Nothing he said in those transfer comments is crazy. Pretty rational tbf. The AJAX and Eredivisie links are overblown and he would have to be a self-sabotaging idiot to only sign players based on that criteria.
Erik ten Hag | 2022/23 & 2023/24
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I think we should support Ten Hag, the standard needs to be set, most of us were in agreement about that before he was even hired, now he’s doing just that!l.
Yes the results and tactics haven’t been great lately, but the players need to be more professional, and they need to show more commitment.. look at top 4 teams, compare our players to their.. They seem focused and committed, unlike us currently.
Yes the results and tactics haven’t been great lately, but the players need to be more professional, and they need to show more commitment.. look at top 4 teams, compare our players to their.. They seem focused and committed, unlike us currently.
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.
Yep. Mainoo is almost a double edged sword because on the one hand I think it's a good and brave move to put him in the team and even if he struggles now he will learn a lot from it. On the other hand putting a teenager in midfield on their own in the premier league, is actually another step up the insanity ladder in terms of the system ETH is playing. City wouldn't play an 18 year old ahead of Rodri and they DO use their other players to constantly support the CM amd are probably the best drilled team around at doing it.
I'm guessing ETH is after something similar but maybe a bit more direct which would resemble his Ajax team, and one worry there is I do see one or two similarities, but the negative ones. E.G. the tendancy to start brightly and then fall off a cliff as the games goes on. The CL where its been very evident and plenty of times I've watched ETH's Ajax race into a lead then end up looking like roadkill by the last 20 minutes of each half.
Also though, he said he can't play like he did at Ajax because the players were different, and then was bleating on about transitions and Man Utd traditions in pre season. So it's almost like he's tried to fuse two incompatible things together when neither were exactly perfect to begin with.
The Man Utd dna speech also always sets off alarm bells with me because it's just nonsense. SAF altered how his team played according to what players he had, who he was playing against and whatever was best suited to how football was at the time. He once selected a whole team of defenders against Arsenal. He used to get Wayne Rooney to play as a defensive winger one game and then a week later would have him, Tevez, Ronaldo and Berbatov all in attack at the same time. If there was any dna it was in the mentality and had nothing to do with the tactical set up.
I'm torn now as well because I don't want us to sack another manager just because some spoilt players don't like being forced to work hard in training, but also I don't see a way back for him. I don't think he's at the point of no return but I don't see him dropping his system and I can't see how it will suddenly work. Especially now some players are evidently not trying thar hard to make it work.
I also see similar patterns to previous managers. Jose used to claim it wasn't the tactics that were the problem, it was that the players needed to be more aggressive for them to work. Rangnick said similar about needing to be more pro active. Now ETH who again mentions needing to be more aggressive. They are all right I think, but it's like they can see what is needed for things to work but fall down on understanding that some of the players they keep picking either physically or mentally don't have it in them.
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He has actually done that though. Vast majority of his signings were driven by Eredivisie link.
The ones that weren’t, Casemiro wasn’t even his first choice and was a panic signing after we couldn’t land FDJ, and Hojlund was represented and recommended by ETH’s agent.
I don't think it's specifically because of the Eredivisie and more to do with players he's familiar with. It seems journos are asking the wrong questions. I would ask something like:
"How would you respond to the criticism you tend to favor players you are familiar with in the transfer market?"
Instead of:
"How would you respond to the criticism you tend to favor AJAX or Eredivisie players in the transfer market?"
I think the first question would gain greater insight into his thinking in the transfer market than the second.
We were dreadful against Everton, very worrying if that performance has become the new standard for him.
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On the mainoo point.
As far as I can see he is already the most accomplished player we have in midfield at receiving the ball in tight situations and progressing play. Doesn’t say much about the others I know.
So we should play him.
Not every game as he won’t be able to physically handle 60 games a year but certainly in the most important ones.
I know all that? That’s basically my point? If he’s still doing it once those players are back it’ll make no sense.
We slammed Moyes for ‘we should aspire to be more like City’ in 2014, fast forward a decade and we are now aspiring to be a match for Everton.
Didn't Moyes also say he "wanted to make it difficult" for Newcastle when they visited OT?
Ten Hag is at least talking about matching a 3-0 win away from home, even if the result wasn't necessarily reflective of the performance.
Theres a thread by @Raees about the statistics and breakdown of ten hags current set up. I think its a brilliant assessment of where we are and why things have been poor this season. I recommend watching. Mentioning here as its so relevant to the discussion about him. I really think he needs time to invest further in full backs and a DM. We should have had a better de jong alternative, no doubt, but it doesnt mean mount or casemiro themselves are bad signigns, just not ones we should have prioritised. You can see that plenty of our weak areas and breakdowns in play come from existing players.
Yeah I don't see how any of this is deniable at this point. Agree with it or not, a clear pattern exists in our transfer strategy (or lack thereof).
What "standard" did ETH set? Antony and Onana? He spent 400 million and our best player this season is Maguire!
There’s actually a bigger pool of managers who’ve done that then the pool of managers we’ve generally chased. Because the majority of managers haven’t been lucky enough to manage the select few major sides in Europe over the last ten years who’ve managed to win a major league title/European cup.
If you know football you’d know what I mean instead of coming up with unfunny sarcastic retorts.
We beat Everton 3-0 when they were one of the most in form teams in the league, your post is a complete straw man.
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Never mind understanding football, do you understand what it is you are claiming?
There is a large pool of managers who have proven track records of successfully developing tactical systems suitable for elite level football, using "whatever players he’s given (and lesser players at that)", while somehow not gaining a reputation for doing so?
If these managers are so plentiful and your knowledge of football is so much greater than mine, then who are they?
It wasn’t a good performance, definitely not one you should be using as an example of the level you want to be at.
They were very wasteful, we scored a wonder goal and then got a penalty but it was not by any means a great performance. If it wasn’t for their abysmal finishing and Onana heroics it would have probably been 3-1 to them by half time, they were running through our midfield at will and recorded more than 20 shots.
Most times the exact same performance doesn’t get you a win. If we are going to rely on teams getting 0 goals from an xG of almost 3 we won’t get far. An ambitious manager is not satisfied with that game.
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Why doesn't he ever pack the midfield?
Your attack doesn't create much anyway. Surely you at least try to fill the big fecking space in the middle of the park.
Your attack doesn't create much anyway. Surely you at least try to fill the big fecking space in the middle of the park.
You're cherry picking stats there, why does the last 10 games matter? They also won 12 of the last 18. Took over with them in 19th place in November and finished 11th. They had one win in that first half of the season and ended up with their best points tally in 10 years. And the difference he made to their football was clear straight away, even if results didn't immediately follow. He made great improvements to their existing players, many who still play now. Shar, Joelinton, Almiron etc. They took that form into last season and finished top 4, not signing the likes of Casemiro etc for huge money but good signings for Newcastle nonetheless.
You talk as though ETH hasn't been backed, but really he's been so shit he's signed players he's worked with previously and it turned out he misjudged most of them and they aren't good enough. Something he himself insisted on to take the job. So should we have just not appointed him?
It's such a stupid argument because you're implying Ten Hag is the best manager around and nobody could have done better. Any sound minded person knows that isn't true.
He isn't getting a break, right . Should be up by 2 goals atleast.
Massively better today. This is actually the kind of performance we should aspire to put in more frequently. Doesn’t even matter if we lose 3-1 from here, there are more positives to take out from this game than all our previous league games combined.
Play this exact game at Anfield and they'll be hitting us for double digits.
Fml.
I wouldn't go that far, but we certainly won't be able to afford being this wasteful with our chances.
We'd get obliterated. Sterling and Jackson fecked up a 2v1 against our keeper, Mudryk messed up another 3v2.
You think Salah or Diaz are fecking those up?
Play like this again and we should´ve scored 3 or 4 easily as well. Goes both ways
The 2 of you are clowns.
Doesn’t matter if we lose by 2 goals? My gosh, there’s absolutely no standards.
Clearly not hiding. Working their socks off and then sloppy defending and Onana looks 10 stones too heavy to get down properly for a routine save (for a supposedly top keeper).
Should have taken some of those chances.
Hope we have the same energy and belief at the start of the second half.
Should have taken some of those chances.
Hope we have the same energy and belief at the start of the second half.
Much better.
Of course it matters if we lose 3-1
We’ve also missed dozens of chances. Check the stats out incase you’re watching a different game.
Yeah, hugely encouraging attacking football, not sure where that came from. I’m ETH out but I’m more inclined to back him if we play like this and lose than if we grind out ugly wins.
The same open, naive tactics that will see us concede a ton of shots and probably drop points again today. Only difference is the players are working hard so can we stop this downing tools bollocks just because some of you don't want to admit the truth about ETH.
Yep, you are correct. Problem is we crumble when we concede, so we really need to keep Liverpool out for as long as possible.
Some people just enjoy being negative
I'd agree with this. The attitude looks good today but the tactics are all over the place. Should probably be 3-3 by now if not for wasteful finishing from both sides. Would love to see the xG stats.
Won't understand how someone can defend like that for Palmer goal. I have been a defender myself and I will go for the commit there. You have 2 covering defenders . Feck sake - go for the tackle or block .
Fecking cowardly defending there.
Fecking cowardly defending there.
How could losing 3-1 be spun as a positive? The bar is in the fecking basement.
These kind of games you d wish to have Martinez in the back and you feel for ETH. No way we are conceding this goal if Licha was playing instead of Lindelof.
I hope we keep this rhythm and ETH don't try to outsmart it too much in the second half.
I hope we keep this rhythm and ETH don't try to outsmart it too much in the second half.
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