Erik ten Hag | 2022/23 & 2023/24

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Yeah, I mean I think he's good but he also has been ripped apart by attackers in the EPL. He won't make that much of a difference but players become world class when they're not playing

Chances are the next manager might not want such a small starting centre back as well.
 
I couldn't endure watching a full interview of Ten Hag. He's just a very boring person, and he never says anything worthy to listen to. Same old crap.

Meanwhile I can listen to Pep Guardiola talking all day no problem.

Charisma is something you either born with or not though so won't hold it against him.

I do agree LVG was a laughing stock and not in a good way.

Feck off, Pep talks a load of bollocks as well. They all do.
 
Martinez has become our most overrated player ever while he's been injured. Let's hope we're as good as everyone says with him back.
I’m beginning to veer this way. I really like the guy but he’s expected to not only sure up the defence but makes 2 assists a game now.

There’s only so much 1 player can do. The set up around him is still fecked.
 
I'm surprised the recent quotes from Brian Brobbey haven't been brought up here.

From Der Telegraaf:


I believe this is the same agency that we've signed multiple players from under ETH, which his son is also connected to.

If true, surely this is textbook embezzlement? Not sure how anybody can defend this.

Any player moving from Ajax to United will multiply their salary and their agent will get a cut of the transfer fee, which would be in the millions of euros. Am I missing something?
 
Feck off, Pep talks a load of bollocks as well. They all do.

It's not about what he's saying being "Bollocks" or not. It's about being an entertaining watch. Ten Hag is just a boring personality that rehashes the same boring quotes every game. It's no different than listening to a player saying "we have to do better next game" same old crap after every loss. It's boring and not fun. Just clichés getting repeated because they have nothing else to say. With someone charismatic as Pep Guardiola I can hear something new and fun.
 
I'm surprised the recent quotes from Brian Brobbey haven't been brought up here.

From Der Telegraaf:


I believe this is the same agency that we've signed multiple players from under ETH, which his son is also connected to.

If true, surely this is textbook embezzlement? Not sure how anybody can defend this.
What’s even more annoying is that he wanted to bring another ajax player here. Just feck off with his ex player pals Dutch Ajax players
 
Any player moving from Ajax to United will multiply their salary and their agent will get a cut of the transfer fee, which would be in the millions of euros. Am I missing something?
Yes, you are missing something. The rest of the quote in the article:

"Manchester United wanted to have me, but I insisted on returning to Ajax. To make that possible, my agent Jose Fortes Rodriguez even waived a hefty percentage of the sell-on clause."

His agent is Raiola's right hand man. The poster left that part out, and seemed to insinuate that he was with Kees Vos from SEG, hence the ten Hag link.

United have worked with SEG plenty. I doubt ten Hag received commission from the RvP sale, or any of the many deals we did with him. Unless I am missing something now..
 
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I couldn't endure watching a full interview of Ten Hag. He's just a very boring person, and he never says anything worthy to listen to. Same old crap.

Meanwhile I can listen to Pep Guardiola talking all day no problem.

Charisma is something you either born with or not though so won't hold it against him.

I do agree LVG was a laughing stock and not in a good way.

He's almost certainly gone in the summer anyway, unless our results improve drastically, which I can't see happening.
 
Any player moving from Ajax to United will multiply their salary and their agent will get a cut of the transfer fee, which would be in the millions of euros. Am I missing something?
The fact that the quote heavily implies that was the main selling point of the move - come here so you and your agent can make a ton of money.
 
Can we get a manager in that can actually implement a 4-3-3 with pressing, slick passing and wingers/full backs overlapping. Giving Bruno basically a free role and a two man midfield will not give us long term success. So sick of this 4-2-3-1 it doesn’t work.
 
Ye he was a laughing stock. That’s what he was. ETH talks more serious but I’ve seen him crack jokes in interviews before.
LVG was many things, but not a laughing stock. The guy was past it, but he had and still has, that aura of a leader. As well as being crazy.
 
Martinez has become our most overrated player ever while he's been injured. Let's hope we're as good as everyone says with him back.

Free flowing flamboyant attacking football, improving on our record of losing around half the games this season, and finally getting out of our goal difference overdraft because our LCB is back :drool:
 
The fact that the quote heavily implies that was the main selling point of the move - come here so you and your agent can make a ton of money.

Does it? Or is the player making out that a move back to Ajax was all about the club and even the money he would have made at United, which literally everyone knows he would have made if a transfer was done, wasn't enough to sway his decision?

I think you're reading a lot into a quote designed to dress up a move back to his old club after a failed transfer to Germany where didn't score a single goal.
 
TBH, I wouldn't give a monkeys about ETH's personality or charisma if we were playing decent football and getting results - especially if we could see progress and a plan. I reckon a lot of fans would feel that way. It doesn't help that we've seen none of that, therefore it's easy to pick on him as an individual. No need for that IMO. He's just out of his depth IMO.
 
LvG was our best COACH. It's sad how he is disrespectred
If we wasn't chasing quick success, we would be now possession team

And Hag is gone. I got some Bosnian love from Bundesliga family.
 
As fans, I believe we overestimate him. We overestimate his tactical ingenuity, ability to change, and vision for the club as a whole. For me, it's all about the Ajax connection. People will go to great lengths to prove he is as good as they think he is because they believe Ajax is an aesthetically superior football brand. If Ten Haag had accomplished his Ajax success at Sporting or Lyon, I doubt we'd be having as many people defending him. It's the same reason Mason Mount has been entirely ignored after only a few games for us, yet it took fans over two years to stop believing in VDB.

The idea is that, if he's played good football before, he should be able to replicate it. Yet our fans aren't truly understanding the gulf in quality between the Premier League and the Eredivisie. You're playing against some of the best players and managers in the world. They are used to facing certain challenges on the pitch and aren't as easily overrawed as teams in the Eredivisie were. Managers in England have to account for pace, technicality, physicality and consistently changing tactics. It's not simply about having ideas to play pretty patterns. It's about creating tactical set ups to account for the pace and physicality of the league. It's about being flexible and having different plans. It's about squad management and accounting for injuries given the amount of games played and the physicality of them. It's about ensuring Premier League standard fitness levels. It's about knowing how to use the squad available to you and not dumping and blaming players on account of not being perfectly suited for your tactical set up. It's about communicating effectively. Most importantly, it's about having urgency to ensure that gaps are covered/fixed as quickly as possible. Ten Haag hasn't shown he actually has the skillset to keep up with the requirements of managing a top club in a top league over his two year stint.

He completely falls apart in big away games, he puts out physically weaker midfield set ups and expects success, the pace United play with on the ball is slow and tepid, he hasn't shown flexibility in tactical approach both in game and from game to game. The poor fitness level's we've had and inability to keep the squad fit has been quite apparent. He's also been unable to use players available to succeed, the league doesn't allow a team to have an excuse of injuries, as that should be expected and the tactical plan should be strong enough to account for that. He's had multiple instances where he has been unable to use players available to him and hasn't even tried to alter his tactical approach to fit them in. Ronaldo last year was an example. Fans are happy with how he handled it after Ronaldo's strop. However, my concern is his use of him priro to that. The argument surrounding Ronaldo's pressing was a failure on Ten Haag's ability to adapt, and for me suggests that he can only play with a particular type of striker. He isn't skilled or flexible enough to adapt to having different types of players. He has also shown weaknesses in communication, as there have been articles about players not understanding and getting what he wants on the pitch. People love to call our players dumb, however for me, that's evidence that the teacher isn't doing a good job of actually getting them to execute the plan. In addition, I do think there's a barrier in language that might make his communication different to what it was at Ajax. Most importantly for me, this preseason, last preseason; the failure to test tactical set ups, the failure to get players prepared, the failure to account for a plan b and even his transfers in the market ( Mount coming in didn't account for a plan b formation if the 4141 failed) highlight naivety and a lack of urgency from the Manager, similar to what we saw with Ole at the start of 20/21. The league is intense and you can fall out of the title race in the opening weeks. Ten Haag doesn't seem to have that sense of urgency.
Well said.
 
A lot can change to make him perform better.
For a start, a better performance by a few attacking players, will immediately make an impact.
Lisandro coming back is a huge difference maker for our build up play, hopefully Casemiro will stay fit.
It's not difficult to imagine a drastic improvement in performances with Casemiro and Mainoo in midfield and Licha/Varane at CB pair.

If you claim that one player doesn't make a difference in a team, clearly you know absolutely nothing about football. Just watch City without KDB and with KDB now.

It's actually quite hard to imagine that.

Also, quite amusing comparing Martinez and Casemiro to KDB, and also City did not collapse when KDB was out (+ he's only been back for 30 mins in the league).

And finally, if we need all of our players, literally every single one of them, to be healthy for us to not perform at an abysmal level, then ETH is a pointless manager.
 
LvG was our best COACH. It's sad how he is disrespectred
If we wasn't chasing quick success, we would be now possession team

And Hag is gone. I got some Bosnian love from Bundesliga family.
Ernest Mangnall, Sir Matt Busby and Sir Alex Ferguson would like a word with you about that.
 
LvG was our best COACH. It's sad how he is disrespectred
If we wasn't chasing quick success, we would be now possession team

And Hag is gone. I got some Bosnian love from Bundesliga family.
Halve the people on here praising him I bet wanted him gone and hated his style of play. We had more 0-0 with him than anyone els I think.
 
Can anyone name a good manager who has never been able to beat a league team in the top half of the table away from home? I am not even asking for a solid win here, ETH can't even fluke his way to a win.
 



It's good that the media are more critical of what the manager is actually bringing to the table. Timestamped the period where the discussion begins they all make good points in objectively looking at the progress of the team on the field over the 18 month period which is essentially United playing like a team did 20 years ago which contradicts this modern, front foot progressive manager that was hired in the first instance. They touch on Eriks lack of charisma and other elements.

Unless there's some drastic change I think Eth being gone by the summer is a foregone conclusion as it stands.
 
Halve the people on here praising him I bet wanted him gone and hated his style of play. We had more 0-0 with him than anyone els I think.

Van Gaal was probably our worst manager. He's the one who has significantly diminished the quality of our squad. His football was dull, and he was unwilling to adapt. Throughout his tenure, we never appeared to be on the verge of a challenging for the league. Even in his best games, we weren't creating opportunities, yet people assume as if time would have fixed something that had showed no indicators of success. He had the advantage of playing in the Premier League's weakest era, following Sir Alex's departure and before Pep's arrival, but he couldn't bring this team to compete with the likes of Leicester, Spurs, and Arsenal, whose teams were not stronger than ours as of June 2014. By June 2016, we had possibly the weakest squad we'd ever had, all under his erratic leadership. He brought in 13 players and sent out 15. I don't enjoy Mourinho's tenure, but I think what LVG left him with was horrible. LVG convinced supporters that players like Blackett could play in the Premier League and United fans as always bought into his thinking despite seeing no results. Almost ten year later, we have fans wondering what might have been, when they should be thanking their stars that he didn't stay long enough to get us relegated.
 
I would like to see him more consistent when it comes to dealing with players. He dropped Ronaldo, arguably the best player in history, because he thought he didn’t press as he should and thus didnt fit to the style of play. Yet, players like Onana and Antony are still regulars despite all their shortcomings. How was Onana not dropped and Bayindir not given a chance is beyond me.

his transfer business has been poor overall. Overpaid for antony (ok, others need to be blamed for the price) but even his football abilities are in doubt. Buying mount to fill the number 8 position, while he is not an 8, was a disaster. Why pay this much to play someone out of position. Even switching ti 433 which i thought he wanted to do at the beginning is not a good idea since it takes a lot from bruno’s game.

his in game decisions, especially some substitutions and their timing has been overall poor.

I still think he should be given a chance with the new ownership. Changing managers every other year has proven to be stupid. But he really needs to get things right going forward
 
Van Gaal was probably our worst manager. He's the one who has significantly diminished the quality of our squad. His football was dull, and he was unwilling to adapt. Throughout his tenure, we never appeared to be on the verge of a challenging for the league. Even in his best games, we weren't creating opportunities, yet people assume as if time would have fixed something that had showed no indicators of success. He had the advantage of playing in the Premier League's weakest era, following Sir Alex's departure and before Pep's arrival, but he couldn't bring this team to compete with the likes of Leicester, Spurs, and Arsenal, whose teams were not stronger than ours as of June 2014. By June 2016, we had possibly the weakest squad we'd ever had, all under his erratic leadership. He brought in 13 players and sent out 15. I don't enjoy Mourinho's tenure, but I think what LVG left him with was horrible. LVG convinced supporters that players like Blackett could play in the Premier League and United fans as always bought into his thinking despite seeing no results. Almost ten year later, we have fans wondering what might have been, when they should be thanking their stars that he didn't stay long enough to get us relegated.

Come on... the squad was ageing and required a refresh, we didn't invest under Moyes and a number of players left at the end of the Moyes season on a free e.g Vidic, Rio etc
Under LVG our recruitment was not good (and has not been since) but we hardly invested under LVG

The rest I agree with about dull football etc, but to blame him for the squad is ridiculous.
 
The rest I agree with about dull football etc, but to blame him for the squad is ridiculous.

He did ship out a load, agreed to loan Falcao and sell Welbeck which left us short of two strikers going into the next year after that mess.

And said no to Toni Kroos on a free.

Under investment? Yeah, probably, but there were things he could have done with the overall management of the squad which would have served him a whole load better.
 
He did ship out a load, agreed to loan Falcao and sell Welbeck which left us short of two strikers going into the next year after that mess.

And said no to Toni Kroos on a free.

Under investment? Yeah, probably, but there were things he could have done with the overall management of the squad which would have served him a whole load better.

I think you'll find the majority were already on the way out or aging.

I mean Falcao was a crock and he wanted a new striker (which we didn't give him) sounds familiar...
 
I still think he should be given a chance with the new ownership. Changing managers every other year has proven to be stupid. But he really needs to get things right going forward
It's amazing to me that this is the conclusion for so many. We've hired two managers worth hiring in all that time. One of them currently having the worst season is club's modern history. And somehow changing managers is "stupid".
 
It's amazing to me that this is the conclusion for so many. We've hired two managers worth hiring in all that time. One of them currently having the worst season is club's modern history. And somehow changing managers is "stupid".

ok, probably should’ve used a different word. “Too soon”? Why not give it more time? Is he really a bad manager? We were all excited about him when he joined for a reason. Sir Alex took some time before he turned the team around. Imagine we had sacked him
 
ok, probably should’ve used a different word. “Too soon”? Why not give it more time? Is he really a bad manager? We were all excited about him when he joined for a reason. Sir Alex took some time before he turned the team around. Imagine we had sacked him

Because we were all excited doesn't mean he's good. The excitement was in him getting an opportunity to prove himself as a top manager at United. Similar to signing an expensive wonderkid and hoping they produce as he had potential. However, when the player proves that they were not as good as had been hoped, you drop/sell them. You don't waste years hoping they achieve what you had hoped. Other teams are improving and aren't waiting around for us to start challenging. Every manager every top club signs is signed for that reason, with the onus on the manager to prove himself. Only a few managers in world football deserve the grace being requested for, ETH is not at that level.
 
Because we were all excited doesn't mean he's good. The excitement was in him getting an opportunity to prove himself as a top manager at United. Similar to signing an expensive wonderkid and hoping they produce as he had potential. However, when the player proves that they were not as good as had been hoped, you drop/sell them. You don't waste years hoping they achieve what you had hoped. Other teams are improving and aren't waiting around for us to start challenging. Every manager every top club signs is signed for that reason, with the onus on the manager to prove himself. Only a few managers in world football deserve the grace being requested for, ETH is not at that level.

whoever is the manager, i’d like to judge him in an overall better context. Better football director, better scouts, better owners, etc… this is why i am with giving him more time under a new ownership and improved management - hopefully
 
Van Gaal was probably our worst manager. He's the one who has significantly diminished the quality of our squad. His football was dull, and he was unwilling to adapt. Throughout his tenure, we never appeared to be on the verge of a challenging for the league. Even in his best games, we weren't creating opportunities, yet people assume as if time would have fixed something that had showed no indicators of success. He had the advantage of playing in the Premier League's weakest era, following Sir Alex's departure and before Pep's arrival, but he couldn't bring this team to compete with the likes of Leicester, Spurs, and Arsenal, whose teams were not stronger than ours as of June 2014. By June 2016, we had possibly the weakest squad we'd ever had, all under his erratic leadership. He brought in 13 players and sent out 15. I don't enjoy Mourinho's tenure, but I think what LVG left him with was horrible. LVG convinced supporters that players like Blackett could play in the Premier League and United fans as always bought into his thinking despite seeing no results. Almost ten year later, we have fans wondering what might have been, when they should be thanking their stars that he didn't stay long enough to get us relegated.
Absolutely. Also the same people saying we should have been patient or I wonder where we’d be now are the same ones wanting ETH out. Let’s face it… our fans aren’t patient when it comes to managers. I’d say Mourinho was probably the most successful, but I think we played some of the best football under Ole if I’m honest.
 
ok, probably should’ve used a different word. “Too soon”? Why not give it more time? Is he really a bad manager? We were all excited about him when he joined for a reason. Sir Alex took some time before he turned the team around. Imagine we had sacked him
Given the circumstances and this being the worst season in our modern history and all, surely the question should be why give it more time? Remember that he has achieved nothing at this level his his career. All he has is that one single cup run in Europe and some league titles with by far the best and wealthiest club in Holland. What if he is another De Boer? Giving him more time just to see what happens is madness. If he is failing this hard, surely even with new ownership you'd want a better manager too. Why go through all this and then stick with a manager who can't get the best out of his players.
 
Somewhat undermines the defense for ETH that he doesn't agree fees or wages, when his son and favourite agency is doing just that.
Surely this makes it even more explicit that the club is incompetent at recruitment if they're having to rely on the manager's connections to this extent?
 
Because we were all excited doesn't mean he's good. The excitement was in him getting an opportunity to prove himself as a top manager at United. Similar to signing an expensive wonderkid and hoping they produce as he had potential. However, when the player proves that they were not as good as had been hoped, you drop/sell them. You don't waste years hoping they achieve what you had hoped. Other teams are improving and aren't waiting around for us to start challenging. Every manager every top club signs is signed for that reason, with the onus on the manager to prove himself. Only a few managers in world football deserve the grace being requested for, ETH is not at that level.

Many have forgot this aspect of a manager who has a very small sample size to assess his success with. Erik has had just as much to prove as some of the newly acquired players. It was never a foregone conclusion that he was an elite or even top manager, he showed promise nothing more. It was admirable of the club to take a chance, there's absoltuely nothing wrong with that. However, if it's realized objectively that the manager isn't good enough, it shouldn't become a pro-longed detrimental issue. If the club sack the manager at the end of the season it's justifiable, they gave a promising manager the opportunity and resources to make an impact that would provide a positive projection for the future. It's not like Madrid or Bayern where the demand and expectation is to win immediately, but rather has the manager done enough to provide certainty that with time they will become successful. Erik has fallen remarkedly short of that standard.
 
Given the circumstances and this being the worst season in our modern history and all, surely the question should be why give it more time? Remember that he has achieved nothing at this level his his career. All he has is that one single cup run in Europe and some league titles with by far the best and wealthiest club in Holland. What if he is another De Boer? Giving him more time just to see what happens is madness. If he is failing this hard, surely even with new ownership you'd want a better manager too. Why go through all this and then stick with a manager who can't get the best out of his players.

We already knew he was ajax manager when we signed him. His cv was clear to everyone. I also wouldn’t be so harsh on him this season given the number of injuries we’ve had. I would just like to see him function in better circumstances. For 10 years, almost everyone who we’ve signed, players and managers, have underperformed.
 
Van Gaal was probably our worst manager. He's the one who has significantly diminished the quality of our squad. His football was dull, and he was unwilling to adapt. Throughout his tenure, we never appeared to be on the verge of a challenging for the league. Even in his best games, we weren't creating opportunities, yet people assume as if time would have fixed something that had showed no indicators of success. He had the advantage of playing in the Premier League's weakest era, following Sir Alex's departure and before Pep's arrival, but he couldn't bring this team to compete with the likes of Leicester, Spurs, and Arsenal, whose teams were not stronger than ours as of June 2014. By June 2016, we had possibly the weakest squad we'd ever had, all under his erratic leadership. He brought in 13 players and sent out 15. I don't enjoy Mourinho's tenure, but I think what LVG left him with was horrible. LVG convinced supporters that players like Blackett could play in the Premier League and United fans as always bought into his thinking despite seeing no results. Almost ten year later, we have fans wondering what might have been, when they should be thanking their stars that he didn't stay long enough to get us relegated.
I think Ten Hag has overtaken LVG as our worst now. But yes LVG destroyed the squad with his transfer ins and outs at a time when we still had a large financial advantage over the rest. It says it all that Evans is back after he let him go for about £6m.
 
We already knew he was ajax manager when we signed him. His cv was clear to everyone. I also wouldn’t be so harsh on him this season given the number of injuries we’ve had. I would just like to see him function in better circumstances. For 10 years, almost everyone who we’ve signed, players and managers, have underperformed.

The injuries excuse are overblown. These would have been fine as an excuse for us not being among top 4 at this stage, but they're really not an excuse for us being 7th after 21 games about 11 points away from 4th (if Arsenal won their game in hand), scoring only 24 goals in 21 games with -5 goal difference and being out of CL bottom of the group with one win out of 6 games in a group that had Copenhagen and Galatasaray.

I don't understand how can injuries be a valid excuse for just ridiculous collapse.

An injuries = drop of form = for a team who was 3rd last year, that would have meant being 5th or 6th and at least not being completely out of Europe by this stage. Considering Chelsea and Newcastle are both having a crisis and we're basically fighting West Ham and Aston Villa for a top 4 spot, not one of the top guns.
 
Absolutely. Also the same people saying we should have been patient or I wonder where we’d be now are the same ones wanting ETH out. Let’s face it… our fans aren’t patient when it comes to managers. I’d say Mourinho was probably the most successful, but I think we played some of the best football under Ole if I’m honest.
I don't think anyone can deny that, Ole January 2020 to end of season was the best football any of us have seen post Fergie. LVG had a run of 3 great games in his first season before it all went to shit again.
 
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