Erik ten Hag | 2022/23 & 2023/24

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We don't look like we are going to improve. I fully expect wolves, west ham and aston villa to beat us come February. We are utterly awful. Why on earth has he changed tactics from last season when it was working ok. We were able to beat everyone at home last season (bar Brighton) but now it's all down to luck. I'm sick of seeing our midfield be non existent game after game after game. This is the worst season since Moyes. Utterly ghastly. We are sending VDB and Hannibal out on loan and playing McTominay and Eriksen. Rashford was infuriating yesterday. I'm just so sick of it all.
 
Thats 4 players, one of whom is a teenager in his first season as a starter. What about the rest of the side or do we only play matches with 4 players?

Romero is overrated here. Look at him on our first goal. Richarlisson looked like a shite striker last season. The reason he is suddenly much better is the manager. Is Højbjerg better than Mainoo? Nope.
I am not even sure Skipp is an overall better player than Eriksen.
Onana was a very good keeper before he arrived here as well and pre this season anyone would say that team we fielded yesterday should beat that Spurs side.
I really dont believe Ten Hag is getting the best out of this team this season.
 
Romero is overrated here. Look at him on our first goal. Richarlisson looked like a shite striker last season. The reason he is suddenly much better is the manager. Is Højbjerg better than Mainoo? Nope.
I am not even sure Skipp is an overall better player than Eriksen.
Onana was a very good keeper before he arrived here as well and pre this season anyone would say that team we fielded yesterday should beat that Spurs side.
I really dont believe Ten Hag is getting the best out of this team this season.

What?
I agree Ten Hag isn't getting the best out of the team, my point is you are massively overrating the United squad
 
Seasoned is just another word for average. I'd have Mainoo any day.

I would as well because he has more potential, but I don't expect him to outperform Hojberg today which he doesn't. Hojberg was really good last season.
You can see Mainoo is making mistakes in his positioning, on defending set pieces etc, however he will because he is inexperienced
 
We do not

You're right.

We have a worse squad than Spurs, Bournemouth, Forest and West Ham. It's a miracle we're above 2 of them in the table.

Jose thinks taking us to 2nd is a big achievement? That's nothing compared to ETH dragging us kicking and screaming all the way up to 6th by the end of this season.
 
I want to see us play with a fully fit XI, with Martinez now back, and Casemiro also nearing full fitness, I will judge EtH after a few games with his strongest XI.
If the play does not improve, then I will hold my hands up and say: okay, maybe we just overperformed last season & found our (consistent) level under him this year.
If we stop being result oriented for a second we can see how hopeless the situation is. How can Ange play the way he plays with so many players out but we need a fully fit XI to show anything at all? Sure, the quality of their play is not the same so results will suffer somewhat but they still play with identity, they still play cohesive, positive football. Even away from home. Our results will probably get better with all players back but how often do clubs have all their players fit and what future do we have playing like this? Injuries are a factor but simply cannot explain what's happening on the pitch.
 
Everyone knows symmetrical = prettier = better tactics

Ours looks similar to this though:

real-madrid-passing-network-1024x780.jpg

I mean, the prettier symmetrical graph isn’t happening in a vacuum:



and I don’t even think the Real Madrid one you posted looked similar to ours
 
You're right.

We have a worse squad than Spurs, Bournemouth, Forest and West Ham. It's a miracle we're above 2 of them in the table.

Jose thinks taking us to 2nd is a big achievement? That's nothing compared to ETH dragging us kicking and screaming all the way up to 6th by the end of this season.

No we have a worst squad than Spurs, that is true. Not the rest.
 
It really doesn’t. It looks similar as we are both preferring playing down the left but Madrid seem a lot more compact and have a midfield there. The image depicting our shape has the defence and dm so far away from the middle of the pitch and a right winger out on his own. I don’t make much of these images but just looking at the Madrid one shows more of a structured shape and ours wide open
For what it’s worth I thought we had the tactics right last night. Spurs play a very high line and we had 3 midfielders who are all expansive with their passing and could unlock our three pacy forwards for the space in behind. It was working but for our 3 forwards wasting chances.
 
He put his chips in with Bruno and rashford and the latter paid him back last
We have Bruno, Rashford, Garnacho, Varane. All players that on paper should be better than what Spurs had yesterday. I argue that the quality of our players doesnt match with how shite we are playing.

Too bad the game isn't played on paper. We are playing worse than we can no doubt but our squad is also a huge clusterfeck filled with overpaid dross that needs a huge clearout/in
 
Well Mainoo isn't a 6. We don't use him correctly. He's a better player than Højberg though, yeah.

He is playing as a 6 in the first team, and he isn't better than Højberg until he proves it in senior football
 
Ive backed ETH so far, however in his post mach interviews he has become a deluded laughing stock, saying we played well and were always a threat.. we had 2 shots on target in 90 minutes at home to An open Spurs..
Erik Just admit we are not a very good team. The keeper is terrible, glued to his line. The defence and keeper are useless on corners and set pieces but great at leaving big holes on the edge of the box..The midfield are very easily passed through and leave bigger holes than the defence.
wingers who seem incapable of suppling the striker and who are part of a collective attack who create very little chances to score.
we are a top 6 team at best, maybe comfortably mid table. Thats this seasons assessment and i don't see it changing.
 
Spurs have a better squad than us now after some very good recruitment in the summer. All at good ages as well. They've basically changed 7-8 starters from Conte's team.

It's the kind of overhaul we need in the summer.
 
Yeah, I don't agree with the way he is used. Sorry, I don't rate Højberg.

Whether you rate him or not you cannot say a player with less than 10 PL games is better than a seasoned PL player based on what you saw in u23/u18 football. Mainoo needs to prove it in senior football
I think Mainoo is a good player but he is going to make tons of mistakes due to his inexperience and I actually think he can make a good 6/8 hybrid player
 
Spurs have a better squad than us now after some very good recruitment in the summer. All at good ages as well. They've basically changed 7-8 starters from Conte's team.

It's the kind of overhaul we need in the summer.

Pretty much this
 
No we don't. You only think that because they play better football than we do, due to having a better manager

No I think that because they have better players than we do and I don't overrate our players
 
You need the defensive line to be fully fit to do that, we haven't had that all season

Oh rubbish. So he was bought to "unlock" our play out from the back but now we have to wait for a specific selection of players to "unlock" him while every other manger just gets on with the job with whoever they've got available?
 
Whether you rate him or not you cannot say a player with less than 10 PL games is better than a seasoned PL player based on what you saw in u23/u18 football. Mainoo needs to prove it in senior football
Agreed that he needs to show more, but I consider Mainoo to be the better player already. Sometimes you just know. Just like how I knew that Pogba was better than a lot of seasoned Premier League dross while he was still in the academy.
 
Oh rubbish. So he was bought to "unlock" our play out from the back but now we have to wait for a specific selection of players to "unlock" him while every other manger just gets on with the job with whoever they've got available?

The point you made was about playing a high line. You can't play a high line with Jonny Evans or Maguire at CB, this has been known for ages.
 
We scored 2 jammy goals, and conceded 2 jammy goals. That's peak ETH football nowadays. And on top he is starting to annoy me with his deluded comments.
 
Agreed that he needs to show more, but I consider Mainoo to be the better player already. Sometimes you just know. Just like how I knew that Pogba was better than a lot of seasoned Premier League dross while he was still in the academy.

Until Pogba started playing in the PL and it turned out he wasn't...
 
He was though. Pogba was a very good player. Never came close to being the player he could have been though.

You don't rate Hojberg thats really the issue, he is actually a good player. Pogba was better than dross yes but he wasn't very good in the PL actually, not really the thread for it though.

I really rate Mainoo as a talent, he isn't better than Hojberg today though, not from what he has shown in the PL so far anyway.
 
He was though. Pogba was a very good player. Never came close to being the player he could have been though.

Pogba is the poster child for the modern footballers. Unreal talent but awfully inconsistent and his ego causes him problems.

He seemed to switch on and off. Claimed he needed to be happy to play, remarkable how professional that sort of stuff (and Sancho) is accepted by some. United used to have players who hated each other playing well on the same pitch.

Pogba could do amazing things in a game but when he wasn’t assisting or scoring he was contributing little. Not just that it’s hard to quantify how much damage he was doing when he was walking around the pitch not g*being a f/ck. Must of driven team mates mad.

At France he had competition for his spot, could be dropped and he couldn’t change country. It suited him cause he had to just focus on France. Pogba will not be remembered as a great player, certainly not in the likes of modric, invests, xavi or scholes quality
 
That is what bothers me the most. Results are bad but main problem is that i don't see any style of play in our game. After year and half.
That is why i think he must go. Results i can forgive (for one season) but i don't see bright future with him in charge.
We do see a style of play. We play one 6 and two 8's. We try win the ball back quickly from a mid/high press and we try hit the forwards as quickly as possible and score in transition. The forwards are basically free forming. Do what they want. We have one fullback trying to support the attack and one sitting. Our build up from the back is the same. CB's split and fullbacks wide. Onana tries to get it wide or short pass to CB who then passes wide. Or Onana will hit long. Usually to our left side. The reason why it looks like a box of chocolates is the opposition. Sometimes this weird haphazard style of play can work and we look good. Especially at home against a high line. With our main players back and on form it will work even better. But over a season it will fall apart like getting hammered at Liverpool and our bad away record and it will fall apart when we have injuries or players are out of form because the system over relies on key players. Especially Bruno and Rashford and Casemiro.
 
For what it’s worth I thought we had the tactics right last night. Spurs play a very high line and we had 3 midfielders who are all expansive with their passing and could unlock our three pacy forwards for the space in behind. It was working but for our 3 forwards wasting chances.
I think trying to expose spurs high line was definitely the right thing to do and I’ve nothing against conceding possession and counter attacking but I don’t think we made too many chances or counter attacked particularly well yesterday. Just looked a bit flat and hopeless
 
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