Erik ten Hag | 2022/23 & 2023/24

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Third time this season we almost gambled a 2 goal lead.
  • How can you send your 2 slowest players for a corner in 95th minute, which btw are your CB? How can it be that nobody from the bench is stopping this?
  • We are constantly under pressure last 15 minutes because we have players that lose the ball easily all the time. Antony, Garnacho, Bruno. Its impossible not to be under pressure if you keep giving the ball away to the opposition.
  • We have players that go for the extra goal or for the nutmeg in the last 10-15 minutes of the game(looking at you Bruno), instead of keeping the ball in the corner, or play short corners. Casemiro gave Bruno an earful last year, only for Bruno to try the nutmeg again the very next game. I mean, come on, really?
If we do not eradicate these habits from our game, we will have thriller endings every game. And we dont seem to be learning from previous experiences.
 
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Some of the subs made sense, but wholesale changes at the end, and most of the more defensive than the replaced player is just setting us up to sit back and fail.

Have some trust, and be a bit bolder.
 
Sitting back has its time and place, and can work when its clear everyone knows what they're doing and it's not a chaotic mess. We look nervous as hell when we defend, so being forced to do it for minute after minute after minute at the death of a game is simply asking for trouble.
 
By far and away the most convincing we've looked all season in the first half.

But my god does he not have a fecking clue when our backs are against the wall. Neither do the players either but still, lead by example.

I guess it's here where if we were Citeh we'd just replace like for like and the quality wouldn't dip but instead we're stuck with what we've got.
 
You defend like that when at least 2 up with 10 mins to go. When you are only one up then surely you attack to kill off the game. We could have easiily threw that away at the end.
 
For people on about the Forson sub. I read TH wants him to stay, but hes out of contract end of the season and wont sign unless he gets game time guarantees, so he will probably be in the team a lot from now on, or until they get him to sign a new contract.
 
For me, it's not even the subs. What kind of instructions is he giving to the players to see out a tense match that sees all the defenders go up for a corner? I know it's tempting to think we can nab a finisher with the extra CB, but that's kamikaze football and it's not the first time we've played like this.

He should be telling them to take them short and buy time on the corner flag while we park the bus. We used to have players who did it, and I'm sure they can still do it, so clearly he is giving instructions against this.
 
I quite like the football he has us playing, its entertaining. Not always for the reasons you want but i enjoy watching us
 
caid said:
I quite like the football he has us playing, its entertaining. Not always for the reasons you want but i enjoy watching us
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The no-control helter-skelter football may be entertaining at times but is not a recipe for sustained success. We were lucky Mainoo came through tonight or else it would be another frustrating night that echos our CL games where we lost lead after lead. This style of play is most likely the reason we can not get a win away against good PL opposition and suffer some 6-3, 7-0 results along the way.
 
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Vidooq said:
Third time this season we almost gambled a 2 goal lead.
  • How can you send your 2 slowest players for a corner in 95th minute, which btw are your CB? How can it be that nobody from the bench is stopping this?
  • We are constantly under pressure last 15 minutes because we have players that lose the ball easily all the time. Antony, Garnacho, Bruno. Its impossible not to be under pressure if you keep giving the ball away to the opposition.
  • We have players that go for the extra goal or for the nutmeg in the last 10-15 minutes of the game(looking at you Bruno), instead of keeping the ball in the corner, or play short corners. Casemiro gave Bruno an earful last year, only for Bruno to try the nutmeg again the very next game. I mean, come on, really?
If we do not eradicate these habits from our game, we will have thriller endings every game. And we dont seem to be learning from previous experiences.
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This is just criminal. And we are not even talking about not able to keep the ball under the pressure of a desperate team. We so often just give the ball away like Antony today.
 
Criticism about McTominay sub is crazy.
This was the best possible move and it even came late. Should have been introduced at hour mark.
 
Did anyone really think we had that game sewn up when we went 3-1 up? Under this manager? Come on. How many examples do you need from this season alone to show you? It was a dead cert they were going to equalize. Especially after the several chances missed to widen the lead at 2-0. Ten Hag is maybe the worst game manager going right now so none of what happened was a surprise to me at all.
 
Full strength team playing and we still very nearly throw it away even when 2-0 and 3-1 up. Players he didn't sign have bailed him out numerous times this season. We're going nowhere under this painfully mediocre manager
 
horsechoker said:
He's delusional

Take him to the infirmary
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There is a bigger chance for the world to end from nuclear war at the end of the season than us winning the league. Ten hag simply cannot coach defense even if his life depends on it. We keep throwing leads left right and center might as well we score an own goal after we score to save the hubris. The fact this team keep reverting into this collapse mode is on him. People are talking as if we are throwing 2-0 lead against pool or citeh but its the fecking WOLVES. Also we are below MOYES's west ham in the league table. He needs to be given his notice asap
 
Enjoy the win without hammering the manager for once. We’re more clinical we’re 5 or 6 up at half time- by far the best 45 minutes of football we’ve produced all year.
 
kouroux said:
We actually were at 3-3, it's the reality of the game, there ain't no "would be " about it. Luckily, Mainoo bailed him out the entire team. I don't give a shit what you're sick of it tbh, if you don't like what's being said about him then it's o..
you to deal with it.
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Thats such bullshit though. We were unlucky Bruno didn't play an easier pass for Antony to tap it in toward the end of the game when it was 4-3. What's your point? That we were lucky to win the game? We weren't
 
Mr Smith said:
Only the caf could be this upset after winning a game we absolutely dominated the majority of. Yes we need to control games better and Ten Hag's substitutions did not help to control the game, but some of them were enforced (Casemiro, Martinez), and it shouldn't change the fact that we were absolutely all over a team that battered us in the reverse fixture.
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On the contrary. Only on the Caf you find fans who both think United are an elite club and think you should be happy after this win. It's an impressive cognitive dissonance. Just being happy about three points against Wolves is stuff for midtable teams, any elite team would be worried about giving away a 3-1 lead, shortly acknowledge that at least they won their game and then be on each others throats for being this stupid during the match. This is the kind of win that gets you sacked at clubs like Bayern, Real or Barcelona if its not a one-off.
 
Any elite club has at least 10 dodgy wins per season by the way.

Really can't blame ETH for too much in this game. Antony being amateur, Bruno being stupid.

Also, whoever takes over in the summer, needs to move Bruno on. A cup win and top 4 is the ceiling with him as our pivotal player.
I love him as much as anyone, but he is just too chaotic.
 
Lentwood said:
I really don't like the relentlessly negative substitutions. What message does it send to the lads on the pitch when they see Maguire and Evans coming on in stoppage time? Mentally it says, "backs to the wall and defend time".

The message should be, "keep possession, keep playing forwards"

Its not like subbing on defenders and dropping deep has ever worked for us. We're pitiful at seeing a game out.
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We didn’t do that though, we kept attacking and got caught on the break. Until we conceded the 3-2 goal we were keeping the ball pretty well and actually killing the game okay (winning corners and keeping the ball far from our goal).

But we then conceded and it became an open game with Antony’s ridiculousness.
 
Toshey said:
Any elite club has at least 10 dodgy wins per season by the way.

Really can't blame ETH for too much in this game. Antony being amateur, Bruno being stupid.

Also, whoever takes over in the summer, needs to move Bruno on. A cup win and top 4 is the ceiling with him as our pivotal player.
I love him as much as anyone, but he is just too chaotic.
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You can blame him for Antony because he brought him on. We have seen it for 18 months now how useless he is, and yet the manager gives him chances, when we have an alternative on the bench in Amad. That was just a terrible substitution.
 
Seems to of handled Rashford ok, nice response from him

Youngsters flourishing

Full first team seems to look good

Exciting away win

4 goals away from home

Not a bad night for United and ETH
 
VP89 said:
Thats such bullshit though. We were unlucky Bruno didn't play an easier pass for Antony to tap it in toward the end of the game when it was 4-3. What's your point? That we were lucky to win the game? We weren't
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Not lucky to win the game overall, blessed to win it in that fashion in injury time. Do you really think Antony would have tapped it in ? Like "our" Antony :lol:

Like I said before, if you don't like what I keep saying, I don't care.
 
kouroux said:
Not lucky to win the game overall, blessed to win it in that fashion in injury time. Do you really think Antony would have tapped it in ? Like "our" Antony :lol:

Like I said before, if you don't like what I keep saying, I don't care.
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Okay so you think Antony can't take on a finish 6 yards out in this hypothetical world.
 
caid said:
I quite like the football he has us playing, its entertaining. Not always for the reasons you want but i enjoy watching us
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Apart from a handful of games this season - i've found the our games boring, a complete lack of chemistry, lack of goals, poor discipline, low effort, zero control over matches. None of that is enjoyable.
 
One thing I hope is that from now till the end of the season, creating and scoring changes won't be as problematic as before. We actually scored 4 goals in a PL !
 
Berbasbullet said:
We didn’t do that though, we kept attacking and got caught on the break. Until we conceded the 3-2 goal we were keeping the ball pretty well and actually killing the game okay (winning corners and keeping the ball far from our goal).

But we then conceded and it became an open game with Antony’s ridiculousness.
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Not entirely convinced, Wolves had more possession in the 2nd half and we definitely dropped deeper in the final 10 minutes.

It seems to me like another example of a game in which we actually demonstrated that the pressing blueprint CAN work...but then as soon as we perceive we have a lead worth holding, we seem to abandon it in favour of sort of nothing middle ground - not quite a press and not a Jose-style low-block either.
 
VP89 said:
You didn't enjoy the first 70 mins yesterday?
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It was fine, but I still find us a deeply frustrating football team to watch. Our finishing and decision making is painful.

I'm glad we won, I enjoyed aspects of it, the late winner as all late winners are was great. But nothings changed in my mind about Ten Hag and a large majority of this squad.
 
Judas said:
It was fine, but I still find us a deeply frustrating football team to watch. Our finishing and decision making is painful.

I'm glad we won, I enjoyed aspects of it, the late winner as all late winners are was great. But nothings changed in my mind about Ten Hag and a large majority of this squad.
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Thought we were outstanding yesterday for 70ish mins and just had finishing struggles. Don't really want to put that on the manager though, he set us out to create a feck load of chances.
 
Were any of the other post fergie managers this bad at allowing the opposition to come back when we have been in the lead?

He has form with this as who can forget him throwing away the semi final fixture against spurs when the pressure was on
 
Lentwood said:
Not entirely convinced, Wolves had more possession in the 2nd half and we definitely dropped deeper in the final 10 minutes.

It seems to me like another example of a game in which we actually demonstrated that the pressing blueprint CAN work...but then as soon as we perceive we have a lead worth holding, we seem to abandon it in favour of sort of nothing middle ground - not quite a press and not a Jose-style low-block either.
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I’m not sure so I agree with you but maybe my memory is playing tricks on me. I mean didn’t we concede both goals on the counter attack? I remember lots of our shirts pushed up into their half.
 
VP89 said:
Thought we were outstanding yesterday for 70ish mins and just had finishing struggles. Don't really want to put that on the manager though, he set us out to create a feck load of chances.
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We've had finishing struggles all season to be fair, last season too, a few months ago I was hoping it would eventually click, now I cant really say I'm convinced it will.
 
I wish he would come out almost frothing at the mouth and have a right go at some of these VAR decisions against us.

I thought we played well for most parts of the game last night, but when you only have one 18 year old with any true composure then you really will suffer when things start to unravel.
 
Lee565 said:
Were any of the other post fergie managers this bad at allowing the opposition to come back when we have been in the lead?

He has form with this as who can forget him throwing away the semi final fixture against spurs when the pressure was on
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He panics, brings on all defenders so we lose all threat and lose all control of the match. its cowardly tactics. I am not sure Ange would be the answer for us but can you imagine him doing that?
 
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