I don't think it's fair to question him to the level many posters are, because he hasn't built his team.
He's been working as head of recruitment out of a lack of alternatives more than anything else. I disagree with this narrative peddled by those who want him out that he wants sole control and he's overriding our targets with nonsense ones of his own. The transfers are from him, but it's out of no other alternative given the incompetence of who he is with.
He wants support, he wants structure and he wants to be integrated within that - that's obvious from what he's said and from the fact that he operated successfully with overmars & vds at Ajax. However here he's worked under higherups who essentially dont know if they have a job for the next month since October last year.
Casemiro isn't exactly a scout pick up and obviously wasn't even a Ten Hag choice per say. Eriksen was opportunistic on a free, and then the rest of it is just an amalgamation of bargain basement signings or panic deals - with Onana Hojlund Antony and Mount being the big ticket items.
The result of the above is a squad that only has 1/3rd or maybe 1/2 players capable of playing a fast direct style that Ten Hag is trying to implement. For example, I don't think Maguire, Lindelof, AWB, McTominay suit his style. Casemiro is too old, Shaw is a crock and of course Licha has been injured. Hojlund and Garnacho meanwhile are projects which will take time to grow and develop - he has mentioned the club took a view to focus on them rather than go for ready made talent in the summer specifically due to FFP.
The one thing I really blame Ten Hag for is Antony, and it's incredibly frustrating. But I think every manager is capable of big money mistakes. Heck even Mount was adored by the higher ups at United and they panicked because they were worried about Arsenal or Liverpool getting him.
I believe has a style that would work but it needs more technical prowess and more fitness in the middle to operate. Casemiro needs moving on, we need more full backs and we need another striker. It was well briefed that he needed Hojlund + one more, but it wasn't given for FFP reasons. And he's long wanted a fullback, and only has Malacia as a squad option, also sadly hampered by injury.
Anthony was a bad signing alright, no getting around that, but ETH isnt the first manager to choose a bad one. The issue for United is that we arent well run and cant really affr
Liverpool scored 7 that day from an xG of 2.8, so quite clearly on a normal day it would have been a 3-0/4-0. I'm not actually sure it makes much of a difference though.
The issues that led to that loss are still here and will inevitably lead to more spankings. It may not be 7-0 because not many teams actually try past 3rd/4th goal, e.g. City could have easily scored more against us at Old Trafford this year but didn't bother coming out of 2nd gear after they got their second goal, or sometimes you will just come across a team that's extremely wasteful like Villa were last week or Newcastle were the last two times we went to St James Park.
If you expose yourself to 18-20 shots a game, inevitably you will be spanked every now and then.
There has been a visible improvement in our offensive play though which has to be said. We are still appalling in midfield and possibly the worst team in the league at controlling the game, but we have got much better at creating over the last 4-5 weeks, largely down to Garnacho/Hojlund. Also, the way we create chances out of nowhere now makes it likely that we will win quite a few games against the run of play, though I'm not sure as a United fan you want to be winning too many games in that fashion.
We are in a funny spot for me. Right now winning is more important than performances. Really is no point in playing well and drawing , we have to win because we fell so far behind.
So is our football kind of chaotic for a number of reasons but from a tactics POV it’s a real all or nothing strategy focusing on winning over building a solid football system? Well our win/loss record suggests this may be it but why can’t you do both?
If I am giving ETH the benefit of the doubt I’m thinking that he’s been firefighting all season. But if I’m judging him on a higher standard I’m asking why we still don’t really play good football for more than a few minutes or a half. Fair question, can’t answer it. So I choose to write him off as a failure or wonder/believe things may improve as team comes back to full fitness and maybe with the ownership clearer there will be less drama , more clarity and more positivity.
Minute 15-45 in Fulham game was awful. We will get mauled in other games playing like that, sure didn’t bournmouth do us at home when we were playing like that?. If that’s the future of ETH football, that’s not gonna work. But that’s happened a lot , even before ETH was here, that suggests that it’s a problem multiple managers have struggled to address.
I look at Rashford and wonder if he’s better moving on as he has looked troubled. Not blaming him and don’t blame ETH but that’s our best forward being out of form all season.
I hear the arguments about Bruno. Maybe he won’t suit what ETH wants , but there are so many other things that needed to be done Bruno and Rashford were not priorities. I wonder if Bruno left (and mount actually was his replacement) could that work like when Ruud left and we replaced him with Saha. You get a more functional , well rounded forward line that isn’t “moment fc” where Bruno finds a great pass or scores a goal.
The truth is that I don’t know how much ETH is part of the Problem. I’m not even good at tactical stuff, I’m placing my trust in INEOs cause I feel that they, more than any manager we hire, are more important for the future of the club.
I wouldn’t be happy if they sacked ETH now for an interim but I’d try to trust they have a plan.
