Erik ten Hag | 2022/23 & 2023/24

[crossy1686]

So basically we have a useless board

Yes we do but Levy wouldn’t sell us Kane anyway

 

[Longshanks]

Top 4 looks gone already , it is not the points but the fact that there are easily 4 teams and more much better than us.

It is hard to argue that progress is been made , the only thing consistent about us is that we keep spending large sums of money on the squad and we keep underachieving.

I think ETH needs more time , but these displays and results can't continue without repercussions, we need to see some kind of progression.

It's a long season, top 4 certainly isn't gone already, any fanciful dreams of a title challenge probably are though, but they really were fanciful.

For ETH he is under severe pressure now. Results don't always follow performances but in this case they are. We haven't put one good performance in so far this season, it's been very sporadic. Injuries and some tricky fixtures only cover for so much.

Got to win every game between now and the Derby any further slip ups and I think we should be looking to other options.

If he makes it to the derby that will be a big test and a barometer with which to measure ETH's impact on the team. After well over a year and 400million you would expect to see some serious improvement.

 

[STYLOISRED]

Watch us Destroy Galatasaray with Rashford and Bruno on the bench and then ETH will revert to using them again next weekend. A good manager has to adapt, has to be humble enough to know that plan A won't always work and also has to have the balls to drop big players for the betterment of the team. The next few days will be crucial. If Rashford starts any of our next two games then I'm fully ETH out!

 

[Leftback99]

Would have made zero difference. Rashford would have continued to he Rashford and our game play would still have been crap.

Agree to a point. But given that he has to play with Rashford (he'll never be dropped) who won't create chances for a striker, I though it wound be better to go with more of a creator/dribbler.

 

[Mercurial]

If we had spent on Kane what we have spent for Mount, Holjund and Onana, we'd have a better team today. It is not like these three have solved any of our problems, not even close.

Onana & Höjlund make no sense whatsoever at this stage and furthermore his agent helped broker the deals, faint smell of nepotism.

 

[AshRK]

Yes we do but Levy wouldn’t sell us Kane anyway

And that begs the question what does our recruitment team do. So manager wants antony and they just say ok here you go, 85m down the drain. You want hojlund, ok let us sign him for 72m. This is why I always believe we are fundamentally fecked. You put another manager and we will be in the same position.

 

[Fts 74]

I'm as frustrated as the rest of you with the results but come on sacking him would solve absolutely nothing.

 

[astracrazy]

Watch us Destroy Galatasaray with Rashford and Bruno on the bench and then ETH will revert to using them again next weekend. A good manager has to adapt, has to be humble enough to know that plan A won't always work and also has to have the balls to drop big players for the betterment of the team. The next few days will be crucial. If Rashford starts any of our next two games then I'm fully ETH out!

This.

His biggest mistake today was reverting to the players who "don't do as he asks" for players that do.

All we can hope is its a truly hard lesson learnt as much as he didn't want to believe it.

I one would support bruno and rashford dropped for the foreseeable future.

 

[crossy1686]

And that begs the question what does our recruitment team do. So manager wants antony and they just say ok here you go, 85m down the drain. You want hojlund, ok let us sign him for 72m. This is why I always believe we are fundamentally fecked. You put another manager and we will be in the same position.

We don’t because there’s no money left. You work with what you’ve got and if you can’t then you get sacked and someone else gets a go, like the way it works at every other club

 

[OrcaFat]

Today was a tipping point for me.

The narrative has been injected into the press of an injury crisis but today we had

Onana-First Choice
Varane-First Choice
Dalot-50/50 First choice with AWB
Casemiro-First Choice
Mount-First Choice
Bruno-First Choice
Rashford-First Choice
Hojlund-First Choice

That's nailed on 1st choice starters.

The team simply isn't performing. If ETH says once more that players are not following instructions then those players need to be dropped.

I don't think he should be sacked as there is no succession plan this season but this is down to coaching (which includes picking out of form players)

He hasn’t been saying that they aren’t following the instructions so much recently but he’s bound to say it whenever it’s true.

Dropping players who don’t do their jobs is okay as long as you can bring in other players who will. Unfortunately it’s not that simple. The rules require a lot of application and focus from the players and some of them have been finding it difficult.

As you say, injuries are abating somewhat but a few key players are either out or just coming back from injury. Even so, things are looking much better imo. The team is gradually coming together and there is competition for places in some positions. Results will come imo.

 

[AshRK]

We don’t because there’s no money left. You work with what you’ve got and if you can’t then you get sacked and someone else gets a go, like the way it works at every other club

Or maybe scout better players. You want fdj, well we can't get him but we have 2 or 3 cheaper options who have similar style to him. Instead we spent 70m on a totally different style of mf in Casemiro.

I am sick and tired of how almost every player we are linked or look to sign are 50m plus. It's like we have zero scouting setup.

 

[Baxquux]

We can blame Ten Hag all we want, but what is he supposed to do when the players concede a goal the first time the opponents shoot on target and then the same players fail to score every single opportunity they get?

Statistics don’t tell the whole story, but same as last year we’re severely underperforming our xG, and this year we’re also conceding more than we should.

All the underlying stats point to a structural foot all that should be working. But for a combination of factors, it doesn’t :
- lack of finishing across the team
- injuries
- being unable to get a clean sheet
- lack of confidence
- lots of decisions going against us and killing our momentum.

Getting them to play with confidence will be the hardest part

Johnstone pulled off a couple of good saves, but we didn't create anything like enough. So few ideas in terms of drawing defenders out of position through 1-2 passing, balls down the inside channel, using players to make decoy runs to take defenders away or block them when crosses came in so the man behind could get a shot off, and various other strategies that coaches paid good money to inculcate patterns and plays should have instilled in them to do. Palace defended well, but it's not like Johnstone was having to do a 'Friedel' or emulate one of those other displays opposition GK's would occasionally pull out against us upon being bombarded with efforts back in SAF's day...

 

[lsd]

Well they played a complete second string against City.

Which they didn't but fine whatever you say

 

[Skills]

Have a feeling he’s gonna walk pretty soon

Ah yeah, managers - the noblest of men, who walk away from their multimillion pay offs.

 

[crossy1686]

Or maybe scout better players. You want fdj, well we can't get him but we have 2 or 3 cheaper options who have similar style to him. Instead we spent 70m on a totally different style of mf in Casemiro.

I am sick and tired of how almost every player we are linked or look to sign are 50m plus. It's like we have zero scouting setup.

We have a scouting setup but they’re marginalised by whoever the manager wants to sign. This is well documented

 

[Mercurial]

We don’t because there’s no money left. You work with what you’ve got and if you can’t then you get sacked and someone else gets a go, like the way it works at every other club

Other clubs would say; EtH! Love what you did with the club so far, but no way were paying £90m for Antony or £72m pound for Højlund via you agent. We are going with what the dof thinks suits us long term and your future potential replacement should you feck up.

 

[Leftback99]

Which they didn't but fine whatever you say

OK, 2 starters sorry.

 

[crossy1686]

Other clubs would say; EtH! Love what you did with the club so far, but no way were paying £90m for Antony or £72m pound for Højlund via you agent. We are going with what the dof thinks suits us long term and your future potential replacement should you feck up.

They certainly would, but we have a board that don’t know their arse from their elbow. But despite that, the manager should also know that it’s fecking crazy to sign those players when there’s more value in the market elsewhere.

 

[Mercurial]

They certainly would, but we have a board that don’t know their arse from their elbow. But despite that, the manager should also know that it’s fecking crazy to sign those players when there’s more value in the market elsewhere.

Think EtH is firmly convinced his agency wich facilitated / did half our transfers under his reign so far probably knows best. His kid is an analyst there and he obviously sidelined club analysts or put in vetoes. We're shambles for doing this manager recruitment trap every time.

 

[spiriticon]

I think we should not perpetrate these rumours of him only buying players from his agency or something.

It's pretty unfounded.

 

[Amira]

Ah yeah, managers - the noblest of men, who walk away from their multimillion pay offs.

it’s so ridiculous how many people truly believe this

 

[Ayoba]

feck sake, how has it gotten so bad? I was not ready for another ole/RR like season, but here we are yet again. It's so bleak, I don't see a way out of this malaise.

 

[crossy1686]

Have a feeling he’s gonna walk pretty soon

No one walks away from millions of pounds in payouts because their job is a bit hard sometimes

 

[Cassidy]

We say that, but we had David Moyes, two managers who were visibly years past their best and a random ex-player.

There is still space in there to believe that the right man can make a real difference.

Until they ask the club to get rid of players required to do so, and the club leaves him with the players end of the summer stinking out the dressing room

 

[Leftback99]

Have a feeling he’s gonna walk pretty soon

Why do people say stuff like this like he's somehow better than the club and doing us a favour being here?

 

[crossy1686]

Why do people say stuff like this like he's somehow better than the club and doing us a favour being here?

I think people genuinely think that they’re at United because they love the club inside out and it’s got nothing to do with the millions they’re being paid or working at the biggest club in the world.

 

[frostbite]

Onana & Höjlund make no sense whatsoever at this stage and furthermore his agent helped broker the deals, faint smell of nepotism.

Mount makes no sense, either. Basically, all 3 of them solved none of our problems, improved none of our lines.

 

[AshRK]

We have a scouting setup but they’re marginalised by whoever the manager wants to sign. This is well documented

Marginalized by the board members then. So basically Murtough and his colleagues are useless. We are a funny club.

 

[Mercurial]

Mount makes no sense, either. Basically, all 3 of them solved none of our problems, improved none of our lines.

I like Mount, but yes, he is redundant too.

 

[Amir]

Ah yeah, managers - the noblest of men, who walk away from their multimillion pay offs.

People also thought Solskjaer would walk away. Just weird naivety.

 

[frostbite]

Marginalized by the board members then. So basically Murtough and his colleagues are useless. We are a funny club.

If the board did not sign the players ETH wanted, we'd all be against the board because they don't support the manager.

Now that they signed the players that ETH wanted, our board is useless.

 

[Massive Spanner]

One hag.

 

[Pscholes18]

Backing ETH until they sack him but I am starting to wonder what kind of attacking style he is trying to implement? I mean it is true, this football looks similar to what we've seen with previous managers. Then I think he knows what he wants from his players, but they can't seem to produce. When have they ever since Fergie left?

 

[Ubik]

If the board did not sign the players ETH wanted, we'd all be against the board because they don't support the manager.

Now that they signed the players that ETH wanted, our board is useless.

In the end, we want to sign good players more than anything else. We have not done so, certainly relative to money spent, for the last ten years.

So yeah, pretty useless.

 

[Cathy Ferguson]

If he can't stop the bleeding then he will gone by December, simple as. I can't help that he hasn't helped himself to be honest firstly by wasting huge money on unneeded players and subsequently not dropping underperforming stars. We also don't have any patterns of play, it's almost Mourinhosque where we are playing more in hope than according to a set out plan.

His errors:
1. It was needless to bin off De Gea and replace him with a better ball player but a worse keeper on all other metrics. Can't fault Onana on the goal but it's always disappointing when you are always conceding to the very first shot on target. The money spent on him was needed elsewhere too.

2. Going into the summer we knew we needed an assured goalscorer, a midfield playmaker, a CB capable of challenging for a starting spot and a back up DM. How we ended up spending a fortune on Mount, Onana and Hoijlund whom haven't really improved the side at all is mind boggling. We didn't stick to the plan.

3. Extreme loyalty to out of sorts players who also don't look like they fit the system. Rashford and Bruno are amongst the best counter attacking players in the game. It looks almost impossible to teach them any other way. We don't rotate the ball in and around the box, we don't keep the ball well in midfield and in two years he hasn't been able to spread the goals around.

3. The inverted fullbacks b.s is hurting us too because we don't keep the ball well and when we easily lose the ball in midfield it's very easy for the opposition to attack our left side because the LB isn't in position. Brighton targeted that side and Palace got joy there too. Its not working.

4. Then there is this Bruno-Casemiro-Bruno-Mount midfield monrosity. If anything is there to prove he is way out of his depth then this is it. There is no press resistant controller in there and the two (Bruno and Case) are turnover merchants. He shouldnt worry about reputations or the odd goal or assist he has to break it the feck up, that's not a PL standard midfield and it shows lack of deep though in the planning and thought processes that led to this decision. We actually had to spend 130m to bring it into fruition so it's not something he found when he came in, he actually planned and spent eye-watering sums to build it. That's a huge indictment.

Good summary. Of course ETH will suffer from our poor structure but he has made way too many mistakes himself. Ironically the poor structure will secure his job for maybe the whole season.

 

[Oranges038]

Right in because Murtough will simply wet the bed on the next manager too. Can't believe we spent circa £260m on Antony, Hoijlund, Mount and Onana when we didn't need to and they didnt even move a needle. We are fecked, he is done but Murtough and Arnold should precede him out of the door.

The amount spent on those players might be questionable to some extent, but those positions 100% needed to be addressed.

 

[Big Ben Foster]

If the board did not sign the players ETH wanted, we'd all be against the board because they don't support the manager.

Now that they signed the players that ETH wanted, our board is useless.

Speak for yourself. I and many other posters here have consistently been against the idea of mindlessly indulging the manager (whether it's ETH or anybody else) with his preferred signings.

 

[frostbite]

I like Mount, but yes, he is redundant too.

I like Mount, Onana and Hojlund.

The problem is that these three do not improve any of the problems we had last year. We needed a world class striker and someone to play next to Casemiro.

 

[Baxquux]

Mount makes no sense, either. Basically, all 3 of them solved none of our problems, improved none of our lines.

Mount, yes. There were more suitable young, strong 'transition' midfielders able to drive the ball and beat the press available in France and Germany for a start. But people have very short memories about DDG's horrific passing and his positioning on various occasions over the last couple of seasons. We definitely needed a keeper akin to Onana, even if you think Raya or someone would have served equally well for 10m less. The most reliable sweeper-keeper in terms of the whole package (an injured and aging Neuer notwithstanding) is currently at Liverpool...

Hojlund is a long-term project and has lots of good attributes -like many 20 year old forwards, he will need time to adjust, but a project with physical capacities for the PL was a good signing. We just needed to ensure it, or he, was accompanied by a strong backup. Martial had a good game mid-week but he isn't a reliable option. Aside from that, it would help if we actually created opportunities for him; one good cross and beyond that he was just foraging. No proper cut-backs, no balls to run onto outside to in in the 18 yard box. We're mediocre creatively compared to nearly half of the league. Those aren't great conditions for a young CF to come into.

 

[spiriticon]

Speak for yourself. I and many other posters here have consistently been against the idea of mindlessly indulging the manager (whether it's ETH or anybody else) with his preferred signings.

It's kind on a nonsense idea really. No company ever gives their managing staff an unlimited budget in order to to 'back' them.

There's always a budget, and if it is reached, then no more money. It's down to ETH, working closely with Murtough, to manage the funds wisely.