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.