Erik ten Hag | 2022/23 & 2023/24

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I have no doubt about Ten Hag abilities, but the flexibility of the team he has is a serious worry for me (Ronaldo, Bruno, AWB, 3 midfielders..). I don't think ETH can play "his" football with this bunch of players, so I'm not optimistic and have very low expectations for next season.
On the other hand, there's huge room for improvement with some proper coaching so that's something I'm looking forward to.

I am not sure why you have mentioned Bruno in there because it is clear from the first 2 games that Bruno has the ability to play football.
 
Love the guy and he's a United legend for what he did as a player but he was a poor coach that capitalised on a feelgood wave at the same time as our top four rivals were spinning their wheels a bit. Should have won the Europa league at least, bought poorly and left a pretty poor dressing room behind him
Either way its ETH turn to show us what he's about, Ole is in the past now.
 
I am not sure why you have mentioned Bruno in there because it is clear from the first 2 games that Bruno has the ability to play football.
I don't question Bruno abilities, and I have not seen the games, I just don't think he's a very flexible player (like let's say Sancho). Each player like that makes it more difficult for ETH.
 
I hope so too, im rather tired now of a) watching terrible football, and b) being a terrible club over the past 8/9 years.
Have hope mate, things should improve greatly. For me it is a matter of how much time, I can't imagine that Erik Ten Hag won't deal with some of the abysmal weaknesses this team has shown recent years.
 
Have hope mate, things should improve greatly. For me it is a matter of how much time, I can't imagine that Erik Ten Hag won't deal with some of the abysmal weaknesses this team has shown recent years.

When I look back at the manifest failures of the last 10 years, the biggest fail was going from LVG to Jose imo. While LVG was probably past it as a club manager and looked like he wasn't going anywhere with United, he had at least drummed some decent fundamentals into the club around possession and tactical discipline. I think the correct move would have been to a more modern version of a manager but with the same principles, looking for someone who could keep what LVG did well but add a more modern press and dynamic attack to the mix. Instead we did a complete 180 and went with a manager who was almost the polar opposite of LVG and set ourselves backwards by years.

My minimum hope here is that, even if ETH isn't the guy who wins us the league, he puts some modern fundamentals into the club around training, scouting and play style etc, so that when we transition into future managers, they can build on some solid foundations.
 
When I look back at the manifest failures of the last 10 years, the biggest fail was going from LVG to Jose imo. While LVG was probably past it as a club manager and looked like he wasn't going anywhere with United, he had at least drummed some decent fundamentals into the club around possession and tactical discipline. I think the correct move would have been to a more modern version of a manager but with the same principles, looking for someone who could keep what LVG did well but add a more modern press and dynamic attack to the mix. Instead we did a complete 180 and went with a manager who was almost the polar opposite of LVG and set ourselves backwards by years.

My minimum hope here is that, even if ETH isn't the guy who wins us the league, he puts some modern fundamentals into the club around training, scouting and play style etc, so that when we transition into future managers, they can build on some solid foundations.
Yes I agree with this post but hopefully ETH wins too
 
When I look back at the manifest failures of the last 10 years, the biggest fail was going from LVG to Jose imo. While LVG was probably past it as a club manager and looked like he wasn't going anywhere with United, he had at least drummed some decent fundamentals into the club around possession and tactical discipline. I think the correct move would have been to a more modern version of a manager but with the same principles, looking for someone who could keep what LVG did well but add a more modern press and dynamic attack to the mix. Instead we did a complete 180 and went with a manager who was almost the polar opposite of LVG and set ourselves backwards by years.

My minimum hope here is that, even if ETH isn't the guy who wins us the league, he puts some modern fundamentals into the club around training, scouting and play style etc, so that when we transition into future managers, they can build on some solid foundations.
I think ETH will be the one to put some fundamentals in use. We’ve already seen some of his training clips and how demanding he is, we never heard any of the previous managers talk like that in training but to be honest that’s probably because the club didn’t release any footage of previous training sessions because of how embarrassing they was. Ten Hag is 100% a football man and will work himself to the ground to get us back to the top, I like how he keeps mentioning aswell about style of play and playing with a certain style but even if that isn’t possible you still have to win games! The guys a born winner and won’t settle for anything less then the top.
 
Sounds like its gonna be Maguire-Martinez. Makes sense, Varane might be a serial winner but Maguire gets played a lot by several poor coaches so he must be good.

Obviously i get why you don't leave your 80 million captain on the bench but... sigh... this is the kind of stuff that was supposed to be changing.
 
When I look back at the manifest failures of the last 10 years, the biggest fail was going from LVG to Jose imo. While LVG was probably past it as a club manager and looked like he wasn't going anywhere with United, he had at least drummed some decent fundamentals into the club around possession and tactical discipline. I think the correct move would have been to a more modern version of a manager but with the same principles, looking for someone who could keep what LVG did well but add a more modern press and dynamic attack to the mix. Instead we did a complete 180 and went with a manager who was almost the polar opposite of LVG and set ourselves backwards by years.

My minimum hope here is that, even if ETH isn't the guy who wins us the league, he puts some modern fundamentals into the club around training, scouting and play style etc, so that when we transition into future managers, they can build on some solid foundations.
Good post! Nail on head.

But I trust we will win with EtH as well, only if Klopp and Pep are to stay and find their inner Fergie I'd be scared.
 
When I look back at the manifest failures of the last 10 years, the biggest fail was going from LVG to Jose imo. While LVG was probably past it as a club manager and looked like he wasn't going anywhere with United, he had at least drummed some decent fundamentals into the club around possession and tactical discipline. I think the correct move would have been to a more modern version of a manager but with the same principles, looking for someone who could keep what LVG did well but add a more modern press and dynamic attack to the mix. Instead we did a complete 180 and went with a manager who was almost the polar opposite of LVG and set ourselves backwards by years.

My minimum hope here is that, even if ETH isn't the guy who wins us the league, he puts some modern fundamentals into the club around training, scouting and play style etc, so that when we transition into future managers, they can build on some solid foundations.
Completely agree, from start to finish
 
I think we might have a generational manager on our hands. I've been reading heaps on him from his Go Ahead Eagles days to his most recent Ajax transformation and he has overachieved in every role.

The fact that he resigned from Go Ahead Eagles after he got them promoted to the first division to take up the job as under 23 manager of Bayern Munich to learn from Pep is a massive tick.

I do also think that we have a special manager in Ten Hag on our hands!

Now the supporters and the board need to back him 100%.
 
Sounds like its gonna be Maguire-Martinez. Makes sense, Varane might be a serial winner but Maguire gets played a lot by several poor coaches so he must be good.

Obviously i get why you don't leave your 80 million captain on the bench but... sigh... this is the kind of stuff that was supposed to be changing.

We'll see if he keeps playing him if he keeps making horrendous errors like last season. One of the worst seasons I've witnessed from a United player.
 
Sounds like its gonna be Maguire-Martinez. Makes sense, Varane might be a serial winner but Maguire gets played a lot by several poor coaches so he must be good.

Obviously i get why you don't leave your 80 million captain on the bench but... sigh... this is the kind of stuff that was supposed to be changing.

If Maguire carries his 'form' over from last season, then ETH will drop him rather quickly, I imagine.
 
Saying British players are overpriced and then buying a tiny Eredivisie defender for 60 million is rather funny.
 
That’s very debatable. I know progress is rarely linear, but the prolonged spells of bad form and tendency to repeat the same mistakes again and again did cast doubt as to whether things would ever really improve.

There were undoubtedly occasions when it did look like progress was being made though. Most objective fans (yes there were some) thought that he definitely deserved another season following the strong finish to 19/20.


You’re right, but it doesn’t always happen that way. I’d wager that people remember Jose’s spectacular meltdown at Chelsea better than the previous season’s league title. Though maybe they wouldn’t if a similar thing hadn’t happened at United soon afterwards :)


If people took the same view as I did with Ole from the start, which was that he was not appointed for footballing reasons, it’s actually not that hard to conclude that he did a reasonable job.

We forget how fractured and demorolised the team was after Jose done with them. The club as a whole too. He has to put things back together.
The reality was that even the hardcore Ole supporters never thought he was the most qualified or best coach in the world. But he did put the club back together after Jose.
 
Sounds like its gonna be Maguire-Martinez. Makes sense, Varane might be a serial winner but Maguire gets played a lot by several poor coaches so he must be good.

Obviously i get why you don't leave your 80 million captain on the bench but... sigh... this is the kind of stuff that was supposed to be changing.
Because Varane was SO GOOD last season. He was every bit as bad as Maguire, only difference is he rarely played.
 
Are the two mutually exclusive?

British players are ridiculously overpriced, as witnessed by the Ole era.
He said in an interview with Dutch media that he's buying from other leagues, because it's a lower price for the same quality. I'd say this much money for any Eredivisie player is a massive risk. The difference in level is just too big to make any sort of prediction on how well someone will do. Even players from Germany tend to struggle massively in the premier league and the German league is far better than ours.
 
Because Varane was SO GOOD last season. He was every bit as bad as Maguire, only difference is he rarely played.
Nah not even close. Maguire was absolutely hopeless, struggling to remember a worse season from a defender in the premier league. He was an absolute disaster.

He probably committed more individual mistakes in one game than Rio Ferdinand committed during his entire Man United career.

Lets not rewrite history, Harry Maguire last season was a fecking joke and absolutely fecking shite.
 
When I look back at the manifest failures of the last 10 years, the biggest fail was going from LVG to Jose imo. While LVG was probably past it as a club manager and looked like he wasn't going anywhere with United, he had at least drummed some decent fundamentals into the club around possession and tactical discipline. I think the correct move would have been to a more modern version of a manager but with the same principles, looking for someone who could keep what LVG did well but add a more modern press and dynamic attack to the mix. Instead we did a complete 180 and went with a manager who was almost the polar opposite of LVG and set ourselves backwards by years.

My minimum hope here is that, even if ETH isn't the guy who wins us the league, he puts some modern fundamentals into the club around training, scouting and play style etc, so that when we transition into future managers, they can build on some solid foundations.


I agree about the transition from LVG to Mourinho, but see that as more of a symptom of our biggest issue, which has been no long term planning around the football side. We jump for whatever manager is available with no consideration for how they fit the players or 'system' we have in place. So we end up having to spend loads of money on new players the manager wants, all while being unable to shift the underperforming players they have no use for.
 
Sounds like its gonna be Maguire-Martinez. Makes sense, Varane might be a serial winner but Maguire gets played a lot by several poor coaches so he must be good.

Obviously i get why you don't leave your 80 million captain on the bench but... sigh... this is the kind of stuff that was supposed to be changing.
So you'd rather we play a weaker defence? Strange as I always thought the idea was to win games!

Maguire is still our best defender at the club, might hurt some people to admit it, but it's true.
 
He said in an interview with Dutch media that he's buying from other leagues, because it's a lower price for the same quality. I'd say this much money for any Eredivisie player is a massive risk. The difference in level is just too big to make any sort of prediction on how well someone will do. Even players from Germany tend to struggle massively in the premier league and the German league is far better than ours.

As I said, they're not mutually exclusive.

Unfortunately, gone are the days when you can pluck players from Holland, Portugal etc. for small sums. Look how much Nunez cost ffs! Maybe it'll turn out that we did overpay for Martinez, or maybe he'll be an excellent signing. What is clear; is that English players are ridiculously overpriced.
 
Nah not even close. Maguire was absolutely hopeless, struggling to remember a worse season from a defender in the premier league. He was an absolute disaster.

He probably committed more individual mistakes in one game than Rio Ferdinand committed during his entire Man United career.

Lets not rewrite history, Harry Maguire last season was a fecking joke and absolutely fecking shite.
The only reason Varane made less is that he was never on the pitch
 
As I said, they're not mutually exclusive.

Unfortunately, gone are the days when you can pluck players from Holland, Portugal etc. for small sums. Look how much Nunez cost ffs! Maybe it'll turn out that we did overpay for Martinez, or maybe he'll be an excellent signing. What is clear; is that English players are ridiculously overpriced.
Yeah fair enough, English players are overpriced. Though cringey as it may soundd the whole "premier league proven" thing is quite important.Though I suppose Harry Maguire was somewhat premier league proven as well.
 
The only reason Varane made less is that he was never on the pitch

No, it's because Maguire was making mistakes almost every time he was on the pitch.

Varane played 28 games, and he still made less mistakes overall than Maguire did in just the period before Ole got sacked.
 
Yeah fair enough, English players are overpriced. Though cringey as it may soundd the whole "premier league proven" thing is quite important.Though I suppose Harry Maguire was somewhat premier league proven as well.

If you had a team with no PL experience, then that would certainly be a problem!

However; I feel it's something that is often over-emphasised. We bought Maguire and AWB for ridiculous sums - both were PL proven - and both have turned out to be poor signings. Finding a balance is key. We also bought the likes of Telles and Lindelof - who have generally been duds - but at least we didn't pay mental money for both!
 
So you'd rather we play a weaker defence? Strange as I always thought the idea was to win games!

Maguire is still our best defender at the club, might hurt some people to admit it, but it's true.

Not sure whether people who actually think this say it because he's English. He's clearly the worst CB at the club and he's not fit to wear the shirt. No reason to think he's better than our other centre backs. He's so bad that his continued presence in the team has created issues within the squad. Shite player and EtH's comments suggest that he will be dropped if his performances don't improve pretty quickly.
 
Happy to let it go. He wasn't shite though. Like I said you don't get 2nd and 3rd in the best league in the world if you're shite. You just don't
Think you can gauge how other teams see Ole's abilities in the level of management jobs he’s had since leaving United.
 
We'll see if he keeps playing him if he keeps making horrendous errors like last season. One of the worst seasons I've witnessed from a United player.
If Maguire carries his 'form' over from last season, then ETH will drop him rather quickly, I imagine.

Fair points seems obvious but it wasn't really something i considered. ETH doesn't seem the type to employ that kind of favouritism either does he always talking about competition, being rotated in and out should even help Maguire etc.

He was sacked in his last season and correctly so. The fella and me were talking about why he was kept not why he was sacked. I don't and didn't consider it that ridiculous.

Don't you think he always failed the eye test? When he was appointed permanently the performances week to week (barring the occasional top 6 game that always saved his ass) were something else the players never looked lethargic and like they actually trained together. Seemed a conscious choice on his part too would love to know why we moved from a successful 4-3-3 during his caretaker reign to a counter attacking 4-2-3-1 with Lingard and Pereira at the heart of the team.

For me he should have been sacked in that period alone before Bruno came in with his one man show. Will never ever forget Bruno's first game, he was literally pointing and screaming at players where to run or pass. Says it all that we have seen more in terms of attacking movement, positioning, passing/passages of play etc in 3 weeks now than we have for a long time, makes all the talk of a 6 year project look even more farcical in hindsight.
 
No, it's because Maguire was making mistakes almost every time he was on the pitch.

Varane played 28 games, and he still made less mistakes overall than Maguire did in just the period before Ole got sacked.
Probably something to do with the fact that people pretend they can’t see Varane’s errors. He was a calamity.
 
Probably something to do with the fact that people pretend they can’t see Varane’s errors. He was a calamity.
He hit bad form (who didn't?) but at the start of the season I thought he was clearly our best defender. You could see whenever he was out how much we missed him.

His fitness is a concern but when fit he's still a top quality centre back.
 
He hit bad form (who didn't?) but at the start of the season I thought he was clearly our best defender. You could see whenever he was out how much we missed him.

His fitness is a concern but when fit he's still a top quality centre back.

He was, he had good season except last few games.
 
Because Varane was SO GOOD last season. He was every bit as bad as Maguire, only difference is he rarely played.

Varane is twice the defender / player Maguire is regardless of fees and injuries. If Varane is fit he should play every day of the week ahead of Maguire captain or no captain.
 
Not sure whether people who actually think this say it because he's English. He's clearly the worst CB at the club and he's not fit to wear the shirt. No reason to think he's better than our other centre backs. He's so bad that his continued presence in the team has created issues within the squad. Shite player and EtH's comments suggest that he will be dropped if his performances don't improve pretty quickly.
:lol: :lol:

Not sure what Maguire being English has to do with anything?! Considering you know little of my nationality I find that comment strange beyond belief.
It's almost like it's your issue to contend with rather than anyone elses?

He is most definitely the best defender at the club, that is beyond doubt. It obviously hurts you to admit this, which is fine, but it is true.

I'm pretty sure any player will be dropped if performances are not of the required standard!
 
He hit bad form (who didn't?) but at the start of the season I thought he was clearly our best defender. You could see whenever he was out how much we missed him.

His fitness is a concern but when fit he's still a top quality centre back.

Agreed, I'm surprised people are targeting him for vitriol. He couldn't turn the tide of a failing defence, but I would say his good form held up the longest last season before tailing off like everyone else's. Fitness is obviously a concern, but if he stays fit I'd be very keen to get him on the pitch and see how he performs in this new team.
 
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