Erik ten Hag | 2022/23 & 2023/24

[Zlatan 7]

We finished 6th despite having a talented squad who finished second the season before because our heads weren’t in it.
I’d argue heads dropping isn’t just conceding and getting back in the game but being under the cosh in games, coming through it and not conceding.
I’m sick of seeing team X has won at OT for the first time since 1936. I just saw we are undefeated for 31 home games under Ten Hag.

Yeah fair enough, I agree with that too. But that’s different to coming from behind

 

[Borys]

Shouldn't be blamed for losing two goals early on, but also shouldn't be praised for the comeback. Rashford and Bruno coming back to their best positions and playing key role in the win is food for though.

 

[RedOrange]

Where does this caf expectation of full 90 minutes of dominance come from? Hardly any games have one side dominating for full 90 minutes, and neither did we do during SAF era barring some games with amazing form.

I think a big part of this is that most of us don't watch a ton of non-United matches. City drew against Forest and Everton last season. They lost both matches to Brentford. They have matches where they look dodgy against an enthusiastic press by a mid to lower table club.

Just get rid of the two lazy, inattentive plays from Rashford and AWB early on and United would have won this one comfortably. Those two and the rest of their teammates played well afterwards, which is a good sign going forward. People act like it's meaningless but it's a good indication that we won't see the death spiral and downing of tools when things start to go wrong like we did with the last 3 managers.

 

[M Bison]

We have a coach whose job it is is to improve finishing hand picked by ETH, yet the players are more wasteful.

some things you cant legislate for though and we saw some of those today in my view.

the criticism of him is way OTT imo.

 

[JuriM]

We have a coach whose job it is is to improve finishing hand picked by ETH, yet the players are more wasteful.

I don't think we are even that bad at purely "finishing"; but more on decision-making and composure in the final third - where the player takes even the wrong decision between a shot or a pass or just picks the wrong foot or smth.

 

[Dominos]

In a league where Liverpool and Chelsea were poor, and a mickey mouse trophy. Bear in mind we nearly threw away top 4 to Liverpool after we won the cup and limped to 3rd place only because the teams below us messed up.

Such a weird take. We got 75 points. 75 points gets you top 4 every season bar complete outliers.

This is about as bizarre as saying City only won the league because Arsenal dropped 30 points across the season. No shit, other teams drop points, you accumulate more points than them, you finish above them. That's how league football works.

 

[Atheist]

My concern is around our fitness levels. In a match where we dominated possession for large parts of the game, most of the team looked out of gas near the end, including some of the subs. Although it’s early in the season, that’s pretty concerning and the blame should go to the manager and the coaching staff on that front.

 

[Rockets Redglare]

In a league where Liverpool and Chelsea were poor, and a mickey mouse trophy. Bear in mind we nearly threw away top 4 to Liverpool after we won the cup and limped to 3rd place only because the teams below us messed up.

Liverpool finished 8 points and 2 places behind us. Take a breath mate, you’re embarrassing yourself here.

 

[cyberman]

In a league where Liverpool and Chelsea were poor, and a mickey mouse trophy. Bear in mind we nearly threw away top 4 to Liverpool after we won the cup and limped to 3rd place only because the teams below us messed up.

We win 8, drew 1 and lost 2 from our last 11 games.
This post is proof how toxic these top 4 threads are when infested by negative posters. The if we lose x / y / z and Liverpool wins theirs then that means they’ll be right on our heels have bled over to altering reality.

 

[ThinkTank@Cafe]

I believe in Eric but this preseason is his feck up. The players are ridiculously unfit.

 

[Dominos]

Where does this caf expectation of full 90 minutes of dominance come from? Hardly any games have one side dominating for full 90 minutes, and neither did we do during SAF era barring some games with amazing form.

The point is we just can't seem to ever win a game convincingly. Performance levels matter because it's an indicator of how likely you are to consistently win games and put together long winning runs.

At the moment you go into every game knowing the opposition will have plenty of chances, we'll turnover the ball a lot, they'll breeze right past our lightweight players a lot during those transitions, and if we are winning we'll be holding on for dear life to a 1 goal lead at the end of the game. After £400m spent and it being the 2nd season, we should expect better all around performance levels than the ones we've seen against Wolves, Spurs and Forest.

 

[glasgow 21]

In a few hours we we could be looking at 6 points from 9 and much of the drama looks unnecessary, would still like an encouraging performance that suggest improvement.

We now have 6 for 9 with no striker. I hope we can wait for the introduction over a few games of Hojlund before the media gets ETH the sack. They are baying for the first sacking and the clickbait to follow like every other year.

 

[always_hoping]

We win 8, drew 1 and lost 2 from our last 11 games.
This post is proof how toxic these top 4 threads are when infested by negative posters. The if we lose x / y / z and Liverpool wins theirs then that means they’ll be right on our heels have bled over to altering reality.

Mitcher lad showed up for his lack of research.

Even if one is not a big fan or have a dislike for Ten Hag you can't ignore the impressive home form of 31 games unbeaten in all competitions and last 20 home games in the league getting 54 points out of possible 60 that is Ferguson like home form.

 

[Tom Van Persie]

31 games unbeaten at home.

 

[Toddler]

With NO.1 CB missing second half NO.1. LB missing whole game and no striker since october last year. I would say yeah, this is the best he can do. Its good enough so far.

You seriously think that barely edging out this FOREST side, letting them dominate with 10 men (after we scored the winner) is the best he can do with this team? If so then we are in deep duuduu. Its no where near good enough. Standards man.

 

[Tom Van Persie]

You have to laugh at the clowns calling for him to be sacked five minutes in. It was a bad start but we turned it around and played well. That's a game that can kick start a season.

 

[VP89]

You seriously think that barely edging out this FOREST side, letting them dominate with 10 men (after we scored the winner) is the best he can do with this team? If so then we are in deep duuduu. Its no where near good enough. Standards man.

They were throwing the kitchen sink at us in the last ten minutes. They didn't dominate the game.

Youre being a bit loose here mate. We created far more than what Arsenal did against them for example. Arsenal also threw away a win against 10 man Fulham too.

 

[Sarni]

It's now 500 million? Wow

Actually it 5 billion £
And agreed, all are dross including Onana, Martinez, Casemiro.

OK, £420m or whatever, it will get to £500m soon enough.

A lot of money on players who mostly won’t be here when we hire a new manager.

Antony is just criminal. The fact that he worked with him before and not only deemed him good enough for us but also worth north of £80m is absurd.

 

[Tony247]

Shit happens and it happened in 5 mins. But later his team played really well. Manager too deserves credit.

 

[Di Maria's angel]

People out here crying about ETH whilst their new shiny dream is losing 3-0 at home to Moyes.

We need to chill out and enjoy the win.

 

[Shiva87]

What's his football though? Does anyone know? And I'm pretty sure Casemiro, Bruno, Rashford etc don't play his kind of football but they're all regular starters.

I don’t know if you are ignoring 4-5 months of last season or you just don’t remember them.

He found a way to have his players interchange and create chances galore. Our problem was finishing. Then we had the Weghorst situation and no striker due to a poor January window.

fast forward this season, he has replaced two parts of the squad that no one can really see the benefits of yet. Onana had a brilliant CL final and he is no where close to that level of integration into this team. Mount is a bet and no one knows what will happen - but we have a striker who is yet to come into the squad.

We have been a broken squad for 4-5 seasons now which is being fixed. It takes time. Yes Spurs have started well, but that doesn’t mean it will play out like that through the season. Let’s see how it works out. Also Ange will have nowhere near as much scrutiny as ETH when performances are bad.

Changes made by Ten Hag so far

1. Ronaldo gone
2. Maguire benched (as good as gone)
3. DDG gone
4. McFred is no longer our midfield.
5. Rashford reinvigorated
6. Lots of deadwood gone (Bailey, Telles, Elanga, Fred, Garner, Chong etc) - club could do better here honestly but limited by budget and FFP.
7. Player contract situation being fixed (no crazy contracts for underperforming players)
8. Attacking intent/ proactive play.
9. Old Trafford is a fortress. Teams don’t get points here for free. How many teams broke their poor form streaks against us in the previous seasons?
10. AWB attacking output.

Things to fix - but looks like he has a plan:

1. Forward positions and chance conversion.
2. Midfield balance with Mount
3. Composure against the high press.
4. Wastefulness in possession.

Things he looks like he has no clue how to fix:

1. Consistency
2. In game mentality issues and game management.
3. Players losing their one on one battles on the pitch too many times. (Physical strength issue or mentality issue - not clear)

Things he seems to have got wrong:

1. Greenwood situation handling. Should have been more decisive and got the club to exit him earlier.
2. Antony signing (but he could still redeem himself)

Based on all that he is dealing with, how do you expect him to implement his Ajax style of play till he gets to reboot the club fully. He is definitely one of those managers who has excelled at tactical side of the game in his previous club, so I doubt you can question that track record.

 

[ClassAct147]

A blind man could see we need better players in midfield and hopefully we get them but ETH should admit the truth about what's going on on the pitch and stop saying that so and so played well when they were truly awful. Beginning to lose faith in him now. If we can get a few quality players in quickly then it really will be judgement time for the manager.

 

[georgipep]

No it isn’t

Cool

 

[Toddler]

They were throwing the kitchen sink at us in the last ten minutes. They didn't dominate the game.

Youre being a bit loose here mate. We created far more than what Arsenal did against them for example. Arsenal also threw away a win against 10 man Fulham too.

Fair enough man - dominating the game is a bit much but they did have a lot of control and had a chance or two. Should not happen at home. Nevertheless we have not been anywhere near good enough even by the low stardards that we seem to rocking here these days.

 

[DomesticTadpole]

A blind man could see we need better players in midfield and hopefully we get them but ETH should admit the truth about what's going on on the pitch and stop saying that so and so played well when they were truly awful. Beginning to lose faith in him now. If we can get a few quality players in quickly then it really will be judgement time for the manager.

He cannot say a certain players or players were rubbish in public. He would have a mutiny on his hands.

 

[glasgow 21]

In a league where Liverpool and Chelsea were poor, and a mickey mouse trophy. Bear in mind we nearly threw away top 4 to Liverpool after we won the cup and limped to 3rd place only because the teams below us messed up.

I think you will find Liverpool had to pass Newcastle and both had to pass us before loosing top 4, but I like your drama.

 

[Strelok]

They were throwing the kitchen sink at us in the last ten minutes. They didn't dominate the game.

Agreed. We did what was logical to protect our lead but tbh I could not be happy with our physical level and how we kept possession and dealt with the press in the last 20'.

 

[glasgow 21]

31 games unbeaten at home.

Positive comments like that will get you a warning on here.

 

[Di Maria's angel]

31 games unbeaten at home.

Not good enough. Sack him now.

 

[Shiva87]

Since SAF retired, we have signed in midfield: Fellaini (Moyes), Blind, Herrera, Scheinderling, Schweinsteiger (LvG), Matic, Pogba, Fred (Mourinho), Donny (Ole), Casemiro, Eriksen and Mount (ten Hag).

We have signed many, just that we have been shit at it. Not a single player without questions there.

Have you skipped Bruno for a particular reason. He makes this list look a bit better!

 

[Revan]

Have you skipped Bruno for a particular reason. He makes this list look a bit better!

No.10 signed to play as No.10. Mount is a 10 too but was signed to play in midfield.

 

[Mickeza]

31 games unbeaten at home.

Won 19 of our last 22 home league games I think. Has he steadied the ship though?

 

[arthurka]

The structure above the manager for being idiots. The managers for actually wanting that power (for example EtH wanted Rangnick out).

It is a shitshow. Which is why I am not advocating for EtH's exit, despite that I think he is somewhere between clueless and average.

Absolutely not matter who is put in inn the position he is doomed to fail.

 

[mu4c_20le]

Won 19 of our last 22 home league games I think. Has he steadied the ship though?

Sure, the home ship anyways.

 

[The Mitcher]

The structure above the manager for being idiots. The managers for actually wanting that power (for example EtH wanted Rangnick out).

It is a shitshow. Which is why I am not advocating for EtH's exit, despite that I think he is somewhere between clueless and average.

Not having the fraud Rangnick was a great decision by ETH.

 

[VP89]

Fair enough man - dominating the game is a bit much but they did have a lot of control and had a chance or two. Should not happen at home. Nevertheless we have not been anywhere near good enough even by the low stardards that we seem to rocking here these days.

It can happen. It happened with Arsenal today. We dominated them for most the game, just like we dominated Spurs in the first 45.

Ten Hags system will concede chances. Even peak Ajax were leaking some big chances, but they created a huge amount more. We just need to get used to this system and work our way to more sustained performances. We aren't adopting a possession first approach like Pep and Arteta. That was never the design.

 

[crossy1686]

31 games unbeaten at home.

Now do the away form

 

[Lights Out]

I just don’t understand how we complain the lack of a striker is why we don’t score goals - and then West Ham put 6 past Chelsea & Brighton with Antonio up front

 

[The Mitcher]

I just don’t understand how we complain the lack of a striker is why we don’t score goals - and then West Ham put 6 past Chelsea & Brighton with Antonio up front

Antonio hasn't been a winger for a few seasons now, but I get your point. It's really down to coaching.

 

[CG1010]

The point is we just can't seem to ever win a game convincingly. Performance levels matter because it's an indicator of how likely you are to consistently win games and put together long winning runs.

At the moment you go into every game knowing the opposition will have plenty of chances, we'll turnover the ball a lot, they'll breeze right past our lightweight players a lot during those transitions, and if we are winning we'll be holding on for dear life to a 1 goal lead at the end of the game. After £400m spent and it being the 2nd season, we should expect better all around performance levels than the ones we've seen against Wolves, Spurs and Forest.

Nobody can defend the performances against Wolves or Spurs. But today was very good, and very dominant. We could have scored more and their 2 goals came early on. It was thrilling dominant and enjoyable to watch for United fans. Happy to take it.