Erik ten Hag | 2022/23 & 2023/24

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Look, there isn’t a fan that doesn’t want us back on top where we belong. The difference is there is a faction of fans that think we should be there after 18 mo and there are others who feel we need more time to get there. “No expectations and no ambition”. A little over the top there bud.

Some people just lack ambition, why take an entry level job out of uni when you could be a CEO of a FTSE100 company
 
Honestly, this isn't recent or just setting in. United as a club simply aren't ruthless enough. Their so "loyal" to the point it gullible. The manager isn't your friend, he's an employee. If he can't get a good, high performing system going, he doesn't deserve to be here. Aston Villa should never be a rival. Brighton should never be scary. That's where we are. This is the 2nd win against a top 9 team away that we've had in 2 seasons. Villa came in today favored above us. Yet we have fans celebrating that we didn't lose.
I think it’s okay to be both happy at our resilience and fight back to get the 3 points while simultaneously be worried about the performance and the chances and possession Villa had. Tbf, it was away from home against a good side. On the other hand, tactically, Emery had Ten Hag in knots with his overload of the left side and control of the game after we scored the goal. Dalot had no idea what to do, track the inside runner or contest the winger. Still can’t pass well through the high press either.
 
If he can get top 4 after such a wretched season with so many things going wrong and all the controversies then he deserves at least another year in my opinion. A big 'if' though. Mainoo, Garnacho, Hojlund and Dalot are looking like players he's going to build a team around if he stays.

It's going to be interesting to see how many tough decisions the club is willing to make in the summer regarding the need to balance FFP and remain competitive and obviously that will depend if EtH can get us top 4. You have players like Mctominay, Maguire, Varane, Casemiro, AwB who have all had some good games this season but could be moved on as well as the likes of Rashford and Sancho. Big rebuild ahead (yet again)
 
If we miss out on top 4 but our young players keep on improving Il hold on to him as he might improve a few more.
I know it’s too soon and sacrilege to say it, but I swear Mainoo reminds me of Modric in his technical skills, passing and ball retention under pressure. Kudos to Ten Hag for recognizing it and getting him in the first team as a regular.
 
Martinez is the only one missing now. Yes. The rest returning is enough to see improvement. So you want me to hold off on judging his coaching because one of the injured players is still injured for another 2 months, never mind the fact everyone else is available?

Martinez is by far the best and most important player in that defense. Maybe even the team.

You can judge whenever you want but without Martinez you dont really see the real thing/idea in my opinion.
 
Feel like im back having low expectations for a few weeks because of injuries. I guess the fixture list is relatively straightforward.
If everyone is fit i feel like we have a decent starting 11 and even a few substitutes that could do a good job. There's just too many points of failure where an injured player cant really be replaced and the entire team needs to be adjusted.
Martinez cant be replaced. The gap in ball playing with and without him is a chasm and none of the others suit each other very much. If Casemiro is injured we need McTominay for set pieces and he's not particularly popular (which is fair really). Left backs have been a problem all season and wan bisakka's injury record this season probably wouldn't be great under normal circumstances. Theres no competition up front, if they dont perform you play the same 3 anyway and hope they turn it around.
Recent weeks have been much more positive but i'd still be looking to move half the squad on.
 
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Off the top of my head, at least 3 or 4. And add on to that times we’ve given up the ball in our defensive 3rd and given up a good shot. And the times we’ve had to clear the ball out of bounds or directly to the opposing CBs. We’re not good at it mate.
Thats not a big number for a team that's been hamstrung with defensive injuries and always try to play out from the back. Which ones are they?
 
Again, we just beat a direct rival, a rival above us, away and yet some people are still not happy????

Beaten direct rivals or near rivals West Ham, Wolves, Villa, Draws with spurs, LFC.

Getting a tune out of
Hojlund
Onana
Garnacho
McTominay
Maguire
Rashford (well, last season)
Dalot
Mainoo
Shaw
Martinez
Varane

Not super but reliable
Lindelof
Wan bissaka
Antony (erratic but had some good shifts)
Forson

Liked
Gore
Hannibal

dealt with a lot of static ie ronaldo, sancho.

60% win out of 96 games

A lot of pressing looks much better.

Vs moyes-, lvg-, joseball: much much better
Vs oleball: much more stable tactics.

Did well the last 2 months with many difficult games. Chelseagame was mindblowig and entertaining.

I think Ten Hag has earned some slack and should get praise for its well deserved imo.
 
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I think it’s okay to be both happy at our resilience and fight back to get the 3 points while simultaneously be worried about the performance and the chances and possession Villa had. Tbf, it was away from home against a good side. On the other hand, tactically, Emery had Ten Hag in knots with his overload of the left side and control of the game after we scored the goal. Dalot had no idea what to do, track the inside runner or contest the winger. Still can’t pass well through the high press either.


Agree completely and it's annoying that fans just bite your head off for having this POV. The same worrying signs that have been there for months on end are still there, we just won on variance today. Which is why I never bought into the injury excuse much, because the problem was coaching/tactics far more than just lack of individual quality from the reserves.
 
Martinez is by far the best and most important player in that defense. Maybe even the team.

You can judge whenever you want but without Martinez you dont really see the real thing/idea in my opinion.

If that's the case then the entire system is flawed anyways.

If Liverpool misses VVD then they are far weaker defensively, but it doesn't cause their entire philosophy and strategy in possession to fall apart. It's fecking stupid to think otherwise. Martinez is brilliant on the ball but if you're unable to set a team up and coach players to play through the lines effectively without a single ball playing CB then you're a shit coach anyways.
 
We concede far too many chances to be thinking we've finally cracked it with this system. The recent success is resulting from having some players back from injury and others finding form.

Aston Villa, to give them credit, are a good team, but there was a period of play today where they were carving us open like a peak Barcelona and fashioned something like 4 clear cut chances in five minutes. That should not be the case for a side with top four ambitions. Yes, an Aston Villa, Brighton, or Newcastle will create chances, especially at home, but it should be about half as many as they did today. Onana outperformed everyone in this game, and that was mainly why we won, but we can't expect him to pull out so many stops on an ordinary day at the office.

The main problem is that we have flimsy defensive cover in midfield. There were so many passes today between midfield and defence where Aston Villa players were picking the ball up in space and running at our defence.

He went out on a limb to sign Amrabat, but he has obviously lost confidence in him; ideally, the player he saw in Amrabat would be sitting behind Casemiro and Mainoo, who are offensively minded central midfielders, Mainoo in particular. Mount, when he comes back, is also a central midfielder who likes to attack. Casemiro doesn't have the legs to do too much defensive work anymore, but he's still useful as a central midfielder.

Until he fixes the Amrabat situation and signs a player who will sit in front of the back four, we will struggle defensively.
 
Wait till he realises we got dominated by Villa. He will delete his post out of sheer embarrassment



Hooray we beat Villa to get closer to top 4!

It's Man United. We used to laugh at Arsenal when it came to this. We didn't and haven't played well in almost all of those games.

Who cares if we get into the top 4 playing like this?

For me, I'm literally watching our games to see how we perform and to see how Hojlund, Garnacho and Mainoo are progressing. Other than that, its February and outside of a potential FA cup run, we're looking up at top 4 with a team with Varane, Casemiro, Bruno Fernandes, Rashford, Lisandro Martinez and Luke Shaw. What good are underwhelming performances at this stage? It's one thing if I had the assurance that we usually play well, but this is just par for the course.

I'm simply happy that our fans are no longer targetting Hojlund for his team not providing him service anymore since he's gotten some goals.
For me, more than anything. That story a few weeks ago, tells the tale of the issues surrounding United. Young player who fights, finds runs and generally looks like a quality player, hardly receives the ball closer to goal due to the poor performance of the team. Young player gets blamed and is all of a sudden not considered good enough, with fans clamouring for another striker, as somehow that would sort things out. These fans and media representatives don't assess that the team is performing poorly due to its shape and tactics, blaming players for poor performance when the team loses, not talking about these players when the team wins, yet praising the manager for these wins.Despite the fact, that at this moment, the manager's system is what is making the chance creation, possession and build up play so difficult. Excuses are given for the manager when the team doesn't perform. i.e Licha is injured. Yet if Hojlund hadn't scored goals over the last 5 games, people would have been clamouring for him to be displaced in the starting 11 by the summer. That's the hypocrisy. Mason Mount and Onana have gotten no benefit of the doubt. They aren't being gifted time. They are simply expected to perform, regardless of their circumstance or the injuries they may be dealing with. Yet, the manager, who sets up the plan that has the players performing poorly, can sit back and know that fans will always defend him as long as there are some wins regardless of performances.
 
This is going to be a long post, but I wanted to share my view of the ETH's tenure as a whole. I'm hoping you'll give it a read and excuse me as English is not my native language.

you can obviously see his vision for this club. We are far, far away from the finished article, but the philosophy is clear to see. We are much better at moving the ball than we were for the last decade. The results have been appalling at times but considering the cards that the man is being dealt with he is doing well. Look at the start of last season when he came to the club:

Greenwood, Ronaldo, the Maguire situation, an extremely over-bloated squad, a lack of leaders everywhere across the pitch, the ownership situation. He came in and lifted the whole squad, brought in winners like Lisandro and Casemiro. Dealt with the Ronaldo situation brilliantly. Won a trophy. Got us top 4. We got to the FA Cup final where we went toe to toe with City and lost to a De Gea blunder. Yes, we were very poor at the end of last season but considering how brilliant we were after the World Cup and the amount of games we played I think it's understandable.

This season started horribly, yes that's very much on him but it's also very much due to tragic mistakes from our players. Onana alone cost us Champions League football. The injury situation was also as dire as I can remember, we basically had 10-12 injuries for the whole of September-December. Oh, completely forgot about the Sancho situation. ETH came to the club with an overpaid underperforming mega signing and what did Ten Hag do? Oh, that's right he protected Sancho from the media and sent him to clear his head and train for 2 months. Sancho came back and played his best football for us at the end of last season. This season Ten Hag said one little bit of fair criticism to the media and instead of accepting criticism and trying to prove himself, Sancho threw a hissy fit and showed his true colors.

All I'm saying is there is a bigger picture here. A new manager comes to one of the biggest and most demanding clubs in the world, after one of the worst seasons in its history, countless off-field and on-field issues. He delivers in his first season with a trophy, exciting football, and CL qualification. The next season he is again dealt an awful hand with even more off-field issues, an unprecedented injury Crisis, and GK blunders.

Yes, of course, he shares a lot of the blame. Some of his transfers like Antony and Onana are very questionable to say the least. But to say he is clueless, and a fraud is just laughable. He wanted a ball-playing GK and got rid of De Gea for it, is Onana the one? I don't think so but it's a part of a clear philosophy. Pep also changed two keepers within a year, and it worked out great. He wanted a true number 9 and fought for Hojlund, now it's clear for everyone how good he is. He wanted a ball carrier and fought for De Jong, but didn't get him. now he found one of our own in Mainoo and is showing complete trust in him. The players are clearly fighting for him. His ideas are clear and are there to be seen. Dalot, Rashford, and Maguire are playing their best football under him. Varane was poor at the start of the season and got benched for Evans, everyone laughed at his decision but guess what? Evans played very well in that period and now Varane is back and also doing well. Maguire got dropped last season, and stripped of the captaincy this season, and yet when he is needed, he is one of our best players.

This is turning out incredibly long, but I just wanted to share my honest feelings on here. It may seem like I'm some kind of fanboy but that’s far from the truth. I have my share fare of criticism for ETH. His in-game management is quite poor at times, he is also quite stubborn when it comes to dropping underperformers, the aforementioned transfers. Believe me, I have many more complaints but that’s not what I'm here to say. My point is I can see a path for the first time in over a decade. I see a manager with a vision who doesn't let players push him around. I haven't seen any of it under all our manager's post Fergie. If it was up to me, I'd give him until the end of next season regardless of results and I'm hoping the club will do the same. With competent owners, a DOF, and the trust of the fanbase I truly believe he can achieve great things here.
 
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If you can't see the obvious difference having Martinez and Shaw fit and playing makes to our overall ability to defend and build up or control play from the back. Plus can't see how missing most of your key starters and their direct back up for 20 league rounds and having to constantly change partnerships in key departments all over the field, affects team coherence and build up play consistency, and magically imagine "just coaching" is the simplistic fix to it all. Football isn't the sport for you.......
 
This is going to be a long post, but I wanted to share my view of the ETH's tenure as a whole. I'm hoping you'll give it a read and excuse me as English is not my native language.

you can obviously see his vision for this club. We are far, far away from the finished article, but the philosophy is clear to see. We are much better at moving the ball than we were for the last decade. The results have been appalling at times but considering the cards that the man is being dealt with he is doing well. Look at the start of last season when he came to the club:

Greenwood, Ronaldo, the Maguire situation, an extremely over-bloated squad, a lack of leaders everywhere across the pitch, the ownership situation. He came in and lifted the whole squad, brought in winners like Lisandro and Casemiro. Dealt with the Ronaldo situation brilliantly. Won a trophy. Got us top 4. We got to the FA Cup final where we went toe to toe with City and lost to a De Gea blunder. Yes, we were very poor at the end of last season but considering how brilliant we were after the World Cup and the amount of games we played I think it's understandable.

This season started horribly, yes that's very much on him but it's also very much due to tragic mistakes from our players. Onana alone cost us Champions League football. The injury situation was also as dire as I can remember, we basically had 10-12 injuries for the whole of September-December. Oh, completely forgot about the Sancho situation. ETH came to the club with an overpaid underperforming mega signing and what did Ten Hag do? Oh, that's right he protected Sancho from the media and sent him to clear his head and train for 2 months. Sancho came back and played his best football for us at the end of last season. This season Ten Hag said one little bit of fair criticism to the media and instead of accepting criticism and trying to prove himself, Sancho threw a hissy fit and showed his true colors.

All I'm saying is there is a bigger picture here. A new manager comes to one of the biggest and most demanding clubs in the world, after one of the worst seasons in its history, countless off-field and on-field issues. He delivers in his first season with a trophy, exciting football, and CL qualification. The next season he is again dealt an awful hand with even more off-field issues, an unprecedented injury Crisis, and GK blunders.

Yes, of course, he shares a lot of the blame. Some of his transfers like Antony and Onana are very questionable to say the least. But to say he is clueless, and a fraud is just laughable. He wanted a ball-playing GK and got rid of De Gea for it, is Onana the one? I don't think so but it's a part of a clear philosophy. Pep also changed two keepers within a year, and it worked out great. He wanted a true number 9 and fought for Hojlund, now it's clear for everyone how good he is. He wanted a ball carrier and fought for De Jong, but didn't get him. now he found one of our own in Mainoo and is showing complete trust in him. The players are clearly fighting for him. His ideas are clear and are there to be seen. Dalot, Rashford, and Maguire are playing their best football under him. Varane was poor at the start of the season and got benched for Evans, everyone laughed at his decision but guess what? Evans played very well in that period and now Varane is back and also doing well. Maguire got dropped last season, and stripped of the captaincy this season, and yet when he is needed, he is one of our best players.

This is turning out incredibly long, but I just wanted to share my honest feelings on here. It may seem like I'm some kind of fanboy but that’s far from the truth. I have my share fare of criticism for ETH. His in-game management is quite poor at times, he is also quite stubborn when it comes to dropping underperformers, the aforementioned transfers. Believe me, I have many more complaints but that’s not what I'm here to say. My point is I can see a path for the first time in over a decade. I see a manager with a vision who doesn't let players push him around. I haven't seen any of it under all our manager's post Fergie. If it was up to me, I'd give him until the end of next season regardless of results and I'm hoping the club will do the same. With competent owners, a DOF, and the trust of the fanbase I truly believe he can achieve great things here.

Can we afford a season like this next season?

How many teams actually give managers 3 seasons for underperformance?

No manager deserves time. They have the team playing in a high quality fashion that makes the team want to keep them.

Ancelotti at Chelsea had shown brilliant football, so them not giving him time to turn it around can be rightfully criticized. He won things and had football that had produced fantastic results. Same as Wenger. What exactly has Ten Haag proven here? It's Man United. Not Brighton. Regardless of obstacles, which any manager going to a top club should expect, the expectation is at minimum good on pitch performances. If we were 6th and had been playing well but were inconsistent, that would be another story. He's never shown his vision can work. All he's done is indicate that he needs a complete team to play any form of good football.

I've seen Arsenal under Wenger struggle financially, but still play great football with Wenger. He lost bigger games, but he was still able to have many good, consistent and comfortable performances. He showed in those games that he had a good system, but didn't have the quality to beat bigger teams or have as much consistency. That's what a good manager dealing with players like Bedntnar and Denilson looks like. Ten Haag has convinced many that Bruno, Casemiro, Rashford, Varane, Maguire, Licha, Shaw, Eriksen and our younger players like Mainoo, Hojlund and Garnacho are not good enough to have expectations for. That we can't win games even if one goes out injured. That these players can't string passes together. But we should invest in him where the structure allows him to flop with even more expensive players. Every manager we've had has a vision. They all said they were taking us somewhere. They all had philosophies. The problem with our fanbase is that we have such a hard time sacking them when its time, not realizing that other clubs actually have ambitions and don't need to see a manager in a job for 3 years to know he doesn't work. They know that this isn't the 90's and that time moves quickly. Can't cry about us not signing players without recognizing the cost of us not doing well in the league and champions league. We're praising him for rightfully kicking Ronaldo and Sancho out for not doing their jobs. Ronaldo couldn't press, he had 2 months with him before coming to the conclusion he couldn't have him starting. It's the same way we should be treating him. If he hasn't been able to show us he can implement decent football with this group of players, he shouldn't be coaching the team. Also, people shouldn't be mistaken. We'll buy players, but for the most part, the players here now, will mostly still be here. Teams don't sell 10 players in a window. He's a promising manager that was given the chance to manager a club bigger than his station with the opportunity to prove himself with the resources available to him. He agreed to it. He hasn't shown any of the promising things that we hired him for and has instead complained throughout his tenure. He wants more resources, despite not showing he can even work with the ones he has available to him. Why would I trust him? Why would I waste time with him when he hasn't proven he's good enough. What exactly would a structure change in his management of the team on the pitch. How would a structure allow him to beat Luton convincingly. He couldn't manage the resources provided to him without supervision. In a position as competitive as being a Premier League manager, where urgency and self management are essential, why would I put my faith in a manager that can't even get the team to play well on the pitch without supervision? Why not get a manager that is less green and more accountable. One that I don't need to monitor each week to ensure he's doing the right thing ( because that's what the coming structure is actually going to bring).
 
I think it’s okay to be both happy at our resilience and fight back to get the 3 points while simultaneously be worried about the performance and the chances and possession Villa had. Tbf, it was away from home against a good side. On the other hand, tactically, Emery had Ten Hag in knots with his overload of the left side and control of the game after we scored the goal. Dalot had no idea what to do, track the inside runner or contest the winger. Still can’t pass well through the high press either.
I'm really pleased with some of the RESULTS the last few weeks but bar maybe a period against West Ham and the second half v Villa (where we still easily could have drawn) I have yet to see a very good performance.
 
I personally don't rate Eth at this point, there's not much he can to do readjust this for me (barring a radical shift in performances) I think he has a very perceivable ceiling as a manager which unfortunately is not good enough for the team to challenge. His accomplishments at Ajax are overstated, if we subtract what he did in the Eredivisie and solely assess what he's hoping to do at United I don't think its a project that warrants time.

If I'm the new CEO / sporting director does the aspiration of being the best transition team in the world hold up when when the team is insufficient in possession? Hopefully the new leadership has more ambition beyond seeing how things transpire but as an alternative set in place the necessary foundations to win including the identification of the individual who aligns with that goal.
 
Injuries aren't a problem, we should be winning.
ETH won't do a better job even if injured players are back.
Ok, we are winning he hasn't won an away match in years.
Ok, he won an away match but we don't have control.


Moaners !
 
I don’t understand how that’s a straw man. You insinuated we are a great team because we were able to win despite being outplayed. We’re not. We were a bit lucky. In fact, given our goal difference, we’ve been outplayed in most games this season in the league. We have a negative xG for the season and we’re 9th in xG differential. This is from multiple sources, mind you. If Arsenal or City or Liverpool play poorly and win, I grant you the “great” status. A team that’s 6th in the table and 13 points off the top of the table, no.

What you are talking about is a truly great team that has played shit during the first 60 minutes of a match and comes from behind in the last 15-20 minutes to win.
Example: I believe it was 2008 or 2009, we were either in 2nd or 1st, playing away at Fulham, and we were down and just playing awful for us and Ronaldo took charge and just ran at Fulham for 20 straight minutes, just a classic SAF “throw everything at them” type of match. We won 2-1 in classic Fergie time.

I didn't insinuate we were a great team, I pointed out that winning ugly is a requirement to be one, and that's what we did against Villa.

I won't go into the rest of the post, I don't agree with your summary of the season, and you're misusing xG by only looking at it in isolation.
 
Can we afford a season like this next season?

How many teams actually give managers 3 seasons for underperformance?

No manager deserves time. They have the team playing in a high quality fashion that makes the team want to keep them.

Ancelotti at Chelsea had shown brilliant football, so them not giving him time to turn it around can be rightfully criticized. He won things and had football that had produced fantastic results. Same as Wenger. What exactly has Ten Haag proven here? It's Man United. Not Brighton. Regardless of obstacles, which any manager going to a top club should expect, the expectation is at minimum good on pitch performances. If we were 6th and had been playing well but were inconsistent, that would be another story. He's never shown his vision can work. All he's done is indicate that he needs a complete team to play any form of good football.

I've seen Arsenal under Wenger struggle financially, but still play great football with Wenger. He lost bigger games, but he was still able to have many good, consistent and comfortable performances. He showed in those games that he had a good system, but didn't have the quality to beat bigger teams or have as much consistency. That's what a good manager dealing with players like Bedntnar and Denilson looks like. Ten Haag has convinced many that Bruno, Casemiro, Rashford, Varane, Maguire, Licha, Shaw, Eriksen and our younger players like Mainoo, Hojlund and Garnacho are not good enough to have expectations for. That we can't win games even if one goes out injured. That these players can't string passes together. But we should invest in him where the structure allows him to flop with even more expensive players. Every manager we've had has a vision. They all said they were taking us somewhere. They all had philosophies. The problem with our fanbase is that we have such a hard time sacking them when its time, not realizing that other clubs actually have ambitions and don't need to see a manager in a job for 3 years to know he doesn't work. They know that this isn't the 90's and that time moves quickly. Can't cry about us not signing players without recognizing the cost of us not doing well in the league and champions league. We're praising him for rightfully kicking Ronaldo and Sancho out for not doing their jobs. Ronaldo couldn't press, he had 2 months with him before coming to the conclusion he couldn't have him starting. It's the same way we should be treating him. If he hasn't been able to show us he can implement decent football with this group of players, he shouldn't be coaching the team. Also, people shouldn't be mistaken. We'll buy players, but for the most part, the players here now, will mostly still be here. Teams don't sell 10 players in a window. He's a promising manager that was given the chance to manager a club bigger than his station with the opportunity to prove himself with the resources available to him. He agreed to it. He hasn't shown any of the promising things that we hired him for and has instead complained throughout his tenure. He wants more resources, despite not showing he can even work with the ones he has available to him. Why would I trust him? Why would I waste time with him when he hasn't proven he's good enough. What exactly would a structure change in his management of the team on the pitch. How would a structure allow him to beat Luton convincingly. He couldn't manage the resources provided to him without supervision. In a position as competitive as being a Premier League manager, where urgency and self management are essential, why would I put my faith in a manager that can't even get the team to play well on the pitch without supervision? Why not get a manager that is less green and more accountable. One that I don't need to monitor each week to ensure he's doing the right thing ( because that's what the coming structure is actually going to bring).
I'm not reading that wall of text but to answer the bolded, 2 out of the 3 top teams this season.
 
Erik isn't good enough for United, that's it. This team is venerable in defence against any team, this team can't score enough goals to win convincingly even against low quality teams. What is ball playing GK? I would really like to see the statistics of the ball being pass between defenders and GK, I think it probably rank 1st in the league. Our build up is slow, time consuming and predictable, I wonder if it is called coaching. Rashford is lazy and giving half hearted performance, why isn't he dropped for Amad? What's the deal with Erik? What about signings? Blowing our transfer budget with average players who isn't who Championship standard. Erik is done more wrong then right since he is hired. The only way for him to stay is top 4 so anything less, he should be sack.
 
They gave them 3 seasons of underperformance? Maybe you should have read the wall of text
Yes. Fans were calling for Artetas sack literally up until last season and klops Liverpool kicked on after his 3rd season, despite the a CL final.
 
Can we afford a season like this next season?

How many teams actually give managers 3 seasons for underperformance?

No manager deserves time. They have the team playing in a high quality fashion that makes the team want to keep them.

Ancelotti at Chelsea had shown brilliant football, so them not giving him time to turn it around can be rightfully criticized. He won things and had football that had produced fantastic results. Same as Wenger. What exactly has Ten Haag proven here? It's Man United. Not Brighton. Regardless of obstacles, which any manager going to a top club should expect, the expectation is at minimum good on pitch performances. If we were 6th and had been playing well but were inconsistent, that would be another story. He's never shown his vision can work. All he's done is indicate that he needs a complete team to play any form of good football.

I've seen Arsenal under Wenger struggle financially, but still play great football with Wenger. He lost bigger games, but he was still able to have many good, consistent and comfortable performances. He showed in those games that he had a good system, but didn't have the quality to beat bigger teams or have as much consistency. That's what a good manager dealing with players like Bedntnar and Denilson looks like. Ten Haag has convinced many that Bruno, Casemiro, Rashford, Varane, Maguire, Licha, Shaw, Eriksen and our younger players like Mainoo, Hojlund and Garnacho are not good enough to have expectations for. That we can't win games even if one goes out injured. That these players can't string passes together. But we should invest in him where the structure allows him to flop with even more expensive players. Every manager we've had has a vision. They all said they were taking us somewhere. They all had philosophies. The problem with our fanbase is that we have such a hard time sacking them when its time, not realizing that other clubs actually have ambitions and don't need to see a manager in a job for 3 years to know he doesn't work. They know that this isn't the 90's and that time moves quickly. Can't cry about us not signing players without recognizing the cost of us not doing well in the league and champions league. We're praising him for rightfully kicking Ronaldo and Sancho out for not doing their jobs. Ronaldo couldn't press, he had 2 months with him before coming to the conclusion he couldn't have him starting. It's the same way we should be treating him. If he hasn't been able to show us he can implement decent football with this group of players, he shouldn't be coaching the team. Also, people shouldn't be mistaken. We'll buy players, but for the most part, the players here now, will mostly still be here. Teams don't sell 10 players in a window. He's a promising manager that was given the chance to manager a club bigger than his station with the opportunity to prove himself with the resources available to him. He agreed to it. He hasn't shown any of the promising things that we hired him for and has instead complained throughout his tenure. He wants more resources, despite not showing he can even work with the ones he has available to him. Why would I trust him? Why would I waste time with him when he hasn't proven he's good enough. What exactly would a structure change in his management of the team on the pitch. How would a structure allow him to beat Luton convincingly. He couldn't manage the resources provided to him without supervision. In a position as competitive as being a Premier League manager, where urgency and self management are essential, why would I put my faith in a manager that can't even get the team to play well on the pitch without supervision? Why not get a manager that is less green and more accountable. One that I don't need to monitor each week to ensure he's doing the right thing ( because that's what the coming structure is actually going to bring).

The whole " we are Manchester united" case is ridiculous. It has nothing to do with lowering standards and accepting mediocrity, it's only a matter of being aware of the current reality. Did Liverpool use this excuse every season during their 30 years without a championship? No because it's irrelevant. Sheffield united are also a big club, should they use this narrative as well? The reality is we haven't won, or even competed for a league title in a decade.
Can we afford a season like this next season?

How many teams actually give managers 3 seasons for underperformance?

No manager deserves time. They have the team playing in a high quality fashion that makes the team want to keep them.

Ancelotti at Chelsea had shown brilliant football, so them not giving him time to turn it around can be rightfully criticized. He won things and had football that had produced fantastic results. Same as Wenger. What exactly has Ten Haag proven here? It's Man United. Not Brighton. Regardless of obstacles, which any manager going to a top club should expect, the expectation is at minimum good on pitch performances. If we were 6th and had been playing well but were inconsistent, that would be another story. He's never shown his vision can work. All he's done is indicate that he needs a complete team to play any form of good football.

I've seen Arsenal under Wenger struggle financially, but still play great football with Wenger. He lost bigger games, but he was still able to have many good, consistent and comfortable performances. He showed in those games that he had a good system, but didn't have the quality to beat bigger teams or have as much consistency. That's what a good manager dealing with players like Bedntnar and Denilson looks like. Ten Haag has convinced many that Bruno, Casemiro, Rashford, Varane, Maguire, Licha, Shaw, Eriksen and our younger players like Mainoo, Hojlund and Garnacho are not good enough to have expectations for. That we can't win games even if one goes out injured. That these players can't string passes together. But we should invest in him where the structure allows him to flop with even more expensive players. Every manager we've had has a vision. They all said they were taking us somewhere. They all had philosophies. The problem with our fanbase is that we have such a hard time sacking them when its time, not realizing that other clubs actually have ambitions and don't need to see a manager in a job for 3 years to know he doesn't work. They know that this isn't the 90's and that time moves quickly. Can't cry about us not signing players without recognizing the cost of us not doing well in the league and champions league. We're praising him for rightfully kicking Ronaldo and Sancho out for not doing their jobs. Ronaldo couldn't press, he had 2 months with him before coming to the conclusion he couldn't have him starting. It's the same way we should be treating him. If he hasn't been able to show us he can implement decent football with this group of players, he shouldn't be coaching the team. Also, people shouldn't be mistaken. We'll buy players, but for the most part, the players here now, will mostly still be here. Teams don't sell 10 players in a window. He's a promising manager that was given the chance to manager a club bigger than his station with the opportunity to prove himself with the resources available to him. He agreed to it. He hasn't shown any of the promising things that we hired him for and has instead complained throughout his tenure. He wants more resources, despite not showing he can even work with the ones he has available to him. Why would I trust him? Why would I waste time with him when he hasn't proven he's good enough. What exactly would a structure change in his management of the team on the pitch. How would a structure allow him to beat Luton convincingly. He couldn't manage the resources provided to him without supervision. In a position as competitive as being a Premier League manager, where urgency and self management are essential, why would I put my faith in a manager that can't even get the team to play well on the pitch without supervision? Why not get a manager that is less green and more accountable. One that I don't need to monitor each week to ensure he's doing the right thing ( because that's what the coming structure is actually going to bring).

The whole " we are Manchester United" case is ridiculous. It has nothing to do with lowering standards and accepting mediocrity, it's only a matter of being aware of the current reality. Did Liverpool use this excuse every season during their 30 years without a championship? No, because it's irrelevant. Sheffield United are also a big club, should they use this narrative as well? The reality is we haven't won or even competed for a league title in a decade. The objectives for a manager's first season are different. what has he proven? he won a trophy and got to 2 cup finals while achieving UCL qualification. Did you not consider it a successful season? why did you decide that sticking with him is a waste of time? are you seriously trying to claim that every manager should be sacked after one season if he's not playing brilliant football? I'm sorry to inform you but Pep, Klopp, and Ancelotti combined would not have won us a title last season nor would they display dazzling football. And also, how exactly did he complain the whole time? if anything he barely complained. of course, he is going to mention the injuries when we are having bad results because it's directly linked, it's not an excuse because we obviously needed to do better even with the injuries but expecting him to shrug it off as if it's a non-issue is ridiculous. It honestly looks like you made up your mind about him not being good enough, it's a valid point, and maybe you are right but some of your arguments are just detached from reality.
 
I mean a win is a win and I am glad, but do any of you who seriously watched that game and really thought "that was a good match for us and thats how united supposed to play against Villa" ? Get a fkin grip
 
A major issue I have with the team is how bad we are out of possession. We try and press, but don't really do it as a team. When our front 6 gets bypassed (usually in 1/2 passes), the opposition has a free run at our defenders. It happens every game and I've seen no improvement across the season. There is usually a huge gap between the front 6 and back 4. We also constantly waste our own corners and they turn into counters for our opponents. I don't understand how our own corners are consistently detrimental to us.

The amount of shots we allow on our goal is relegation level. Onana has faced a ridiculous amount all season. He has the third most shots saved this season. It's surprising that we haven't conceded more. We have started to score a few more goals over the last few weeks. That's good to see, but we're almost 20 goals behind where we realistically need to/should be. Our GD being 0 says a whole lot. The performances have been poor more often than not.

I refuse to accept that the players we have can't produce better performances than this. He's obviously not getting sacked this season now. If the club were going to do it, they would have by now. I don't want to give him another season if we keep performing in the same way.

We do have some good fixtures coming up, though. Apart from City, we have 5 out of 6 winnable games. Being out of Europe also gives the coaches more time on the training ground. Hopefully that will help our performances.
 
Good away win at a tough team. We weren't exactly battered, but really missed Shaw in the second half, as expected. Still think this team doesn't look quite right, but the improvements when we've got our best players out there is so stark.

I'm happy to win, bizarre how that feels controversial on here quite often.
 
Can we afford a season like this next season?

How many teams actually give managers 3 seasons for underperformance?

No manager deserves time. They have the team playing in a high quality fashion that makes the team want to keep them.

Ancelotti at Chelsea had shown brilliant football, so them not giving him time to turn it around can be rightfully criticized. He won things and had football that had produced fantastic results. Same as Wenger. What exactly has Ten Haag proven here? It's Man United. Not Brighton. Regardless of obstacles, which any manager going to a top club should expect, the expectation is at minimum good on pitch performances. If we were 6th and had been playing well but were inconsistent, that would be another story. He's never shown his vision can work. All he's done is indicate that he needs a complete team to play any form of good football.

I've seen Arsenal under Wenger struggle financially, but still play great football with Wenger. He lost bigger games, but he was still able to have many good, consistent and comfortable performances. He showed in those games that he had a good system, but didn't have the quality to beat bigger teams or have as much consistency. That's what a good manager dealing with players like Bedntnar and Denilson looks like. Ten Haag has convinced many that Bruno, Casemiro, Rashford, Varane, Maguire, Licha, Shaw, Eriksen and our younger players like Mainoo, Hojlund and Garnacho are not good enough to have expectations for. That we can't win games even if one goes out injured. That these players can't string passes together. But we should invest in him where the structure allows him to flop with even more expensive players. Every manager we've had has a vision. They all said they were taking us somewhere. They all had philosophies. The problem with our fanbase is that we have such a hard time sacking them when its time, not realizing that other clubs actually have ambitions and don't need to see a manager in a job for 3 years to know he doesn't work. They know that this isn't the 90's and that time moves quickly. Can't cry about us not signing players without recognizing the cost of us not doing well in the league and champions league. We're praising him for rightfully kicking Ronaldo and Sancho out for not doing their jobs. Ronaldo couldn't press, he had 2 months with him before coming to the conclusion he couldn't have him starting. It's the same way we should be treating him. If he hasn't been able to show us he can implement decent football with this group of players, he shouldn't be coaching the team. Also, people shouldn't be mistaken. We'll buy players, but for the most part, the players here now, will mostly still be here. Teams don't sell 10 players in a window. He's a promising manager that was given the chance to manager a club bigger than his station with the opportunity to prove himself with the resources available to him. He agreed to it. He hasn't shown any of the promising things that we hired him for and has instead complained throughout his tenure. He wants more resources, despite not showing he can even work with the ones he has available to him. Why would I trust him? Why would I waste time with him when he hasn't proven he's good enough. What exactly would a structure change in his management of the team on the pitch. How would a structure allow him to beat Luton convincingly. He couldn't manage the resources provided to him without supervision. In a position as competitive as being a Premier League manager, where urgency and self management are essential, why would I put my faith in a manager that can't even get the team to play well on the pitch without supervision? Why not get a manager that is less green and more accountable. One that I don't need to monitor each week to ensure he's doing the right thing ( because that's what the coming structure is actually going to bring).
Jesus Christ have a night off ffs :rolleyes:
 
He’s still getting a lot of stick but you’ve got to look at the facts. He’s got the best win rate out of all our managers.
 
I’ve said for a while we just needed to get our shit together. Concerning it’s taken so long. Maybe Hag will be a success here I don’t know. Happy we have got back into some early Hag form now.
 
People seem to forget he wanted McTominay and Maguire sold not just for the fact they didn't fit his system but because of FFP - we needed the money.

Both refused to leave.

I think he was going for a high line possession based system. I also think he was going to phase out Bruno for Mount.

If you look at the game last night (villa), Onana was more forward than Maguire at times, if he'd got a new CB and half of the key players weren't injured we'd be seeing a different type of Man Utd.

Over 1 1/2 seasons he's done well, the crap he's had to deal with is nuts, from players giving interviews to take overs

He seems to have the players on board, he is the closest thing to a good manager since SAF we've had.

If you just look at Sancho, gave him a few months off to get right and he came back, didn't to too well and EtH said he's not training to a standard you need for this club - sancho acted like a little bitch and boom he's gone now.

Same with Ronaldo probably one of the clubs biggest marketing assets, De Gea the highest paid goalkeeper in the EPL (not counting 115FC) got low balled and shipped - where is he now? I wanted De Gea gone after the FA cup final loss to 115FC

All in all - it needed/needs to be done.
 
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I have noticed we have this habit, even going right back to the start of the season (Arsenal, Spurs etc...) of starting well, pressing well, playing in the opposition half, forcing turnovers...and then dropping off, usually if we score.

Maguire mentioned it yesterday in his post match interview with Sky. He said something like 'we dropped off after the goal and didn't press as aggressively'.

When we do press high and play positively, we look good. When we don't, we look pretty awful because it leaves us so wide open. Simple fact for me is we need more practice playing the system and more legs in the team.
 
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