Erik ten Hag | 2022/23 & 2023/24

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Considering the ridiculous amount of injuries we've got, 5 wins in the last 6 games is terrific.

The performances aren't what I want to see long term but if we can keep getting victories between now and Christmas hopefully we'll be in a good place when the players return.
 
We’ve been shite all season but somehow hung on to a decent league position…with players returning from injury imagine if we can put a run together from here. There’s not a team this season that looks a cert to win.

Get to January in a similar spot and it could get interesting
 
Borys said:
Seems to me like in the last period he completely gave up trying to build a functional team, and focused on getting results (that's just a fancy way of saying I am surprised McTominay is a regular and Bruno keeps playing no matter what). I don't blame him because we did get the points and somehow (with other teams dropping points) the situation has been stabilized.

That said I think we're going to suffer in December as we look shite in this setup, and any decent teams will just create a lot of chances. Martinez might help but Casemiro will not (if we throw him as a lone midfielder in default system ETH has been using this season).
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Don't disagree, but today is a day to be optimistic about this lineup for the 2nd half of the season:


Garnacho/Rashford--------Hojlund--------------------RW
-----------------------------------------Bruno-------------------------
------------------------Mainoo-----------------Casemiro-------
Shaw------------Lisandro---------------Maguire------------Dalot
---------------------------------------Onana---------------------------------

and pray that one of the right wingers finds some form and Mainoo and Casemiro (which makes sense stylistically, a calm but small midfielder mostly sitting and Casemiro sitting and charging about) compliment each other well. Then the summer, we need to replace Casemiro and Varane with starters.
 
Malone_Post said:
Moments FC. As usual.

18 months down the line, and £400 million spent and he still hasn’t got us looking anything like a cohesive team. And the best two players on the pitch today were youth players that he had no influence in signing. It’s just not good enough.
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Worst post I’ve ever read.
 
VP89 said:
His adaptive approach still has more than enough service to the front men. They just haven't been anywhere near good enough in their on quality.

We will need Rashford or Bruno (probably both) to hit a December purple patch for us to maintain the good form with the fixtures ahead.
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In the games against very poor opposition, but yes this is true. But I think if you watch us play it is very obvious we don't move the ball good enough to put our attackers in promising positions regularly. The ball sometimes falls to their feet but it's just not sustainable.

Anyway, against the big boys I see far bigger issues in midfield/defensively than in attack.
 
Malone_Post said:
Moments FC. As usual.

18 months down the line, and £400 million spent and he still hasn’t got us looking anything like a cohesive team. And the best two players on the pitch today were youth players that he had no influence in signing. It’s just not good enough.
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He had influence in blooding those youth players though which deserves credit.
 
Malone_Post said:
Moments FC. As usual.

18 months down the line, and £400 million spent and he still hasn’t got us looking anything like a cohesive team. And the best two players on the pitch today were youth players that he had no influence in signing. It’s just not good enough.
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I’ve been harsh on ETH and yes it’s frustrating to not be able to control games but come on. A 3-0 away win at a tough Everton ground after the points deduction and one of the Prems best ever goals? let’s give it a rest for now
 
NoPace said:
Don't disagree, but today is a day to be optimistic about this lineup for the 2nd half of the season:


Garnacho/Rashford--------Hojlund--------------------RW
-----------------------------------------Bruno-------------------------
------------------------Mainoo-----------------Casemiro-------
Shaw------------Lisandro---------------Maguire------------Dalot
---------------------------------------Onana---------------------------------

and pray that one of the right wingers finds some form and Mainoo and Casemiro (which makes sense stylistically, a calm but small midfielder mostly sitting and Casemiro sitting and charging about) compliment each other well. Then the summer, we need to replace Casemiro and Varane with starters.
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I agree with this.

But I think there is zero basis that ETH would move towards 2 man midfield. It's pretty clear what he wants to do and this is also the reason why I'm skeptical about him.
 
The gas thing about the spurs and arsenal games we have played is that VAR and poor finishing lost us those games. People keep going on about how poor we have been , which is true, but there’s never any balance.

As bad as we have been , there have been moments of class and it feels like if our forward line can find some form we could have a solid second half of season.
 
Pickle85 said:
We just won 3-0 away and we're only six points off the top, having endured an absolute plague of injuries. I swear some of our fanbase would quit posting if there was nothing to moan about.
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This one wishes they would quit
 
Borys said:
I agree with this.

But I think there is zero basis that ETH would move towards 2 man midfield. It's pretty clear what he wants to do and this is also the reason why I'm skeptical about him.
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I think it's fair to say we played that way today. McTominay mostly did regular box-box things and Mainoo sat in the buildup and otherwise did similar. Our shape was basically 4-2-3-1 with Bruno all over the pitch as usual for much of the game (and closer to 4-1-2-3 with the ball), though I don't think that's a bad thing, probably makes him tougher to mark for the opposing DM, and him getting open to play through balls and score goals are still our main source of offence. McTominay being better than Casemiro at running into the channel between the LB and CB to cross a ball once every game.

Basically a teenager had a good 70 minutes and I'm ready to build the team around him. How are we this close to making the CL again?
 
Chumpsbechumps said:
The gas thing about the spurs and arsenal games we have played is that VAR and poor finishing lost us those games. People keep going on about how poor we have been , which is true, but there’s never any balance.

As bad as we have been , there have been moments of class and it feels like if our forward line can find some form we could have a solid second half of season.
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If you’re going down that route, you can also easily argue that we’ve been lucky to win at least half of our eight wins. We have more points than our football merits, not less.
 
Ten Hag playing McTominay, who he wanted rid of, over one of his own signings who he clearly rated, is just pitiful in terms of the club's transfer dealings.

Made all the worse by how average McTominay is, which just makes the Amrabat signing look even worse. Imagine not being able to identify an upgrade on a player who is not very good.

He's also signed Eriksen and Casemiro in the twilight of their careers despite our past history of signing the likes of Sanchez, Schweinsteiger, etc, and Mount who has done slightly better than Amrabat, but whom he doesn't have any confidence in.

Mainoo gives some cause for optimism but the question is how we play a midfield that gives us impetus going forward but that provides cover. Any midfield we seem to field looks porous.
 
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NoPace said:
I think it's fair to say we played that way today. McTominay mostly did regular box-box things and Mainoo sat in the buildup and otherwise did similar. Our shape was basically 4-2-3-1 with Bruno all over the pitch as usual for much of the game (and closer to 4-1-2-3 with the ball), though I don't think that's a bad thing, probably makes him tougher to mark for the opposing DM, and him getting open to play through balls and score goals are still our main source of offence. McTominay being better than Casemiro at running into the channel between the LB and CB to cross a ball once every game.

Basically a teenager had a good 70 minutes and I'm ready to build the team around him. How are we this close to making the CL again?
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I think McTominay played advanced role. He did hoover around central areas but when we lost the ball he was mostly chasing it rather than shielding back 4. Like I said before, this is default ETH team setup. Mount also plays this way for us.
 
I'll be truly optimistic if we manage to get a point against a top 10 team
 
Last season there was a gradual progression, along with some bad play as well. This season should have been a better playing style, especially as he has got his 'feet under the table'. Yes we have had injuries, but so do all he other teams and the teams aound us still seem to play to a good standard of football regardless.
Im 50/50 with him. Is the job too big for him? Why as his ethos changed completely from when he first got here?
I also wonder once Ratcliffe comes in whether he might be better bringing in his own manager and start afresh.
 
TheReligion said:
your posts are complete and utter shite
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Oh look it’s the leader of the ‘Shaw & Martinez will transform the team’ brigade. Didn’t look very transformative today when Everton were running all over us creating chance after chance. But hey, this is the exactly the kind of post we’ve come to expect from you. You love to attack posters that you disagree with rather then engage in any kind of actual discussion. You’re just an awful and unnecessarily aggressive poster. Hardly comes as a surprise though given your day job.

If people want to stick their heads in the sand and get giddy over a few barely deserved wins over the teams in 19th, 17th & 15th place over the past few weeks then knock yourselves out. But the next few weeks are going to come as a big shock to you because if performances don’t improve substantially, it could get very messy indeed.
 
The amount of miserable saps in this thread is absolutely amazing. Most of you probably hammer nails into your balls to feel somewhat alive. Three nil away win. Will take that at any point in the season. Way more positives than negatives around ETH after that. He's making a lot of right calls. Players are backing him from what I can see.
 
3-0…. Keep on winning despite the injuries and look what has happened to other clubs with half of what we’ve had to deal with.
 
Borys said:
In the games against very poor opposition, but yes this is true. But I think if you watch us play it is very obvious we don't move the ball good enough to put our attackers in promising positions regularly. The ball sometimes falls to their feet but it's just not sustainable.

Anyway, against the big boys I see far bigger issues in midfield/defensively than in attack.
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The funny thing is we held our own very well against Arsenal, should have been well up by half time to Spurs and started our first 30mins to City surprisingly well too. The last one is clutching a bit but it's frustrating we got 0 points from all of those.
 
I’m beaming with the win especially after that goal by Ronaldo mk2 but… I mean calling people miserable for pointing out the obvious is just setting up yourself for more disappointment in the coming weeks.

We were pretty awful for large parts of the game and they literally had some ridiculously easy chances which any other team would finish.

We have a tough fixture list coming up and if we play like we did today, we’d lose a lot of points and won’t be able to say hey we’re only x points from the top and all that.

Also, imo, people pointing out our injury list should really go back and see our starting 11 in some of the lost games this season. The players picked were were pretty much our preferred options and playing in their proper positions. It wasn’t a crisis like playing Carrick at CB or Rafael and Fabio in midfield.

There is still no cohesion in attack. We still don’t pass the ball. Erik is still playing his favorites and there is no accountability for bad performances.

A freak goal that settled the team isn’t going to happen every game and Erik needs to improve fast. Hopefully this result kicks off the season for us.
 
Malone_Post said:
Oh look it’s the leader of the ‘Shaw & Martinez will transform the team’ brigade. Didn’t look very transformative today when Everton were running all over us creating chance after chance. But hey, this is the exactly the kind of post we’ve come to expect from you. You love to attack posters that you disagree with rather then engage in any kind of actual discussion. You’re just an awful and unnecessarily aggressive poster. Hardly comes as a surprise though given your day job.

If people want to stick their heads in the sand and get giddy over a few barely deserved wins over the teams in 19th, 17th & 15th place over the past few weeks then knock yourselves out. But the next few weeks are going to come as a big shock to you because if performances don’t improve substantially, it could get very messy indeed.
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Absolute dross.
 
VP89 said:
The funny thing is we held our own very well against Arsenal, should have been well up by half time to Spurs and started our first 30mins to City surprisingly well too. The last one is clutching a bit but it's frustrating we got 0 points from all of those.
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It is a bit frustrating but on the other hand we had games that we maybe didn't deserve to win (based on performance - today is a good example) and still got 3 points so it evens out in the long run. Although I don't think we were that close to Arsenal, yes it looked like we were winning for a moment (Garnacho goal) but their 3 goals wasn't really outperforming their chances, while we definitely did outperform ours.
 
Judas said:
Being this miserable feels so utterly pointless. Why are you wasting your life with something you seemingly struggle to enjoy?
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If they're this miserable after a 3-0 away win then surely at this point they've got to question whether football is the right sport for them.
 
el3mel said:
It will be a miracle finishing 4th considering our form this season. We shouldn't have been in this position but as we are in it now, can't do anything about it.
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Won't be a miracle and form in the league isn't bad as I stated earlier only once in the last 5 seasons have United had more points after 13 games. Why shouldn't be in this position? over overachieved last season and this season had to deal with a long injury list and off the field issues.
 
Based on early season, top 4 really did seem far away. But with the expected Spurs drop off, it's going to be a dog fight between us and Newcastle, maybe Chelsea if they find form.
 
Safe to say he still has the players playing for him and he got a reaction after halve time
 
mu4c_20le said:
Based on early season, top 4 really did seem far away. But with the expected Spurs drop off, it's going to be a dog fight between us and Newcastle, maybe Chelsea if they find form.
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I think Chelsea and spurs will miss out. I also think a lot of it will come down to who progresses in Europe, Newcastle and us for example could both head into the Europa league which is a very long season and it gives teams like spurs and Chelsea a chance to push on as they’ll be a lot fresher.
 
always_hoping said:
Won't be a miracle and form in the league isn't bad as I stated earlier only once in the last 5 seasons have United had more points after 13 games. Why shouldn't be in this position? over overachieved last season and this season had to deal with a long injury list and off the field issues.
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Think he meant we shouldn’t be in this position as we should have beat palace at home and maybe Brighton. Got done over by the decisions against spurs and Arsenal. We could have easily been in the top 3 by now.
 
Chumpsbechumps said:
The gas thing about the spurs and arsenal games we have played is that VAR and poor finishing lost us those games. People keep going on about how poor we have been , which is true, but there’s never any balance.

As bad as we have been , there have been moments of class and it feels like if our forward line can find some form we could have a solid second half of season.
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This is where the hope is. As poorly as we have been for so long and playing messy choat football since the start of the season, if the right personnel can be found to form the right formula, we might be able to click someday. During the last few league games, at least we have grind out the results. It gives ETH a little bit space to breathe. It’s the next string of touch games for this team to make or break I think. The performance has to be improved consistently first and foremost. Otherwise, it is too hard to get much from the next few games.
 
It's sort of classic ETH isn't it.

We don't play well but we end up winning 0-3 against a poor side.

We lack control, are somewhat chaotic, concede plenty of turnovers and territory and face 24 shots on goal against a limited attack. Yet, to be fair, there are some signs of some improvement in some areas...or at least, a plan we can build on.

I really want to like him but games like this don't show us anything really. We didn't play well, we lacked control, but we have better players, so we won. I want to see us control games against the likes of Villa and Newcastle before I'll be convinced - let alone Liverpool, Arsenal and City etc...

My feeling is we will get tanked by Newcastle and Liverpool before Christmas and we will still be no closer to knowing whether we're going in the right direction or down a dead-end.
 
mu4c_20le said:
Based on early season, top 4 really did seem far away. But with the expected Spurs drop off, it's going to be a dog fight between us and Newcastle, maybe Chelsea if they find form.
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Too early to say. I think spurs will bounce back, considering that they performed well mostly.
 
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