It is not the quality of our defence, we have been allowing chance after chance. We have been incredibly lucky with our opponents not taking these opportunities. Our goals conceded is 11 goals ahead of xGA. Per xGA metrics we are only better than 6 teams in the league.
Erik ten Hag | 2022/23 & 2023/24
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That’s great to be honest. What about goals scored
We will quite obviously not qualify for Champions League, don't think there are too many ifs there. However I expect him to get a new contract, full vote of confidence and significant control over transfers still, simply because these days I just always expect us to be inept.
It's not even great. We are on course to concede over 50 goals this season while outperforming our xGA by a huge margin. Even without xGA stats to back this up it's quite plain to see on eye test alone.
In terms of goals scored, we are 6.5 goals behind our xG, and basically middle of the pack in terms of chance creation but comfortably behind every top half team bar West Ham and Wolves.
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Still only behind City, Arsenal and Liverpool.
No other clubs even with more settled defences have conceded less than us.
We’ve played Evans in our defence 43% of the PL season so far, haven’t had a LB fit for the majority of the season, have had this “chasm” in midfield which is making us too open and yet we still are only bettered by 3 clubs clearly ahead of us.
You’ll have to check the PL table
It would be better than the rest of the PL.
Our whole side has struggled because our build up and everything else is disrupted this season due to injury. Who is our fit striker at the moment?
You replies to my posts are all a bit confusing. You seem to think that I'm defending ETH which is the total opposite.
Great. So why are injuries being used to absolve Ten Hag of any blame for the awful football, when the area most affected by injuries (defence), has performed well regardless?
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Our most played CB is currently Varane and even he’s only managed 50% of our PL minutes to date.
We’re 13th, a goal more than Luton and 2 more than Bournemouth. I wonder why you didn’t post that
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Because he’s cope with those injuries to still keep us relatively ok in terms of the rest of the PL, but the injuries have meant we’ve not had Martinez for 78% of the PL and no Shaw for 62%.
It’s a miracle of resource management that this Frankenstein defence isn’t performing significantly worse than this.
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It’s about where I’d expect us to be with no Martial and Højlund for significant parts of the season.
Villa and Spurs have a substantially better goal difference than United and are ahead on the table by 6-8 points. Those two clubs have better defenses than United in the way that matters.
I see.
Basically well done to Ten Hag for performing miracles getting a makeshift defence functioning, but it's not his fault that the entire team play terrible football because he can only do so much.
I feel like I'm being gaslighted when I enter this thread
Probably nonsense but imagine we don't sack him due to the cost after he's:
- wasted £400m on mostly dross
- crashed out of the CL at the group stage costing us millions
- failed to qualify for the CL when even 5th is likely enough
Failure would keep him in a job.
As I've already stated, Mount was injured for a while. Even Havertz, Grealish and others are big signings for manager systems that needed to bed in. Citing McTominay starting more games than an injured Mount is clutching.
You know Ten Hag wanted to flog him, so you know he's not rated for Ten Hag's optimal system. The manager making do with him doesn't mean he wants to keep him, and you know that surely?
Which ones?
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Yeah they are more available which helps.
Exactly. Given what he’s got available he’s done well to get results.
The football itself has been poor, I don’t think anyone is trying to argue we’re playing excellently but this whole season has essentially been a fight for survival. It’s utter utter shit that this is what has happened but regrettably it’s the case.
Yeah, because our opponents have failed to convert opportunities at an immense rate. Our xGA ranks us as one of the worse teams in the league.
No, it wouldn't. It's right in the middle of the pack and being better than bottom half teams is hardly anything to shout about (and we are actually worse than Everton and Brentford even).
As for fit striker, Hojlund has started 20 out of 28 games this season, we have had our wingers available almost without fail, Bruno has been around all season. If anything we've been quite lucky with injuries among our offensive players.
This is just a silly post really. You can add context for the manager and still think his system just doesn’t work in this league. You’re just taking everyone’s argument they disagrees with you and reducing it to sound ridiculous. Ten Hag has both had and created difficulties at United, thinking he isn’t the best man for the job isn’t pathetic.
Hojlund has started 20 games, and you are insane if you think we should be 13th best in the league.
We have had Rashford, Bruno, Garnacho, Antony (his 85m marquee signing) available for virtually all games while having Hojlund in the squad for 75% of time. There's no way we should be creating and scoring so few goals.
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Hes started 17, think he has 3 off the bench?
It doesn't help that he didn't rotate last season, basically running the first 11 into the ground, he's paying the price this season.
Indeed, 17 games started and 3 off the bench, played in 20. My bad. His availability since his debut, up until very recently, has been good this season. Missed 3 games at the start, was available for 21 of the next 23, and now gone for 3 games.
Yes, though it may be worth flagging he was not fit enough for 90 for a fair chunk at the beginning, if you recall he couldn't finish games early on. There is of course a settling in period with him, that we need to account for when considering attacking impetus and chemistry with team mates. Debut season and all.
That's how I remember it too but it seems that after his debut (when he came on late v Arsenal), he only struggled to finish Brighton game and then played full 90 in the next three. We then started taking him off around 75th - 80th minute mark.
I don't know what went in our heads to not have a proper back up for him though, even as a cheap loan, especially as we do not seem to have any strikers ready to contribute among our youth teams. Probably did not anticipate Rashford to decline so badly but definitely should have expected Martial to fall apart which he always does.
And we said the same thing then as now. Our squad is garbage so unless you want the manager to throw games. He won’t be rotating while he has these players. It’s really that simple.
I agree, it was well reported our manager wanted him and one other. But we got into a mess financially too I guess.
No it’s not. There was no need to go full strength in the league cup, especially the second leg. Same could be said for the fa cup. play youth and fringe players and don’t worry so much at getting through. That’s not throwing games.
And before anyone starts saying trophies are important, I know, but I also know we all thought it would be a process and we didn’t have the squad or team to go for all four trophies in his first year. It was naive of him. And from that we ended last season burnt out and started this season burnt out and still haven’t recovered from it.
Do we?
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I get what you’re saying I really do but I just disagree. A lot of the xG we’re conceding is high volume low quality chances. Which rightly or wrongly is by design.
With 24/5 different defensive combinations and our best striker being 21, unfit at the start of the season and only playing 58% of our PL minutes I think it’s absolutely understandable why our attack isn’t flying. So it’s a bit worse than starts or appearances would suggest. At the moment we have no striker. We have played several games now with no striker.
I agree we’ve been generally fine for winger fitness (as in nothing id consider by this point ridiculously unlucky) but we still had rotation options out for other reasons (Antony).
Insane? Do we need to resort to personal insult for a difference of opinion?
Having someone in the squad and having someone in top condition able to make a sustained impact and contribution are two very different things. If you’re only on the pitch for 58% of the time you can’t contribute as much as:
- Salah 72
- Haaland 76
- Son 82
Ten Hag has a system?
Clearly this season Ten Hag thinks Scotts more optimal than 3 of his own midfield signings for whatever he is trying to do this season. Even before Mount was injured Scott was playing ahead of him.
The ones that prove your claims about what Ten Hag did and didn't demand in terms of transfer control.
Are you really this bad at keeping track of the shit you spout?
It was highlighted to you that we tried to sell McTominay, indicating that he's not considered good enough.
Your retort to that was "he's the first name on the teamsheet" ignoring the fairly obvious reasons why he's getting game time ahead of a guy who's literally injured, a guy who's legs have gone and has a history of nearly dying on the pitch, and a guy we've loaned in as cover (and for a different role in the midfield).
I then (sarcastically) asked if it was complete fantasy that we tried to sell McTominay then, given his apparent status as a guaranteed first teamer.
Dalot, Lindelof.
Atleast fact check before posting.
First 2 games Mount started with Casemiro. Next 2 games he was benched for Eriksen. 5th game McTominay started whereas Mount wasn't even on the bench as he got injured.
Definitely starting to feel like it did towards the end of the Ole/Jose era. Just plodding along not doing much of anything, and then boom, we'll face a few hammerings. This just isn't going to work.
McTominay is literally our sixth highest appearance maker this season. Dalot is higher than him, and Lindelof is also in the top 10, and is very much on course to have more starts and overall appearances than he had last year.
Martial is in his ninth season at the club.
We should just get Conte then because this group of players is only suited to play his kind of football. Its never going to work with any other manager who has modern footballing ideas.
How did Klopp convert that shite Liverpool team into a modern juggernaut? Capable managers build successful teams.
I don't really get it, it could have been a simple loan. Even someone like Ings would be fine. It does not always have to be an expensive signing.
By being supported in quickly filling it with players that suited his style. By his third full seaspn, the regular playing squad was overwhelmingly filled with players brought in for him.
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