In a results business where your performance is paramount I do not see how someone can overcook either. I’m genuinely baffled by that sentence, are you saying underperformance &/or poor results are being overstated?
I'm saying the underperformance being specifically down to him is overcooked. He's made some mistakes, big ones, but most managers will here. The underperformance in resutls from the team however, is also due to concentrated injuries at the back which none of our rival clubs has really faced to the duration we have.
I highlighted win% in your post, you claimed his win percentage was in some way proof he is doing well & I just delved deeper. I’m not saying progress isn’t linear then criticising the win%. I was critiquing your use of win% without context.
Then look at points per game.
As for progress not being linear, I’ve touched on how before we’d even kicked a ball this season people were making excuses for how 4th would be ok and how the injuries narrative [which again when looked at with context shows we don’t play in a silo and the teams we play have injuries/suspensions too] 5th would now suddenly be acceptable, yet he is leading a team languishing in 6th praying for a miracle.
You go on to say I've fallen into a trap before falling into a trap yourself by using the "other teams have injuries" narrative, when they havent been as plagued as we have with key players out in one particular area for pretty much all season. 5th isn't terrible by the way, we'd probably be expected for 4th with our squad and where we are in the process (not ahead of Arsenal City Liverpool). If we finished 5th we probably wouldn't be too far off the 4th place anyway. Underperformance? Sure. Catastrophic? feck no.
As for being on track with Liverpool last year. Not sure about the relevance, we weren’t as good as them prior and aren’t going to be as good as they are this season next season. You’re falling into the trap I see many do in defence of EtH on here and not discussing the man on his own merits but throwing in what few other managers have done as outliers..
Not sure about the relevance? If the best manager in the world can have an unexplained off season, why cant a manager who is still trying to fix his squad, instil much needed discipline, and fight worse injuries?
Which is exactly why expectations have been lowered to a 5th place finish which he is currently not on target for. Whilst the team currently in 5th place, Spurs, started the season with a worse set of resources and have had their own injury issues.
As above, finishing 5th is probably around what is reasonable given the injuries and squad status relative to 3 teams who are very more established in their personnel / playing style above us. As for Spurs, when they had concentrated injuries in the backline similar to ours, they had something like 5 points out of a possible 15. They were nimble on wage bills to essentially throw out their maguire equivalent and bring in a very highly rated progressive CB of their own to keep going. You make it sound like Ange inherited a bad team - if you go through his personnel he has more players suited to his style. 2 very attacking minded and polished wingback/fullbacks, a speedster cheat code of a CB that enables their suicidal high line, a world cup winning CB, the best or 2nd best attacker in the premier league and an overlay with creative outlets such as Maddison are all broadly at his disposal too. They aren't some sort of mug team and generally spend better than we do, which has nothing to do with management.
Part of management is making the best out of what you have at your disposal. No manager has an ideal squad only 18 months into their tenure so they have to tailor their approach to what they have. EtH is not maximising this squad at all but persisting with a flawed tactic off the back of, ‘once you give me another £400mil & a squad with no injuries for a whole season things will be fine’, which is never going to happen.
Falling into another trap here - £400m as an indicement on ten hag alone. This isn't even worth debating to be honest. Riddled with flawed logic.
It’s not up to you and me to throw names around a forum for the next manager, it just muddies the water and diverts the discussion from the incumbent. No matter who we hire they will have their naysayers so all we can do is assess the current managers performance.
I am not asking you to hire them. I'm asking you to point to better ones thats all. This is just a debate and managerial candidates aren't hidden gems - they are publically known. INEOS arent going to unearth some managerial guru from Chile that we haven't heard of. If they sack Ten Hag they'll hire a name we all know a lot about, so my question to you is how would any such names be it Potter, Amorim, Nagelsmann, Tuchel, Simeone etc. not come without their own big risks.
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