Is that a serious question mate?
He couldn't play as a no10, because he couldn't trap a bag of cement never mind play as the creative point in a team to link midfield and attack.
Erik ten Hag | 2022/23 & 2023/24
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Is that a serious question mate?
He couldn't play as a no10, because he couldn't trap a bag of cement never mind play as the creative point in a team to link midfield and attack.
He has rarely played well in the middleDjemba x2 was the worst I’ve ever seen
Yes, it is. He wasn't playing in the 10 in that many games, and when he was we actually were having a spell of decent form.
He dropped him last year for one game when he 'overslept'. We all know he dropped him when he went partying, and when he was very off form he dropped him for 1-2 games on the bounce.
Agree its' not a 'phase' per say, but this notion that he lacks the balls to drop players is just nonsensical.
Yeah he was pretty good away to Barca
He hardly ever drops players due to poor form, it usually has to be for disciplinary reasons like being a minute late for the team bus, partying or liking a tweet. Even with Ronaldo he only really parted with him after he went public with Piers Morgan interview, prior to that he was actually our captain in the last game before.
He's dropped Antony for form and he's dropped Varane because he wasn't dependable to stay fit each game. The thing with this season is that he's been burned so hard with injuries he doesn't exactly have the novelty of dropping say, Bruno. Who the feck does he put on that's going to do better beyond reasonable doubt? As for Rashford , there's a catch 22 with him. His logic would have been "keep playing him and he'll turn good and repay the faith" which is fair given how Rashford's output was last season,
Then Ten Hag either has no clue in how to incorporate a successful organized press, or he doesn't value it properly because Rashford's effort levels regardless of form, doesn't justify as much time as he has gotten.
There is no logical line of thought that can wrestle with the contradiction.
We as a club do not have any players that are worth sacrificing the manager's ideal tactics. Hardly any player in world football can be worth it. Messi was one of them, as was Ronaldo in his prime. It's not a matter of each side having their own talisman. Only a select few in World Football's player pool can get away with it in the top competitions. A competent manager should be able to recognize this. If you truly want to conserve energy, it is even more important to get the organized press working at max efficiency so that the side can control possession and thus have to work less.
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Agree on Ander and Shaw. In hindsight probably right he left when he did but still love Herrera.
The Kroos thing is nightmare fuel for sure. A player I was mega excited about and just assumed was coming here. Absolutely gutted that never materialised and he would have been incredible for us. A fantastic player.
That's certainly a new one. United fans trying to make the manager job position so insignificant that even ETH could do it. Primary objective, don't sack the manager. Hire people to guide him with man management and tactics.Why the feck should he need someone to tell him that the suicidal way he's sets this team up to play is fecking stupid and not conducive to winning football games?
Source? I'm guessing you're referring to his instructions on what to do with balls played across the box? That was stupid. Not sure what your point is though?
He used creative players in many of his teams. He tried to sign Neymar, why would he do that if he didn't want somebody to dribble? LVG is a lot of things but I don't buy that he wouldn't have used Bruno, or that he wouldn't have made the tumescent football better - something he may have wanted. I might be wrong, but neither of us know that for sure.
And you're missing the point re Neymar. I'm pointing to the fact that he's gone on record to say he asked for him, showing that he wasn't completely against risk. If you can explain why he wanted Neymar if he doesn't want any risk takers, then I'm all ears. Nothing to do with the fact he didn't get him Neymar, couldn't care less as I was glad to see the back of him.
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Players autobiographies and interviews.
He wasn't totally against risk because his shit-on-a-stick style relied heavily on one of the forwards doing something brilliant for us to score.
Again, your commitment to this is bizarre when you could have just gone "hey lads, this Ten Hag fella is a bit naff, isn't he?" and had basically everyone agree.
I mean, it's what Zidane did at Real Madrid.
Because ETH has a different level of involvement in it, and I actually believe that ETH has mostly got his targets, whereas LVG claims he didn't.
Which ones? Point me to anything that says dribbling wasn't allowed. He seemed to encourage Martial to dribble - the only thing I would give LVG (other then coaching us to keep the ball to a basic level) was that I enjoyed Martial's first season under him more than any season since. And that was for his dribbling and willingness to take his man on every time he got the ball.
I'm committed to it simply because it is you mate. You try to take arguments off on tangents every time and I'll just keep going.
And if he 'relied heavily on one of the forwards doing something brilliant for us to score', then maybe we can agree that he might have liked Bruno?
I'll just take you back to this:
You've tied yourself in knots over this, just to try and compound the point that Ten Hag isn't up to it.
Happens every time we get close to sacking a manager. Suddenly one of the previous failures actually had some wonderful traits in comparison to whoever we're currently wanting rid of, and posters start making weird arguments about them.
I agree with most of your points, but this bit isn’t that black and white. There are clearly other facets to Rashfords game aside from pressing that Erik values. Maybe he is also trying/hoping to play Marcus into form. (I seem to recall him doing this with Martial before?!)
If he had a problem with Marcus, or didn’t think Marcus was worth his starting spot, he simply wouldn’t start him. We’ve seen this repeatedly with Sancho, DVB, Antony. ETH seems willing to overlook Rashford defensive issues (pressing/tracking back) so there must be something else that Rashford brings.
Think with LVG we went the DOF of football route without actually having one and did a mainly bad job of it. ETH has been fully involved which is why we signed ex players and players he has seen in the Dutch league. Think Casemiro could have been a great signing, but we didn't know his legs were going so spectacularly as they have.
Yeah in spite of Weghorst being shoehorned into the team.
Weghorst didn't play badly in the 10 in that many games, and we were actually looking well balanced for the bulk of it. He switched up the style and gave the opposition something different to worry about, and it yielded results.
I hate getting baited into side debates. All I said is Ten Hag has balls to drop big names if he needs to and now we are discussing Weghorst in a 10
Wow, I know you love ETH, fair enough. But to say that he didnt play badly is a joke. He was woeful. I watched him a lot. Zero attacking threat, slow and cumbersome, couldn't win headers, barely held the ball. One of our worse signings ever. It didn't yield results, zero goals and 1 assist in 17 league games. Remember, ETH chose to play him ahead of Elanga, whose not top level but has shown at Forest he is a handful and has 5 goals and 8 assists this season for a struggling team. Come off it.Weghorst didn't play badly in the 10 in that many games, and we were actually looking well balanced for the bulk of it. He switched up the style and gave the opposition something different to worry about, and it yielded results.
I hate getting baited into side debates. All I said is Ten Hag has balls to drop big names if he needs to and now we are discussing Weghorst in a 10
That argumentation doesn't quite convince me yet, my friend.
Would you believe even I was suprised our factual against goals stat, is better than Spurs, Villa? The point im trying to make - also with LvG ball, is that ETH for some reason cannot win. People want more control but when we had control under LvG we lacked attack. Indeed the slight, the one moment we finally entered the opposition box we cheered! How pathetic was that? When we attack we lack control. You can't have your cake and eat it in this one, imo. We hired ETH for his high octane, high turn overs and there he evidently delivered. You want more control you will have to sacrifice other parts.
Also a reality check would not go amiss. Under LvG United was undeniable one of the top 4 big powerhouse clubs in the world. At the moment they might still be revenue wise, but sporting we are below a whole list just in PL alone. The game has grown much more from hiring a top notch manager and all will be well.
I hope he delivers but if not I hope the powers that be will make a good, a very good plan how to hire the absolute top. And that might take a while.
Yet any success will be of course still attributed solely or at least primary to EtH - like now when people are saying “HE won the cup, he finished 3rd”. And if anything goes badly - it will be the higher-ups who tied his hands or players who let him down.
ETH has assembled a very powerful team. Just imagine if everyone stays fit and the team will be powerful with Hojlund. Garnacho is incredible on the right wing. Though Rashford isn't perfect, he is still the best player for the left wing at the moment.
Then there is Bruno, Casemiro, Mainoo, Varane, Luke Shaw. Amazing depth together with a mix of veterans experiences with eager young energy. Absolutely incredible.
Then there is Bruno, Casemiro, Mainoo, Varane, Luke Shaw. Amazing depth together with a mix of veterans experiences with eager young energy. Absolutely incredible.
But there is no coordination. Real were well drilled
Oh believe me, I dimmed my expectations a long time ago. However what I do expect is:
- Not going out if the CL with barely a whimper.
Not having 17 defeats (to date) in one season - Not be on track for the most PL losses in a season
- Not be on track to score the least amount of goals in a season
- Not be on track for our worst ever PL campaign
- Not be churning out results like the sixth game without a win in the last 7 PL games
- Not give up 200+ chances in a handful of matches
- Have a team that plays like they know each other
- Have a team setup so that they don’t need to catch a plane to see each other on the pitch
- And many many more
this season has been an absolute disgrace. The players, the coach and the people above him should be genuinely embarrassed.
Whilst I agree it’s not 100% on the coach, ultimately he’s responsible for results and performances and they are not good enough.
he talks about standards. Well how about applying that to himself? He’s falling well short.
he is a coach who doesn’t accept criticism and doesn’t self reflect on what he can do better.
Not sure if serious..
Hi mate, if you could bottle up this enthusiasm and positivity I'd be interested in purchasing some
Hi Erik.
Frenkie De Jong over Casemiro
Min-jae Kim over Maguire
Jurriën Timber over WAN
Wanted Kane, there are loads he missed on.
In fact its harder now because FFP, we have to sell players, that little Rat Maria had just played the champions league final before he came.
Do you think if we sold Maguire and Mctominay he'd have got Evans?
This summer it will be the same - we need to clear some players before we buy. Simple as that.
10 years ago we was also in a different position, years of poor choices have left us with a first 11 not good enough. If I said to you ten years ago we'd have Evans playing for us at 35 as a free transfer, you'd have told me to feck off or newly promoted Leicesters CB as captain for a year or two? Again you'd think I was nuts.
Yet here we are.
Have you ever seen such bollocksWeghorst didn't play badly in the 10 in that many games, and we were actually looking well balanced for the bulk of it. He switched up the style and gave the opposition something different to worry about, and it yielded results.
I hate getting baited into side debates. All I said is Ten Hag has balls to drop big names if he needs to and now we are discussing Weghorst in a 10
Look mate genuine opinion and I'm not just saying it as a slight against Erik. But for me Weghorst had one decent half as a 10 against Barca.
For me he shouldn't have played more than a few games for United he was so limited.
I don't think he was as bad as people claim in the 10 in every single game. That's why I actually asked for the games he played 10 in and was poor, so that I can revisit those performances and get a better understanding.
In any case, I'm curious to also know his expected XG and draw comparisons to Hojlund. Hojlund is equally terrible in the air, he's sort of there but not there as a target man, and I'm somewhat confused as to what he's bringing to the table outside of more energy.
My stance on Ten Hag has nothing to do with the point I made.
Your Elanga point is so flawed. There are plenty of players who are big fishes in a small pond that cant transcend their levels at a bigger club. Elanga was broadly dogshite when he played with us and we didn't have a small sample size to work from either.
As a finisher yes, he was very poor. Yet despite that it was better having him than not. Way better then Martial at this point.
First touch passing has to be used when appropriate, not all the time. Van Gaal is a teacher; he will have hammered on many aspects which can annoy certain players which have not been taught the basics.
Van Gaal wants creative risk-takers in the final third, you are correct on that. Di Maria was meant to be all that, but he had a horrid time here.
I didn't wanna hurt the original posters feelings
Not old enough to remember Bebe then
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