Erik ten Hag | 2022/23 & 2023/24

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Sort of interview I bet his agent pushed to have. Get all the excuses out there for the next employer.
 
It would be quite something if a manager swap were to happen. But maybe this is the most likely such a wild deal has ever been. Tuchel definitely leaving Bayern and would happily come to United and I'm pretty sure Bayern is Ten Hag's dream job.

Honestly could be a win for everyone. I think Ten Hag's project has failed here and he's making daft decisions, but maybe he would do things differently at Bayern.
Why would Bayern be interested on him though?
 
I mean they were after Rangnick and there's clearly a bit of a circus going on there right now. It's not impossible.
Rangnick most likely would have been for a season to put some things in track, and maybe bridge the gap that the hierarchy has (with the old hierarchy having left, and Kahn et al not working well). He has a pretty good reputation in building clubs and is an ok coach*.

* For example, he also has a semi-final of UCL, something that EtH gets praised all the time.
 
Fair point. IMO though I think the moyes season was worse. Just in terms of going from winning the title to finishing 7th. This season is worse if your going of GD etc. but that still may have us finishing higher than we did in the Moyes season.
If we're rating manager's performances, then yes Moyes was the worst seeing as how much better his team was.

Rating seasons on their own right though, this season and 21/22 were both worse.
 
Bayern are interested in Ragnick aswell, maybe they respect managers who try to navigate the United muppet show ?
Rangnick tried to navigate the United muppet show, failed at that, and was forced to leave. EtH made United an even bigger muppet show considering the power he had and the time he was given to set things right. He is the most damaging manager we have had. post-SAF.
 
The only way he can stay is if there is the mother of all clearouts and squad overhauls, because next season will be much of the same shite otherwise.

I still think he's a dead man walking.
Also need to work out why we get these injuries and deal with whoever is causing these issues, either get rid of injury prone players, the medical team or if it is the training it needs changing otherwise whichever players we bring in will get injured.
 
Why would Bayern be interested on him though?

In the same way that PSG wanted Rashford last season. It's likely agent generated garbage to get ETH a new contract on top money. Hopefully, the new management is smarter than that.
 
Watched the interview. You can tell there's some stuff he can't say for fear of upsetting the dressing room/board.

This is true, and I'm certain that he's been hamstrung by the board too, but at the same time, though he sometimes says the right things in this interview at the start, he is so full of excuses for why he can't manage the team well that it does make you question his ability even more.

Can you imagine any other top manager just listing excuse after excuse like this?
 
Why would Bayern be interested on him though?
After doing a good job with their U23 he was rumoured to be in the mix every time they needed a new manager during the last decade. He clearly always stayed on Bayern's radar and that's not surprising considering that history. But also they decided against really going for him every time. Wouldn't surprise me if they talked about him, as they always seem do that, but also would be no surprise if they decide against that option again.
 
Bayern are interested in Ragnick aswell, maybe they respect managers who try to navigate the United muppet show ?

No they don't, they have ridiculously high standards and when they are not met they will be booted. These guys have gone through more managers than us.
 
Bayern can hire crap managers and take gambles because, unlike us, they have the brains to sack them when they fail.
 
Rangnick tried to navigate the United muppet show, failed at that, and was forced to leave. EtH made United an even bigger muppet show considering the power he had and the time he was given to set things right. He is the most damaging manager we have had. post-SAF.

He joined a club that “needed open heart surgery” as Ragnick put it.

What time has he had to put this right ?

Ronaldo sabotaged him when he walked in the door.

Club for sale less then 5 months in.

Greenwood , Anthony scandals

Sancho messing

Rashford going off the rails

That’s barely 14 months into his tenure

Add to that an unclear and disorganised structure around him as pretty much every department is upgraded

Savage injuries ON TOP of this drama

And you wonder why things have been so bad ? Maybe things at United are not comparable with other clubs because open surgery required you to rip the heart out.

I still think it’s fair to ask “couldn’t ETH have done better” , I just don’t think anybody can objectively make a confident call on it. If you feel he’s not good enough , that’s fair enough , but people acting like United is a well oiled machine like other clubs and we can just look at stats to money spent as a fair way of judging our managers simply aren’t factoring in all variables that make clubs successful.
 
After doing a good job with their U23 he was rumoured to be in the mix every time they needed a new manager during the last decade. He clearly always stayed on Bayern's radar and that's not surprising considering that history. But also they decided against really going for him every time. Wouldn't surprise me if they talked about him, as they always seem do that, but also would be no surprise if they decide against that option again.
At that time when his stock was high. And still they decided either for promising but unproved managers (Nagelsmann), complete unknowns (Flick) or bad managers like Kovac.

I do not see why this will now change when EtH's reputation is of the guy who had the worst ever season for Man United since EPL started, while spending 400m and having the most power any United manager had since SAF.
 
Sort of interview I bet his agent pushed to have. Get all the excuses out there for the next employer.

Or we got CP on Monday night football and Sky just doing their job?

If anything I would say it may be the Ineos/Gary Neville link which may have pushed for the interview.
 
We should be doing better even with what we have available, that's the top and bottom of it. At different points we've had different injuries, like a lot of teams this season. You talk as though we've had them all at once and for the full season. We were struggling against lower placed teams and even championship teams in the just few weeks whilst only being 2 players away from full strength.

I don't see how it is even surprising, let alone bizarre, to have supporters expecting him to be sacked. For a team of our stature it is a given that the manger normally gets sacked after a session like this. We're just a basket case though, so you don't know what daft decision we'll make next.

Other teams have had injuries, absolutely, but ours have objectively been the worst. The only two other teams that have had it (almost) as bad (chelsea and newcastle) are below us in the table and have done absolutely nothing in the cup competitions. The teams above us in the league have been able to consistently field their (close to) best starting 11 and when they haven't, they had extremely competent understudies. None of them have had to play wan bissaka, an average right back, at left back, or 36 year old jonny evans, or 32 year old casimero at cb. we've had 27 different back four combination this year!

How can you possibly expect consistent football with that? The reality is we have been hit with a double whammy; terrible injuries this year with a very lightweight bench to deal with it. Further evidence of that is our best run this year coincided with martinez and shaw coming back up until the west ham/aston villa games. You suggest we've not had them all at once, but regarding the defense, as I said, no lb basically all season and 3/4 cbs missing for a large portion of the games we played. We've had 10+ absentees per game god knows how many times this year so while they've not all come at once, we've had freakishly high per game number of injuries and absentees. To not expect this to have a tangible impact on performances and results in an ultra competitive prem where all teams around you are spending huge sums of money to improve their squads is ridiculous.

People have every right to firmly believe he will leave, but people are outright saying things like 'Mount will come good under the new manager'. Just seems a tad premature but all to their own I suppose. In terms of why I believe he will stay, well he has had to navigate an extremely turbulent year on and off the field and giving him the benefit of the doubt isn't so outlandish in this scenario in my opinion. It will cost even more money to get rid and get someone else on board, money we might not have. Also, there are no alternatives at the moment. Liverpool, a far more stable and forward-planning (and probably a more attractive proposition currently) club have resorted to hiring a manager that was getting smashed by ten hag a couple years back. Bayern have gotten rejected by ragnick of all people. naggelsmann and alonso are staying put. There are also 3/4 other big teams looking for managers so they're likely to nab any decent replacement.

Look, in spite of everything I said above, almost every game I watch I end up thinking this is not sustainable and he needs to go. After the coventry 4th I told my mates that he has to be sacked now. But I am doing my utmost to zoom out and look at the bigger picture. There are a lot of negative aspects related united that have lingered all season which will be undoubtedly be resolved by the start of next year. The greenwood situation will be resolved one way or another, about 8 players are out of contract (martial, varane) or in the last year of contract (awb, maguire, lindelof) all of which have been painstaking situations to deal with either because they are bang average or because they are on huge wages. The sancho situation will also be addressed. We will have the new football structure that has been promised for the longest of times. Add to that, our young stars will have had a full year under their belt. If (big IF) we couple that with a forward, no 6 and cb signings (not that much to ask for) and manage to keep injuries at 5 per game (with martinez and one lb being fit for more than a couple of weeks!) then I guarantee you next year will be better. And if it isn't sack him next year. It's not like we would be missing out on some incredible managerial talent. As long as the sporting structure above makes the decisions on how the squad will be changed it shouldnt matter if we take this approach.
 
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Or we got CP on Monday night football and Sky just doing their job?

If anything I would say it may be the Ineos/Gary Neville link which may have pushed for the interview.

I didnt mean his agent pushed sky, of course they're desperate for a long form interview, they always are with any failing manager. I meant his agent will have encouraged him.

It's just another excuses bonanza.
 
Other bits from interview




Clean sheets doesn't mean we were great, just that our keeper saved a lot of shots and got lucky with poor finishing

Using just a changing back 4 as a reason why a bunch of international footballers are concedeing nearly 30 shots to Newport or whatever is not a a good excuse
 
He joined a club that “needed open heart surgery” as Ragnick put it.

What time has he had to put this right ?

Ronaldo sabotaged him when he walked in the door.

Why though? Ronaldo has no history of sabotaging managers, even when he had trouble with managers (Mourinho and Santos at the end) he behaved professionally. EtH has the distinguishment to be the only manager ever who couldn't make the top goalscorer in the history of football score. Who then scored loads immediately after leaving.

Greenwood , Anthony scandals

The Greenwood scandal happened before EtH came, so that was not an unknown. There were rumours that EtH knew about the Anotny scandal, and for what is worth, Antony missed just a month, right?

Sancho messing

A complete self-indicted wound.

Rashford going off the rails

Yep, players lose form.

Savage injuries ON TOP of this drama

Ah, the unprecedented injury crisis where United actually doesn't even make the top 5 of most missed days by injuries this season in EPL.

And you wonder why things have been so bad ? Maybe things at United are not comparable with other clubs because open surgery required you to rip the heart out.

I am not, I think I've figured out why things have gone this bad.. We have 2 serious problems: a non-existent structure (which is hopefully getting fixed) and a bad manager. We need to fix both if we want to progress.
 
Conceding 20 shots per game to teams like Luton and Brentford isn't entertainment, it's a disgrace.

We generally look to be on the backfoot and get battered for long periods in every game - it's not entertaining

Like I said, the price of trying to play gung-ho football with bang average and incompatible players.

We are lacking in many departments but you can't seriously suggest we lack entertainment value?
 
Clean sheets doesn't mean we were great, just that our keeper saved a lot of shots and got lucky with poor finishing

Using just a changing back 4 as a reason why a bunch of international footballers are concedeing nearly 30 shots to Newport or whatever is not a a good excuse
He can't truly believe it. Just thinks he can pull the wool over everyone with such basic analysis as clean sheets = perfromance was good.
 
I think the problem is that despite all the issues this season, we have been abject. Newcastle have had worse results but they have played far better than we have in general despite that. Chelsea have the same issue they have had for a few seasons. They cannot put the ball in the back of the net.

The xPts chart shows you where you should be if the xG for a game plays out and we should be hovering around relegation instead of top 6. Newcastle and Chelsea should be higher than they are. There are very few teams in the league with as good a delta between "should" and "are" as us in the league. Tottenham, West ham and Villa basically.

I think that if we had shown any real hint of progress in any department this season we wouldn't be discussing EtHs departure. The reason we are is because there has been none. Yes, with a solid back 4 we would have been far better off. Good managers don't go between "should be in a relegation battle" to "should be easily top 4" based on injuries, no matter how bad.
 
Gary Neville asked him why it's been poor he proceeds to explain why its been poor including saying he needs to do better as well, our fan base "it's all just excuses" I mean what did you want him to say he was asked why it's been poor.

I dont want him to be here next season but the reaction to that video is laughable from all the usual suspects on here.
 
"Next season can’t possibly be as bad" is now the reason to keep him. Like, not only is the bar hilariously low but also these expectations are not based on anything but faith and luck :lol: Do we have a lot of gamblers in our fanbase?

I've said this before but it genuinely amazes me that of all fanbases, it's United fans bringing into question how important a manager really is and whether it's possible to judge if he's doing a good job or not.
Our standards are lower than they were in Moyes season
 
Here we fecking go, banging on about the defence when it's the gaps in midfield that are the issue, talking about not having a left footed CB like it's the only possible way football can be played. God knows how we fecking coped with two right footed defenders like Rio and Vidic. Also feel for the likes of Milan who struggled for all those years with Nesta and Stam, or literally any other great CB pairing that ever existed...
 
Why though? Ronaldo has no history of sabotaging managers, even when he had trouble with managers (Mourinho and Santos at the end) he behaved professionally. EtH has the distinguishment to be the only manager ever who couldn't make the top goalscorer in the history of football score. Who then scored loads immediately after leaving.



The Greenwood scandal happened before EtH came, so that was not an unknown. There were rumours that EtH knew about the Anotny scandal, and for what is worth, Antony missed just a month, right?



A complete self-indicted wound.



Yep, players lose form.



Ah, the unprecedented injury crisis where United actually doesn't even make the top 5 of most missed days by injuries this season in EPL.



I am not, I think I've figured out why things have gone this bad.. We have 2 serious problems: a non-existent structure (which is hopefully getting fixed) and a bad manager. We need to fix both if we want to progress.

Ronaldo fellout with Juventus , it’s why he joined United and he didn’t exactly leave Madrid on good terms either! :lol:

The Greenwood situation affected ETH because the club had planned as if he was going to be one of our forwards. It was the clubs responsibility to make a call on Greenwood not ETH. It’s part of the reason we were so short in attack.

Sancho was dealt with fairly. I find it ironic when people accuse ETH of sticking with Anthony when he’s done nothing to deserve it and then imply Sancho was harshly treated when he’d done nothing in a United jersey under multiple managers to warrant such support.

Regarding injuries , it’s funny how many of you wouldn’t engage Benito when he was posting actual statistics but you continue to throw out comments probably based on random tweets or information that’s conveniently selected to point the picture you want to believe.
 
Came till post about this, genuinely think it’s crazy he thinks we can’t have patterns of play because we are missing Martinez/Shaw and makes no mention about how awful we are in attack.
I believe his original reason for signing Onana and Mount was that they would allow us patterns of play so we didn't have to rely so heavily on Martinez and Shaw.
 
Like I said, the price of trying to play gung-ho football with bang average and incompatible players.

We are lacking in many departments but you can't seriously suggest we lack entertainment value?
We are only entertaining because we are very bad and extremely open. I don’t think it’s the sort of entertainment people are after.
 
I think the problem is that despite all the issues this season, we have been abject. Newcastle have had worse results but they have played far better than we have in general despite that. Chelsea have the same issue they have had for a few seasons. They cannot put the ball in the back of the net.

The xPts chart shows you where you should be if the xG for a game plays out and we should be hovering around relegation instead of top 6. Newcastle and Chelsea should be higher than they are. There are very few teams in the league with as good a delta between "should" and "are" as us in the league. Tottenham, West ham and Villa basically.

I think that if we had shown any real hint of progress in any department this season we wouldn't be discussing EtHs departure. The reason we are is because there has been none. Yes, with a solid back 4 we would have been far better off. Good managers don't go between "should be in a relegation battle" to "should be easily top 4" based on injuries, no matter how bad.
The thing about Newcastle, Chelsea or even Brighton for that matter is that when you watch them play, you can see that having better players could lead to them getting much better results and being competitive. You don’t have that feeling with United, it always feels like we are on the verge of a total collapse and lucky to still be getting results way above our performance levels. It’s not something better players will fix because we are set up horribly.
 
Bayern can hire crap managers and take gambles because, unlike us, they have the brains to sack them when they fail.

No, the reason they can do that is because they probably win the league either way. They also don't have to worry about missing out on the Champions League.
 
We are only entertaining because we are very bad and extremely open. I don’t think it’s the sort of entertainment people are after.

That’s fair.

Would you prefer we were more defensive/pragmatic and kind of maybe dragging out 1-0s and losing 1-0s ?

This is not a defence , just wondering what kind of “shite form” is better. I hated it when under Jose and Ole our teams looked finished. While we are playing kamakazee and unsustainable football right now , it feels like it’s still “better” then the end of Ole/Jose. I kind of like ETH going “f*ck it, if I’m going down , I’m going down Kevin Keegan chaos football style” :D

Maybe it’s cause there’s no player sh^t coming out or that I am excited to see whatever INEOs does to change things.
 
I genuinely don't know what you're going on about, but I'm guessing quite ironically you are more aware of headlines of the dirt sheet known as The Sun than I am.
I get Sky sports new in my feed and they are always quoting the back page of the rag, as if it's gospel
 
We were also crap in the latter stages of last season when we had Martinez and Shaw both fit plus Rashford in scoring form. His excuses are pathetic.
 
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