense then. I wouldn't call 3 starters and a back-up a complete rebuild of defence and midfield, which is where I got confused.

 

[AneRu]

Okay that makes more sense then. I wouldn't call 3 starters and a back-up a complete rebuild of defence and midfield, which is where I got confused.

It's just terminology but let's call it the rebuild of our central defensive core.

 

[devilish]

Decent should. I’d prefer him to the likes of Potter and Southgate too. Again we really should not be signing Kerian McKenna at this stage with the infancy of his managerial career but given the names branded about, I’d actually be fine with it.

I wouldn't want him to replace ETH as manager but we are talking about a head coach here, someone who will focus solely on tactics, he will have little say in transfers and will get help in terms of discipline

McKenna know what united problems are, he knows the EPL and had worked with flawed sides both at top level (united) and at Ipswich. He has solid knowledge on how kids are doing and will quickly assess whose ready and whose not.

 

[AneRu]

I wouldn't want him to replace ETH as manager but we are talking about a head coach here, someone who will focus solely on tactics, he will have little say in transfers and will get help in terms of discipline

McKenna know what united problems are, he knows the EPL and had worked with flawed sides both at top level (united) and at Ipswich. He has solid knowledge on how kids are doing and will quickly assess whose ready and whose not.

Right on. My order of preference would be;
1. Nagelsmann/Simeone Inzarghi (understand he is not available)
2. Amorim
3. Thiago Motta/Mckenna

McKenna has been here before and, with time, could build a cohesive team if he can impose his style. To support him we need a preemptive strike on all the senior players bar Maguire and possibly Shaw. Remove the would be dissenters before the team hits a tough patch, sign young technical players with a dose of physicality and then look away. Aterta was finishing 8th but he was allowed to continue building.

 

[Woziak]

Why not Flick then? He was more successful.

I’d give him a chance as well no issues whatsoever

 

[Orange Tree]

If Ten Hag is still here at the start of next season, I'd lose faith in INEOS.

I'd take Potter or Thomas Frank at this point. That was Moyes' Fulham moment.

 

[Remember the geese]

Alonso is the only one I'd be fully all in for. Not happening though of course. Other names worth considering: Amorim, Nagelsmann, Luis Enrique, McKenna

 

[Swearing Budgie]

I would take any other Prem manager over ETH right now

 

[Woziak]

Right on. My order of preference would be;
1. Nagelsmann/Simeone Inzarghi (understand he is not available)
2. Amorim
3. Thiago Motta/Mckenna

McKenna has been here before and, with time, could build a cohesive team if he can impose his style. To support him we need a preemptive strike on all the senior players bar Maguire and possibly Shaw. Remove the would be dissenters before the team hits a tough patch, sign young technical players with a dose of physicality and then look away. Aterta was finishing 8th but he was allowed to continue building.

I definitely think if McKenna wins the Championship he should be interviewed at least ?

 

[LawCharltonBest]

I really really really struggle with the Nagelsmann obsession

Can someone explain it to me without mentioning his age? What’s he done that sets him apart from the rest?

 

[AneRu]

I really really really struggle with the Nagelsmann obsession

Can someone explain it to me without mentioning his age? What’s he done that sets him apart from the rest?

Won the Bundesliga (you might say Bayern always win it but it still had to be won and Tuchel is failing at it) , two or three deep CL runs with Leipzig and can imprint a style of play.

 

[Hammondo]

No thanks.

I don't think we could attract him.

 

[Xaviesta]

Ange has the personality and the devotion to attacking football but I suspect he'd be a hard sell.

 

[AaronRedDevil]

How is there such a severe lack of great coaches today? Most are near retirement and the new breed are far and fee between. Others that are available, I've no confidence in them to really push us upwards on the table. How did it get so bad that Jose is the only option that MAYBE can improve us, though it might not be in the best way. Simone is the only coach I can see it improving us. Bringing some fire into the team. Alonso and Ingazhi (spelling?) Are doing well but it's so much harder to see if it works in the PL. Dutch managers should stay away from the PL. Their tactics don't work.

 

[stefan92]

Won the Bundesliga (you might say Bayern always win it but it still had to be won and Tuchel is failing at it) , two or three deep CL runs with Leipzig and can imprint a style of play.

Before that saved Hoffenheim from being relegated and led them into the CL the first (and only) time ever.

 

[wolvored]

I don't get why so many are reluctant to consider that the managers we hire may have been simply not good enough, beyond their peak years or, in Jose's case, a bit toxic and self sabotage.

All this talk about them all failing because of the structure etc. Well none of our previous managers have gone on to coach at a top club since. That's quite telling, no? Clearly no other DoF, CEO or anybody in football believes they failed only due to the structure here. The only grey area for me is Jose, but he comes with his own unique issues, even though he's a top level manager. But then, he did actually do reasonably well whilst he was happy.

Moyes - I was happy to give him a chance. Thought he'd done well at Everton and would do well with better players he'd have here, with a bit of backing in the market. Most said he was not up to the job and were right in the end.

LVG - I didn't want him. I didn't like his arrogant, disciplinarian attitude or his football. I read what past players said and didn't think it would go well here where we encouraged individuality from certain players. He was too rigid and strict. That's how it turned out in the end, it was boring to watch.

Jose - We all know the issues. I think he was right when he said finishing 2nd with 80 odd points was a big achievement. In hindsight his achievements were very good. But he obviously decided to burn it all to the ground when he'd mentally checked out.

Ole - not good enough, never proven to be good enough and didn't deserve the job. Was only given it based on feel good vibes and pressure from a clueless fans that thought he was better than he was.

ETH - He was built up as a manager to hang with Pep and Klopp. Based on what? Winning Eredivisie and one half decent CL run? In hindsight I hope everyone can recognise how meaningless that actuality is at this level. He worth a shot, but we had to be prepared for him not being able to dominate at this level, which is far, far ahead of Eredivisie. Another thing that doesn't get mentioned is that Ajax actually didn't do that well in Europe under him other than that one season. They got to the EL Final the year before he arrived and he never managed to do that himself.

Our recruitment of managers has just simply been poor and ill thought out. The structure isn't perfect but the financial backing has been incredible. These guys have been given carte blanche to bring in their guys, being in their own recruitment teams etc and still failed massively. A DoF doesn't necessarily help these guys but allows the club a continuous vision and succession plan beyond these managers.

I agree. We lucked out keeping Fergie in another era. Look at Liverpool how long it them to get a manager able to keep them around the top and actually win it. Money comes into it and our upper structure running the club was diabolical. Hopefully by addressing this Ineos will at least hopefully pick the right manager.

 

[LawCharltonBest]

Won the Bundesliga (you might say Bayern always win it but it still had to be won and Tuchel is failing at it) , two or three deep CL runs with Leipzig and can imprint a style of play.

But how does it separate him from all the other managers who have done that?

How does it separate him from treble winner Luis Enrique or the manager who won 3 Champions League’s in a row, Zidane?

 

[Laurencio]

How is there such a severe lack of great coaches today? Most are near retirement and the new breed are far and fee between. Others that are available, I've no confidence in them to really push us upwards on the table. How did it get so bad that Jose is the only option that MAYBE can improve us, though it might not be in the best way. Simone is the only coach I can see it improving us. Bringing some fire into the team. Alonso and Ingazhi (spelling?) Are doing well but it's so much harder to see if it works in the PL. Dutch managers should stay away from the PL. Their tactics don't work.

There are plenty of good managers around. A lot of them are already in the premier league, then you have some who are a cut above the rest and proven over many years - like Nagelsmann, Enrique, Allegri, Simeone and Tuchel. Potter is also far better than his Chelsea spell managed to produce.

There are honestly at least a dozen managers who could improve us.

 

[King7Eric]

Posted this in the ETH thread but I would strongly look at McKenna. For me a manager's biggest ability should be getting players to consistently over perform and he's done at over the last 1.5 years with Ipswich.

He's not a big name, but he knows most of the players from his time at Utd and should be able to command their respect. In any case, some of the "bigger names" like Casem, Varane, Rashford etc really need to be moved on.

As a coach, McKenna was extremely highly rated, and now we are looking for essentially a head coach, since Ineos should ideally take care of the rest of the "managerial" responsibilities through Ashworth and others.

It would be a massive risk, more for McKenna than us, but I hope this is something we consider.