Do the fans actually trust ETH or is he walking the Green Mile?

Not sure why everyone has a bee in their bonnet tbh. Is he perfect? Not a chance. He's a new manager, in a new league, moving from a previous "smaller" league (with respect to the Eredivisie). He has to learn to adapt like everyone else. So yeah, it's fair game to question and criticise when it's warranted, but you get the feeling that some cannot wait to jump on either his, or the players' back, after a defeat.

We've struggled recently - most notably performance levels dropping during the second half of matches and it is something he has to rectify, but signs are there that we're able to play brilliant football and dominate, albeit not full matches. Is this down to injuries, no reliable CF, post world cup fatigue, a mis-mash of a squad not suitable to his style and/or running in 4 comps until late (naivety perhaps?) ? Maybe all of the above?

But when the season started, and anyone offered us top 4 (let's hope we stick this landing) plus a cup (any cup!), 99% on here would have jumped at it, with the added bonus of "progress on the pitc" - yes, there has been progress IMO and those who cannot see it, are letting the last 1-2 months form blind them (a period we've played 6-8 matches per month iirc). He's doing well and hitting his target at the start of the season and i'll be firmly behind him and give him a second season with another 3-4 players suiting his style.

If we're still having these issues and struggling mid or this time next season, then i'll start questioning him. Hopefully we secure top 4, but yeah he has a bit to learn about this league. Do people even remember how the almighty Pep just about scraped top 4 (on goal difference iirc?) in his first season, having a much better squad than EtH inherited, or Klopp didn't even make top 4 (iirc?) but he had a worse squad tbf to him and how about Arteta? Familiar with the league but was basically a laughing stock for oppo fans until recently. I'm not saying compare EtH to them or give him time and it'll miraculously come right, but yeah some want some sort of overnight success/vindication or they throw their toys out of the pram.

I'll give him the benefit of the doubt, moreso if he manages to execute on top 4 - an FA cup win would just be an added/sweeter bonus on top of it and then next season, i'll push him to learn from all this seasons issues and rectify them and hoping to see a more consistent "product"/style on the field as well.
 
Mockney said:
The fact that as the seasons worn on we have almost uniformly performed well in first halves & then fallen apart in the second is as close to concrete evidence that this is the issue as it’s possible to get…

It’s obviously unclear at this point whether he’ll be a truly top tier manager yet, and his decisions are far from perfect at all times, but the fatigue is incredibly obvious, and so far he’s objectively done incredibly well with his lot this season.
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Yep, i'd agree with that.
 
He's got the mentality to cope with the expectations of being a United manager. He'll prove this in the summer when he starts being ruthless in shipping out those who do not match his mentality
 
Mockney said:
The fact that as the seasons worn on we have almost uniformly performed well in first halves & then fallen apart in the second is as close to concrete evidence that this is the issue as it’s possible to get…

It’s obviously unclear at this point whether he’ll be a truly top tier manager yet, and his decisions are far from perfect at all times, but the fatigue is incredibly obvious, and so far he’s objectively done incredibly well with his lot this season.
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We've played a game on average less than every 4 days since the turn of 2023; 32 games in 124 so a game every 3.875 days to be precise; including a 2 week international break and we also played on the last day of 2022. The workload has been completely ridiculous and we're so reliant on certain players that we can't leave them out, so the players are dead on their feet.
 
GaryLifo said:
He's got the mentality to cope with the expectations of being a United manager. He'll prove this in the summer when he starts being ruthless in shipping out those who do not match his mentality
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I trust his decisions. Whether the club will be able to apply them remains to be seen.
 
JB7 said:
We've played a game on average less than every 4 days since the turn of 2023; 32 games in 124 so a game every 3.875 days to be precise; including a 2 week international break and we also played on the last day of 2022. The workload has been completely ridiculous and we're so reliant on certain players that we can't leave them out, so the players are dead on their feet.
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And yet still, even in some of the worst games (incl Liverpool!) we have actually performed pretty damn well in those first halves. We matched Arsenal at the Emirates, blew Sevilla away at OT and even probably shaded it at Anfield (as well as last night)…. And we didn’t just do it playing on the counter either. That’s the measure of how far we’ve progressed. Clearly it isn’t good enough yet and there’s still a weak mentality involved, but it’s really very fecking evidently clear that our biggest problem is fatigue. And has been since February. Frankly the fact that we are still dominating rested in form teams like Villa for 50 odd minutes is fecking amazing!
 
I think more than 90% of us would not have thought that we could be where we are right now. To come out now saying you don‘t trust Ten Hag after thinking we probably would not make top four is weird.

A string of good games doesn‘t mean you get to suddenly up your expectations and then subsequently drop your trust in the managers when injury, lack of training time and fatigue catch up with us.

I trust him and we will get top four. Hopefully we will put up a good fight in the FA cup as well. We are capable of it.
 
The disrespect Ten Hag is getting is simply baffling.
He has us where we are now considering the state of the club the last few years.
He has been phenomenal.
Too many fans seem to thrive on drama and lose the run of themselves completely after a bad result.
 
Silverman said:
The disrespect Ten Hag is getting is simply baffling.
He has us where we are now considering the state of the club the last few years.
He has been phenomenal.
Too many fans seem to thrive on drama and lose the run of themselves completely after a bad result.
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We have still won 4 of our last 6 PL games… and won an FA Cup semi inbetween

This isn’t even a particularly bad run.
 
Silverman said:
The disrespect Ten Hag is getting is simply baffling.
He has us where we are now considering the state of the club the last few years.
He has been phenomenal.
Too many fans seem to thrive on drama and lose the run of themselves completely after a bad result.
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Lord imagine being in an army with them in your squadron. They would fall apart as soon as the fighting began.
 
I think the majority do, there's a minority that appear after every game that seem to revel in our losses.

The second half performances away haven't been great, but our workload has been monumental.
 
Mockney said:
We have still won 4 of our last 6 PL games… and won an FA Cup semi inbetween

This isn’t even a particularly bad run.
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And we are playing good stuff too. We're obviously tiring in games in the second half. The schedule we have had was very cruel too.
 
Yes. The fans are shouting Louie.. I mean Erik Ten Hag's army! Erik Ten Hag's army! so the fans are also satisfied with Louie... I mean Erik Ten Hag.
 
I trust him but I have doubts about some of his decisions.
 
I do trust him but it has been hard to watch some of the pasting we've had this season that have made me question his mentality
 
In his first season and he's ended our six-year wait for a trophy. It might have only been the Carabao Cup, but you have to start to instill a winning mentality somewhere. There's a reason Mourinho and Guardiola valued it so much.

My trust issues are with a large number of our players who season after season have shown they have neither the quality, nor mental strength to perform at this club on a consistent basis. Their performances and the way they threw in the towel last season was unforgivable, and despite the good job ETH has done so far, last season shows how much work he has to do to weed out the crap and bring in stronger characters.

ETH isn't perfect, last night was crying out for Eriksen to try and get a foothold in midfield as the game went on, and don't even get me started on his persistence with Wout, but how much more were people expecting after the car crash of last season?
 
Ish said:
Not sure why everyone has a bee in their bonnet tbh. Is he perfect? Not a chance. He's a new manager, in a new league, moving from a previous "smaller" league (with respect to the Eredivisie). He has to learn to adapt like everyone else. So yeah, it's fair game to question and criticise when it's warranted, but you get the feeling that some cannot wait to jump on either his, or the players' back, after a defeat.

We've struggled recently - most notably performance levels dropping during the second half of matches and it is something he has to rectify, but signs are there that we're able to play brilliant football and dominate, albeit not full matches. Is this down to injuries, no reliable CF, post world cup fatigue, a mis-mash of a squad not suitable to his style and/or running in 4 comps until late (naivety perhaps?) ? Maybe all of the above?

But when the season started, and anyone offered us top 4 (let's hope we stick this landing) plus a cup (any cup!), 99% on here would have jumped at it, with the added bonus of "progress on the pitc" - yes, there has been progress IMO and those who cannot see it, are letting the last 1-2 months form blind them (a period we've played 6-8 matches per month iirc). He's doing well and hitting his target at the start of the season and i'll be firmly behind him and give him a second season with another 3-4 players suiting his style.

If we're still having these issues and struggling mid or this time next season, then i'll start questioning him. Hopefully we secure top 4, but yeah he has a bit to learn about this league. Do people even remember how the almighty Pep just about scraped top 4 (on goal difference iirc?) in his first season, having a much better squad than EtH inherited, or Klopp didn't even make top 4 (iirc?) but he had a worse squad tbf to him and how about Arteta? Familiar with the league but was basically a laughing stock for oppo fans until recently. I'm not saying compare EtH to them or give him time and it'll miraculously come right, but yeah some want some sort of overnight success/vindication or they throw their toys out of the pram.

I'll give him the benefit of the doubt, moreso if he manages to execute on top 4 - an FA cup win would just be an added/sweeter bonus on top of it and then next season, i'll push him to learn from all this seasons issues and rectify them and hoping to see a more consistent "product"/style on the field as well.
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This...
 
Considering it is his first season and still challenging for a top four spot, in the final of the FA Cup and a trophy in the bag already I think he has done pretty good. The squad he has is obviously not good enough in some areas and hopefully with the glazer sale ( fingers crossed ) he will be able to bring in better players, and for that it is hard to critise the manager.
 
edcunited1878 said:
EtH has done a very good job this season, him and his staff.

I trust him 100% and that goes for his staff as well. The backroom staff of analysts, data scientists, etc should only improve as well.

The defensive shape, philosophy, and most importantly the accountability and demands he's place on the squad this year has been refreshing and shows he's a winner.

He's not Harry Potter and the necessary time must be given to someone like him. Must turnover more of the squad and get proper first team players in the matchday squad.
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Well if he's still here after the notorious third season at Old Trafford he may yet become known as the boy who lived
 
The season has gone how we expected hasn't it? We've seen good control over the club in virtually all areas. He's dealt with personalities, set us up well for games, and for the first time in 10 years we have a direction. The only areas he has struggled with are the areas he cannot control. We all knew fatigue would become an issue and we knew the wider squad was shite.

GaryLifo said:
He's got the mentality to cope with the expectations of being a United manager. He'll prove this in the summer when he starts being ruthless in shipping out those who do not match his mentality
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I agree with you but transfers are not all up to him. Our management are all untested here and could easily screw us/him.
 
I trust him as long as we block Eredivisie transfers.
 
No but can you blame us? We’ve been burnt with so many managers. I think Hag has been dealt the harshest by fans.
 
No way. Considering where we are now without a proper no.9 is just pure madness.

We could've been fighting for scraps, but this is a good season for me.
 
On one hand I love that he's wedded to his system and sticks to his principals and wants to attack always but on the other there's clearly been times we just needed to flood the middle of the park and grind shit out - some of these 2nd half collapses could've been avoided with a touch more pragmatism. But then again we used to have to shout Attack Attack Attack at louis

I think he's worked miracles given the state of the squad - no strikers, 2 midfielders and a bunch of players not big enough for the shirt

He's had a cnut of a schedule to deal with but hasn't thrown excuses around or asked for sympathy

It's definitely more good than bad, given the state we were in he's done very well. 8/10
 
MileStolar said:
Well if he's still here after the notorious third season at Old Trafford he may yet become known as the boy who lived
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Haha! What I think fans always think about that 3rd season is the increase in expectation and growing towards becoming title challengers.

With City having the best manager in the world and a unlimited supply of funds (funny how FFP doesn't apply to them and they were the only team of note who made positive revenue through Covid season(s) and they hoard youth players then sell them from throughout their CFG network, which can then show up as FFP friendly), EtH has a goal of being a sustainable Top 3 challenger in the PL, and take their chances in all cup competitions. Try to overtake City whenever possible via Haaland leaving, KDB not being as effective, and then whenever Pep leaves.
 
I trust him having the potential to become an elite head coach. I trust he has the right mentality so given time, he can turn us into competitive title challenger again. How much he could win still depends on luck, and level of competitiveness. Just as Klopp had a argument that he would have won more if not for Pep being in the same league all these years.

However, I don't trust him as a SAF in his peak, that you just let him do everything such as identifying transfer targets, worrying about value of transfer when paying agent fee... The club is now too big to idle around waiting and hoping a different person, a young promising head coach would learn on job to become SAF and take care everything.
 
EtH is doing a good job. I only have one issue with him: Wout
 
GaryLifo said:
He's got the mentality to cope with the expectations of being a United manager. He'll prove this in the summer when he starts being ruthless in shipping out those who do not match his mentality
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The problem is that’s not completely down to him. He will need others to get players out, and I think purchases will need to be better value, and in quantity. If he that happens, great, but there’s quite a few parts to it. I think ETH has done a really good job considering some of the players in the squad and the fact he started without any kind of scouting/recruitment structure.
 
I like the way he dealt with Maguire and Ronaldo, showed he was a serious operator.

I trust that he knows how he wants to develop the squad, who he wants to get rid of and who he wants to keep. Whether the club will be able or willing to accede to his wishes is a totally different question.

I can't get my head around his persistence with Wout. I get that we're short of CFs and Martial is made of porcelain, but I'd rather he put Rashford up front for the last 20-30 minutes of games than bring this guy on who does NOTHING!

And Antony would want to start delivering in a big way, and I mean right f**king quick, because that signing was a massive outlay and that was all on Erik who had him at Ajax.
 
I’ll doubt every new manager, till they start making things happen for us.

Due to the season we’ve had last year my expectations were dampened in the hope he’ll exceed them but it’s not a crime if he can’t.

He can’t be judged on the same scale as managers that have been at the same club for a good few years, in terms of what constitutes success. This I believe we all understand.

That does not mean he can’t be criticised, he seem to be getting on with his job and addressing issues as they arise. To be honest that all one can expect from a manager. A club like United our issues are always mega and hopes are he will keep at it.
 
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