Erik ten Hag | 2022/23 & 2023/24

Status
Not open for further replies.
I don’t understand why anybody puts any stock in what a manager says to the press. It’s just platitudes and narrative. You can bet your bottom It’s totally different from what he’s saying in the changing room.

All managers do it, SAF was a master at it - they want to set the agenda and control the narrative which is fair enough. Doesn’t necessarily make it what they really believe.

Or on the sidelines...Ole got massacred for smiling on the sideline at 1-1 in the 90th minute vs Everton :lol:
 
No fan of the football and quite likely EtH out myself now BUT..... He can't win here can he? He doesn't say anything and he's weak or a coward and should speak up against the media or he does say something and he's lost the plot or become unlikeable.

This place is as of the rails as RAWK or bluemoon these days.

Nobody has said he can't say anything to them. The problem is that he's yet again ignoring all his own faults because it was embarrassing. If we weren't embarrassing they wouldn't have that to throw at him.
 
I'd perfectly understand this furious overreaction to the media coming after, I dunno, say, beating City in the final.

You know, actually achieving something of merit.
I will tell you what you can be sure of , the media aren’t writing sh*t about ETH and United out of any love or care for the club. Whether we are doing well or not, they are a pile of cheesy toe nail puss.

F*ck the media
 
Let me say. Ten Hag should go. That is obvious.


That capitulation on Sunday was bad but my opinion is that it’s far more of an indictment of the players than Ten Hag. They are so incredibly mentally fragile and weak. It infuriates me so much because many of them are good players but when the pressure comes on they wilt so quickly.

Oh yeah there is a definitely weak mentality within this squad when facing adversity
 
I will tell you what you can be sure of , the media aren’t writing sh*t about ETH and United out of any love or care for the club. Whether we are doing well or not, they are a pile of cheesy toe nail puss.

F*ck the media

Yeah but also we dont need to keep making it so easy for them.

ETH has just gone a step further today making the open goal even wider.
 
I will tell you what you can be sure of , the media aren’t writing sh*t about ETH and United out of any love or care for the club. Whether we are doing well or not, they are a pile of cheesy toe nail puss.

F*ck the media
The media haven't turned on him until this month, they've been very soft on him this entire season.
 
j
Let me say. Ten Hag should go. That is obvious.


That capitulation on Sunday was bad but my opinion is that it’s far more of an indictment of the players than Ten Hag. They are so incredibly mentally fragile and weak. It infuriates me so much because many of them are good players but when the pressure comes on they wilt so quickly.

If you think back to pretty much any United side since 2013, anytime they started to look like building momentum, as soon as our expectations rose, the team collapsed and as soon as our expectations dropped their form sometimes improved.

A culture of mediocrity has been at the club , it’s not just been individuals or managers but the entire setup. Amateur hour.
 
Those bastards in the media reporting exactly what everyone else is thinking. When will they get off our backs? It's been a brilliant season.
 
It is just too bad it wasnt a bag of money defending then if all that matters is the value of the defenders. We would have won a game between bags of money pretty easy. Our expensive 40 million full back was the one giving away goals for free. Everyone knows we have been fleeced for Maguire who is decent but who will still lose on speed and agility against Championship players. That 140m isnt exactly 140m worth of quality.

Also i think having 'legs' is more important in midfield as if is to have 'legs' in central defense.

I certainly wasnt expecting to lose control like that against a Championship team.
It's not Championship level, is the point, and should be more than capable of standing up to Coventry City. Maybe if you've got a dodgy £40m right back, play him at least in his natural position and have the player who has actually played a fair bit on the left, on the left??

Are we saying now that Casemiro is truly so done that we're scared to play him in central midfield against Coventry?

I think these players are bad and should be replaced if we have ambitions of challenging at the top, but acting as if we couldn't expect them to hold up against that opposition is an absurdity.
 
Hes also said the notion that there has been an injury crisis this season is false. Its not false.
Pre-christmas yes there was a crisis because in almost every position we were missing key players. But the last month or so it's really been CB and LB where we are missing starters.
 
It's not Championship level, is the point, and should be more than capable of standing up to Coventry City. Maybe if you've got a dodgy £40m right back, play him at least in his natural position and have the player who has actually played a fair bit on the left, on the left??

Are we saying now that Casemiro is truly so done that we're scared to play him in central midfield against Coventry?

I think these players are bad and should be replaced if we have ambitions of challenging at the top, but acting as if we couldn't expect them to hold up against that opposition is an absurdity.

As a CB, Casemiro is probably championship level. As a LB, AWB too. Maguire has excellent qualities, but some serious downsides too. Championship might be a slight exaggeration, but it's really not far off. Pair that with the midfield setup at that stage of the game, 2 of the worst wide players we've ever had(on current form) and an inexperienced CF, yeah that team was pretty poor.

Yet it did still take 2 pretty big slices of luck to get them back in the game.

The manager took a gamble in his choice of subs, for sure. We aren't strong enough as a squad right now to be able to rest important players. But he's been trying to rest Mainoo and Garnacho whenever possible for months. That's to his credit imo.

As for playing Scott in a back four... that would also have been a gamble.

edit: Also, the price is the United price. It's not what those players are really worth if any other team is buying them, so is kind of irrelevant.
 
His tenure will be remembered as one of blame shifting and excuses. Him and his apologists are shameless
 
Yeah we should give the manager time because Fergie got time back in the 80's. You can't sack a manager after only 2 years, how will they transfrom into Fergie mk2?

Do you know who else gave managers years and years of time to come good, Liverpool. Wonder how that worked out for them?

1991-2010 - 19 years

Graeme Souness - 3 years
Roy Evans - 4.5 years
Gerard Houllier - 6 years
Raf Benitez - 6 years

Then 2010-2015 - 5 years

Roy Hodgson - 6 months
Kenny Dalgish - 18 months
Brendan Rodgers - 3 years

24 years, 3 title challenges, 0 titles and then Klopp, seems like they only started getting somewhere once they started sacking failing managers quickly instead of waiting around for years hoping they'll come good.
Tbf the dippers when they mounted title challenges, it was really close. Rafa and brenda came really close. Rafa and houlier won trophies, brenda too.. they earned the time given to them.
 
Yes Erik, they're all embarrassing but not you heh. What a prize pillock. GTFO!
If throwing a 3-0 lead against team 20 places below us in the pyramid is not embarrassing I dont know what is. He's acting like we threw a 3-0 lead against prime barca and madrid love child. He's the biggest embarrasment since SAF
 
Tbf the dippers when they mounted title challenges, it was really close. Rafa and brenda came really close. Rafa and houlier won trophies, brenda too.. they earned the time given to them.

Well if we follow the Liverpool blueprint we can look forward to a really close title challenge in about 8-9 years then.

Rodgers never won anything at Liverpool.
 
Pre-christmas yes there was a crisis because in almost every position we were missing key players. But the last month or so it's really been CB and LB where we are missing starters.
Starters and backups with even the ones playing playing through injury. Then you also have the a key midfield signing having missed basically the whole season. Neville is clearly downplaying it because of the narrative of wanting a manager change.
 
Well if we follow the Liverpool blueprint we can look forward to a really close title challenge in about 8-9 years then.

Rodgers never won anything at Liverpool.

A younger and fitter second wife?
 
Have we ever had anything even close to this? It cannot just be bad luck, there's some underlying problem at the club that is causing this.

Yes there is. ETH is over training the players. And they had no pre-season because of a stupid tour. And we have rubbish facilities. Plus the lack of an operational tactical structure on the pitch means everyone has to work twice as hard to compensate.
 
He’s not. His reaction is how people who ill-suited for the job sound. When you choke a 3-0 lead away and were lucky not to concede in ET, you have no business complaining about the media.

The media didn’t choke. The team did. The correct response to accept responsibility. Yelling at the media makes him look like a prat who threw all of his toys out the pram.

If you want to be a big boy club you have handle the media correctly.


Well said.
 
How many of the signings have been former players of his? Also bearing in mind that before Ajax his style was based on fast transition and fairly low defensive line what exactly makes this squad not his?

Former players is a red herring, just because someone has played for him before doesn't make them good enough for United, or a player he'd choose if given the choice (rather than a stopgap loan like Weghorst or Amrabat).

As for your second sentence, you can't seriously be suggesting that his Ajax side played a similar style to us under Mou or Ole.
 
Former players is a red herring, just because someone has played for him before doesn't make them good enough for United, or a player he'd choose if given the choice (rather than a stopgap loan like Weghorst or Amrabat).

As for your second sentence, you can't seriously be suggesting that his Ajax side played a similar style to us under Mou or Ole.

No I'm suggesting that his Utrecht side didn't play like his Ajax side, his Twente side was a low possession fast transition team. His Ajax side played like Ajax's board request their manager to play. Do you see where I'm going with that?
 
No I'm suggesting that his Utrecht side didn't play like his Ajax side, his Twente side was a low possession fast transition team. His Ajax side played like Ajax's board request their manager to play. Do you see where I'm going with that?

I do but I'm confused, because where you're going seems to be exactly what I was saying - he was brought here to get us to play a certain way, which isn't the mid/low block counter attacking team that we had been for years, that the squad was built for. Which is why he hasn't "adapted" by just doing the same stuff we already know won't win us things.
 


He wasnt asked that though. The arrogance of the media and the double standard they apply when interviewing united managers versus rival managers is pathetic. I cant believe we're at the point where so many of our fans seem to hate the club so much that theyd side with likely corrupted, disgracefully biased and hypocritical british media.
 
I do but I'm confused, because where you're going seems to be exactly what I was saying - he was brought here to get us to play a certain way, which isn't the mid/low block counter attacking team that we had been for years, that the squad was built for. Which is why he hasn't "adapted" by just doing the same stuff we already know won't win us things.

I can try to make it clearer. He may have been brought to do what you are suggesting(I don't know if that's actually true) but he is doing and following a mindset that he is very familiar with and is the one that landed him the job with Ajax. So maybe I'm completely daft, but if someone follows broad ideas that matches with their past, I assume that it's their intentions and their ideas.
 
He's also asking why the injuries are happening. Is it down to the training or the bad facilities or the purchase of injury prone players? Is this ETH's fault or the club's?

That's one of the main things the new regime should try to get to the bottom of.
 
It’s an embarrassment the way media has covered the result. And it’s insulting to Coventry too. How does ‘the magic of the cup’ come about if teams like Coventry don’t occasionally slay a giant (an admittedly rubbish and shite one)? I get that this terrible run of performances and results feeds into the narrative but this is a cup tournament for crying out loud.

We’re winning this final and going into the summer with new management and hope for next season.
 
Someone needs to have a word with him about standards and how this massive club needs to start having them again. The day we stop getting criticism for such diabolical performances is the day we've become irrelevant.
 
He wasnt asked that though. The arrogance of the media and the double standard they apply when interviewing united managers versus rival managers is pathetic. I cant believe we're at the point where so many of our fans seem to hate the club so much that theyd side with likely corrupted, disgracefully biased and hypocritical british media.
The media have gone extremely easy on ten Hag this season. If a City or Liverpool manager underperformed as badly as ten Hag has, they’d rightly be scrutinized as well.
 
Nobody has said he can't say anything to them. The problem is that he's yet again ignoring all his own faults because it was embarrassing. If we weren't embarrassing they wouldn't have that to throw at him.

Again I don't disagree but he could use this and create a siege mentality type of effort, perfect opportunity.
 
feck the media.
Completely silent on City issues, shitting on United every chance they get.


It will be the same if Tuchel comes, english media are pushing for one of their local darlings Southgate or Potter to get the job.
It's why I can always get behind a United manager calling them out.

Martin Samuel at The Times is probably the biggest City shill and ABU journo out there. No surprise considering his son works for that club.
 
I can try to make it clearer. He may have been brought to do what you are suggesting(I don't know if that's actually true) but he is doing and following a mindset that he is very familiar with and is the one that landed him the job with Ajax. So maybe I'm completely daft, but if someone follows broad ideas that matches with their past, I assume that it's their intentions and their ideas.

That doesn't make it any clearer I'm afraid. We could be arguing cross purposes.

My point was that this squad is still far away from being well suited to the system he's trying to put into place, only a handful of players have been his picks and the rest are the result of the club's mismanagement, both recent and past.

We can debate whether he should be doing better with what he has (although I think we'll probably agree that the answer is yes), but it's far from "his squad" (by which I mean a squad well suited to play the system he was brought in to implement).
 
He wasnt asked that though. The arrogance of the media and the double standard they apply when interviewing united managers versus rival managers is pathetic. I cant believe we're at the point where so many of our fans seem to hate the club so much that theyd side with likely corrupted, disgracefully biased and hypocritical british media.
The media have been very easy on him until just very recently. The fans and neutrals thought we were embarrassing. Of all the things we could criticize the media for, telling it like it is probably isn't one of them.
 
Starters and backups with even the ones playing playing through injury. Then you also have the a key midfield signing having missed basically the whole season. Neville is clearly downplaying it because of the narrative of wanting a manager change.
The issue is ETH and certain people ( not saying you specifically) just point to injuries as a constant excuse for everything. Every club has suffered injuries but no amount of injuries is an excuse for what happened over the weekend.

And also with the amount of injuries, it can no longer be considered bad luck. Something is clearly wrong with the training or player fitness management. With certain players like Shaw, Martinez, Mount, Varane etc who have shown how injury prone they are over the last couple of years, you have to expect them getting injured or accepting that they won't be playing every week anyway. So you can't point out to their lack of availability as a reason for the team's failure.
 
Yes - that is why fans dont run clubs. They can have an opinion, but well qualified people in established roles should be making the deep dive and are more likely to draw the right conclusions.

My contention point - and what prompted to reply to you was - "then we should trust the outcome of (audit)". I'm not arguing whether fans should run clubs or otherwise. Surely you can see how flawed that line of thinking is. I mean, well qualified people in established roles fail every day.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.