Erik ten Hag - Manchester United manager

amolbhatia50k

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I am not so sure that we wouldn't fall out the top 4. Let's hope not.

Just for the sake of it, Jose Mourinho won more cups in Season 1, and Van Gaal got sacked 1 day after winning the FA Cup (a more prestigious trophy than the Carabao)

Winning the Carabao Cup is just an ok achievement.
Just for the sake of it they didn’t take over after our worst ever PL season and a team that hasn’t smelled success in 6 years. Keep whining I guess.
 

spiriticon

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Just for the sake of it they didn’t take over after our worst ever PL season and a team that hasn’t smelled success in 6 years. Keep whining I guess.
What are you talking about? How was last season the worst ever? We finished 6th. Van Gaal took over a 7th place team from Moyes and managed top 4 in Season 1 and oh yes I'll say it again, he didn't get fecking beaten 7 nil by Liverpool at any time!

This Ten Hag love-in is doing my nut in.
 
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Dan_F

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What are you talking about? How was last season the worst ever? We finished 6th. Van Gaal took over a 7th place team from Moyes.

This Ten Hag love-in is doing my nut in.
It was never a 7th place quality side. If I managed United for a season and got them relegated, it doesn’t mean the next manager has a Championship level squad. The team was going nowhere under Van Gaal. Absolutely tumescent football, poor signings and the dressing room was a mess.

It’s one of those discussions that’s pointless to have until the end of the season. This squad, despite the injuries, is still fully capable of going into that Spurs game in a European semi, FA final, and three points clear with two games in hand.

Also, don’t you have eyes? The football in the first have against Sevilla was better than anything produced under LvG. That’s why people are happy, they can see progress moving forward once we have a top striker.
 

Jim Beam

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It isn’t the acknowledgement of mistakes that’s an issue - all human beings do. It’s the incessant knee jerk pile on and inability to see through anything but a bad result driven lense, that comes off badly.

ETH is going to use his squad throughout the long season. He has to - to get through it, to give players trust and confidence and to progres the team for the long term. You can’t expect a manager to align every decision with your own. I am in favour of critical thinking and analysis but not this simplistic process of drawing conclusions vaguely based on the last result. There’s too much that happens behind the scenes that we don’t see.

So far he’s done a smashing job in charge of our club. Although raising us from the shambles with us was a great accomplishment it feels like this squad is not yet built to handle the number of competitions we are in and unfortunately the amount of injuries that have wracked up now. We just have to get over the line in the league and then work to improve our football / personnel during the break.
Very good post and pretty much my thinking. People need to calm the feck down and have some perspective while posting.
 

spiriticon

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It was never a 7th place quality side. If I managed United for a season and got them relegated, it doesn’t mean the next manager has a Championship level squad. The team was going nowhere under Van Gaal. Absolutely tumescent football, poor signings and the dressing room was a mess.

It’s one of those discussions that’s pointless to have until the end of the season. This squad, despite the injuries, is still fully capable of going into that Spurs game in a European semi, FA final, and three points clear with two games in hand.

Also, don’t you have eyes? The football in the first have against Sevilla was better than anything produced under LvG. That’s why people are happy, they can see progress moving forward once we have a top striker.
I agree we should wait till the end of the season. If ten Hag wins another cup and gets top 4 which is also very possible, it's undoubtedly brilliant.

There's been progress from last year, no doubt about that. I'm just saying the there is no need for too much hype for our season up to this point.

Sigh. Maybe I am just losing hope at the thought of seeing the Chuckle Brothers for the next 5 or so games :o
 
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flameinthesun

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Ten Hag will be here next season, regardless of our final league position.

But if we fall out of the top 4 and out of the rest of the cups by the end of the season, then he's not been 'brilliant' or 'genius' or anything, he's just OK. No better or worse than past United managers.

Just would be nice to see some balanced objectivity in this thread, rather than wild hype all the time.
Makes zero sense. By that logic Pep isn't brilliant or a genius because he finished 4th in his first season at city...
 

AneRu

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I hope he learns from this season, regardless of what happens in the run in he will be here, in terms of prioritizing tournaments and not giving precedence to the likes of the Carabao Cup and Europa. Maybe its because of his lack of faith in the squad but he should have rotated more in January and February.

That fixture congestion was nightmarish, I like it that he was bullish and went after every trophy available but it becomes a bit pointless if you lose out on top four
 

spiriticon

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Makes zero sense. By that logic Pep isn't brilliant or a genius because he finished 4th in his first season at city...
Ok well let's finish 4th first before we throw the plaudits out. And Pep was by no means brilliant in his first season at City. He was... Ok.
 

Rockets Redglare

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What are you talking about? How was last season the worst ever? We finished 6th. Van Gaal took over a 7th place team from Moyes and managed top 4 in Season 1 and oh yes I'll say it again, he didn't get fecking beaten 7 nil by Liverpool at any time!

This Ten Hag love-in is doing my nut in.
So if you don’t rate the manager then who do you want us to get in to replace him?
 

spiriticon

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So if you don’t rate the manager then who do you want us to get in to replace him?
Quite frankly any half decent manager we bring in will have more or less the same results. An ok job hovering somewhere 3rd to 6th. I'm not even thinking of a change right now cause its pointless.

Does ten Hag deserve more time? Of course.
Has ten Hag done a brilliant job? Hmmm debatable. It's not bad, but that's pretty much my limit for now. There's plenty to armchair praise, and plenty to armchair criticise too.

That's just where I'm at.
 

amolbhatia50k

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What are you talking about? How was last season the worst ever? We finished 6th. Van Gaal took over a 7th place team from Moyes and managed top 4 in Season 1 and oh yes I'll say it again, he didn't get fecking beaten 7 nil by Liverpool at any time!

This Ten Hag love-in is doing my nut in.
You should get that worked on. Imagine being so enraged at our fans liking / rating our manager - what has the world come to!?

edit: Last season was our worst points tally in the PL. And it was a 5th season without silverware I believe making it worse than 13/14 under Moyes who at least won the community shield.
 

spiriticon

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You should get that worked on. Imagine being so enraged at our fans liking / rating our manager - what has the world come to!?

edit: Last season was our worst points tally in the PL. And it was a 5th season without silverware I believe making it worse than 13/14 under Moyes who at least won the community shield.
I'm not enraged by people liking him at all. But it gets irksome when any criticism of the manager (in the manager thread no less) gets immediately shut down as some sort of armchair expert going off on one.

My point is that he hasn't done that well enough to deserve nothing but praise.
 

Keanes Magic Hat

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I hope he learns from this season, regardless of what happens in the run in he will be here, in terms of prioritizing tournaments and not giving precedence to the likes of the Carabao Cup and Europa. Maybe its because of his lack of faith in the squad but he should have rotated more in January and February.

That fixture congestion was nightmarish, I like it that he was bullish and went after every trophy available but it becomes a bit pointless if you lose out on top four
We won't lose top 4, this season the fixtures were worse due to world cup and I hope we continue to prioritise every competition which will be with a better squad.
 

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It's good to have differing points of view in the fanbase. If I wanted positive vibes only, I'd just stick on MUTV 24/7.
Don't understand the desire to be unhappy myself. Nobody's opinions on here or anywhere else on here have any positive effect on the team anyway.
 

spiriticon

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Don't understand the desire to be unhappy myself. Nobody's opinions on here or anywhere else on here have any positive effect on the team anyway.
Well that's a forum for you. There's praise and criticism in good measure everywhere and this thread should be no exception.
 

Garethw

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It can’t be any more than a 6/10 season after all those thrashings.

He’s done well, but initially so did Mourinho and Solskjaer so I’m not getting carried away.
 

Toshey

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Some people need to take a permanent break from internet.
 

Crimson King

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It can’t be any more than a 6/10 season after all those thrashings.

He’s done well, but initially so did Mourinho and Solskjaer so I’m not getting carried away.
This is such a shallow review of the season so far. When he's had a full team to choose from, and time to work with them, the quality of the performances and the football has been a huge improvement over anything those two conjured up.

Of course there's been negatives too, especially when we've been deprived of key players. The squad depth has been seriously exposed at times. But I've been impressed with how he's tried to find solutions. Sure, they haven't always worked, but at least he's tried to do something different here and there.

Let's not forget that there was a WC halfway through the season, and most of our players were at it and so we didn't get a mini pre-season like some clubs did. Then there's the crunch of games that has caused, where I doubt he's had very little time to work on his preferred tactics in training.

You've also forgotten that he inherited the absolute chimera of a squad that Mourinho and Solskjaer helped put together.

We might end up having 6/10 season in terms of results, but that would have been a lot worse if EtH wasn't the manager.
 

mav_9me

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Ten Hag will be here next season, regardless of our final league position.

But if we fall out of the top 4 and out of the rest of the cups by the end of the season, then he's not been 'brilliant' or 'genius' or anything, he's just OK. No better or worse than past United managers.

Just would be nice to see some balanced objectivity in this thread, rather than wild hype all the time.
That was my point. You are purely looking at it from results perspective.

I'm looking at it from process perspective. For me we've made a shit ton of progress even if injuries derail our season now. Our lack of squad depth and our insane schedule for me mitigate any results.

If you only look at results, most clubs and managers will go nowhere.
 

Manncunian

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This thread makes me ashamed to be part of this fanbase at times. Good god.

If you understand football when you’re watching the bloody game, you would never try to make such absurd claims that EtH isn’t good enough/needs to be sacked if we don’t get top four etc/isn’t better than any previous disastrous managers.

Open your eyes.
 

spiriticon

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That was my point. You are purely looking at it from results perspective.

I'm looking at it from process perspective. For me we've made a shit ton of progress even if injuries derail our season now. Our lack of squad depth and our insane schedule for me mitigate any results.

If you only look at results, most clubs and managers will go nowhere.
To be honest, I look at the process and well, for me honestly, we're still just an Ole team with a better defence, because Varane and Martinez are dead good. Now that both are out, I guess this is the time to see if the team as a whole has improved.

I still don't see big signs that we can keep the ball and stay calm under stress points in games, especially away from home

Of course, he needs more time to implement things and he will get that. But the improvement in play from last year is not as big as some are stating.
 
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frostbite

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That was my point. You are purely looking at it from results perspective.

I'm looking at it from process perspective. For me we've made a shit ton of progress even if injuries derail our season now. Our lack of squad depth and our insane schedule for me mitigate any results.

If you only look at results, most clubs and managers will go nowhere.
No we didn't. We lost 7-0. Often, we don't know what we are doing, we can't even pass the ball around to waste time when we are ahead.

We all want ETH to succeed and bring us a PL trophy. But in reality, we are still quite far from it.
 

Stobzilla

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This thread makes me ashamed to be part of this fanbase at times. Good god.

If you understand football when you’re watching the bloody game, you would never try to make such absurd claims that EtH isn’t good enough/needs to be sacked if we don’t get top four etc/isn’t better than any previous disastrous managers.

Open your eyes.
Same people who laugh at the reactionaries on AFTV then come on here and do the same thing.

At least those on AFTV have the decency to put their face to some of the nonsense they spout.
 

TheReligion

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He’s had some unbelievable bad luck and difficulties this season;

- Long injuries to Martial, Eriksen and Garnacho
- Not given any backing in January whilst every rival was
- Casemiro being given lengthy bans
- Congested fixture list due to the WC
- Greenwood saga
- Ronaldo saga
- Losing Varane and Martinez for the run in
- Takeover saga in the background

Every single one of the missing players are integral to how he wants to play.

Very difficult and frustrating to have all of this when you’re starting a rebuild.
 
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frostbite

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Unfortunately, the most incredible improvement from last year is Casemiro. A midfielder that we needed for years now.

Without Casemiro, or when Casemiro does not play well as with Sevilla, we look lost, we still play Ole ball.

But it is still early days. It is not easy for ETH (or anyone else) to transform a team in a few months.
 

frostbite

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He’s had some unbelievable bad luck and difficulties this season;

- Long injuries to Martial, Eriksen and Garnacho
- Not given any backing in January whilst every rival was
- Casemiro being given lengthy bans
- Congested fixture list due to the WC
- Greenwood saga
- Ronaldo saga
- Losing Varane and Martinez for the run in
- Takeover saga in the background

Every single one of the missing players are integral to how he wants to play.

Very difficult and frustrating to have all of this when you’re starting a rebuild.
This is all true.

It is also true that ETH has been very lucky that Chelsea and Spurs and Liverpool are messed up this year.
 

Garethw

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Ten Hag will be here next season, regardless of our final league position.

But if we fall out of the top 4 and out of the rest of the cups by the end of the season, then he's not been 'brilliant' or 'genius' or anything, he's just OK. No better or worse than past United managers.

Just would be nice to see some balanced objectivity in this thread, rather than wild hype all the time.
It happens with every manager mate. There were posters on here that wouldn’t say a word against Solskjaer or Mourinho even when it was obvious that both needed to go.

ETH has been good and our performances have generally improved since last season, but so they should after spending >£200 million in the summer.

The 7-0 loss to Liverpool is probably the worst performance I’ve seen in over 36 years of supporting the club. It’s ridiculous to state that ETH has been brilliant after that total shambles. He’s been good but we need to see a massive improvement from him as well as the players.
 

frostbite

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And unlucky that Newcastle have risen from the dead and Arsenal have clicked?
We all expected Newcastle to improve, is this a surprise? And the truth is that we haven't really improved much, and that's why we have the same points as Newcastle. They improved, we didn't (improve much).

Arsenal has really done well.
 

TheReligion

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We all expected Newcastle to improve, is this a surprise? And the truth is that we haven't really improved much, and that's why we have the same points as Newcastle. They improved, we didn't (improve much).

Arsenal has really done well.
I’ve just given you a long list of reasons which have contributed to your view of us failing to improve.

Very difficult to build when you keep getting the blocks taken away.