Erik ten Hag | 2022/23 & 2023/24

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I‘m impressed with Hag‘s willingness to continue to give everything and try everything to get this team back to winning and to clean sheets.

I think most of us me included would have downed tools by now.
 
Pretty sure ETH just didn't want somebody around in an undefined role. I also think he should at least should have talked to him (or send one of his coaches to do so) but lets not construct more to the story. RR was looking for a position to influence things. Being a consultant, another voice potentially questioning ETH or making his decisions more difficult, I totally get that he didn't want that. The club was the one who should have been





Those statements are extremely optimistic. I think I see your points as we didn't fall apart but re-constructing recent memory probably won't help in discussions. Acting as if this was a close match... come on mate. Bayern wasn't great yesterday but I am pretty sure, they had at least one or two gears left. They got complacent, thats why the result looks like it does.


All we did last season was the "transition shit". So stating it doesn't work is not true. It might not work as of now but there is still the chance. Our players need to hit some form. I am the last one to absolve ETH from the blame but throwing his ideas to the bin so early in the season and with as many injuries we have, wouldnt be the smartest thing to do.


Nice that you are positive but some of those things will only invite more heat onto the manager. Come on... "no Mount, no Amrabat, no Mainoo" against Arsenal. Those 3 guys have a grandtotal of how many appearances for United? Is it even 5? And Brighton themselves didn't have their A-Team ready.

Obviously everyone is looking at things differently and I would agree, the injuries should prevent us from being toooo drastic in our criticism but a source of optimism? Thats a stretch.
I guess I'd rather be optimistic than the opposite these days. Like you say, we didn't fall apart against one of the favorites for the Champions League while missing 12 first team players. I'll take a 4-3 loss in that context, for sure.
 
I‘m impressed with Hag‘s willingness to continue to give everything and try everything to get this team back to winning and to clean sheets.

I think most of us me included would have downed tools by now.
Why would you have downed tools as manager right now?
 
Now there's one problem with ETH for me: he talks about being strict, making certain standards yet keeps on picking Maguire and McTominay into the squad and first team.

Hell, even Cristiano who was openly in diva mode kept playing and being selected as captain, and if he wasn't stupid enough to go to PM for interview (thanks God he did) I'm sure he would keep on playing in first team. maybe as captain for the rest of the season. This way ETH looks like hypocrite in some way and weak in eyes of players because for all the talk there aren't proper consequences.

Fecking Arteta binned Auba, captain at the time, without second guessing his decision eventhough it made Arsenal weaker in short term. ETH will talk about certain players being not up to required standard and then plays excatly those players over and over again. Poor managment IMO and it only makes player power higher than managers when it should be other way around.

Don't understand this post at all. Maguire played two games, was shit, and got dropped to 4th choice. He even preferred to play Shaw at centre back where he could. He only came in when we were at bare bones at the back.

McTominay actually played well at the start of last season, but after Casemiro came into the first team, he only had 4 more league starts all season, again when injuries and suspensions gave us little choice.

You say you're sure that Ronaldo would have been both team captain and first team for the "entire season" - Eth had already benched him for 2 months so far that season, despite howls in the press, so I don't see why you would assume that.

Aubamayeng was first dropped by Arteta in March 2021 but the problems continued and he wasn't stripped of the captaincy until December. So it took Arteta 8 months to sort him out over 2 seasons.
 
Why would you have downed tools as manager right now?

Maybe because like with most players who join United, they don’t realise what an amateur hour show the club is until they have joined, at which stage they’ve signed all sorts of non disclosures where they have to act Like whoever’s fault it is for failure, it’s certainly not the setup of the club.
 
Some things I disagree with:
1) we had some good spells last season but some awful ones. Losing 7-0 at home to Liverpool a new low for this club.
2) Casimero is not a good signing for £60m plus huge wages when his legs were gone. He is fast becoming a liability. Antony also a waste, we hugely overpaid for him. Onana was v expensive when David Raya was half the price and a great sweeper and possibly better shot stopper. We can judge Mount as many have seen a lot of him. Dont see how he solves our big problems
3) There is no DOF, as is clear from the fact that ETH seems to have final say and most of his signings came from Ajax or had time in Dutch league
4) ARe his tactics being pragmatic or just not working? No idea. not sure anyone does, which is part of the problem. Wolves cut us apart at will. Lets not forget that
5) his overplaying of core squad last season was raised even before we got a load more injuries
Fair points, but overall I do not see so much disagreement. Just to reiterate, of course there are things to be critical about when it comes to his management. Also I want to point out that despite the threads having been merged since, my post was made in the "sack or keep ETH" thread and was most of all directed against the notion that sacking Ten Hag might be on the table, which it absolutely should not. Criticizing Ten Hag is always on the table.

1) Another poster has already pointed out the catastrophic Liverpool loss was away - not to excuse it. But despite bad spells and low points, last season was still a successful one overall and must be registered as that. Which is why it is so absolutely ludicrous to introduce the notion of sacking the manager at the start of a second season after a good first one.
Of course it is a problem that the very good spell which led to the overall success of last season has been followed by a poor spell, ending the season and then ongoing, which means there is no feeling of progress. Which is bad. But again I feel it is important to call out the elephant in the room coinciding with the bad spell: the club being put on sale and the arguable massively negative influence this has had on squad building and reinforcing since January, as well as on club atmosphere.
2) I do not believe Casemiro's legs are gone. I believe Casemiro takes his time to come into gear, he has the Real Madrid player arrogance and confidence of reserving the right to show up when it matters. Of course, at Man United now there is a stark difference to when it matters than what he had at Real. We do not have the kind of mojo Real have and which Casemiro has carried with him, with us right now it is much more of a daily struggle. But his class and quality have been vital for our team and will be again. In the squad mix, a player like him is massive. That our overall midfield is poor is not on his transfer.
I have agreed about Antony. In light of the ridiculous fee, that transfer was a blunder that is both on Ten Hag and on the club. I stand behind Onana and the decision to sign him. I am going to be positive about Mount until further notice, far too early to judge the transfer.
3) Here I have to disagree also in bold just on principle, the obvious fact is that we have a DoF. It is curious how so many posters refuse to process this fact, and this stubbornness to find a factual basis for discussion makes me want to fight Murtough's corner, if only to stand up for his existence :lol:
In yesterday's press conference, Ten Hag has stated that transfers are 50/50 between him and the DoF, both having a veto. So on paper that is the DoF/manager balance as we currently strike it, which every club strikes in varying models. I have agreed extensively that in the sum of this balance, as we can discern it, the DoF's input comes across as lacking and the DoF does not seem strong enough. It also comes across as if Murtough is an extension of the club owners' weakness/unaccountability/disinterest/incompetence, whether by his own lack of competence and authority, or by force of circumstance, or both.
So if you want to put it like that - 'if this is what our DoF looks like we might as well have none' -, I am starting to agree.
4) I agree. I will say that the tactics are clearly working in parts of the games and then they are not. But there is only so long that Ten Hag can wring his hands about the team's inconsistency before he must find a way to fix it. Also it is problematic if the manager claims after every bad loss that the team is not following instructions. One would assume that if a player is not following instructions, you sub them right away, and I do not think I remember Ten Hag making a first half change once, for example. And if too many players are not following instructions to sub them all, repeatedly, it reflects badly on the manager's ability to do his job.
But there is so much trouble going on with the squad in the surroundings that we have to wait a while, and see. Ten Hag absolutely deserves some credit in the bank.
5) That is a problem with many top managers, most teams that are successful at top level play with a very consistent first 11, and require the consistent availability of a strong first 11 to be successful. See Klopp.
 
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People may disagree with me here but ETH shouldn’t be going anywhere this season. Arteta finished 8th twice in a row when he first took charge of Arsenal, so it took him roughly 3 seasons to get something out of that squad and I think they’ve only got a few players who are still there when he took over. It took Klopp about 3 years, it took Guardiola a couple of seasons but obvs he got the resources. ETH has had to deal with so much, he’s got the Antony situation, he’s got the Sancho situation, he’s had to deal with Greenwood, Ronaldo, the ownership being unstable. Also no top manager should have to deal with the transfers all on there own, most top teams have a top director of football, we haven’t got that… ETH is not to blame for us spending 90m on Antony, he was a 50m player at most but that’s what happens when you have someone who can’t negotiate. He’ll have to do something really mad or finish bottom halve for him to be sacked this season. We don’t really want to get into the habit of hiring and firing managers after a couple of seasons. I’m expecting in the future us to get bought out, all our deadwood to have been sold and for us to be in a strong position when it’s time to take over from our rivals city!

Unfortunately we have developed this habit. But I agree with all what you said. It is more than the manager’s fault. In football, the manager is the “weakest link”, the easiest to blame and let go especially with all media pressure these days. The United manager job comes with lots of pressure; the club’s overall situation makes the manager go under more scrutiny still. For me, I have not seen enough to make me say ETH should go. Is he perfect? No, some decisions (player and tactical) were off in my opinion.

- why did we go for Mount? We might have overpaid as we don’t know how to negotiate and clubs abuse that. But why target him in the first place? 75 million to play someone out of his position (mount is not a CM) is weird to say the least. Now, given the current RW situation, Mount might fill that - hope he does and succeeds as I do not see him as a #8 player.
- he favors players he worked with before. Not ideal to say the least.
- some in game tactics have gone wrong especially when it comes to adapting to a bad game and moving things around. Sometimes substitutions have gone wrong or made too late.

Nonetheless, I think ETH brings in the right authority. Discipline is essential to the game and unfortunately players these days have big egos and lots of distractions. For instance, there is no way ETH can be blamed for the Sancho situation. Sancho has been below average since he signed for us. ETH was very supportive last year in dealing with him and giving him time to integrate back to the team. After all that support, the team needs return. Erik’s comment about Sancho was not catastrophic, he mentioned that players are selected based on their form in training. So?

united have also had lots of injuries starting this season. The manager is yet to feature his preferred 11 together. Squad depth is essential, but we don’t have that.

we also got the Glazers’ issue! The uncertainty around the club’s sale and financial position only adds to pressure
 
Why would you have downed tools as manager right now?
Several reasons. Ownership instability the first one.

Not able to sell players who are not needed (Maguire and McTominay, Van de Beek, Martial), and consequently not getting upgrades in.

The biggest reason for me, would be seeing players not carry out instructions during games, repeatedly.

Then there are the players that kick up a fuss: Jadon Sancho who was supported and helped through a difficult time by Ten Hag last season. He is the one that we know about.

That‘s not a normal amount of difficulties to deal with. Let‘s not talk about injuries (Hag calls them excuses).

The whole team seems fragile. We made great progress last year in improving fight and spirit, and we are back where we started last year. We are supposed to solve our inconsistencies from last season, like the bad away form, and get more resilient.

All in all Ten Hag is trying to lead by example, and I hope the miserable fecks catch on, otherwise it will go to shit.
 
If you can't tell why that's the right decision I don't know what to say to you
He is absolutely right. My comment was a response to criticism that Ten Hag doesn‘t bench players that underperform.
 
EtH mentioned twice in his last conference that when he gives reasons the fake journalist turn them into excuses.

Which was a great answer because many time he will answer their questions about injuries, and then is becomes "EtH moaning again about injuries...everyone has injuries blah blah"

The same happened when they asked him about spending money...he explained everyone in the league spends money...which then gets twisted into "Brighton won because they spent more than us"
 
If ETH is sacked the club and fans have learned nothing. Then again; nothing has really changed so why should we expect different results.

“ETH chose these signings, it’s his fault”. Why are United managers choosing signings? This just doesn’t happen at most functional clubs. The fact he is choosing targets categorically proves that United is still not setup to succeed. Managers can say who they want and play a role in transfers but well run clubs have squad management strategies well beyond “this manager needs a rw, get him the lad he trusts”.

Our club is just a amateur hour chancer pretending to be a big club by throwing money around.
 
Its too early to be questioning ETH, if we are this crap with Amrabat, Varane, Mount and Antony back in the team then its a cause for concern.
If Arsenal or City had 4-5 first team players out they would struggle as well. The squad is too depleted right now.
 
I don't think he had recovered from the 7-0 battering at Anfield. It was all okay up until that point.
 
I don't think he had recovered from the 7-0 battering at Anfield. It was all okay up until that point.
We actually had a better record than Liverpool in the remaining games after that, I know we didn't play as well as we had been but we didn't go totally off the rails.
 
Its too early to be questioning ETH, if we are this crap with Amrabat, Varane, Mount and Antony back in the team then its a cause for concern.
If Arsenal or City had 4-5 first team players out they would struggle as well. The squad is too depleted right now.

Difference being City have quality players on the bench too, we don't.
 
I don't think he had recovered from the 7-0 battering at Anfield. It was all okay up until that point.

I don't think that match had that sort of an effect. The players and manager didn't seem to care that it was a humiliation.

Even among fans, there is not much desire for revenge as seen in the other thread. Evidently, we had the last laugh by finishing in top-4 and winning the smallest cup, so it's all good.

Probably also why we're okay to roll over for Brighton every time. As long as we finish above them in the end it's fine. There's not enough pride in this team or manager for a battering to mess up our momentum. Come to think of it, at this point it's actually a feature not a bug.
 
He is under pressure but today and the next 3 or 4 games is about man management and grinding out results not being spineless and excpecting his barca/city tactics is going to beat Burnley because it just might not. They just might make it extremley hard and sit really deep.
Im not going to say anything about Bayern because we all knew the result of that and that isnt on him. But if he imposes hymself in the dressing room and the players run out motivated and hungry they will surley beat Burnley.
He can impose his vision later now we just need points. Hopefully he can understand that because he seems very single minded in his football beliefs without a Cv that cant really back it up. If he cant understand that then he is not siuted for Man United and english football in general. Saf and Mourhino understood that and have the CV (in England) to back it up.
 
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If ETH is sacked the club and fans have learned nothing. Then again; nothing has really changed so why should we expect different results.

“ETH chose these signings, it’s his fault”. Why are United managers choosing signings? This just doesn’t happen at most functional clubs. The fact he is choosing targets categorically proves that United is still not setup to succeed. Managers can say who they want and play a role in transfers but well run clubs have squad management strategies well beyond “this manager needs a rw, get him the lad he trusts”.

Our club is just a amateur hour chancer pretending to be a big club by throwing money around.

Rightly or wrongly United handed big influence over transfers to ETH just to get him in. This was mentioned a lot when we were interviewing him for the position, that he would require that to take the job. The fans absolutely loved it at the time. Jokers.

He also opted against working with RR on that front. Seems his agents are heavily involved in our transfers to. It's got his handprints all over it. Yet its apparently now an excuse for him that we gave him what he wanted.

This might be why Spurs walked away from hiring him, maybe we should have done the same.
 
Rightly or wrongly United handed big influence over transfers to ETH just to get him in. This was mentioned a lot when we were interviewing him for the position, that he would require that to take the job. The fans absolutely loved it at the time. Jokers.

He also opted against working with RR on that front. Seems his agents are heavily involved in our transfers to. It's got his handprints all over it. Yet its apparently now an excuse for him that we gave him what he wanted.

This might be why Spurs walked away from hiring him, maybe we should have done the same.
Of course we should have. Any manager who also wants to be a de facto DoF should be thanked for the interview and asked to feck off.
 
Rightly or wrongly United handed big influence over transfers to ETH just to get him in. This was mentioned a lot when we were interviewing him for the position, that he would require that to take the job. The fans absolutely loved it at the time. Jokers.

He also opted against working with RR on that front. Seems his agents are heavily involved in our transfers to. It's got his handprints all over it. Yet its apparently now an excuse for him that we gave him what he wanted.

This might be why Spurs walked away from hiring him, maybe we should have done the same.

And why do you think United agreed to his terms?

And I don’t think the answer is because we have a proven world class record at squad management for the last decade.
 
He is under pressure but today and the next 3 or 4 games is about man management and grinding out results not being spineless and excpecting his barca/city tactics is going to beat Burnley because it just might not. They just might make it extremley hard and sit really deep.
Im not going to say anything about Bayern because we all knew the result of that and that isnt on him. But if he imposes hymself in the dressing room and the players run out motivated and hungry they will surley beat Burnley.
He can impose his vision later now we just need points. Hopefully he can understand that because he seems very single minded in his football beliefs without a Cv that cant really back it up. If he cant understand that then he is not siuted for Man United and english football in general. Saf and Mourhino understood that and have the CV (in England) to back it up.
Imposing his vision is the way to win. It’s not as far away as it looks. The more spineless thing would be to give up and revert to a low / mid block static 4231. They’ve all got to keep at it and it will come.
 
Of course we should have. Any manager who also wants to be a de facto DoF should be thanked for the interview and asked to feck off.

Would you have trusted the club to sign its own targets the last 2 years ? Some of you speak like United was doing well building squads and making successful signings for the last 10 years.
 
And why do you think United agreed to his terms?

And I don’t think the answer is because we have a proven world class record at squad management for the last decade.
They agreed to it because they haven't got the slightest idea of how to run an elite club.
 
Would you have trusted the club to sign its own targets the last 2 years ? Some of you speak like United was doing well building squads and making successful signings for the last 10 years.
I would trust mire full-time scouts to identify good players than any manager who spends most of their time in other things (you know coaching, tactics etc).

We have been shit at signing players because the managers have been in charge of signing players.
 
Imposing his vision is the way to win. It’s not as far away as it looks. The more spineless thing would be to give up and revert to a low / mid block static 4231. They’ve all got to keep at it and it will come.
Nothing wrong with his vision. But he doesn't have the players. That, and he might be underestimating the PL.
 
Imposing his vision is the way to win. It’s not as far away as it looks. The more spineless thing would be to give up and revert to a low / mid block static 4231. They’ve all got to keep at it and it will come.
Well thats very naive if I might say. We need three points not a draw with shades of barca with it because he had his transfer windows and his time and now its time to step up against an inferior opponent. Dare I say he can probably play Maguire against Burnley (which would probably suit Maguire) but won't. At the end of the day if a player isnt good enough and you dont rate him he might get you over the finish line on the day. Thats why Ferguson stood by somebody like Fletcher and the guy repaid him 150 %. Eth probably already invented a culture in the club with players that are behind him (Onana, Antony, Lindelof and Casemiro) and the ones that are not (Sancho and Maguire). In all honesty exept Casemiro (prehaps Onana) non of these guys are Mufc quality but we are not UNITED as he said in his press conference.
 
Well thats very naive if I might say. We need three points not a draw with shades of barca with it because he had his transfer windows and his time and now its time to step up against an inferior opponent. Dare I say he can probably play Maguire against Burnley (which would probably suit Maguire) but won't. At the end of the day if a player isnt good enough and you dont rate him he might get you over the finish line on the day. Thats why Ferguson stood by somebody like Fletcher and the guy repaid him 150 %. Eth probably already invented a culture in the club with players that are behind him (Onana, Antony, Lindelof and Casemiro) and the ones that are not (Sancho and Maguire). In all honesty exept Casemiro (prehaps Onana) non of these guys are Mufc quality but we are not UNITED as he said in his press conference.
People are watching the games and seeing problems that are there but also problems that aren’t there.

EtH gets pressed on what is going wrong but it’s not really that complicated. We have a new system and new players and have had three major off-field issues and about five important injuries.

The players that we’ve been able to field aren’t getting it right (yet). But if you listen to EtH and just think about it logically, it’s not a surprise to him and it shouldn’t be a surprise to us. So he doesn’t know why players aren’t getting it right (he says he can’t conclude if the players don’t recognise when they need to run or lack the willingness to run) but, like he says, that is part of the process to find this out and fix it. As he says, Progress is not a linear upward curve. There had to be downs along the way but you can’t bin your plans when you hit these bumps.

We need results, yes, but we’ve got to get them whilst continuing to drill the system and all its rules. If he abandons that he will confuse the players and probably lose anyway. The old way leads to top 4 finishes most years with the odd 5th or 6th. We can do that indefinitely with a low or mid block and a couple of productive forwards. If we ever want to challenge the top we have to change. It’s not easy but it has to be done. It would be naive to think otherwise, if I may say.
 
I would trust mire full-time scouts to identify good players than any manager who spends most of their time in other things (you know coaching, tactics etc).

We have been shit at signing players because the managers have been in charge of signing players.
Ole trusted scouts. Didn't work
 
There's zero chance ETH would have been the one to make this decision. None. You have no idea what you're talking about if you think the manager at any club gets to pick the DoF/Sporting Director, aka his fecking boss, let alone the overall management structure sitting above him in the org chart.

So who is responsible for Rangnick not staying in position then. I only ask because all reports said it was Erik that didn't want to meet with him.
 
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