Erik ten Hag | 2022/23 & 2023/24

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This guy called us one of the most dynamic and entertaining teams in the league in the post-match press conference. He’s really trolling us at this point.
 
We pretty much need 2 wins from 4 to beat our record low Premier League points total of 58 under Rangnick.

Just looking forward to hopefully starting afresh now.
 
He actually doesn’t deserve to have the final. The season has been a travesty. The players and the fans deserve a chance to go for it without being asked to do maddeningly stupid things tactically in the final.

Get in Ole for last few games and the final and let’s see what kind of game we get.

100% on this. Ole is really the only chance we have for the final. Would be missing Pogba, but he knows how to beat City
 


Hojlund deeper than our midfielders.

Ten Hag's tactics are nonsensical. Hojlund's biggest strength is running in behind so he has him playing as a target man. He has Eriksen as our deepest in possession. Wan Bissaka pushes up into the half spaces where he gets the least space. He says our stratgy is to get the ball to the wingers in dangerous positions as quickly as possible but then has them track two players in the press. Each decision is against each player's biggest strength.

I wouldn't mind if it were the anomaly. I wouldn't mind the results if his ideas made sense, but they clearly don't. I don't see that the players have given up on him either. All the factors point to him.


That's why I lost faith in him. It's so obvious that our tactics are senseless and often harmful. Initially I thought that it was players improvising until I noticed that backups would do the same thing, dudes that have just been given instructions by the assistant coach operate like the starters and we think that they are not doing what the manager wants?
 
18 months in charge and still don't see any patterns of play. Give ball away to easily.

It's get the ball out to Garnacho and hope he does something special.

None of managers we have bought in have been able to coach players in patterns of play in last attacking 3rd. We just rely on something special from individuals.

Don't talk about our defensive shape. Non existent, players just dribble through midfield.

If Burnley were better attacking we where out of the game a number of times today.

Fulham did it as had better quality.

Amount times we are left 4 vs 3/2
 
The worst thing about Ten Hag is we've actually been dreadful since the league Cup final and that was 14 months ago.

I wanted to see him given time, he's had plenty. No visible improvement in well over a year now.
 
That's why I lost faith in him. It's so obvious that our tactics are senseless and often harmful. Initially I thought that it was players improvising until I noticed that backups would do the same thing, dudes that have just been given instructions by the assistant coach operate like the starters and we think that they are not doing what the manager wants?
I lost faith in the Carabao Cup game against Newcastle at home in November. They played 6 fullbacks that game. Decimated by injuries, 2/3 of their backline had never played under Eddie Howe before, everyone was out of position.

They still played exactly the same way they always do. And they played us off the park, 3-0. It's inexcusable.
 
I’m a huge fan of Hojlund, his attitude and commitment to the team. However he has a few flaws. For example, he always hovers around the goal line when a winger cuts into the box, making it very hard to be found.
No disrespect to Benni McCarthy but I’d like to see someone like Ruud work with him for a bit, even temporarily to show him the areas that he can work on.
I think there is some issues with his instincts as a striker. There was a sequence where the ball was played into space to Garnacho and a true striker would be sprinting into the box to get on to the end of a cross (watch Kane or Lewandowski), Instead Hojlund jogged slowly towards the goal, not choosing a near post or far post angle. Garnacho puts a ball into the 6 yd box to nobody because Hojlund has realized too late… :(

He’s young so maybe there is time to learn those very important instincts/habits. A player who is goal hungry is always going to make that run. Maybe it’s a mentality thing…
 
I just can't imagine the stubborn arrogance to keep playing the same midfield set up despite everything we have seen this season.

The best football Utd have played under him has been with a standard midfield 2, Cas and Eriksen or Cas and Fred, him transitioning to a 4-1-4-1 became increasingly prevalent after the league cup final, and the results cratered.
 
I lost faith in the Carabao Cup game against Newcastle at home in November. They played 6 fullbacks that game. Decimated by injuries, 2/3 of their backline had never played under Eddie Howe before, everyone was out of position.

They still played exactly the same way they always do. And they played us off the park, 3-0. It's inexcusable.
Finishing bottom of the easiest CL group we could have got, should have woken the owners up.
 
Nobody. But don't burst the bubble of the armchair experts in here who believe that if only we sacked the useless, incompetent dickhead currently in charge and hire the local drunk off the local pub "then yeah we might just knick it" in the cup final.

You're right, no football team has ever had a new manager bounce and we shouldn't change things up now after producing months and months of absolutely terrible football and terrible results, because trying something new when the old stuff is so blatantly not working is madness.
 
I lost faith in the Carabao Cup game against Newcastle at home in November. They played 6 fullbacks that game. Decimated by injuries, 2/3 of their backline had never played under Eddie Howe before, everyone was out of position.

They still played exactly the same way they always do. And they played us off the park, 3-0. It's inexcusable.

I have you beat, iirc for me it was Hojlund first game. The preseason perplexed me but during the game in question I was focused on Martial game off the ball, Martial has generally been very good at cutting passing angles but he was doing something different that I couldn't explain, he would drop next to Bruno and neither would really cover anything special, it was as if they had a predetermined action that made no practical, then I see Hojlund do the exact same thing.
 
I think there is some issues with his instincts as a striker. There was a sequence where the ball was played into space to Garnacho and a true striker would be sprinting into the box to get on to the end of a cross (watch Kane or Lewandowski), Instead Hojlund jogged slowly towards the goal, not choosing a near post or far post angle. Garnacho puts a ball into the 6 yd box to nobody because Hojlund has realized too late… :(

He’s young so maybe there is time to learn those very important instincts/habits. A player who is goal hungry is always going to make that run. Maybe it’s a mentality thing…
He’s young and willing to learn. We should get some 1:1 coaching with Ruud or RvP
 
The fecking audacity of this charlatan to talk about sides that were rebuilding.

Yeah, rebuilding is what should have been happening over the last 24 months. That's what you were fecking hired for.
 
Finishing bottom of the easiest CL group we could have got, should have woken the owners up.
The managerial options back then are as thin as they are now. I do wonder who we go for, everyone will be a gamble. There's RDZ, Inzaghi, Motta or maybe McKenna. Each of them have their questions. At the start of the season I wanted us to focus on the football over the results. I honestly wouldn't mind if we were on the same points but I could see that the football is going in the right direction. But I can't. Whoever the next manager is I just want to see modern, sustainable football first.
 
The managerial options back then are as thin as they are now. I do wonder who we go for, everyone will be a gamble. There's RDZ, Inzaghi, Motta or maybe McKenna. Each of them have their questions. At the start of the season I wanted us to focus on the football over the results. I honestly wouldn't mind if we were on the same points but I could see that the football is going in the right direction. But I can't. Whoever the next manager is I just want to see modern, sustainable football first.
I know, but we cannot carry on like this.
 
The fecking audacity of this charlatan to talk about sides that were rebuilding.

Yeah, rebuilding is what should have been happening over the last 24 months. That's what you were fecking hired for.
He’s saying exactly what you’d expect a manager to say who’s trying to blame the club and distance himself from failure. It’s the same type of comments we’ve seen from every manager who’s been in their final months here.
 
All his quotes are starting to sound like job interview sound bites. He’s putting distance between himself and the team now also, “it’s not me, it’s you” stuff.

You could be right, it does seem really odd behaviour from him right now.

You'd imagine Ajax are an open goal for him, but perhpas he's thinking he can land one of the better jobs this summer, Bayern or Chelsea maybe.
 


There’s a few reasons why he’s might be pushing this “rebuild” stuff.

Option 1 is to basically troll the fans base that rabidly wants him out, in which case I applaud him as it’s amusing watching lads lose their sh*t over it.

Option 2 is he’s already been told (whether INEOs mean it or not) that he’s got next season regardless. That the crazy football since start of April is actually him showing the entertainment side of his game and INEOs think it’s not the worst for next season that will be about a rebuild.

Option 3 he hasn’t a clue of his future and isn’t completely wrong , as United games have been entertaining (for wrong reasons for us) and he’s a bit tone deaf on this

Option 4 is it suits INEOs for him to keep talking about rebuilds regardless of whether he’s here or not
 
It's even worse on the reddevils subreddit. The first couple of hours after a game are the only times when anti-ETH sentiment doesn't get downvoted to oblivion.

Yeah it's a weird place. I could be completely wrong but I airways got the impression there were a lot of overseas fans that were just trying too hard. It's not just with Ten Hag but any negativity seems to be down voted. Which is odd when you consider the last 10 years.
 
There’s a few reasons why he’s really pushing this “rebuild” stuff.

Option 1 is to basically troll the fans base that rabidly wants him out, in which case I applaud him as it’s amusing watching lads lose their sh*t over it.

Option 2 is he’s already been told (whether INEOs mean it or not) that he’s got next season regardless. That the crazy football since start of April is actually him showing the entertainment side of his game and INEOs think it’s not the worst for next season that will be about a rebuild.

Option 3 he hasn’t a clue of his future and isn’t completely wrong , as United games have been entertaining (for wrong reasons for us) and he’s a bit tone deaf on this

Option 4 is he knows he's off and it's damage limitation. The most likely option.
 
It's even worse on the reddevils subreddit. The first couple of hours after a game are the only times when anti-ETH sentiment doesn't get downvoted to oblivion.
You can never predict the reddit hive mind. His anti journalist/fake media stance won him lots of points.
 
I have you beat, iirc for me it was Hojlund first game. The preseason perplexed me but during the game in question I was focused on Martial game off the ball, Martial has generally been very good at cutting passing angles but he was doing something different that I couldn't explain, he would drop next to Bruno and neither would really cover anything special, it was as if they had a predetermined action that made no practical, then I see Hojlund do the exact same thing.
The eternal pessimist! I would agree though, if we're honest the warning signs have been there since last season. I try to ignore it and give him faith but for example, his first two games were actually close to what we're seeing now until the Brentford game when he abandoned his style. That Brighton game we played Eriksen up top, then he played Fred Eriksen Bruno midfield against Brentford. The same problems he had at Ajax - a soft core. When he changed it at the time I thought it was a good thing that he was willing to be flexible. But now he's returned to his original ideas and it evidently doesn't work.

We just all decide at different point enough is enough and we can't ignore the repeating patterns.
 
It’s got to stop, throw the man a lifeline and give him the boot. It’s cringeworthy watching him talking absolute shit.
Surely it’s not mathematical now to make CL so let’s not feck around anymore. Let him go build some bollocks back in Holland.
 
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