He's got that Moyes vibe about him. Like the club is too big for him and he's happy just to be here aspiring to be as good as the big boys
Erik ten Hag | 2022/23 & 2023/24
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Yep in total agreement. I avoided the majority of the Mount discussion and also reserved judgement on selling Fred, but by the end of the transfer window voiced concern that this is an unbalanced squad with no particular strength or sense of direction - there was nowhere to look and think, this could be our niche and exploit in the league, and if we're going to try and play this "cavalier" football, where are the physical beasts and technical maestros to execute?
The concerns about midfield have been ever-present and with the best will in the world, there's not an iota of positivity to take from how it is currently set up. The big concern now is that we're(he is) going to ruin an 18yr old if this keeps up because the load is not simply excessive, it is impossible.
Deviating from what we were last season in such a swift turn made no sense then and has proven to be catastrophic as all the building blocks that were in place off the back of that season have now been kicked over. We've regressed by some margin and the bigger concern is we're seeing nothing to suggest a change in fortune is around the corner because the performances are too disjointed and reliant on moments over cohesion, both Ole and Mourinho were slaughtered for that. They played different football, but ultimately concluded with a prayer, and we're seeing that again now only worse because there's no concerted structure to our build up. At least with the aforementioned, a buccaneering counter was when we'd come alive and be at our most threatening. Even if it was simplistic, it was defined and it was something opposition were conditioned to fear. Nobody fears us now, nobody sets up to cater to our threat because there isn't one, as our goals scored attests as well as the xG and the amount of passes in threatening areas of the pitch. We've no longer got the ace card of Rashford in purple streak form, which carried us last season, and this underlying issue has simply matured into a different beast by now.
It's been such a letdown, but worse, one we've remonstrated against since June (in the build up to Mount being signed)? It's been almost half a year and what was bad has matured into something truly awful in that period of time. That's not how things were supposed to go.
Why do ETH supporters and anti-player posters group all these disparate teams over the last 10 years into just "the players?" 90 odd percent of that LVG team is gone!
He wasn't bragging though. He said it was still a shit run.
ten Hag was by far the most euphoric I’ve been for a managerial appointment post-Fergie, and I don’t say that lightly as my post history around our new helmsmen would attest. He was the only coach we’d acquired who could be seen as hot property and, more importantly, modern and progressive. He was to bring that football to us and revolutionise this squad with new ideas, exceptional coaching and state of the art tactical awareness and approach. We would be dragged out of our Blockbuster Video physical media era and become a hot streaming service to rival any on the market, always flowing, always better than the sum of parts because the systems would become king with only components in it needing refinement.
The first half of the first season ushered in hope; things weren’t silky smooth, but we looked to be headed in the right direction and we also won a trophy. Huge news and progress at the time. Since then, however, the upward trajectory tapered off and then began the descent; grinding out victories through attrition and moments rather than impressive, structured play. OK, it saw out the season, a season that was objectively a success. Right then! Let’s build on that and get the show back on the road with a good transfer window and preseason…. and from that time until now, it’s like the proverbial plane has been hijacked by someone who has done a few landings in a flight sim and got failed grades each time.
The air of emperor’s new clothes has grown and grown until the point that things could no longer be avoided. The murmurs about the lack of a midfield grew beyond the #6, #10, #10; the shape of the midfield in its entirety started to come under scrutiny, then the utilisation of the personnel. How and why he uses substitutes like he does. Why is he so lagged in-game? Then came the questions of how we struggle to hold our own and control a game against anyone, scraping through a run of games via moments rather than cohesive play. The reasons cited for why we are so bad became long and varied: it’s the injuries; it’s the lack of Martinez and Shaw; it’s the Glazer’s; it’s the club structure; it’s the players downing tools; it’s because Casemiro is ready for the scrap heap; it’s because we’re not converting chances and so on and so forth, but it is always something, regardless of whether we’re playing a team with a twentieth of our budget. The whole time questions revolving around why the tactics are so dire or why is the in-game management appalling or why is our manager constantly being outcoached get swerved in favour of citing anything but on the pitch maladies to the point of:because things will sort themselves out, they just will. We go to Newcastle and receive an evincing mauling by a team decimated by injuries who are playing the same set of players for the 3rd game in a row and the penny drops. As much as there’s a desire to see the man succeed, glossing over what’s happening is absurd. Pointing out players the manager keeps on picking, no matter what, are performing badly exacerbates the point.
Taking this relationship of fans to manager away from football, this whole affair has been an e-romance where both parties liked what they saw and heard about each other enough to give it a real life go. The honeymoon period was on fire for a brief moment before little, annoying, idiosyncratic things started to rear their heads and since the honeymoon haze lifted, there have been a lot of problems to work on, but as that second phase unfolded, there came more cause for concern as ten Hag liked his eggs done a particular way and liked to go to bed at a precise time, which the collective we find egregious.
As time goes by, the redeeming qualities lessen - the one thing we’re supposedly good at comes at such a great cost as to be a redundancy; anyone can collate high final third turnovers if they are as negligent with the rest of midfield as we are. The sheer volume of shots we’ve faced is only worsened by Sheffield United and Luton Town - two teams contesting to be the worst side the PL has ever seen by coming in under Derby County’s nadir. There isn’t a need for any hyperbole: we are this bad, but what’s more concerning is we’re showing no signs of improvement; one part of the team picks up, another part falls apart, and never once are able to display the kind of synergy that suggests things have turned a corner.
The whole time ten Hag is here I hold out for him to prove my thoughts wrong and reignite the initial hopes I had for his reign, instead, he further convinces that this job is beyond him, his first season credit long since used up with him being deep in the red by now. His inability to identify and fix problems is alarming; his stubbornness, worse. There are many other niggles, too many, but ultimately the conclusive thought is that it’s just a matter of time until guillotine drops now. There are no redeeming factors to how we play, none, which is why our titanic battles are with fodder whilst we are mostly mauled by anything approaching a good team. By now there doesn't feel like anything to discuss, it's all gone binary and the grey rubbed out - either you can set up a midfield or you can't; either you can play constructive football without a single point failure (Rashford), or you cannot; either you can play out without reliance on a single player or your philosophy is irredeemable for this level. It goes on, but ultimately this all feels like a formality; why would new owners stick with this? What is he giving them for them to get behind him? For all the will in the world, ten Hag has shown so many more cons than pros this season that he matches up unfavourably with anything that has preceded him post-Fergie, which is why he’s breaking negative records that have stood since 1961. I wanted this guy to succeed, still do, but there’s no tangible evidence to back him - there’s nothing that screams elite management is just around the corner.
Fantastic post. Spot on.
Ahead of Newcastle game we were on top league form, as most above us had played each other or just drawn a lot.
Varela, Borthwick-Jackson and Fosu Mensah along with the likes of Darmian, Fellaini and Rooney were malcontents who downed tools. Ignore the fact that we ended the season well and it was a disastrous December and the insipid football we played that meant we scored no goals that meant we missed out on the CL on goal difference while winning the FA Cup.No they didn't
Yep in total agreement. I avoided the majority of the Mount discussion and also reserved judgement on selling Fred, but by the end of the transfer window voiced concern that this is an unbalanced squad with no particular strength or sense of direction - there was nowhere to look and think, this could be our niche and exploit in the league, and if we're going to try and play this "cavalier" football, where are the physical beasts and technical maestros to execute?
The concerns about midfield have been ever-present and with the best will in the world, there's not an iota of positivity to take from how it is currently set up. The big concern now is that we're(he is) going to ruin an 18yr old if this keeps up because the load is not simply excessive, it is impossible.
Deviating from what we were last season in such a swift turn made no sense then and has proven to be catastrophic as all the building blocks that were in place off the back of that season have now been kicked over. We've regressed by some margin and the bigger concern is we're seeing nothing to suggest a change in fortune is around the corner because the performances are too disjointed and reliant on moments over cohesion, both Ole and Mourinho were slaughtered for that. They played different football, but ultimately concluded with a prayer, and we're seeing that again now only worse because there's no concerted structure to our build up. At least with the aforementioned, a buccaneering counter was when we'd come alive and be at our most threatening. Even if it was simplistic, it was defined and it was something opposition were conditioned to fear. Nobody fears us now, nobody sets up to cater to our threat because there isn't one, as our goals scored attests as well as the xG and the amount of passes in threatening areas of the pitch. We've no longer got the ace card of Rashford in purple streak form, which carried us last season, and this underlying issue has simply matured into a different beast by now.
It's been such a letdown, but worse, one we've remonstrated against since June (in the build up to Mount being signed)? It's been almost half a year and what was bad has matured into something truly awful in that period of time. That's not how things were supposed to go.
The real damage was done the summer before. It was a horrific use of funds to not resolve not many positions long term. That Antony money could've landed us 2-3 decent players, but once you've spent money so wastefully the summer before there's feck all margin for error, experimentation or indulgence the window after. And unfortunately 2/3 signings this summer were exactly that in Mount and Onana.
I have looked and we have spent more money than anyone apart from Chelsea and more than any time in our history. You are making 0 rational arguments here. I'm out.
No they didn't
Have you read some of the accounts from his time as manager?
By and large, they hated the overly analytical video sessions and "homework" and unsurprisingly hated that he'd give them a dressing down in front of the rest of the squad for having the audacity to score or assist without first taking a touch to control the ball.
I live this post and it screams so much I thought myself. But there is a but - only that most of you leave out is that one point we had 10+ players out. Which of 6+ were the starting players when we were on top of our form last season and who are the ones club has built there long term strategy on. We have been putting our fires to fires since August and we haven't had a solid month to play with a cohesive setup of 15 players who are always available.ten Hag was by far the most euphoric I’ve been for a managerial appointment post-Fergie, and I don’t say that lightly as my post history around our new helmsmen would attest. He was the only coach we’d acquired who could be seen as hot property and, more importantly, modern and progressive. He was to bring that football to us and revolutionise this squad with new ideas, exceptional coaching and state of the art tactical awareness and approach. We would be dragged out of our Blockbuster Video physical media era and become a hot streaming service to rival any on the market, always flowing, always better than the sum of parts because the systems would become king with only components in it needing refinement.
The first half of the first season ushered in hope; things weren’t silky smooth, but we looked to be headed in the right direction and we also won a trophy. Huge news and progress at the time. Since then, however, the upward trajectory tapered off and then began the descent; grinding out victories through attrition and moments rather than impressive, structured play. OK, it saw out the season, a season that was objectively a success. Right then! Let’s build on that and get the show back on the road with a good transfer window and preseason…. and from that time until now, it’s like the proverbial plane has been hijacked by someone who has done a few landings in a flight sim and got failed grades each time.
The air of emperor’s new clothes has grown and grown until the point that things could no longer be avoided. The murmurs about the lack of a midfield grew beyond the #6, #10, #10; the shape of the midfield in its entirety started to come under scrutiny, then the utilisation of the personnel. How and why he uses substitutes like he does. Why is he so lagged in-game? Then came the questions of how we struggle to hold our own and control a game against anyone, scraping through a run of games via moments rather than cohesive play. The reasons cited for why we are so bad became long and varied: it’s the injuries; it’s the lack of Martinez and Shaw; it’s the Glazer’s; it’s the club structure; it’s the players downing tools; it’s because Casemiro is ready for the scrap heap; it’s because we’re not converting chances and so on and so forth, but it is always something, regardless of whether we’re playing a team with a twentieth of our budget. The whole time questions revolving around why the tactics are so dire or why is the in-game management appalling or why is our manager constantly being outcoached get swerved in favour of citing anything but on the pitch maladies to the point of:because things will sort themselves out, they just will. We go to Newcastle and receive an evincing mauling by a team decimated by injuries who are playing the same set of players for the 3rd game in a row and the penny drops. As much as there’s a desire to see the man succeed, glossing over what’s happening is absurd. Pointing out players the manager keeps on picking, no matter what, are performing badly exacerbates the point.
Taking this relationship of fans to manager away from football, this whole affair has been an e-romance where both parties liked what they saw and heard about each other enough to give it a real life go. The honeymoon period was on fire for a brief moment before little, annoying, idiosyncratic things started to rear their heads and since the honeymoon haze lifted, there have been a lot of problems to work on, but as that second phase unfolded, there came more cause for concern as ten Hag liked his eggs done a particular way and liked to go to bed at a precise time, which the collective we find egregious.
As time goes by, the redeeming qualities lessen - the one thing we’re supposedly good at comes at such a great cost as to be a redundancy; anyone can collate high final third turnovers if they are as negligent with the rest of midfield as we are. The sheer volume of shots we’ve faced is only worsened by Sheffield United and Luton Town - two teams contesting to be the worst side the PL has ever seen by coming in under Derby County’s nadir. There isn’t a need for any hyperbole: we are this bad, but what’s more concerning is we’re showing no signs of improvement; one part of the team picks up, another part falls apart, and never once are able to display the kind of synergy that suggests things have turned a corner.
The whole time ten Hag is here I hold out for him to prove my thoughts wrong and reignite the initial hopes I had for his reign, instead, he further convinces that this job is beyond him, his first season credit long since used up with him being deep in the red by now. His inability to identify and fix problems is alarming; his stubbornness, worse. There are many other niggles, too many, but ultimately the conclusive thought is that it’s just a matter of time until guillotine drops now. There are no redeeming factors to how we play, none, which is why our titanic battles are with fodder whilst we are mostly mauled by anything approaching a good team. By now there doesn't feel like anything to discuss, it's all gone binary and the grey rubbed out - either you can set up a midfield or you can't; either you can play constructive football without a single point failure (Rashford), or you cannot; either you can play out without reliance on a single player or your philosophy is irredeemable for this level. It goes on, but ultimately this all feels like a formality; why would new owners stick with this? What is he giving them for them to get behind him? For all the will in the world, ten Hag has shown so many more cons than pros this season that he matches up unfavourably with anything that has preceded him post-Fergie, which is why he’s breaking negative records that have stood since 1961. I wanted this guy to succeed, still do, but there’s no tangible evidence to back him - there’s nothing that screams elite management is just around the corner.
I misread the original point. 8 wins in 10 is decent to be fair to LVG, not many times that's happened at United since Sir Alex retired, I can't say how many as I don't have All Comps Data. I do have PL Runs of form though:
Manager | PL Games Winning Run | GF | GA | GD |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Ten Hag | 5 | 11 | 2 | +9 |
Ole | 6 | 17 | 4 | +13 |
Jose | 6 | 12 | 3 | +9 |
LVG | 6 | 15 | 4 | +11 |
Manager | PL Games Unbeaten Run | GF | GA | GD |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Ten Hag | 6 | 10 | 5 | +5 |
Ole | 12 | 29 | 9 | +20 |
Jose | 26 | 38 | 13 | +25 |
LVG | 10 | 18 | 6 | +12 |
Few things to point out, these stats are taken from their first 52 PL Games only. That way nobody has larger set of data to pull from. LVG managed two runs of 6 wins, the only Manager to do so, but I picked the one with the higher GD.
Jesus, that's a decent unbeaten run by Jose. Shocking from ETH.
We could have easily lost Everton game if they had been more clinical, and Galatasaray game we didn't even win anyway.
The fact that he seems to think this should be the level we should aspire to is hilarious but it's been that way all season, results clouding performances. We probably have 6-8 points more than we truly deserve and this is largely driven by an easy schedule.
We lose to every good team when away to them (and it will not change under ETH) so it will be impossible to string a much longer run together, unless we are faced with an extremely favorable calendar.
That first half against Everton - wonder goal aside - was absolutely terrible. I remember the Xg at HT being hugely in Everton's favour. Nothing in our recent performances suggests that this will click, unfortunately.
I've reserved judgement on that because if it was/is building towards something, the fruits of that labour might not reveal themselves straight away. You know my stance on Antony, for example, but my time to truly assess him was going to be when an overlapping FB was purchased to pair up with him. I wouldn't be true to my words if I didn't hold out on such a thing, but the follow up window has been bad. Even working within a financial constraint, a solid construct is the order of the day.
As I've said previously, the transfer windows shouldn't have been allowed to happen in the manner that they did because signings should have been vetoed by the higher ups in the chain whose job it was supposed to be to analyse and filter incomings and outgoings.
ten Hag was by far the most euphoric I’ve been for a managerial appointment post-Fergie, and I don’t say that lightly as my post history around our new helmsmen would attest. He was the only coach we’d acquired who could be seen as hot property and, more importantly, modern and progressive. He was to bring that football to us and revolutionise this squad with new ideas, exceptional coaching and state of the art tactical awareness and approach. We would be dragged out of our Blockbuster Video physical media era and become a hot streaming service to rival any on the market, always flowing, always better than the sum of parts because the systems would become king with only components in it needing refinement.
The first half of the first season ushered in hope; things weren’t silky smooth, but we looked to be headed in the right direction and we also won a trophy. Huge news and progress at the time. Since then, however, the upward trajectory tapered off and then began the descent; grinding out victories through attrition and moments rather than impressive, structured play. OK, it saw out the season, a season that was objectively a success. Right then! Let’s build on that and get the show back on the road with a good transfer window and preseason…. and from that time until now, it’s like the proverbial plane has been hijacked by someone who has done a few landings in a flight sim and got failed grades each time.
The air of emperor’s new clothes has grown and grown until the point that things could no longer be avoided. The murmurs about the lack of a midfield grew beyond the #6, #10, #10; the shape of the midfield in its entirety started to come under scrutiny, then the utilisation of the personnel. How and why he uses substitutes like he does. Why is he so lagged in-game? Then came the questions of how we struggle to hold our own and control a game against anyone, scraping through a run of games via moments rather than cohesive play. The reasons cited for why we are so bad became long and varied: it’s the injuries; it’s the lack of Martinez and Shaw; it’s the Glazer’s; it’s the club structure; it’s the players downing tools; it’s because Casemiro is ready for the scrap heap; it’s because we’re not converting chances and so on and so forth, but it is always something, regardless of whether we’re playing a team with a twentieth of our budget. The whole time questions revolving around why the tactics are so dire or why is the in-game management appalling or why is our manager constantly being outcoached get swerved in favour of citing anything but on the pitch maladies to the point of:because things will sort themselves out, they just will. We go to Newcastle and receive an evincing mauling by a team decimated by injuries who are playing the same set of players for the 3rd game in a row and the penny drops. As much as there’s a desire to see the man succeed, glossing over what’s happening is absurd. Pointing out players the manager keeps on picking, no matter what, are performing badly exacerbates the point.
Taking this relationship of fans to manager away from football, this whole affair has been an e-romance where both parties liked what they saw and heard about each other enough to give it a real life go. The honeymoon period was on fire for a brief moment before little, annoying, idiosyncratic things started to rear their heads and since the honeymoon haze lifted, there have been a lot of problems to work on, but as that second phase unfolded, there came more cause for concern as ten Hag liked his eggs done a particular way and liked to go to bed at a precise time, which the collective we find egregious.
As time goes by, the redeeming qualities lessen - the one thing we’re supposedly good at comes at such a great cost as to be a redundancy; anyone can collate high final third turnovers if they are as negligent with the rest of midfield as we are. The sheer volume of shots we’ve faced is only worsened by Sheffield United and Luton Town - two teams contesting to be the worst side the PL has ever seen by coming in under Derby County’s nadir. There isn’t a need for any hyperbole: we are this bad, but what’s more concerning is we’re showing no signs of improvement; one part of the team picks up, another part falls apart, and never once are able to display the kind of synergy that suggests things have turned a corner.
The whole time ten Hag is here I hold out for him to prove my thoughts wrong and reignite the initial hopes I had for his reign, instead, he further convinces that this job is beyond him, his first season credit long since used up with him being deep in the red by now. His inability to identify and fix problems is alarming; his stubbornness, worse. There are many other niggles, too many, but ultimately the conclusive thought is that it’s just a matter of time until guillotine drops now. There are no redeeming factors to how we play, none, which is why our titanic battles are with fodder whilst we are mostly mauled by anything approaching a good team. By now there doesn't feel like anything to discuss, it's all gone binary and the grey rubbed out - either you can set up a midfield or you can't; either you can play constructive football without a single point failure (Rashford), or you cannot; either you can play out without reliance on a single player or your philosophy is irredeemable for this level. It goes on, but ultimately this all feels like a formality; why would new owners stick with this? What is he giving them for them to get behind him? For all the will in the world, ten Hag has shown so many more cons than pros this season that he matches up unfavourably with anything that has preceded him post-Fergie, which is why he’s breaking negative records that have stood since 1961. I wanted this guy to succeed, still do, but there’s no tangible evidence to back him - there’s nothing that screams elite management is just around the corner.
Agree with all of this, excellently sums up my feelings.
I’m almost glad the INEOS investment is taking time as he should have a few more players back before a new CEO and DoF decide his future.
As it stands though, I’d not even convinced he’ll play his best side when they are all back & I don’t think he can just switch the play like shit button to play superbly simply with the return of 2-3 players as even with everyone available last season, with a good feeling looming over the club, we looked like shite more often than not against anyone decent.
If ETH thinks the way we played against Everton and Galatasary are our standards, then he may as well pack his bags now. Give Man City, Liverpool, Newcastle, Arsenal etc 20+ shots on goal and a 'free-to-roam' midfield. See what happens.
I hope he doesn't ask the players to play that way against Bayern Munich, even if they rest players.
I hope he doesn't ask the players to play that way against Bayern Munich, even if they rest players.
Yeah, Ole got a little closer to matching it later on, but got fecked over by Sheffield United of all clubs.
LVG after his first 52 PL Games, only managed 1 point less (98 points) than Ten Hag (99 points). But but team had a combined 35 GD compared to EtH's 14 GD. I always thought LVG football was horrendous and yet offensively and defensively got better stats.
Despite how many people want to deny it, it’s clear he’s the only manager post Fergie that has even been slightly respectable for his two full seasons.
I was absolutely delighted when we got him tbh. It was over the summer of his second season, and during his third season that things turned into a mess.
That's pretty grimm reading. But, tbf, LvG had us setup very well defensively. His downfall was when it came to the offensive side of our game. He's the only manager post-Fergie that had us playing a identifiable style from the day he arrived until the day he left.
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The Antony signing was terrible as it is for the £80m we've spent on him. The last thing we need to do is actually make it worse by spending another £30-50m on a fullback just to try and get the best out of a player who's never produced any quality that resembles one of a top quality player.
Secondly, the way we actually set up to play there's actually no room for an overlapping fullback on the right hand side. The right sided fullback underlaps or tucks in, and it's always our LB that overlaps. That makes perfect sense because Luke Shaw is one of our better players and Rashford is a more natural goal scoring threat. So why would you suggest us changing to a system which means Shaw now can't play his best role, and the only goalscoring forward we have now can't get into positions to score goals? Unless you want us to go for 2 overlapping fullbacks but then we need a completely different profile of midfield to the one we have at the moment.
The issue between the two seasons is doing the 180 out of seemingly nowhere. Even if there are injuries, you can still slot players into a functioning system. You might not look as good and you may well drop points, but you won't capitulate or look lost at sea.
Too much was done too soon and the abandoning of one set of principles for another has compounded the issue. We've gone from a moderately solid and functional side to one trying to play a style of football we have a handful of players for. Strong, aggressive, pacey and powerful verticality demands a different profile to Dutch schools of thought; you want as close to a Mourinho set of players as possible for the former and players who aren't athletically dominant are more peripheral. Not my kind of football, but still it has its place and pros and cons.
My personal belief is unless you have real powerhouses in your side who can swarm on both sides of the ball, that method cannot work in the PL. Pace and power is all over the league and is not particularly threatening to the majority.
In relation to your post, I don't think this season plays out as it has, inclusive of the injuries and predicaments we've found ourselves in, playing the system we did last season.
There's plenty to be worried about with Ten Hag, and the inability to put together a prolonged run of form is one of them, but I'm not sure where this 8 wins in the last 10 has come from for LvG.
If you just include the league, it's 6 from 10, with us losing 1-0 West Brom, 3-0 to Spurs and 3-2 to West Ham in that run.
If it's all competitions, it's 7 from 10, now excluding the win against City which that poster was including, and includes 3 wins in the FA Cup.
Rooney loved LVG, not sure what you are on about.
We didn't win eight of the last 10 under LvG.
To include the FA Cup final it's seven in 10, and excludes the win against City.
To include the win against City you have to exclude the FA Cup games, but then it's only six in 10.
We got beat 1-0 by West Brom, 3-0 by Spurs, and 3-2 by West Ham.
In fairness to him, the summer after his second placed season was just the worst we have done to any manager post Fergie. After getting 80+ points for the first time in years, all we did was give the poor bastard Fred and Dalot. That’s how the board expected to close the 20 point gap to City! Obviously they didn’t really, they didn’t give a shit about closing that gap hence why Jose went nuclear. It wasn’t the club he thought he joined.
And he’s been 100% proven correct when he said he wanted to sell Pogba and Martial that summer to fund other players.
Did he act like an arsehole, lose the dressing room and deserve the sack by the end? absolutely. Would things have turned out differently if he was backed to the hilt after that 81 point finish? I think maybe.
If this is the standard we're looking to achieve that's worrying. I get that performances generally haven't been good this season and they are probably a couple of our better ones but these comments don't give me any confidence in ETH.
Even last season, even when performances had fallen off, I thought we looked a lot more solid defensively than we do now.
Yeah, the fact that The Disciplinarian seems to think it was a good performance just indicates how much he's trying to cling to the job.
Fergie would give his a team a solid hairdryer for conceding so many chances to Everton. It's not a sustainable way to win games at all.
“Man United have taken drastic measures to counter the coverage of a 10th defeat of the season before Christmas.
It feels an objective of the latest cultural reset at United is to dilute negative coverage. Good luck with that. United have not broken double figures for defeats this quickly in a season since they were relegated.
It is not my fault Ten Hag picked Anthony Martial, bickered with him and then dithered over when to substitute him at Newcastle. Or for playing Marcus Rashford on the right.”
Sheesh
It feels an objective of the latest cultural reset at United is to dilute negative coverage. Good luck with that. United have not broken double figures for defeats this quickly in a season since they were relegated.
It is not my fault Ten Hag picked Anthony Martial, bickered with him and then dithered over when to substitute him at Newcastle. Or for playing Marcus Rashford on the right.”
Sheesh
Pretty sure Fellaini did too. No idea where that poster pulled those names from.
Hence why I posted that we won 8 of the last 12 in my first post there, check back and you’ll see it clearly and quoted by posters too so to show I haven’t edited it.
Just posted incorrectly when replying to one of those quotes.
Winning eight in 12, including a quarter-final against West Ham, a semi-final against Everton, an FA Cup final and an away match to Manchester City absolutely isn’t downing tools. It’s players showing that they could behave professionally despite what they thought of the manager.
(West Brom wasn’t in the final twelve games).
That season we just weren’t good enough, neither the players, nor manager, but not for lack of all of them trying.
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He wanted Maguire and Perisic. Doubt they would have closed the 20 pt gap.
Varela, Borthwick-Jackson and Fosu Mensah too… nar mate, as their post United careers have shown, they were just shite.
This is what you would have expected ETH to do, but due to injuries and that certain players are seeming to be 'taking their ball home', means he's had to 'have all hands to the pumps' and to resurrect such as Maguire and McT, both of whom were expected to be gone by now.
Sancho has given up the ghost/thrown the toys out of his pram, apparently because we are not playing in a manner that suits his skill set. Don't know whats up with Rashford, except perhaps he reached his skill/playing 'plateau' and he begins to realise now that every defender, especially in the PL, can predict his next move..even before he can! Martial has been 'wandering in the wilderness' for years, but has got back into the picture because of circumstances, not of his own making.
It would seem that injuries notwithstanding, both Casemiro and Varane are now regretting their move to OT, but still content to draw huge salaries, from the bench. The outstanding defender we have is sidelined through injury, between AWB/Dalot/ Reguilon we might have a half decent full back, but individually they all have weaknesses as top defenders, and so it goes on... Mount wondering why he's been brought here, VDB wondering why he is still here, Amrabat cannot believe his luck in being here, Perhaps its only Jonny Evans who actually knows why he's here! Poor lad Hojllund just wanting to get a decent pass from someone... it just goes on, perhaps its only the younger lads like Garnacho, Mainoo, Pellistri, Hannibal, etc. who are just happy to be in the squad, that gives ETH hope.
A lot more 'nashing' and 'grinding of teeth' to be endured yet I'm afraid!
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Yet ironically in his first 52 PL games his team only scored 4 less than Joses and 2 less than Oles and 8 more than EtH's. I think the main issue with LVG was that he had a very bad Winter in his 2nd Season and that was enough to put everyone off (winless in 6 PL games facing some pretty ordinary teams). Again, ironically his PL form recovered from January onwards.
As for Jose, he managed us for 93 PL games, lost 17 games, we're 52 games in with EtH and already lost 15. You can say what you like about Jose (I hated the guy) but he at least made us fecking hard to beat.
Nar, he doesn’t have to play these lads at all. He’s likely fallen out with Varane, stupidly, and he’s preferred McTom over his own signings.
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