Are you having a laugh?
Erik ten Hag | 2022/23 & 2023/24
- Thread starter sewey89
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Are you having a laugh?
Just to ask a general question: has a manager ever come back from the sort of position Ten Hag is in? Was Arteta under this sort of pressure, I can honestly struggle to remember. Is this chronic or can he salvage it?
Are you watching Man City's back 4 celebrating every tackle with a hi-5 every game?
He's playing with a number of players he more or less tried to force out and who are basically at the mercy of an unknown DOF who will, or maybe won't, be coming in any day now. Some of them must know their days are numbered.
No, I watch them perform and actually want to win. The actual high fives aren't the significant element obviously, but the drive and desire is.
They're not even the ones letting him down though, Maguire and McTominay are trying for example, they're not good enough, but they're putting a shift in at least. It's the midfield and attack which are honestly a disgrace.
Another pinch of salt anecdote was from The Athletic. Remember at the start of the process when it was said the Qatar bid made very good early impressions, whereas the United staff didn't really like the Ineos team. It seems the Qatar team did a lot of buttering up and and the Ineos team were quite frank and quite unimpressed by United's sporting set up. Maybe they see some value in Murtough but it at least seems like they don't rate the football set up which is surely bad news for Murtough unless they think he can be an asset but utilised differently in a less important role.
I'm sure that's what's really making the difference instead of the technical ability of their players and manager.
Nope, I think the technical ability is really important actually. Cya later.
Maguire was awful against Newcastle, truly awful. Ole against Watford awful. It looked like he was purposefully losing. He did just enough to change the conversation about his career, and then just delivered the most abject defensive performance I have ever seen. It completely deflated the squad, and made Dalot and Lindelof look incompetent.
McT seems like a model professional, kind of warming to him.
It's not all on Magurie in any shape or form, everything before that is hardly his fault, but he really was terrible.
We played with passion last year because of new manager bounce, the exact sort of thing some are accusing the current spurs manager. That passion is gone when they realized we're going nowhere this season.
Dalot and Lindelof are incompetent, nothing to do with Maguire, and it's ridiculous to blame him. All three are utter toilet.
But how could they possible decide we're going nowhere this season from game one? So they've downed tools? Does it count as a new manager bounce when its a pretty much a season? Generally I don't really think thats a new manager bounce, that's shorter than that, no?
Don't get me wrong, all three were terrible, but Maguire did so much wrong against Newcastle it's laughable. I've given him credit for his earlier performances, thought he did well to come back and be solid, but that Newcastle performance was dire.
Well I remember Arsenal fans wanted him out so he must of been doing a bad job. Southampton’s former manager after losing 9-0 twice still kept his job because he put a good run together. He can survive this. He just needs some positive results and good morale in the changing room. If he can hang on for this season then hopefully we get in new owners. Things could be very different .
Which game were you watching, all the goals were from inside the area, you could argue that on the first Ohno's positioning was suspect, the second OK, he may have seen it late, but the third was literally passed into the net from 18yds.
They're still running about a lot, just aimlessly and devoid of confidence. I think they're trying but lost in themselves. Hel have to pick them up it face the consequences.
Nah I don't think they downed tools in the first few games, Imt afraid they've become disillusioned the new system isn't working
I asked this question but no one answered, has Ten Hag ever been in this situation before? Does he have history or previous for picking a team up off the floor? He's not inspiring to listen to from the outside, I just struggle to imagine he's all that motivating when things are going dreadfully.
Not having a goalscorer to worry defenders and take the pressure of Rashford probably didn't help matters. We still don't, which is a significant issue with our recruitment this summer.
This is true, but we've also lacking any sort of proper chance creation as well. That was a massive issue that needed addressing in the summer too. It was glaringly obvious we were going to struggle to score, but christ I didn't think it would be this pathetic.
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Nor should the default stance be to stick to a tried and tested failing formula of sack and sign, sack and sign. There is enough evidence and mitigating circumstances to suggest a bit more time isn’t going to be any more harmful than any decision we make to replace him. To be clear I’m not happy with how we are playing at the moment.
We’re not winning the PL, we’re not winning the CL so time can be afforded here to wait for players to return and re asses our development with the XI back and fit.
He’s also in his tenure dealt with incredibly challenging situations, Sancho, Ronaldo, Greenwood etc won us a trophy, got us top 4 and also made us better in the press.
The issue we have is that his best XI the players that can perform to the standard needed are injured and they have a huge role in how we play football. And given he hasn’t had many years to cultivate a squad in his image and the club has chopped and changed philosophies so often we don’t have the squad to deal with these injuries and still play our desired style of football.
That isn’t Ten Hags fault until at least another summer window.
I think it’s a combination of fatigue from the most congested season we’ve ever had as a club (we were the only side in all comps with a squad not equipped for that) injuries to key components of our build up (Martienz and Shaw) and to our ability to play high line defence (Varane and AWB) without similar back ups (long term-squad planning issue not Ten Hags fault should be on DOF).
So honestly we’re suffering as a result of shitty football decisions that have left us with a squad ill suited to replace our starters.
I’d argue we only have the right profile and depth for:
GK
LB (2 long term injuries to Shaw and Malacia is horrible luck)
AM
LW
And we’re short at RB, CB x2 (profiles don’t align with what the starting XI is expected to do) DM, CM, RW (unless Diallo comes back firing) and ST.
That’s a lot for any manger to make up for.
Now look at City’s squad. Where do they lack? Or even Arsenal/ Liverpool and you’ll see the difference in profiles and squad depth IMO.
I think we’re getting there and another summer gets us very close.
My assessment of Ten Haag is that we don't and haven't ever played well enough with him to justify having faith in him over the current players we have. Not everyone's Ferguson and despite him pushing the mantra that manager's just need a chance, the past 10 years without him has proven him wrong. In all of Europe, we are the one team that has consistently given managers a chance. They always overstay their welcome. Noone can accuse of sacking them too early, and with decade of tribulations, that says a lot.
The football world has been trying to figure out how we've been able to spend so much money without showing any result, both in trophies but also in terms of the football. Everyone blames in on recruitment; but the true failure here and the consistent theme has been our reluctance to interfere in manager activities. Our standards regarding our managers have fallen, not the players. We approach managers in a subservient manager, asking them to come and fix our club; despite the fact that we are one of the biggest clubs in the world. Managers at United have consistently shown an inability to have accountability. They expect that they can come in, experiment with systems, experiment with transfers, blame players and still have the support of the fans, media and the club. It's not charity. We are paying the managers to come in and employ a game plan that can lead to wins and good football. We constantly provide them with the resources to do this and should be expecting results. Not in the next 3 to 5 years, but immediately, just like any other job. Our problem is that we allow the managers to have a sense that they are building a far larger project. Our football department can do that, but that's not the manager. If the players aren't playing for you, its your job to fix it. If there are tactical issues, its your job to fix it. At no other club do we hear about a director of football being blamed for the poor transfers of a manager except from United. They can blame their football departments or ownership, but they do so in collaboration with the managers, not in isolation like people do at United.
Moyes came in, despite advice, he sacked the entire backroom staff and brought in his own team. He dallied on football decisions, did not bring in a winger or suggest a defensive signing over the summer. He then proceeds to have a poor season, taking a team which had just won the league to 7th position. We could hardly create attacks, where we had scored loads of goals the previous season. We were easy to play through. We were constantly making defensive errors and we were poor on the counter, something we had been brilliant at the previous season. We had RVP and Rooney in those squads, yet we couldn't create chances at all. Despite this shameful performance, he had the audacity to complain that he wasn't given enough time.
We then sacked Moyes and got Van Gaal. He started by adopting a system that may have worked internationally but wasn't the most appealing. We didn't have the players for it and it wasn't the best regardless. He convinced fans that playing the likes of Blackett would be good for us, as the players we had prior were rubbish. The experiment did not go well. We weren't creating chances, were constantly conceding chances, and even when we won, it felt like we had been battered; all in the name of "philosophy". By mid season, we had reverted to be formationless. In all of this, he sold Nani to fit into this 5312 dream, only for it to not to work. Aswell as Nani, he sold a lot of the best parts of the Moyes squad and replaced them with mediocre talent, with fans backing whatever it took to get us back where we wanted to be. At the end of the season, we had about a month of good games using a new 433 which seemed to be working despite not being the most consistent in terms of dominance. It was a bit of a patchwork, relying on fellaini's height, and didn't last. Instead of sticking with some of that framework, he completely abandoned that plan, made poor signings, and went to a 4231 that produced even less goals and chances than the previous formation. He wasted an entire season after having scrapped our squad of almost any talent left before being sacked with us having about 3 or 4 good performances under him. There are fans who still believe we should have kept him despite this joke of a managerial performance. Somehow it was the clubs fault for not backing him enough despite scrapping most of the team. Again he blamed the club.
Next you had Jose. Jose inherited a horrible squad from LVG due to the failed overhaul in talent. Jose's football wasn't the best, but his tactical instructions for the most part could get a good result, particularly in his first and second season. Jose really believed that the club had limitless funds. It was clear he didn't care about the well-being of the club or the total cost of his transfers, he just wanted to win for his legacy. He chose the strategy of making big money moves for a few positions. He asked for these transfers to occur, regardless of age, cost and squad welfare; never thinking of things like depth or the future. He also couldn't spin good performances in big games. In his last season, despite the club getting defenders he asked for, he complained about not getting what he wanted. In another experiment, he opened up our game without coming up with much of a plan. My major issue with Mourinho was the way he conducted himself and the lack of accounability in transfers. Ironically, I had trust in him on the pitch but his selfishness off of it made in untenable for him to keep managing us. Again, this was a manager problem.
Hiring Ole was a mistake that we can all accept was from the board. He lacked the tactical nous and hadn't shown much elsewhere. He was giving it a go and imo for what he was, he did well enough. However, he wasn't a good manager, couldn't come up with set attacking plans, relied to heavily on individual brilliance and didn't have the sense of urgency needed to challenge for trophies. For me, his preparation for the 20/21 season was terrible. The lack of fitness of the squad to start that season and the fact that it cost us a true title challege is something that should not be expected from a United manager. In time, it told.
That's also how I feel about Ten Haag. Outside of tactics, he's had two horrible summers where he had poor starts to the season. For both summers, fitness was questioned. His transfers like Antony haven't been great. Plus this summer, his choice to go for Mount as an experiment was pretty poor. He had a system last season that showed signs of working, he tore that completely apart, bought Mount in another risk by another manager, and it has failed woefully, through no fault of Mount. He hasn't shown an ability to be a good man manager either. However, the job of the manager is on the pitch and currently I can list out the failings of the team and they all point back to him.
a. We have a slow build up from the back: Our centre backs have a lack of urgency when moving the ball. It's very static. You can watch lower teams move the ball and get past our press, yet people are ok with the idea that Varane, Maguire, Licha, Shaw and Lindelof can't move the ball across the backline at an adequate pace. Varane literally played for Real Madrid. Licha literally played for Ten Haag's Ajax. There's no excuse.
b. Our backline can't seem to connect quickly enough with our midfield - Again, these players are internationals. We've seen them play for countries like Brazil and Portugal, and have seen them receive the ball quite easily. I can't for a second believe Casemiro can't find spaces in midfield or that Bruno can't either. We've seen them do that. However, when playing for United, they get crowded out. That seems more of an issue of shape as opposed to their actual abilities to find space.
c. Inability to keep possession - In the last few weeks, our midfielders haven't even had the opportunity to keep possession. Our inability to get it to them quickly enough, forces them to be in situations where they are surrounded by too many opposition players to make passing outlets tenable outside of the flanks. Again this is an issue of shape.
d. We aren't overlapping/underlapping well enough on the flanks to create wide overloads ( which seems to be the plan). Antony played for him previously and hasn't been working well with his full back. Does this method of attack in the way he employs it actually work in the premier league. It might have been easy to employ in the Eredivisie, which was slower and where Ajax had by far more talent than other teams. However, what if it doesn't work in England? Even Pep had to adapt several times to make some of his systems in other leagues work here. ETH isn't Pep, and maybe that's something we haven't considered. I honestly think Saka and Martinelli would struggle here. Arsenal have been using players like White and Tomiyasu who are closer to Centre backs as full backs, yet we struggle for overlaps with Shaw and AWB/Dalot?
e. We don't create enough chances. Even when we do, its usually a piece of magic by Bruno, Eriksen or Casemiro. These are not constructed playing patterns that lead to chances are touches in the box. It's why we struggled to score goals last year, yet for some reason, our strikers are the ones blamed when the team spends all game trying to get the ball to them with no avail.
f. Finishing. As previously stated, I don't think this is as much of an issue as fans think it is. When you watch other teams, they miss a lot of chances. The issue for me is the quality of chances we create arent't good enough. In addition, we don't create enough for the misses not to matter. So when Rashford misses an opportunity Saka would miss, fans go up in arms. Yet Saka would get away with it at Arsenal because in 10 minutes, he'll get another chance.
My point here is, Ten Haag is failing tactically. Other managers we've had have also failed. We've had 5 real managers over the last 10 years. They have an average of at least 2 years of management despite barely showing an inkling of progress. The media and fans use this as a poor statistic, whilst in actuality I think we should have had more. If Real Madrid were poor for 10 years, they would have had at least 12 managers over that span of time because they wouldn't have been willing to accept the mediocrity displayed on the pitch. It shouldn't take us 2 years to realize a manager isn't good enough. We shouldn't be " giving managers time". A manager needs to be able to show they can play decent football by at least the first 2 months. They should be getting results by November. At United, the manager should have shown the ability to win easy games and in modern football dominate these game with rare exceptions. That's not what's happened with ETH so far and even though he partially fulfilled some these things last season ( especially with the home record), he's shown a massive lack of adaptability and urgency to move us forward. Fans usually go on saying that everyone would suffer under the ownership. That's nonsense. Our managers get more money to spend with as little interference as possible than any team. The Glazers impact us the fans and old trafford, not the manager. Spurs were listed with a similar label, as were Liverpool before Klopp, Real Madrid during the initial galactico period and even PSG right now. Sacking managers is part of the process, not the end of the cycle, and not understanding that is what's been hurting us as a club
The football world has been trying to figure out how we've been able to spend so much money without showing any result, both in trophies but also in terms of the football. Everyone blames in on recruitment; but the true failure here and the consistent theme has been our reluctance to interfere in manager activities. Our standards regarding our managers have fallen, not the players. We approach managers in a subservient manager, asking them to come and fix our club; despite the fact that we are one of the biggest clubs in the world. Managers at United have consistently shown an inability to have accountability. They expect that they can come in, experiment with systems, experiment with transfers, blame players and still have the support of the fans, media and the club. It's not charity. We are paying the managers to come in and employ a game plan that can lead to wins and good football. We constantly provide them with the resources to do this and should be expecting results. Not in the next 3 to 5 years, but immediately, just like any other job. Our problem is that we allow the managers to have a sense that they are building a far larger project. Our football department can do that, but that's not the manager. If the players aren't playing for you, its your job to fix it. If there are tactical issues, its your job to fix it. At no other club do we hear about a director of football being blamed for the poor transfers of a manager except from United. They can blame their football departments or ownership, but they do so in collaboration with the managers, not in isolation like people do at United.
Moyes came in, despite advice, he sacked the entire backroom staff and brought in his own team. He dallied on football decisions, did not bring in a winger or suggest a defensive signing over the summer. He then proceeds to have a poor season, taking a team which had just won the league to 7th position. We could hardly create attacks, where we had scored loads of goals the previous season. We were easy to play through. We were constantly making defensive errors and we were poor on the counter, something we had been brilliant at the previous season. We had RVP and Rooney in those squads, yet we couldn't create chances at all. Despite this shameful performance, he had the audacity to complain that he wasn't given enough time.
We then sacked Moyes and got Van Gaal. He started by adopting a system that may have worked internationally but wasn't the most appealing. We didn't have the players for it and it wasn't the best regardless. He convinced fans that playing the likes of Blackett would be good for us, as the players we had prior were rubbish. The experiment did not go well. We weren't creating chances, were constantly conceding chances, and even when we won, it felt like we had been battered; all in the name of "philosophy". By mid season, we had reverted to be formationless. In all of this, he sold Nani to fit into this 5312 dream, only for it to not to work. Aswell as Nani, he sold a lot of the best parts of the Moyes squad and replaced them with mediocre talent, with fans backing whatever it took to get us back where we wanted to be. At the end of the season, we had about a month of good games using a new 433 which seemed to be working despite not being the most consistent in terms of dominance. It was a bit of a patchwork, relying on fellaini's height, and didn't last. Instead of sticking with some of that framework, he completely abandoned that plan, made poor signings, and went to a 4231 that produced even less goals and chances than the previous formation. He wasted an entire season after having scrapped our squad of almost any talent left before being sacked with us having about 3 or 4 good performances under him. There are fans who still believe we should have kept him despite this joke of a managerial performance. Somehow it was the clubs fault for not backing him enough despite scrapping most of the team. Again he blamed the club.
Next you had Jose. Jose inherited a horrible squad from LVG due to the failed overhaul in talent. Jose's football wasn't the best, but his tactical instructions for the most part could get a good result, particularly in his first and second season. Jose really believed that the club had limitless funds. It was clear he didn't care about the well-being of the club or the total cost of his transfers, he just wanted to win for his legacy. He chose the strategy of making big money moves for a few positions. He asked for these transfers to occur, regardless of age, cost and squad welfare; never thinking of things like depth or the future. He also couldn't spin good performances in big games. In his last season, despite the club getting defenders he asked for, he complained about not getting what he wanted. In another experiment, he opened up our game without coming up with much of a plan. My major issue with Mourinho was the way he conducted himself and the lack of accounability in transfers. Ironically, I had trust in him on the pitch but his selfishness off of it made in untenable for him to keep managing us. Again, this was a manager problem.
Hiring Ole was a mistake that we can all accept was from the board. He lacked the tactical nous and hadn't shown much elsewhere. He was giving it a go and imo for what he was, he did well enough. However, he wasn't a good manager, couldn't come up with set attacking plans, relied to heavily on individual brilliance and didn't have the sense of urgency needed to challenge for trophies. For me, his preparation for the 20/21 season was terrible. The lack of fitness of the squad to start that season and the fact that it cost us a true title challege is something that should not be expected from a United manager. In time, it told.
That's also how I feel about Ten Haag. Outside of tactics, he's had two horrible summers where he had poor starts to the season. For both summers, fitness was questioned. His transfers like Antony haven't been great. Plus this summer, his choice to go for Mount as an experiment was pretty poor. He had a system last season that showed signs of working, he tore that completely apart, bought Mount in another risk by another manager, and it has failed woefully, through no fault of Mount. He hasn't shown an ability to be a good man manager either. However, the job of the manager is on the pitch and currently I can list out the failings of the team and they all point back to him.
a. We have a slow build up from the back: Our centre backs have a lack of urgency when moving the ball. It's very static. You can watch lower teams move the ball and get past our press, yet people are ok with the idea that Varane, Maguire, Licha, Shaw and Lindelof can't move the ball across the backline at an adequate pace. Varane literally played for Real Madrid. Licha literally played for Ten Haag's Ajax. There's no excuse.
b. Our backline can't seem to connect quickly enough with our midfield - Again, these players are internationals. We've seen them play for countries like Brazil and Portugal, and have seen them receive the ball quite easily. I can't for a second believe Casemiro can't find spaces in midfield or that Bruno can't either. We've seen them do that. However, when playing for United, they get crowded out. That seems more of an issue of shape as opposed to their actual abilities to find space.
c. Inability to keep possession - In the last few weeks, our midfielders haven't even had the opportunity to keep possession. Our inability to get it to them quickly enough, forces them to be in situations where they are surrounded by too many opposition players to make passing outlets tenable outside of the flanks. Again this is an issue of shape.
d. We aren't overlapping/underlapping well enough on the flanks to create wide overloads ( which seems to be the plan). Antony played for him previously and hasn't been working well with his full back. Does this method of attack in the way he employs it actually work in the premier league. It might have been easy to employ in the Eredivisie, which was slower and where Ajax had by far more talent than other teams. However, what if it doesn't work in England? Even Pep had to adapt several times to make some of his systems in other leagues work here. ETH isn't Pep, and maybe that's something we haven't considered. I honestly think Saka and Martinelli would struggle here. Arsenal have been using players like White and Tomiyasu who are closer to Centre backs as full backs, yet we struggle for overlaps with Shaw and AWB/Dalot?
e. We don't create enough chances. Even when we do, its usually a piece of magic by Bruno, Eriksen or Casemiro. These are not constructed playing patterns that lead to chances are touches in the box. It's why we struggled to score goals last year, yet for some reason, our strikers are the ones blamed when the team spends all game trying to get the ball to them with no avail.
f. Finishing. As previously stated, I don't think this is as much of an issue as fans think it is. When you watch other teams, they miss a lot of chances. The issue for me is the quality of chances we create arent't good enough. In addition, we don't create enough for the misses not to matter. So when Rashford misses an opportunity Saka would miss, fans go up in arms. Yet Saka would get away with it at Arsenal because in 10 minutes, he'll get another chance.
My point here is, Ten Haag is failing tactically. Other managers we've had have also failed. We've had 5 real managers over the last 10 years. They have an average of at least 2 years of management despite barely showing an inkling of progress. The media and fans use this as a poor statistic, whilst in actuality I think we should have had more. If Real Madrid were poor for 10 years, they would have had at least 12 managers over that span of time because they wouldn't have been willing to accept the mediocrity displayed on the pitch. It shouldn't take us 2 years to realize a manager isn't good enough. We shouldn't be " giving managers time". A manager needs to be able to show they can play decent football by at least the first 2 months. They should be getting results by November. At United, the manager should have shown the ability to win easy games and in modern football dominate these game with rare exceptions. That's not what's happened with ETH so far and even though he partially fulfilled some these things last season ( especially with the home record), he's shown a massive lack of adaptability and urgency to move us forward. Fans usually go on saying that everyone would suffer under the ownership. That's nonsense. Our managers get more money to spend with as little interference as possible than any team. The Glazers impact us the fans and old trafford, not the manager. Spurs were listed with a similar label, as were Liverpool before Klopp, Real Madrid during the initial galactico period and even PSG right now. Sacking managers is part of the process, not the end of the cycle, and not understanding that is what's been hurting us as a club
Exactly this notion that the players have given up I'm not seeing, they are clearly attempting to apply themselves but the manager has failed to implement a system that builds momentum.
Arteta had that horrendous run from October through to December where he won 1 in 10 in the league (7 of which were defeats). Ironically, the win came against us.
This is what Edu (sporting director) said recently about how they viewed the situation when there were loud calls for Arteta to resign:
"You have to analyse your squad and ask yourself why we are not getting positive results. It’s the coach’s or the squad’s fault? I presented to the directors that the squad that Mikel inherited wasn’t the best possible squad for him. It wasn’t his problem but ours. We have a responsibility to help him and empower him to do the best work possible.”
Good coaching underpinned by solid recruitment and a unified vision has led to Arsenal's revival.
Let's also stop the tried and tested failing formula of buying new footballers every summer. We've tried it and it hasn't worked. In fact, we've signed way more players for a lot more money than the number of managers. Let's just stop that. Stick with what we've got and see where it goes. That might be it.
The closest I think was in Ajax first season, where he was openly questioned by senior members in the dressing room I believe. Could be wrong though.
They said it did click and the rest is history but that's the first season, not second.
Most of these players heeded McKennas instructions as coach, they'd eat him alive as manager, same as Amorim.
Needs a manager who won't be scared to break a few eggs (egos) to make an omelette (make us successful).
Needs a manager who won't be scared to break a few eggs (egos) to make an omelette (make us successful).
Yeah you can see they are running and doesn't look like they have given up but lack of quality on ball is shocking. No good movement or runs being made.
Set pieces are a disgrace. Same people either can't beat 1st man or put in a decent cross. Shocking stuff from a professional footballer. See better set pieces on Sunday league being put in.
I don’t think he's got the personality to turn it around. Especially not with these players who seem to fall apart whenever things are on the slide.
it’s been going on for 38 games hasn’t it? This terrible run of shite football, lack of goals and total collapses from the team. This is as bad as Ole but I’d argue the personal is better
it’s been going on for 38 games hasn’t it? This terrible run of shite football, lack of goals and total collapses from the team. This is as bad as Ole but I’d argue the personal is better
Agree with most of what you said, if you look back at my posts last season most were probably moaning at how shit we were but excusing it due to our insane schedule and not enough time to train actual style of play but more just rest recovery training. I also had a go at/ wasn’t happy with ten hag being so naive going for every trophy in his first year when there wasn’t a need to especially when our squad wasn’t built or ready for it, however much he wanted a trophy it wasn’t the time to go for them all, especially now we’re seeing this fallout and fatigue, even possibly the injuries as a result of it.
as for the back up players, again I agree but then whyyyy would ten hag agree or go along with getting Mount when there were much more pressing positions to cover, we all know Bruno will run and run and play 99% of our matches and Mount who plays or should play in that position will not get the game time there.
Unless ten hag had different ideas for him and hoped to play both him and Bruno in the same midfield with just one dm in Casemiro who we also know is aging and can’t cover that ground on his own. Or even the plan is to sell Bruno and just keep Mount. Anthony, I think was a waste of money but can kind of see why he wanted him, Mount has me baffled and I honestly don’t know who would be at fault for wasting that money on him when we clearly needed that money spent elsewhere.
I don’t think I want him sacked yet as I always hope every manager we have can turn it around although I was happy when mourinho got the boot. But it’s getting to the stage where this form or lack of playing style has gone on far too long. I guess we just have to sit back and hope
He does make a lot of strange tactical decisions. Most of them are logical when you deeply analyse them, but mostly from a theoretical standpoint and idealised comparison. Heck, all his tactics are theoretically solid, albeit in a squad with different players than the ones we have.
His double 8 tactic makes perfect sense, with different players than Bruno, Casemiro and Mount. His counter attacking tactic makes perfect sense, with different players than Amrabat, Hojlund and Antony. It's actually quite surreal to watch a team set up in a tactical approach that so clearly doesn't work for the players available, but would be a good way to set up with completely different players.
Only problem with that when it comes to Ten Hag is that most of that squad is his, and he's not getting a tune out of his own signings even.
This....he might as well just go with his Ajax style of play I mean why not? Surely he can get some semblance of it before he gets th3 boot? Nothing to lose.
Truth is if fans saw a sniff of that, most would probably be good with giving him time. He's made his job infinitely more difficult by not doing that.
You can't honestly believe that. The lack of effort is pathetic, particularly when the ball is lost and players have to chase it to win if back.
Look how far Livramento travelled with the ball for the first goal. No one made any real effort to stop him, token run and a bit of a leg in. Then look at Dalot's efforts to make the run to defend the ball to Almiron. It wasn't even a token effort, he looked, saw him, knew he was there and only decided to run when it was too late.
Look how easy they got past 3 players for the second goal. Dalot was turned, outmuscled and made his usual lame efforts to defend the ball. That's just a weak player not giving 100%. Casemiro and Antony just stood and watched.
Look at the efforts to close down and win the ball back off Willock. Amrabat just runs into trouble, not one player looking for a pass. And not one player busting a gut to get back, all the defenders just back off and let him shoot. Maguire just lets a player palm him out of the way when he attempts a move. It's pathetic.
It's not really mostly his squad. While he is struggling to get a tune out his own players, that's just not true. He's signed 16 players 10 permanent, several of those are backups, 2 were free transfers, 6 of them were loans and 4 of those loans are already gone. He's only really brought in 5/6 players to be expected first team starters.
Onana - 55m - start
Martinez -50m - start
Casemiro - 40m - start
Mount - 55m - backup
Hojlund - 70m - start
Malacia - backup 13m
Antony - 80m - start
Eriksen - free - start
Bayindir - backup 5m
Evans - emergency backup
Reguillon - emergency loan
That's 12 players in the squad? We can really forget about Evans and Reguillon as they were only signed as emergency cover. Even if you include them it's still not even mostly his squad, not even half of it is his squad.
You are right, he wants that, but it keeps not working and isn't insanity defined as when somebody keeps doing a thing that clearly doesn't work?
You think with how badly we needed another dm or centre back and we bought a £55 mil Mount as a back up?
If Maguire and McT had have pissed off when they weren't wanted anymore there may have been more money there to pick up a defender. Instead he had to make do with Evans on a free and Amrabat on loan.
This is what I'd like to happen:
- Status