Erik ten Hag | 2022/23 & 2023/24

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Any team would struggle with their first four center backs out injured, and their defensive midfielder. That’s our top 5 defensive players all gone. Through the middle. Resorting to playing Evans and Kambwala. Incredibly bad luck to be fair.

That said, the tactics are horrible. Two of the three midfielders are nearly playing up front to improve our goal threat, yet we don’t score any goals and it just compromises our defensive solidity.

In short, the injuries are incredibly bad luck. But the tactics are just stupid. We are both incredibly predictable and incredibly open. A laughable combination.

We play like a kamikaze pilot who always misses his target.

Antony is an 86m pound Lingard. No goals or assists in how many games? 20+? People turning on Rashford, but all this shows is how he completely carried us last season. He loses form and we can’t score to save our lives. Our strategy last year was give it to Marcus. That hasn’t worked this year and it’s exposed a complete inability to create anything at all.

If we’re going to play like this, we may as well pair Mainoo with Eriksen in midfield until Casemiro is back. So we at least have some ball handling and ability to pass between the lines. Mount and Bruno at AM and RW, swapping during the game. Rashford and Garnacho at LW and CF, also swapping during the game.

Hojlund and Antony, 150m+ of attacking talent that can’t score or assist to save their lives, need a spell on the bench.

People will say Mainoo and Eriksen isn’t solid enough defensively, but we’ve abandoned that approach with our tactics anyway. May as well play the players who are at least good on the ball. McTominay starting every game is just depressing. He’s a good squad player but that’s it. Amrabat is just terrible. I have no idea how anyone looked at him and said, oh yes, he’s an upgrade on Fred! Seems like his entire reputation is based on that one gif of him chasing down Mbappe at the World Cup.
 
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I don't remember seeing a manager making the same mistake game after game.

He's either clueless or purely stubborn to a point where he will die on Mctominay hill. Makes no sense at all.

I did say last season that he was naive to the demands of the league and many did disagree but this backs it up.
The same manager who wanted rid of McTominay in the summer by the way. Its quite obvious he does not believe the attacking players can get the goals and thats why he is playing him (as a goal threat) and ariel presence on defensive set pieces.
Its a mistake obviously but its clear why he is doing it.
 
Yes lets continue to do what has not been working for us. We need to change the decision makers then I will be more comfortable changing the manager. I couldn't care less about salvaging this seaosn. Short term thinking has been another serious issue at this club. And you are obviously forgetting the last interim manager we hired and what happened.
And yet on other topic(setup/tactics) you're insisting that we should be doing what hasn't been working for us.

Something doesn't add up.
 
And yet on other topic(setup/tactics) you're insisting that we should be doing what hasn't been working for us.

Something doesn't add up.
I did not. I specifically said we should not play for a 0-0 against west ham. Learn to read

Show me where I said we should not change our tactics/setup?
 
Our awful away record against any decent team(which extends beyond the recent injuries)likely means the league is too difficult for Ten Hag.

I would give him time just to see what he can do with a mostly fit squad but it’s pure faith at this stage rather than on any evidence.
 
Yes lets continue to do what has not been working for us. We need to change the decision makers then I will be more comfortable changing the manager. I couldn't care less about salvaging this seaosn. Short term thinking has been another serious issue at this club. And you are obviously forgetting the last interim manager we hired and what happened.

You are the one arguing to continue to do something that’s not working for us - Ten Hag. Again, you have already erroneously argued that this guys in charge now are the guys that appointed 5/6 poor managers - I simply pointed out that looking at this league historically you’re more likely to find success that way than sticking it out with a bum because “reasons”.

It’s evident that you don’t care about this season - but football doesn’t happen in a vacuum - salvaging something out of this season will help long-term change. United is constrained financially and will be even more so if we don’t salvage something out of this season.

Your whole stance is predicated by “b-b-but we change managers in the past!“ - you even use the same argument to argue against an interim. It’s comical. Ten Hag won’t suddenly become good because someone picks which players to buy - his shortcomings are way beyond that.
 
I did not. I specifically said we should not play for a 0-0 against west ham. Learn to read
Maybe you should learn to read because I never said we should have played for a 0-0 in the first place. I questioned why the lineup was changed after a decent performance.
 
You are the one arguing to continue to do something that’s not working for us - Ten Hag. Again, you have already erroneously argued that this guys in charge now are the guys that appointed 5/6 poor managers - I simply pointed out that looking at this league historically you’re more likely to find success that way than sticking it out with a bum because “reasons”.

It’s evident that you don’t care about this season - but football doesn’t happen in a vacuum - salvaging something out of this season will help long-term change. United is constrained financially and will be even more so if we don’t salvage something out of this season.

Your whole stance is predicated by “b-b-but we change managers in the past!“ - you even use the same argument to argue against an interim. It’s comical.
I never argued to keep Ten Hag. Learn to read. I said we NEED to fix the structure and DOF BEFORE we change the manager. Key point being I am not opposed to changing the manager. I am opposed to the timing and order of its execution
 
Forest scored 2 goals vs Bournemouth down 1 man in a span of 51 minutes. We haven't be able to score 1 goal with a full squad in 4 matches
BTW 1 of the players that scored a goal was a winger ten Hag deemed dead wood.. He currently has as many G/A this season (17 matches, 1096 minutes) in the league as Antony has in 2 seasons (39 matches, 2662 minutes )
ten Hag OUT
 
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Maybe you should learn to read because I never said we should have played for a 0-0 in the first place. I questioned why the lineup was changed after a decent performance.

Never said you did, my posts about the setup was based on this conversation. Not my fault you decided to get involed without context.
You think we should have sat back and played for a 0-0 against West Ham?
Yes. It's an away game against a team of at least the same calibre as ours, with a manager that has a clearly defined style. An away point there would've been great.
 
I understand that ETH thinks we 'controlled the game'.

This man is a fool. And like many people with big egos, he's often deluded.
 
I do think personnel wise we should be ranked bottom half at best. Also the post was talking about if we should have setup for a 0-0 vs what we did today. Follow the conversation for context. No one was saying we dont need to be better going forward from
a tactical perspective.

You mean, whether we should have setup for a 0-0 versus what we did today, as in, losing? Again, yes.

If you get thrashed by Bournemouth at home and find yourself trailing Villa by a mile, you don't get to sniff at an away point against West Ham.

The "couple of mistakes" by players stems from ETH's attitude (based on his repeated comments in press conferences) that its commendable to have "control" over "most" of the game. That's why it keeps happening all the time. He's no good at reacting to the opposition team changing tactics and our players are left hanging after having seemingly controlled the game for long stretches .
 
Never said you did, my posts about the setup was based on this conversation. Not my fault you decided to get involed without context.
You literally concluded from my post that i was asking to play for a 0-0 which was incorrect.

Still dont understand why Bruno was straight back up into the side after wr had a good performance against Liverpool without him. Why does he keep changing? Why does he keep insisting on sabotaging midfield?
The match tactics are completely different
So you get rid of something that worked in favor of something that hasn't been working?
You think we should have sat back and played for a 0-0 against West Ham?
 
Tactics and the way he uses the squad is so bafflingly poor week after week. Lessons aren’t learnt, you basically know what you’re getting each game, and it’s very rarely good. I’m honestly just fed up and bored of watching this team.
 
Maybe you should learn to read because I never said we should have played for a 0-0 in the first place. I questioned why the lineup was changed after a decent performance.

What decent performance? We were very poor at anfield I thought we just defended deep and in numbers and got a lucky draw. There was nothing decent about it.
 
Tactics and the way he uses the squad is so bafflingly poor week after week. Lessons aren’t learnt, you basically know what you’re getting each game, and it’s very rarely good. I’m honestly just fed up and bored of watching this team.
We dont change anything to improve upon mistakes. When we actually do, we go on to the next game undoing all of that.
 
Ah now he's pivoted to "but we were good last season" the pressure must have gone up a level.
 
What decent performance? We were very poor at anfield I thought we just defended deep and in numbers and got a lucky draw. There was nothing decent about it.
We defended well, didn't lose concentration, every player put in a shift and we had the only big chance of the game which our striker fluffed. We did the basics right and thats far more than decent given how difficult we find doing that this season.
 
Watching liverpool vs arsenal and i enjoyed the first 10 minutes more than I enjoyed the full
United match. There is a sense of urgency on the pitch. Players running creating spaces for a pass. Saka put in a cross (i so envy them for knowing how to cross :lol: ). Very good free kick for the goal. A proper free kick not like what we’ve seen today.

why can’t we play exciting football? Why are we so bad? So slow? So soulless?
 
Watching liverpool vs arsenal and i enjoyed the first 10 minutes more than I enjoyed the full
United match. There is a sense of urgency on the pitch. Players running creating spaces for a pass. Saka put in a cross (i so envy them for knowing how to cross :lol: ). Very good free kick for the goal. A proper free kick not like what we’ve seen today.

why can’t we play exciting football? Why are we so bad? So slow? So soulless?

We play like a side lacking belief, direction and purpose. Ten Hag talks about a plan, but I’ll be damned if I truly see all that much of one.
 
I don't know if someone else made that link but today I thought about him as our own Villas-Boas. He isn't necessarily a bad head coach but he is currently out of his depth.
 
I don't remember seeing a manager making the same mistake game after game.

He's either clueless or purely stubborn to a point where he will die on Mctominay hill. Makes no sense at all.

I did say last season that he was naive to the demands of the league and many did disagree but this backs it up.
The funny thing is during the summer A LOT of fans were questioning his transfers and the way he is setting us to play. So even after a successful season many people expressed doubts about whether this will not be too lightweight setup for EPL.
 
You just never though which team turns up these days, more times than enough it is the trash one. Cannot see any progression with this team or manager and enough is enough
 
joint 2nd least goals scored in the league. actually gotten worst than last season when it was a major issue

But so predictable. Most people could see this issue coming a mile off in the summer. Our wide players create bugger all, same through the middle. It’s tragic watching this side attack.
 
I'm trying to look at ways he can salvage this season and his job: very optimistically it depends on getting his injured players back, going on one hell of a run and hoping both Spurs and Aston Villa lose a lot of points. It's a huge ask when his team just can't score goals.

It would be interesting to see if things improved and he just missed out on top 4 would the club stick by him like Arsenal did with Arteta?
 
I'm trying to look at ways he can salvage this season and his job: very optimistically it depends on getting his injured players back, going on one hell of a run and hoping both Spurs and Aston Villa lose a lot of points. It's a huge ask when his team just can't score goals.

It would be interesting to see if things improved and he just missed out on top 4 would the club stick by him like Arsenal did with Arteta?

I see him get compared to Arteta a lot. One thing Arteta always consistently maintained was a style of play, even when he didn't have the players to get the best results with it. You could also see him visible working with the club to try and instil a culture.

ETH seems to have thrown away his principles to try and get instant rewards but still failed.
 
But so predictable. Most people could see this issue coming a mile off in the summer. Our wide players create bugger all, same through the middle. It’s tragic watching this side attack.
That's what annoys me the most I think. We've had a pretty poor goalscoring run for two seasons in a row, so lets spend 70 million to get a 20 year old from Italy, buy a decent if unspectacular attacking midfielder from Chelsea, and hope Rashford can bag another 30 goals this season (he's on the grand total of 2 goals so far). Oh and Martial can be our reserve striker for another year yet again. Great plan!
 
Difficult. I like him and he came with a good reputation across Europe but at this stage he doesn't seem to be able to arrest this decline. No performances, few results, that doesn't work at big clubs. You always have to have something moving in a positive direction and absolutely nothing about our football or squad is doing that. He looks light on ability to move the needle in any way at this stage and that's the vibe he is giving.

His signings are really hurting him too as that was always going to be the difference between moving on from a decent first season to stagnation or even decline.

Might be time to go to a steady hand (someone with more credibility as a manager than Ralf) and try to rescue some respectability out of this season. Lopetgui looks an option.

Let's make no mistake though, this job is currently a poisoned chalice. Only Klopp or Pep could have this mess looking tidy. It's too much for normal managers.
 
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