I get your points and agree with most of them.
Regarding the good coaching bit this is where I struggle. At the end of the day you can be the greatest coach but if key players are not giving it their all then you'll struggle. Some will say well its the managers job to motivate players, true, however if it was that easy then managers would not have to build and bring in new players (simplified). Just like in any job there are players who can't be motivated or just don't have the mental fortitude.
The area of contention here is that good and great coaches turn the lens straight on to underperformers and poor workers with a shining light. They mightn't win the game, but they'll leave you in no doubt that what they're trying to implement makes sense (in accordance with how they want to play) and is being let down by such and such because eveything will look as it should until weaker links in the chain enter the fray. You will rarely have doubt that player(s) X, Y and Z are the problem and not what the players have been sent out to do. Of course, this is within the constraints of reality where you're not a bunch of cheats who don't play by FFP, because if you are, you can circumvent real world issues by purchasing and ridding yourself of swathes of players in one go where real clubs cannot and land yourself a world class and optimal squad in a very unrealistic amount of time.
Last season you could look at the players and assess who needed upgrading, this season, you have to look at the system and it immediately states these players are being set up to fail or have a far worse time out there than they otherwise would if a more prudent method of playing was in the offing. From the moment, the
literal moment #6, #10, #10 was announced, this site hasn't been the same as many, including myself, voiced concern that that system is an awful fit for these players. My very first post regarding that was that it would kill/ruin Casemiro. I remember
@noodlehair being very vocal about this, too.
You need #8's that can comfortably fill the #10 space for this to even look feasible on paper. We don't have a single one of those at the club in a professional capacity, let alone two. Before a ball is even kicked, there's cause for concern. What's been scary about this topic is we've looked even worse than my - and I'd guess any other's - visualisation of how this would play out. In fact, it's now a meme, that's how bad it has been.
That is purely and solely on the manager. Even if he wants to execute that system, wait until the correct players are at the club, don't just go ahead anyway, and if you do, on your head be it - rather than expose weak links in the team, you have then exposed weaknesses in your tactics and self-awareness. Some will go further in deeming it naivety or arrogance, but whatever the conclusion, it's a terrible foundation from which to run on and it has seen us carved up by any competent midfield and had us grind to wins against the literal fodder of the league.
None of the above is hyperbole, which makes what's going on all the more concerning.
Players like Rashford, Martial etc have shown they down tools very quickly under every manager. The likes of Sancho have shown before that they don't give 100% in training. Maybe a great coach can get the best out-of them consistently but I doubt it. So on the coaching, not letting ten hag off but its clear he's trying to implement a tactic that requires the entire team to know their roles, always be switched on and make the right decisions. When you have Rashford in the team who does not press, get back or make the right decisions then in these tactics you are playing with a man down. Add in Martial and you are effectively playing with 9. Now when watching newcastle and seeing Joelinton and Almiron, the key difference with them is they run and give their all constantly, even before Howe came so of course they will adapt to a high octane tactic when compared to both Rashford and Martial. Its easy to say well then switch back to 4231, well if we do that then we may as well have kept Ole or Jose. At some stage we will need to commit to a true tactical change and go through the fire to reach it.
Then you remove those players. Instantaneously. As I stated above, the heat and spotlight quickly turns on players if they are not working towards the greater good of the team. I went directly to the Rashford thread and asked the questions I feel aren't being asked in favour of people just being mad at Rashford. If there's something wrong with him, why hasn't the manager hooked him and prevented him from being a liability to the team?
A LVG or Mourinho drops a player not pulling their weight in a heartbeat. If ten Hag is from this hardline school of coaching, what is he doing constantly putting underperformers in the team? Not only does it demoralise the other players, it sends out the message some are above the rules, which will engender a culture of disillusionment, especially so when those above the rules aren't performing and delivering in a manner that gives them carte blanche to flout what the manager espouses.
I have made a thread asking if we're now at the point where we'll see change to tactics and personnel and I think this is a pivotal moment for the manager because if he goes with the same things
again in a gamble that he'll finally get a reaction, there should be intense scrutiny on his management should it fall through.
When you add in that to play the way Ten Hag wants you also need player's technically proficient and with good football intelligence. This is where the deficiencies in the squad, poor recruitment and injuries further hurt us. We are forced to play Mctominay who as a midfielder is technically worse than a joelinton, Amrabat who is out of his depth in this league in terms of speed, add in Bruno who for sure is a very good player but like Juan Mata I can't help but feel he's a player whose playstyle is no longer appropriate for the current game at the very top. He is too risky, too costly in his play and whilst it doesn't directly lead to us conceding goals it does lead to us losing control of games. We have said the no 10 role is outdated, yet one of our star players can only effectively function there.
Do you know what a man of conviction would do? A man obsessed with his systems and principles, someone like LVG? He'd be brave and certain and pick the players at the club who are suited to it, name, experience or standing be damned. He'd pick, to a man (sans Rooney) players who fit the most optimally to what he had in mind. No hesitation or doubt. We'd see Hannibal and Gore next to Mainoo, if that's what was required. He would not repeatedly put square pegs in round holes, and what's more, the patterns of play he personally desired would be in full evidence, undeniably so.
Is our manager a man of conviction in regards to his systems? If the answer is yes, why is he betraying his system with the wrong pieces? Players that struggle to grasp what is being asked of them? I'm certain LVG would adhere to ten Hag’s brief and execute it better than ten Hag has with this exact set of players. Absolutely certain of it. Why is it relevant and why necromance an old manager as a reference point? Because we're stuck in a halfway house that is definitely not beneficial to these players and is, ironically, detrimental to the coach because he's doing worse than he should with what is at his disposal where a LVG would optimise and show the conclusive properties of what we're trying to implement with this set of players.
Now Ten Hags recruitment has to be questioned, however, is it as terrible as we make it out? Martinez is clearly a great signing, Malacia a good back up, Rasmus I think will be a very good signing, Casemiro whilst old clealry improves us and eriksen was a great signing. Then you have Antony who I think is a poor signing. Mount I'll reserve judgement and Amrabat I'll commit to saying he isn't good enough. Is that overall record terrible? Its not amazing but is it as bad as we say? We can't buy players like De Jong, Jude, Erling, Kane that will take us from europa/4th place to winning a league so we have to buy the next rung down. Also every manager from pep to klopp to arteta bought multiple flops when building their teams, its part of the game.
You'll rarely hear me say a single word about the recruitment. It shouldn't have been allowed and the football heads above ETH are to blame for that. I won't use that as a stick to beat the manager, but what I will scrutinise is the utilisation and deployment of those signings, and that's where things are again well below par this term.
So in summary....I think ive re-convinced myself to back Ten Hag! He needs to be supported with a better recruitment team, get in players that can challenge Rashford and Bruno etc, get rid of the remnants of Ole/Jose's teams and hopefully we will start to see Ten Hags vision.
The absolving of this horror show of a season with all (or nearly all) blame being apportioned to the players - the same players half this site were happy with when we went on that 'run' of wins just a couple of games ago - is preposterous. If the players are on an arbitrary 4/10 for the season thus far, the manager is on a 2 or 3. That's in stark contrast to the 7 or 8 for the first season where he wasn't setting up the team in this kamikaze way that he's not versed in playing. Players downing tools is such a cop out because outside of Rashford and Martial, these players are still going out there and giving what they have. I've asked repeatedly who else is downing tools to the sound of crickets because there is a difference between not being prepared to run and/or try and not knowing when to because the tactical plans are so clearly disorderly and unable to carry contingency. Our manager is looking like a rabbit in headlights in games reticent to make vital adjustments in game that could at least give a fighting chance to the team. He is being outcoached left, right and centre, and rather than discuss that, it is being buried because there is a desire to place ire elsewhere, as if there isn't enough of that to go around - both player and manager can be in the wrong. This season most definitely isn't an either or.
As much as I wanted this manager pre-arrival and was on board with him going into this off-season, he has undone so much of his own work that it beggars belief. Every constructive thing has been replaced by something that is ailing this collective - where are the constructive building blocks to capitalise off of what we had achieved last season? Today has to be a new dawn in terms of what he attempts to do, for me or the last slithers of belief I have that he can turn this around and actually start coaching again will be in the gutter.
I reiterate with most posts I make that I actually want this guy to succeed, but I am never going to betray objective reasoning or not call a spade a spade for the time it is a spade. He has massively let himself down this season, and pointing fingers elsewhere does not detract from that bottom line.
To go forward with a manager you have to see and believe in what he's doing on the pitch before any other factor, imo. Victories and table standing are not as important as seeing constructive and progressive development. In fact, results alone can harbour false dawns that those who are seemingly solely focused on are duped by and seem to be genuinely taken aback when the house of cards falls down as the football - not the results - invariably dictated it would.
