Erik ten Hag | 2022/23 & 2023/24

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Tom Van Persie said:
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.
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Yup!

As is always the way with RedCafe though; you have to shit on another player, in order to big-up your favourites! It's a prerequisite at this point.

If anyone thinks Maguire is hands down the best defender at the club; then that's their opinion. But stating it as categorically true is fecking mental! I'm guessing if a poll was put up for all fans around the world as to who is better between the two; the result would be very one sided, and Maguire wouldn't be the one coming out on top.
 
Robbie Boy said:
Yup!

As is always the way with RedCafe though; you have to shit on another player, in order to big-up your favourites! It's a prerequisite at this point.

If anyone thinks Maguire is hands down the best defender at the club; then that's their opinion. But stating it as categorically true is fecking mental! I'm guessing if a poll was put up for all fans around the world as to who is better between the two; the result would be very one sided, and Maguire wouldn't be the one coming out on top.
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Its agenda driven. He's had one of the worst individual seasons I've ever seen from a United player and can't play in an attacking team, period. Anyone thinking he's our best defender doesn't understand the basic mechanics of football.
 
mikeyt said:
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.
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Has he shown this in a red shirt?

For reference, I’ve no problem with folk saying Maguire was awful. The making out Varane wasn’t because he used to play for Madrid is tedious. Varane on the rare occasions he played was also awful, no matter who was alongside him.

Varane may go on to look competent again, so might Maguire, but right now it’s hard to argue that Madrid aren’t laughing their heads off at us mugs for taking Varane off their hands when he looks to be finished.
 
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AjaxCunian said:
If you are blaming Ole's downfall on Ronaldo, you really need to wake up badly.

Where was Ronaldo when Ole bottled any chance of trophies a few months before?
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Keep up mate. It was Pogba’s fault. No sorry, it was Rashford feeding kids or was it Lingard dancing. . . Either/or it wasn’t Ole’s fault.
 
Random Task said:
Can you lot stop whining about irrelevant shit all the time?
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Unbelievable.
An era of brilliant, stunning and entertaining football from their team is beginning to unfold yet fans are busy getting involved in moronic and repetitive skirmishes from the past. Just watch some football and enjoy, for fecks sake.
 
The board and Glazers should be taking the preseason into account and give ETH the players he has been targeting.

Its only preseason I know, but this is the platform where players are trying their best to impress, this United team are doing that very well so far, another couple of players would make this team a strong contender for the top 4 which is already tough task in itself. Build on that again next season, Rome wasn't built in a day and all that.
 
Getting serious LVG preseason vibes, please don't lose to Swansea Brighton on the opening day
 
charlenefan said:
Getting serious LVG preseason vibes, please don't lose to Swansea Brighton on the opening day
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Haha, yep. That would be annoying. I think one thing LVG did was basically go away from what he did in pre-season and change it up and then had like three different systems used in the first five games. (352, 442 diamond, and something else)
 
Screaming at our players while 3 - 1 up in a pre-season friendly, this is what we like to see.
 
The players looks like they are enjoying themselfs out on the pitch, what a change from last season seeing both Rashford and Martial smiling while playing football.
 
probably couldn't have asked for a better start on this tour. Three wins, decent football, beautiful goals and a team that is willing to put in a shift. Good early signs.
 
Given he's still largely operating without new signings, pretty decent signs so far.
 
Quite incredible the difference Ten Hag has made in 2 weeks, can't wait to see what we will look like in 6 months!

I shudder to think what we'd have looked like had Rangnick been given the job permanently like some were asking for.
 
Long Time Red said:
Quite incredible the difference Ten Hag has made in 2 weeks, can't wait to see what we will look like in 6 months!

I shudder to think what we'd have looked like had Rangnick been given the job permanently like some were asking for.
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Would have set us back years.
 
charlenefan said:
Getting serious LVG preseason vibes, please don't lose to Swansea Brighton on the opening day
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Honestly Van Gall shouldn't have panicked after his bad starts and especially that Leicester game. If there was ever a time for him to be stubborn, that should have been it. We had a great pre season under him and should have stuck with the way we played and went about business despite some bad to start the season. I'm still convinced things would have eventually panned out had he stuck to what he'd worked in pre season and not shift.

Hopefully a better start with Ten Hag to give us confidence to apply and impose our new style of play.
 
The inverted wing backs in build up is very interesting. City do a lot of that too with Cancelo especially.
 
Glad all the front 3 got a goal, they combined really well together. That’s what a Ten Hag team looks like..: all about movement and creating space for others. Ten Hag has a massive decision to make now though… does he bring back Ronaldo which could mess up all the hard work that’s been done during pre season or does he tell the board to get rid and we move on. It’s an annoying situation though because I do think Ronaldo will score 20+ goals under a proper system and set style of play but on the other hand will he put in the graft of the ball? Will he sulk when things don’t go right.
 
DJ_21 said:
Glad all the front 3 got a goal, they combined really well together. That’s what a Ten Hag team looks like..: all about movement and creating space for others. Ten Hag has a massive decision to make now though… does he bring back Ronaldo which could mess up all the hard work that’s been done during pre season or does he tell the board to get rid and we move on. It’s an annoying situation though because I do think Ronaldo will score 20+ goals under a proper system and set style of play but on the other hand will he put in the graft of the ball? Will he sulk when things don’t go right.
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Bench option, and send him to the reserves if he has a problem with it.
 
Are we playing anyone who further down the line in terms of preseason and match fitness? It’s always good to play against a side who are like halfway through their season or something — so far everyone has been around the same page as we are in terms of match fitness
 
DJ_21 said:
Glad all the front 3 got a goal, they combined really well together. That’s what a Ten Hag team looks like..: all about movement and creating space for others. Ten Hag has a massive decision to make now though… does he bring back Ronaldo which could mess up all the hard work that’s been done during pre season or does he tell the board to get rid and we move on. It’s an annoying situation though because I do think Ronaldo will score 20+ goals under a proper system and set style of play but on the other hand will he put in the graft of the ball? Will he sulk when things don’t go right.
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Hopefully Ronaldo leaves and we bring in a non disruptive replacement.
 
DWelbz19 said:
Are we playing anyone who further down the line in terms of preseason and match fitness? It’s always good to play against a side who are like halfway through their season or something — so far everyone has been around the same page as we are in terms of match fitness
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Even if there are teams with better match fitness, the motivation is still not at the same level as the competitive fixtures. So it is still quite hard to gauge if we will do better.

The key thing for ETH is to assess how players are adapting to the style of play and see if he can improve their decision making based on observed mistakes. When the EPL comes around, the first team players and the type of formation should be set in stone based on the pre-season performances.
 
DJ_21 said:
Glad all the front 3 got a goal, they combined really well together. That’s what a Ten Hag team looks like..: all about movement and creating space for others. Ten Hag has a massive decision to make now though… does he bring back Ronaldo which could mess up all the hard work that’s been done during pre season or does he tell the board to get rid and we move on. It’s an annoying situation though because I do think Ronaldo will score 20+ goals under a proper system and set style of play but on the other hand will he put in the graft of the ball? Will he sulk when things don’t go right.
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Lets leave the decision making to ETH. He already knows about Ronaldo before he came here, so he knows what to do with him once he is fit.

Also, we had enough Ronaldo "concerns" in the Ronaldo bashing thread already. Lets not turn this thread into another Ronaldo bashing variant.
 
Santoryo said:
Honestly Van Gall shouldn't have panicked after his bad starts and especially that Leicester game. If there was ever a time for him to be stubborn, that should have been it. We had a great pre season under him and should have stuck with the way we played and went about business despite some bad to start the season. I'm still convinced things would have eventually panned out had he stuck to what he'd worked in pre season and not shift.

Hopefully a better start with Ten Hag to give us confidence to apply and impose our new style of play.
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I think people usually underestimate the size of the task that is managing Manchester United. Even someone with the experience and character of LvG actually felt the heat and completely shifted to a more risk-averse style. You can have nothing but respect for any manager who lasts more than a season at United without totally melting down. Heck, even Mourinho had a phenomenal melt-down in his final season nefore being sacked.

That's why, although I have a strong believe that EtH can/will achieve success with us, I also think his real first big test (haha) is how he handles the CR situation in case he eventually stays. How he handles that while maintaining squad harmony, keeping Ronaldo happy and implementing his preferred style of play when the season begins is going to be ten Hag's big test to reveal whether he is cut for the job of this magnitude or not.
 
OpenIntrovert said:
Lets leave the decision making to ETH. He already knows about Ronaldo before he came here, so he knows what to do with him once he is fit.

Also, we had enough Ronaldo "concerns" in the Ronaldo bashing thread already. Lets not turn this thread into another Ronaldo bashing variant.
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Wasn’t trying to make it into a Ronaldo bashing thread. Was talking about Ten hag and the way he’s getting us playing and the decision he has to make to get us playing this style of football.
 
In all fairness, the front 3 is what we thought we were getting a few seasons back when we were trying to sign Sancho. Fluid, fast, movement, touch. ETH has upped the work rate. It’s the way forward…I have no doubts. Not necessarily with that specific personnel but that system. Players stepping in need the same work rate and ability to take the ball in tight spaces and find the right pass. In short, Ronaldo can get fecked. You can see why we were looking at Antony in this system.
 
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