Erik ten Hag | 2022/23 & 2023/24

[The Hilton]

A manager doesn't have to have a better resume than the current one. The fact that a current manager isn't getting anything out of the players is more than enough reason to want to see a change.

If that was the case, then Pep would have never got his job at Barca. He replaced Rijkaard, who had won the lot. There are countless examples of less experienced or on paper "lesser" manager taking over an underperforming team and them going onto great things.

There aren't "countless" examples, Pep is a very special case, and while his top level managerial experience was lacking he was literally a perfect fit for the club, the culture, and the playing style they wanted to instil, along with automatically commanding the respect of the players.

Achievements can be waived as a requirement if the otherwise perfect candidate comes along, I agree, but it's a hard case to make and results in failure more often than success, just look at Ole and Lampard for us and Chelsea attempting to capture lightning in a bottle the same way Barca did with Pep.

 

[TsuWave]

Because my point about ajax having won feck all prior to him being manager was proved correct? Cheers.

This is so disingenuous

earlier in the thread you were using this as justification for Ten Hag's goodwill credit:

Guy reaches two finals, wins one and gets to 3rd place 8 points clear of top 4

now apparently the fact the Ajax team he took over had already finished 1 point of top and reached an europa league final doesn't matter because they didn't win feck all prior to him being manager

come on man - what are we doing?

 

[VP89]

This is so disingenuous

earlier in the thread you were using this as justification for Ten Hag's goodwill credit:



now apparently the fact the Ajax team he took over had already finished 1 point of top and reached an europa league final doesn't matter because they didn't win feck all prior to him being manager

come on man - what are we doing?

It's even more disingenuous when you find the route of the sub debate was a poster questioning how he has pedigree. Cups and finals and tangible points improvements in two clubs evidently mean feck all to the deluded.

 

[gaffs]

There aren't "countless" examples, Pep is a very special case, and while his top level managerial experience was lacking he was literally a perfect fit for the club, the culture, and the playing style they wanted to instil, along with automatically commanding the respect of the players.

Achievements can be waived as a requirement if the otherwise perfect candidate comes along, I agree, but it's a hard case to make and results in failure more often than success, just look at Ole and Lampard for us and Chelsea attempting to capture lightning in a bottle the same way Barca did with Pep.

Zidane took over from Benitez, with no first team coaching experience and won everything with Real.

Xavi took over from a more experienced Koeman.

Ange took over from Conte.

Arteta from Emri.

 

[OrcaFat]

Brother, elite football teams sack underperforming managers. Look at Bayern as a recent example. The whole notion of sticking by managers - as if they're going to evolve like pokemons - is the outlier, not the norm. I feel United fans' perspective on this is totally cooked because Ferguson was here for so long.

Letting an underperforming manager stick around for 4-5 years to build his own team - especially when you have readily available evidence you can point to of very questionable decisions of players he wanted to bring/brought in - is more likely to cause irreparable damage than otherwise.

Can you imagine losing 7-0 to Barca at Real? He would have been dragged to The Hague, the fact he was able to ride that out as easily as he did shows how different - to its detriment - fans attitudes here are.

I’m sorry to break it to you but we are not an elite team.

 

[OrcaFat]

Not this again.. Why is it only us that has to rebuild over years when other teams do it months.

Which teams are you talking about?

 

[Iker Quesadillas]

There aren't "countless" examples, Pep is a very special case, and while his top level managerial experience was lacking he was literally a perfect fit for the club, the culture, and the playing style they wanted to instil, along with automatically commanding the respect of the players.

There are many examples in Barcelona alone. They hired Rijkaard, Guardiola, Vilanova, Luis Enrique, and Xavi off limited experience and did well with all of them. They were good fits for the club as former players + certain ideas about football. Guardiola is a very special case in that he was more talented than all of them, but he was in line with their previous and future hiring decisions.

 

[Eddy_JukeZ]

Some of his defenders keep harping about the 10 league games to start this season, but the past 36 games(in all competitions I believe), our GD is a measly +2.

This isn't even a stretch of just 10 horrid games. We've been poor for a while now.

 

[Iker Quesadillas]

The entire premise of wanting him sacked is that you think someone else could do a better job, so if you can't explain who or why, then you can't logically come to the conclusion that he should be sacked, which makes it irrational and best discarded.

Of course you can.

Let's suppose we have 100 managers. We assign each of them odds of doing a good job as Manchester United manager. Each manager gets odds that are higher than zero.

We assign Ten Hag the highest odds, so we pick him as United manager.

He does a bad job. Now we revise his odds of doing a good job as Manchester United manager to zero.

That means the other 99 managers have higher odds of doing a good job as Manchester United manager than Ten Hag. Because his odds are zero and theirs are higher than zero.

You disagree because you don't want to change his odds. You like him. That's fine. But that's what it is. It's not some great principle. It's just liking this manager.

 

[Rojofiam]

All these comparisons to other clubs and other managers are so pointless and never a tiny bit conclusive.

ETH is a really good manager who can succeed at United, but if there was a proper footballing structure in place to help him (like at other elite clubs or even Brighton), then the chances of him succeeding and winning things will drastically increase...so that's what Ineos will need to do ASAP.

There's no point in replacing him without any good candidates...and anyone that would sack him just to appoint Conte, Zidane, etc. is clueless.

 

[Sarni]

The idea that ETH took Ajax from obscurity to success is quite amusing. Their ‘long trophy drought’ lasted all of 3 seasons, in which they finished 2nd and finished their previous two seasons 2 and 1 points behind PSV while also reaching an EL final.

If you are looking for a manager that truly broke a long run without title then De Boer in 2011 won it after they hadn’t won it for 7 years. He then went on to win 4 in a row.

 

[TsuWave]

It's even more disingenuous when you find the route of the sub debate was a poster questioning how he has pedigree. Cups and finals and tangible points improvements in two clubs evidently mean feck all to the deluded.

I don't think you understood what I've just said to you

I’m sorry to break it to you but we are not an elite team.

and therein lies the issue

 

[Iker Quesadillas]

Zidane took over from Benitez, with no first team coaching experience and won everything with Real.

Real Madrid are a good example. The club fires managers for disciplinary/'standards' reasons. They do not always have another candidate in mind.

Does it work? In the long run, yes. The standards at the club are high. It can cause problems, and sometimes the club has bad managerial appointments like Benitez or Lopetegui. But they just correct them quickly.

 

[Iker Quesadillas]

The idea that ETH took Ajax from obscurity to success is quite amusing. Their ‘long trophy drought’ lasted all of 3 seasons, in which they finished 2nd and finished their previous two seasons 2 and 1 points behind PSV while also reaching an EL final.

If you are looking for a manager that truly broke a long run without title then De Boer in 2011 won it after they hadn’t won it for 7 years. He then went on to win 4 in a row.

Giving Ten Hag too much credit for winning the Cup with United last year is a bit excessive too.

United won cups with Van Gaal and Mourinho, and lost a cup final on the 11th penalty under Ole. It's pretty clear that if you manage United for a few seasons you have a good chance of winning a cup, it's not an aberration!

 

[croadyman]

Can only pray that this is true. This is the only way forward for the club, the only concern would be that we don't hire the right sporting director. Paul Mitchell would be a risky choice.

Who do you think we should appoint?

 

[UnofficialDevil]

Which teams are you talking about?

Real Madrid? Always changing managers and building completely new squads yet still challenging for every trophy and never dropping off.

 

[gaffs]

Real Madrid are a good example. The club fires managers for disciplinary/'standards' reasons. They do not always have another candidate in mind.

Does it work? In the long run, yes. The standards at the club are high. It can cause problems, and sometimes the club has bad managerial appointments like Benitez or Lopetegui. But they just correct them quickly.

Who is it that keeps those standards high at Real? Perez?

Who is in charge of player recruitment?

 

[gaffs]

Giving Ten Hag too much credit for winning the Cup with United last year is a bit excessive too.

United won cups with Van Gaal and Mourinho, and lost a cup final on the 11th penalty under Ole. It's pretty clear that if you manage United for a few seasons you have a good chance of winning a cup, it's not an aberration!

Agree. Especially with the easy cup run.

 

[DSG]

The whole point of having a recruitment structure and technical director is that the manager isn't relied upon to be good in the transfer market.
Why sign a manager who has always worked under a sporting director and has never been in charge of transfers and then expect him to be a transfer market wizard? Thats the point, the club have again told lies and ignored the structure
Absolutely no where have I absolved ETH either, the club however takes more responsibility for transfer feck ups because the club said they would have a structure in place to fix this same issue after we saw it with previous managers.

Ten Hag has veto power for any incoming transfer (and outgoing I assume). This has been well documented. He can’t be completely absolved of all blame for Antony, Wout, Mount, Amrabaat, Onana, etc. We should also give him credit for Licha, Casemiro and Eriksen I think.

 

[DSG]

Who is it that keeps those standards high at Real? Perez?

Who is in charge of player recruitment?

The standards have always existed. They are the king’s team, they have double the CLs of any other club. Perez is just the steward of the moment. The club buys the best players and the manager has to make it work, or they are sacked. Everyone talks about La Masia, but the winning strategy is the Real / City way of just buying the best managers and players.

 

[Nicoseth]

how much have the other 58% cost?

Is that his fault?

 

[DSG]

The idea that ETH took Ajax from obscurity to success is quite amusing. Their ‘long trophy drought’ lasted all of 3 seasons, in which they finished 2nd and finished their previous two seasons 2 and 1 points behind PSV while also reaching an EL final.

If you are looking for a manager that truly broke a long run without title then De Boer in 2011 won it after they hadn’t won it for 7 years. He then went on to win 4 in a row.

And the fact that Ajax has 3x the revenue and squad spend than the second team, PSV I think… Fair on ETH, he won when he was supposed to win. The problem is that he apparently isn’t a football genius, but just a mediocre manager here in the PL

 

[Strelok]

16 minute is nail on the head for some whingers in here.

You can't rebuild a club of our stature and complexity on the pitch in a short term. And we are stuck always looking to fix ourselves short term to manage the next fixture. This predates ten hag.

You have to suffer if you want a long term fix. So deal with it.

This is pretty spot on imo.

But most fans just want us to win and play fantastic football immediately so don't know if ETH would survive this. Hope our CEO is not as clueless and knee jerk as our fans. Or SJR if he takes over.

For me there's no use in sacking ETH. He did sort of a miracle in his first season here having to deal with a really big fecking mess inherited from the season before. Both on/off the pitch. He's surely a very good manager imo.

This season imo he's simply been too unlucky with injures and players suddenly decide to turn crap. We should keep supporting him I think. Changing the manager now won't do us anything good imo. Again I don't think even Pep would make us tick now given the players and injuries we currently have. Then having a new manager with another approach will just repeat the mistake we keep doing in the last 10 years.

 

[justboy68]

This is pretty spot on imo.

But most fans just want us to win and play fantastic football immediately so don't know if ETH would survive this. Hope our CEO is not as clueless and knee jerk as our fans. Or Sir James Arthur Ratcliffe FIChemE if he takes over.

For me there's no use in sacking ETH. He did sort of a miracle in his first season here having to deal with a really big fecking mess inherited from the season before. Both on/off the pitch. He's surely a very good manager imo.

This season imo he's simply been too unlucky with injures and players suddenly decide to turn crap. We should keep supporting him I think. Changing the manager now won't do us anything good imo. Again I don't think even Pep would make us tick now given the players and injuries we currently have. Then having a new manager with another approach will just repeat the mistake we keep doing in the last 10 years.

What long rebuild does Ten Hag want to do though? He's not building towards anything as evidenced by the way we play and his recent comments and he also wanted to be in charge of transfers, i.e. doesn't want to change the footballing structure at the club. Part of the reason many of us are disappointed in him this season is precisely because he's actually not trying to change us, actually he's not trying to do a rebuild. He's just trying to do....whatever the feck this is. It's like we've been suffering digging a tunnel because we thought we were trying to get to the light at the other side and then the project leader's come out and said 'Actually no we aren't trying to get out the other side, we're just digging in circles'.

 

[Strelok]

What long rebuild does Ten Hag want to do though? He's not building towards anything as evidenced by the way we play and his recent comments and he also wanted to be in charge of transfers, i.e. doesn't want to change the footballing structure at the club. Part of the reason many of us are disappointed in him this season is precisely because he's actually not trying to change us, actually he's not trying to do a rebuild. He's just trying to do....whatever the feck this is. It's like we've been suffering digging a tunnel because we thought we were trying to get to the light at the other side and then the project leader's come out and said 'Actually no we aren't trying to get out the other side, we're just digging in circles'.

Imo all managers want to have power over transfers. There's nothing wrong if ETH wants that imo. If I'm a manager I'd absolutely want that as well.

And as they said in the video whatever a manager said in front of the press we should take it with a pitch of salt. And tbf I don't think there's anything wrong with his saying. Our players are quite used to direct football obviously we won't play exactly like Ajax. And I don't think he'd come here just to play his football. If so he would simply stay at Ajax where he was doing just fine. Imo he came here to win bigger things than he would at Ajax. And surely better paid. Imo he simply reached the most possible at Ajax given their league and their financial capability.

For the bold part imo we should simply agree to disagree. ETH has been trying to implement his football here and we were playing fairly well last season. This season imo it's simply the injures and players randomly turning crap.

 

[city-puma]

What long rebuild does Ten Hag want to do though? He's not building towards anything as evidenced by the way we play and his recent comments and he also wanted to be in charge of transfers, i.e. doesn't want to change the footballing structure at the club. Part of the reason many of us are disappointed in him this season is precisely because he's actually not trying to change us, actually he's not trying to do a rebuild. He's just trying to do....whatever the feck this is. It's like we've been suffering digging a tunnel because we thought we were trying to get to the light at the other side and then the project leader's come out and said 'Actually no we aren't trying to get out the other side, we're just digging in circles'.

I don’t agree he is not trying to rebuild. The issue is that his grand rebuild plan for this season just didn’t work out, at least by now, and seems at the moment having almost zero probability to eventually work out.
but he can have plan B, maybe the better one eventually even though it means the plan A is just a pure failure.

 

[Castia]

The question is why though, the guy is not an idiot, he must have done it for a reason, like he must have been willing to say he picked Evans and Lindelof over Varane and Reguilon for 'tactical reasons' knowing full well he'd be ridiculed for it.

I have no idea. He was almost a bit smug before the game with his ‘tactics’ comment on why Varane was benched like he was about to drop a tactical masterclass

The whole thing is absolutely bizarre. Terrible side that is filled with players out of position is what he picked and we got battered

 

[Micky Targaryen]

Two things about posters still backing ETH:

1) Posters say even though the club has spent 400m for ETH's signings, it wasn't all the players that he wanted. But isn't that part and parcel of the transfer game? Clubs don't always get ANY player they want (even Real Madrid). And even so, the players that we've signed are approved by ETH. With that being said, isn't part of being a good manager is to work with what you've got? Why did we spend a feck ton of money and somehow look worse than last season?

2) Another thing being parroted around is the same tired question, "If we sack ETH, which candidate can replace him? There's no one else." The only logical answer to that question is how the feck should I know who to replace ETH with.
It's on the club and the board to decide on this. To say that there is no available candidate on this planet sounds extremely ignorant. Personally I never heard of Ange. Spurs snapped him up and now they're top of the table. It's not the fans job to decide on ETH's replacement. The fans chose ETH and look how that turned out.

 

[HookedOnAPhelan]

I have no idea. He was almost a bit smug before the game with his ‘tactics’ comment on why Varane was benched like he was about to drop a tactical masterclass

The whole thing is absolutely bizarre. Terrible side that is filled with players out of position is what he picked and we got battered

Only 3 players played out of position. One of them was forced to because of injuries, and one of them was only slightly more advanced than usual so arguably wasn't even out of position.

And as if Bruno in the centre or Reguilon on left back would've made a difference.

 

[parmenio]

I don’t feel ETH is capable of fielding a winning team. I also havent a clue who we go for. ETH is not the only one who should go. Gut the club top to bottom. Get rid off player who have an attitude problem and those who care only for themselves. Build from the bottom. Player who want to play for United. No ones who feel they are doing us a favor by turning up. As Neville says best stadium best training ground etc etc. we can only pray JR has this vision. ETH though through sheer mismanagement of funds fielded a team of Evan’s and Maguire as his CHs. We can go on and on. We’re skint yet why spend £60m on Mount. Would anyone trust him with another £200m? Time for full clean out and proper rebuild imo.

 

[pratyush_utd]

That is exclusive to Ten Hag's tenure is it?

No it isnt but we have been wasting money for a decade now. It was bound to bite us back. Just saying that some of those loans and free transfer were not bad deals. Eriksen for free was a good deal. Regulion and Weghorst were emergency loans and so was Amrabat.

Issue is we paid atrocious amount for the rest. 80m for Antony and 60m for Mount seems like awful purchase now. We could have got 3-4 decent squad options for that. Our scouts even flagged Antony transfer but ETH wanted him so i cant really put that on Arnold and his team. Even Mount was one of ETH signings. So i dont see why ETH get any sympathy over transfer options that he has found himself with

 

[Sarni]

Giving Ten Hag too much credit for winning the Cup with United last year is a bit excessive too.

United won cups with Van Gaal and Mourinho, and lost a cup final on the 11th penalty under Ole. It's pretty clear that if you manage United for a few seasons you have a good chance of winning a cup, it's not an aberration!

The common theme in post Ferguson era is that we win trophies when the draw we get in these competitions permits that.

We won FA Cup in 2016 having beaten Sheffield Utd, Derby, Shrewsbury, West Ham, Everton and Crystal Palace in the final.

Our Europa League 2018 run had us go through a group with Fenerbahce, Feyenoord and Zorya Luzhansk and then beating St Etienne, Rostov, Anderlecht, Celta and a young Ajax team in the final.

Last years League Cup run was by far the easiest of all though with Villa (still under Gerrard), Burnley, Charlton, Nottingham and Newcastle in the final. I don’t think we needed a top manager to win it.

Basically we win trophies when our cup run is so easy it’s almost unthinkable for us to lose in each round, but fail to deliver almost every time we come across a team that is close to or above our level (PSG 2019 and Barca last year being the only exceptions).

 

[Redfan94]

Not to be a pessimist, but does anyone else just feel like with Pep at City, and to a lesser extent, Klopp at Liverpool, whoever we bring in however good they may be are never going to compete with either of them.

The problems here are bigger than the manager and the players, and identifying ‘Manager A’ who plays attractive football at one club and expecting him to replicate it with our structure, with the scrutiny that this job brings is leading us into a revolving door situation of recycling the manager of the month.

Bielsa, 3 years with full control over squad selection and a competent DOF with an equal input to recruitment imo.

 

[Robbie Boy]

It was definitely a sign of things to come. As we're the signs that other teams like Liverpool were getting their act together ready for this season. A lot of things went our way last season despite us not being particularly good.

Posters like me got plenty of abuse for pointing it out though.

Kind of like how a lot of things went our way the season we finished 2nd under Ole, but when they were pointed out, you and others would abuse people? No different, my man.

Same happened under Jose; we finished 2nd but plenty could see the red flags and got abused for pointing them out. That's how it works around here.

People are literally diminishing ETH winning a cup because; easy run. Same posters are pointing out we were a kick away from winning a cup under Ole; a cup we didn't fecking win. Also, loads apparently went our way last season, but yet the exact thing happened when Ole got second. It is what it is; last season was a solid debut season for ETH, and this season has been a mess. Ole's second place and cup final season was solid, but the next season was a mess. It's worrying that anytime a manager has looked like they're making progress, we crash and burn.

 

[greater wall]

Kind of like how a lot of things went our way the season we finished 2nd under Ole, but when they were pointed out, you and others would abuse people? No different, my man.

Same happened under Jose; we finished 2nd but plenty could see the red flags and got abused for pointing them out. That's how it works around here.

People are literally diminishing ETH winning a cup because; easy run. Same posters are pointing out we were a kick away from winning a cup under Ole; a cup we didn't fecking win. Also, loads apparently went our way last season, but yet the exact thing happened when Ole got second. It is what it is; last season was a solid debut season for ETH, and this season has been a mess. Ole's second place and cup final season was solid, but the next season was a mess. It's worrying that anytime a manager has looked like they're making progress, we crash and burn.

The same happened under Ferguson. His second to third season went from bad to worse. United got beaten 5-0 by City. They did not have oil money then and were pretty average. It felt pretty bad.
Just need to back the manager and it will come good instead of a knee jerk reaction. Liverpool did not qualify for the CL last season. Did they sack their manager?

 

[DRJosh]

Knee jerk reactions galore here.

It is clear ETH is rebuilding us for the rebuild that would lead to the actual final super rebuild. Give him another decade with 1 billion and City will start quaking in the boots when we face them then.

Trust the process!

 

[AneRu]

Kind of like how a lot of things went our way the season we finished 2nd under Ole, but when they were pointed out, you and others would abuse people? No different, my man.

Same happened under Jose; we finished 2nd but plenty could see the red flags and got abused for pointing them out. That's how it works around here.

People are literally diminishing ETH winning a cup because; easy run. Same posters are pointing out we were a kick away from winning a cup under Ole; a cup we didn't fecking win. Also, loads apparently went our way last season, but yet the exact thing happened when Ole got second. It is what it is; last season was a solid debut season for ETH, and this season has been a mess. Ole's second place and cup final season was solid, but the next season was a mess. It's worrying that anytime a manager has looked like they're making progress, we crash and burn.

I think it's too simplistic, if Jose, after finishing 2nd had been backed to the tune of 200m plus a license to axe whoever he wanted he would have competed. That team, as flawed as it was, created the foundations on which Ole built his 3rd and 2nd place teams. Our refusal to back Jose then cost us because we chose toxic players over him.

Ole after finishing 2nd made the same mistakes that ETH has made; apart from Varane no other player he brought in moved the dial for us and he also ignored a key position in midfield - Matic's replacement just like ETH has messed up Eriksen's replacement and ironically both players, in brief periods, showed/show us how we need a like player when they come on or when they start before tiring out.

If Ole hadn't brought in Sancho but say, someone like Bissouma for example, that team wouldn't have fallen out of the top four. Instead he spent an eye-watering amount on a winger who wasn't better than the ones we had. Things spiralled out of control and he couldn't rescue the situation or himself because the team's structural flaws which he didn't address meant that there was no viable solution within the squad to mitigate the unfolding disaster.

 

[Borys]

Tbh watching us last season basically I have no idea who was supposed to do what anymore, especially when we're playing well so it's simply impossible for me to tell you how we'd play when our first choice player are back.

However one thing about this kind of football I've noticed watching City is they always have multiple good technical dribblers who serve as ball carriers to stretch the play or draw the defenders . They're very good at keeping and running with the ball. They're also very good at chance creation. Like KDB, Silva, Grealish, Mahrez and Foden. Even their FBs are very good as ball carriers. Sometime you can see their CBs doing that as well. Then they have an excellent CDM who is capable of very accurate long passes to find runners running behind the defense. Like Rodri. Who is very crucial both offensively and defensively in their system. Their players keep running with or without the ball and exchanging short quick passes to the sides to create situational numerical advantage. So it's basically impossible to mark all of them. You often see them have one or even two attackers more than the defenders at one point especially at both wings.

Atm imo what we lack is some good ball carriers and those good long and vertical passing. Imo Antony and Mount both signed to serve as our ball carriers and chances creation. Then Casemiro as Rodri. Excellent DM who can keep the ball really well with excellent long passing and can drive the ball forward as well. Casemiro has unfortunately turned shit this season and nobody has an idea why though.

So with my very limited knowledge imo in order to play well again I think we need Casemiro to somehow find his top form back asap. His position is absolutely crucial in this system. Then Mount to quickly adapt. Antony to create more chances. Hojlund to be better at finding space and finishing. Then Shaw and Martinez back. Both are very good passer and quite decent ball carriers imo. That's all I could say I think.

P/s: adding @OrcaFat for the discussion you know about this shit much more than me mate

I generally agree with this point, but I do have a few things to point out.

Firstly, good observation about ball carriers in City team. This is definitely something we've been missing, and that somehow explains going for Antony. I don't think City team have a lot of creative players outside of KDB and Silva, but they don't need to because their way of playing is so effective to create space for attackers (even is it looks kind of mechanical and repetitive, it's bloody effective).

Now, Casemiro... I am quite surprised that people are surprised that his legs went. It was quite obvious in latter stages last season he looked a bit slow (both in terms of running in sand, but also late tackles). It gets interesting with Mount transfer, because I actually thought this is a good idea as on paper MM should be able to easily cover for Casemiro legs, and provide a bit of a drive from midfield (ball carrying ability).
But this isn't how we are using Mount. ETH very clearly has a different idea and is consistently playing Mason up top, almost like a second striker. This is really puzzling because I thought the weak link in midfield (Eriksen - defensively, especially away from home) has been recognized by ETH and adressed, but somehow we managed to make the midfield even worse. Casemiro form is a big issue, no doubts about that, but we've taken this to another level by leaving him alone in midfield.

Last part of this post is basically a question to you, but I've seen this comment many times on here. What do you mean by "Mount has to quickly adapt"? Adapt to what? Because seems to me like he's following some instructions. He's actually 3rd player in the same role (Sabitzer, van de Beek) so the chance that all of them are just playing some free role and doing what they want is minimal.

 

[The Hilton]

Zidane took over from Benitez, with no first team coaching experience and won everything with Real.

Xavi took over from a more experienced Koeman.

Ange took over from Conte.

Arteta from Emri.

Zidane I'll give you, but again he had an aura and automatically commanded the respect of a dressing room full of galacticos, thanks to his fame as one of the club's best ever players. There aren't many out there like him.

Arteta had deputised for Pep, so wasn't completely wet behind the ears, but I'll give you that one, he was more of a gamble than the others.

Xavi also, one of Barcelona's best players of all time.

Ange had been managing for years, we've covered that so won't dive in to it.

 

[ayushreddevil9]

Knee jerk reactions galore here.

It is clear ETH is rebuilding us for the rebuild that would lead to the actual final super rebuild. Give him another decade with 1 billion and City will start quaking in the boots when we face them then.

Trust the process!

With the added benefit of seeing a different style every season!
Best transition team 2023
Best hoofball team 2024
Best possession team 2025
Best nobody knows what we are doing team 2026
.
.