Erik ten Hag | 2022/23 & 2023/24

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Hojlund, Harry and AWB back for Liverpool is massive!

Fingers crossed we do a double over them this month, will be a massive boost.
None of them are back I think.

Only Evans and Rashford got over their niggles.
 
"These players"? Ten Hag has signed enough players to field a new team completely to the one Rangnick had pretty much.

It's like Trigger's broom this squad. People talk about these players letting managers down that we had about 10 years ago :lol:
i think there are something like 8 regular players that have been here for 5 seasons or more, and i think it was in the defeat to Newcastle a bit back where something like 6 of the starting players had been signed by other managers. To suggest this is an entirely new team under EtH is not true.

Last year we had even more of the old guard with the likes of Fred and de Gea and then we've had players like Mata, Pogba, Lingard, Jones that were at the club for far too long. There's definitely been a loser culture of persistent failure around the players since Sir Alex left and that hasn't changed under EtH, partly because of a horrible club structure.

Edit- just checked it was actually EIGHT starting players that have been here for 5 years or more in that Newcastle defeat where everyone criticized our workrate :eek: . A new team :lol:
 
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None of them are back I think.

Only Evans and Rashford got over their niggles.

If you had a choice of winning FA cup or qualify for CL which would you choose?

I’d choose the cup.. This race for top 4/5 has totally warped what should really matter. FA cup should really get one of the CL spots , it’s bollox that they all goto EPL.

I remember the time when FA cup final day was bigger then CL final. 3 hours of buildup (no adverts either) on BBC. Watching the teams come out with managers leading them out was goosebump city.

Top 4 race is like waiting to celebrate a goal while VAR reviews it. It’s just not right.
 
If you had a choice of winning FA cup or qualify for CL which would you choose?

I’d choose the cup.. This race for top 4/5 has totally warped what should really matter. FA cup should really get one of the CL spots , it’s bollox that they all goto EPL.

I remember the time when FA cup final day was bigger then CL final. 3 hours of buildup (no adverts either) on BBC. Watching the teams come out with managers leading them out was goosebump city.

Top 4 race is like waiting to celebrate a goal while VAR reviews it. It’s just not right.
Rare moment just happened... I fully agree with you. Winning cups matters. A top 4 finish should only be seen as the first step towards winning the CL (at least for a club like United). If you don't intend to or believe you can win the CL, it's completely irrelevant.
 
Compare that to Real Madrid's fans who were booing after 20min on wednesday against Leipzig. While the match was still a draw which would have seen them through. Just because they didn't like how the team played. Meanwhile United fans (at least a lot of them): "Write off the season, support the manager" And the same fans keep claiming to be fans of the biggest club in the world. It's really baffling.

A lot of us have real deep seated cult of manager issues. The absolute trust we had in Ferguson just seems to transfer from one manager to the next for some.

It's not that baffling. United fans are not actually that experienced when it comes to top level Football. We suffer from the same blindness than the owners, SAF managed the club in a way that shileded us from the realities of Football which largely rely on accepting that you will make mistakes and be willing to fix them quickly, managers and players have a relatively short shelf life because the vast majority of people can't sustain absolute excellence for long periods of time(2 to 4 years is generally the max) and all of that generally only happen in a high pressure context, a pressure that comes from within AND outside.

In a way, we are the trust fund babies of professional sport. A strange mix of naivety and entitlement.

PS: I'm talking about the younger fans, the under 45 years old. Older fans have seen what happens to a massive club when you act the way some of the younger fans do.

Though I'm just under 45 I think you're spot on on both counts.
 
I dont think that every player can be motivated enough to raise their levels. ETH is doing well to get the best out of our youngsters, Dalot is improving and even Evans is putting up great performances because the guy knows how to win.

You are left with the other players that I have mentioned earlier. Have won nothing of note in their entire careers, flopped at biggest stages but were handsomely rewarded by the lunatics running the club. Its pretty evident that these dont have the mentality or the hunger to succeed. How many chances do you want to give them?

I am not defending ETH at all, just to be clear. But I want to give him a chance under the new setup where tragic transfers like Antony dont happen. A setup where you dont end up chasing a player for the entire window only to end up signing a totally different player on huge wages with only a couple of years worth of performances left.

Getting rid of ETH will only give these incompetent players more time at the club and delay our success. Thats a certainty because we have seen that enough number of times already. I want to back the manager this time and if he still persists with these trash players after the getting the backing, he should be shown the door.

Sorry, what have the club done these last 2 years. Haven't they been backing him. He's spent £500m on players he picked, he's been allowed to sell, loan and freeze out whoever he wants. What more can be done to accomodate him?
 
If you had a choice of winning FA cup or qualify for CL which would you choose?

FA Cup, of course, instant decision.

Personally I really don't care if we are in the CL, despite the cash & prestige that goes with it.
I'd be happy enough to be in the Europa Conference, might actually have a chance of winning that bloody thing...!!
 
Where did I use this as a defense? And if you blame him entirely for that then that's your problem. A lot of blame lies with the incompetent board as well who sanctioned this deal, who had no alternatives lined up. Its their job to do so.
The way you phrased it makes it sound like Antony was forced onto ETH by the club and it was some kind of massive injustice against the manager. Just think about it. We want to give him a chance under new setup where tragic transfers, like the ones he was involved in, don't happen. Basically absolving the manager with possibly the most influence on transfers of all tops clubs, of all blame. People would happily get rid of everyone who sanctioned those deals but not the manager. Somehow he deserves a new chance and nobody else does.

Also people still clinging onto a cup run from 5 years ago. It's such a long time in football that some players who were considered hottest prospects at the time are considered laughing stock now. Mourihno had won the PL just a year before he joined us and he was still in decline and sacking him was the right decision in the end. But somehow ETH has more credit in the bank and deserves more chances. I just don't get what's with United fans and managers.
 
But my question is what makes you think that when things go well it's because ETH is doing well to get the best out of certain players and when things don't go well it's because the players are at fault. Would you accept the idea that ETH has nothing to do with the good things if he has nothing to do with the bad ones or to be totally fair and honest that it's actually a mixture of both?

Maybe some players aren't good enough, maybe some leaders shouldn't be leaders but in both cases the manager should shoulder most of the attention because as others have mentioned he brought a large number of players and he is the main leader in this Football club, a good manager is supposed to inspire good leadership or take most of the leadership responsiblities, and the latter point is extremely important because unless you only bring veteran key players that totally fit your culture and happen to be leaders, you will have to help young players to develop and apply their leadership, if your manager isn't good at it then you are sabotaging your young players' development and your team as a whole.

In the last months I have largely made critical comments about ETH, I have also the tendency to responsd to (overly)positive comments and it's not because I hate ETH, it's not because I want him out or any particularly negative reason. I have been critical of him because his failures are fundamental, you can't actually brush them under the carpet, there are two things that any club should require from their manager, the ability to lead people (staff and players) and the ability to develop technically/tactically/mentally people (staff and players). And ETH is failing at both, we all agree on the tactical/technical side of things but his supporters(for lack of better words) systemtically expose the leadership failures, the supposed poor culture, they use it to target players when they are actually exposing the manager, the leader, the head honcho.

Yep, if the culture within in this squad is bad/toxic etc, a squad that's make up is in no small part down to Erik as he's signed half of them. Then that's largely down to Erik's leadership ability or lackthereof.

We see it all the time on here. ''Give the manager time, if we sack him now that means a lot of these players get to stay''. Eh, well yeah of course why wouldn't they stay.
 
So bored with ten hag constantly referencing injuries. Its little wonder performances aren't improving when everyone knows they can just fall back on talking about injuries if we lose. We get outplayed almost every game, the majority of times by teams who also have injuries and inferior players
 
Beyond all ten Hag's waffle about injuries, it's pretty damning that arguably the best team performance this season was against Crystal Palace where he dropped so many of his faves for once.
 
So bored with ten hag constantly referencing injuries. Its little wonder performances aren't improving when everyone knows they can just fall back on talking about injuries if we lose. We get outplayed almost every game, the majority of times by teams who also have injuries and inferior players

His poor physical preparation for the season and his handling of players carrying injuries has definitely contributed to the issues. He is not a passive agent lamenting bad luck like he seems to suggest.

We have gone into two seasons now looking woefully off the pace, there have been complaints within the squad about the intensity and key players can’t stop picking up muscle injuries.

It’s such a key aspect of football nowadays (as we have seen with Barcelona’s terrible handling of Pedri) and it can make or break careers, especially early doors.

I, personally, wouldn’t be trusting him with the futures of Mainoo, Garnacho and Hojlund.

There are more than enough warning signs to suggest his physical preparation is a factor in all the injuries.
 

I don't really pay attention to what he says because he's quite dull and lacking in charisma and who cares really? In recent weeks from what I've seen he's just started saying weird shit, understandably because he's under pressure which impacts people and means he's also trying to defend himself, but this is insane. We didn't win 21 matches last season (including the Brighton semi final which statistically goes as a draw) when we didn't have many setbacks or injury issues, there is no world where if things had gone differently with injuries we would have won all but 4 games in all competitions this season.
 
His poor physical preparation for the season and his handling of players carrying injuries has definitely contributed to the issues. He is not a passive agent lamenting bad luck like he seems to suggest.

I certainly agree with the last bit of this. He seems to have this attitude of if you are not carrying a physical injury then you play. But if you look at young players being successfully brought through at any team, they frequently don’t play for short spells. Whether that’s a mental or physical thing I don’t know, but I look at Garnacho
And Hojlund this season and he seems to just put them in for every game regardless.

We have gone into two seasons now looking woefully off the pace, there have been complaints within the squad about the intensity and key players can’t stop picking up muscle injuries.

It’s such a key aspect of football nowadays (as we have seen with Barcelona’s terrible handling of Pedri) and it can make or break careers, especially early doors.

I, personally, wouldn’t be trusting him with the futures of Mainoo, Garnacho and Hojlund.

There are more than enough warning signs to suggest his physical preparation is a factor in all the injuries.
 

Not really concerned with this comment. He's auditioning to keep his job with the new regime, so of course he's going to defend his record and make excuses for shortcomings.

Agree with other posters that he's not a passive agent in all this, but clearly he's not going to say "yeah those injuries are partly my fault, sorry".
 
His poor physical preparation for the season and his handling of players carrying injuries has definitely contributed to the issues. He is not a passive agent lamenting bad luck like he seems to suggest.

We have gone into two seasons now looking woefully off the pace, there have been complaints within the squad about the intensity and key players can’t stop picking up muscle injuries.

It’s such a key aspect of football nowadays (as we have seen with Barcelona’s terrible handling of Pedri) and it can make or break careers, especially early doors.

I, personally, wouldn’t be trusting him with the futures of Mainoo, Garnacho and Hojlund.

There are more than enough warning signs to suggest his physical preparation is a factor in all the injuries.
Agreed, not to mention decisions pike martinez coming back on after injury or Shaw being rushed back.

Also signing a player like mount who has just come off the back of the worst spell of his career in terms of injures is also prob a bad idea
 
I think results would need to get extremely bad for Ten Hag to be sacked before the season ends. I have a feeling that the new owners have privately told him that he will not be getting a new contract and there is an agreement to part ways in the summer. Just a feeling.

Yeah I am hoping that's the case,much as I am firmly in the out camp there is no point in making a change until end of the season. Completely agree with @Telsim point about trying for those managers he mentioned. Also @sugar_kane I wouldn't be bothered if either of those went to a rival,however feel differently if that's a Nagelsmann/Inzaghi.
 
A lot of us have real deep seated cult of manager issues. The absolute trust we had in Ferguson just seems to transfer from one manager to the next for some.



Though I'm just under 45 I think you're spot on on both counts.

Yep I've become aware of this as well because it really feels like our fans are the most forgiving and patient of any big club in the world, no matter how much some supporters exaggerate the "hate" some players get. It's incredibly frustrating being in the minority of fans that wishes the club acted ruthlessly when it comes to both players and manager, instead of "backing" them for the sake of some romantic hope that incompetence will suddenly "come good"
 
People forget when Ten Hag walked into the Ajax team they had just lost to United in the Europa League final and were on the up.

Onana, DeJong, Van Der Beek, De Ligt were already there.

Ten Hag didn't lift them from the bottom the way some people like us to think

The manager that brought that team to the final and laid some good foundations for ETH is currently managing PSV, who are uneaten after 25 games and play some very good football. There might be a case by the end of the season to say he's a better manager than ETH, and I think he flopped outside of Eredivisie too. Which goes to show the level of that league.
 
Not really concerned with this comment. He's auditioning to keep his job with the new regime, so of course he's going to defend his record and make excuses for shortcomings.

Agree with other posters that he's not a passive agent in all this, but clearly he's not going to say "yeah those injuries are partly my fault, sorry".
Very naive if that's his intention. Successful and intelligent men like Ratcliffe and Brailsford are hardly going to buy into excuses and delusion like a casual fan. They'll judge him on results
 


This is madness :wenger:

He's honestly trying to gaslight fans into thinking nobody could get more from this squad. The guy that lost to Fulham, Palace, Brighton etc. I'm going to say it, if you believe this stuff then you're a straight up idiot.

He's a delusional knob with a losers mentality. It's alarming how low his standards must be when he's constantly coming out with drivel like this to cover his own arse
 
Played to maximum levels given the availability of players!! :lol:

This is what happens when you give a snakeoil salesman a fecking getout clause. Of course they're going to expand their bullshit to fill up all the available space.

If you repeat the same deluded mantras enough even the managers start believing them.
 
Very naive if that's his intention. Successful and intelligent men like Ratcliffe and Brailsford are hardly going to buy into excuses and delusion like a casual fan. They'll judge him on results
I agree. What worked with the Glazers and their people won't work on the new regime.
 
A lot of us have real deep seated cult of manager issues. The absolute trust we had in Ferguson just seems to transfer from one manager to the next for some.

Let's never forget the "Chosen One" banner for Moyes at Old Trafford. Yeah, we stopped doing cringe acts like that after he left, but a lot of the same underlying sentiments remain with the supporters and gets passed on from manager to manager and it's very much apparent with Ten Hag. It's kind of ironic how Manchester United, a club that once had one of the most ruthless reputations in Europe has probably the most lenient and forgiving fanbase of any top club.
 
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The poison being spouted in this thread by a collection of petulant nobodies with limited knowledge of the game is baffling considering you’re Man Utd fans. Unworthy Man Utd fans, but Man Utd fans nonetheless.
I sincerely hope every football match we win under ETH makes you miserable. If he does turn things around nothing you say in this thread will be taken seriously, you pack of overgrown toddlers.
 
He's honestly trying to gaslight fans into thinking nobody could get more from this squad. The guy that lost to Fulham, Palace, Brighton etc. I'm going to say it, if you believe this stuff then you're a straight up idiot.

He's just trying to keep his job / pitch his version of things to INEOS mostly. Antony went through a lot, so the transfer still might work out when he's settled, we had a lot of injuries so our league position is justified etc. etc. Can't fault him for it - if you don't define your own narrative, then other people will do it for you.

It's hard to disprove his claims but for me it's mostly bogus and he's going to get sacked.
 
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A lot of us have real deep seated cult of manager issues. The absolute trust we had in Ferguson just seems to transfer from one manager to the next for some.
Agreed. Case in point, the idea that questioning the manager means you're not a real or a "worthy" fan:

The poison being spouted in this thread by a collection of petulant nobodies with limited knowledge of the game is baffling considering you’re Man Utd fans. Unworthy Man Utd fans, but Man Utd fans nonetheless.
I sincerely hope every football match we win under ETH makes you miserable. If he does turn things around nothing you say in this thread will be taken seriously, you pack of overgrown toddlers.
 
Cult of manager stuff is thankfully ending. In modern football, the traditional manager is now just a first team head coach who is disposable somewhat, as opposed to the football directors of a club who look after the mid to long term prospects at the club. Head coaches are a short term asset a lot of the time unless you’re a rare standout like Klopp or Guardiola.

A good football board can offset an inferior head coach too in my opinion. There’s plenty of head coaches who are probably adept at coaching and tactics, but are horrible at transfers and judging whether youth players are good enough. If there’s a transfer guru and a youth transition guru at the club who can do that job, then the pressure is off the head coach to do all that stuff and he can concentrate on his coaching of the first team.

I get the feeling that’s been our problem the past decade. Ferguson’s like an all-in-one unicorn who could do all that stuff by himself and literally no-one else could when he retired, and that’s why he’s arguably the greatest ever.
 
The poison being spouted in this thread by a collection of petulant nobodies with limited knowledge of the game is baffling considering you’re Man Utd fans. Unworthy Man Utd fans, but Man Utd fans nonetheless.
I sincerely hope every football match we win under ETH makes you miserable. If he does turn things around nothing you say in this thread will be taken seriously, you pack of overgrown toddlers.
Are you a somebody with extensive knowledge of football? :lol:
 
Agreed. Case in point, the idea that questioning the manager means you're not a real or a "worthy" fan:
I’ll give you the benefit of the doubt and assume your grasp of English is sufficient to understand the difference between questioning and insults. You’re welcome
 
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