Erik ten Hag | 2022/23 & 2023/24

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We do throw caution to the wind though because of how high our front players stay! We've just been extremely poor at executing a lot of what we want to do but the intention is clearly there.

We create openings, overloads and opportunities a whole bunch but are poor are converting those situations into chances due to poor decision making and bad finishing. In spite of that, we've still scored 20 in the last 8. Sure, nothing that great but not exactly 'shit'.

I'll also modify what I said, the squad is a mix of bang average, young (inconsistent) and incompatible players:
Among the players that have started recently, awb is piss poor, eriksen, mcT, 32 year old casimero, Antony and amad are bang average. Rashford cannot play a pressing game and his flank is almost always a vulnerability. Maguire and every other available cb are not proactive defenders by nature and always drop. Mainoo and garnacho and have shown incredible potential but have also had stinkers. Hojlund has lost form.

Add to that, our whole available bench are bang average (and that's being kind), to the point where we can't rotate out our 21 year old striker in his first season in the prem.

Ten hag is sticking to his plan even when we doesn't have the personnel to execute it and you have every right to criticise that and demand his sacking. To me, if the alternative is caving in to how the players prefer to play (lazy low block tactics) again after they've done it over and over again in the last 10 years, I'd rather go through this painful process and see where it leads. I think it'll hold us in good stead long term even if ten hag leaves eventually.

Assuming he has one.

Being Gung ho means pushing everyone forward and going all out attack.

That's not what we do.
 
So because i state another (very good) manager also struggles in an injury riddled season, means next year should go exactly like that managers next season?

Obviously, not exactly the same as next season, that was a clear exaggeration. But I assume you brought up Klopp to say that if we ignore this season because of the injuries and give him another chance(s?), he'll hit the heights of Klopp. Otherwise, what's the point in bringing up Klopp's name? Might as well say "Look, CL manager Eddie Howe also struggled with injuries this season."
 
I think he's more likely to stay than go now.
8th and no cup is still possible and I’ll be mystified if he survives that

At best I think he can still potentially save his job, if he wins the fa cup (meaning Europa is guaranteed too)
 
Spurs we're never selling to a rival. Ten Hag is an idiot if he thought that was ever going to happen.
Teams sell to rivals all the time. Dortmund sell all there best players to Bayern all the time. We’ve had players of Chelsea and Arsenal before.
 
Teams sell to rivals all the time. Dortmund sell all there best players to Bayern all the time. We’ve had players of Chelsea and Arsenal before.

City couldn't get Kane off Spurs. These teams you mention didn't have Daniel Levy overseeing the business.
 
What makes you think that we would get better and not worse ?
He won’t be getting all his own way. He’ll have people approving his targets and saying yes or no to them. I bet Arsenal fans were saying the same about Arteta when they all wanted him sacked after finishing 8th twice.
 
What makes you think that?
- Lack of serious noise around it
- New decision makers not all being in place
- Cost
- Avoiding extra upheaval while backroom staff is sorted
- The fact that it would be almost impossible to be any worse next season

I don't think he deserves the chance at all but it's not impossible to turn it around next season with better player recruitment.
 
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City couldn't get Kane off Spurs. These teams you mention didn't have Daniel Levy overseeing the business.
That’s true. Was just stating a fact. Teams do sell to rivals. You may just have to pay a bit more. I know that no one would have but I bet they’d of sold to us or city for 150m. Who would turn that down?
 
He won’t be getting all his own way. He’ll have people approving his targets and saying yes or no to them. I bet Arsenal fans were saying the same about Arteta when they all wanted him sacked after finishing 8th twice.
Arteta is another proof that the quality of a manager is meaningless, all that matters is time. You could have anyone in the job and if you give plenty of time they will turn our world class.

Ferguson is one lucky man because he got so much time at United and is now considered a legend, when the only thing that differentiates him from Moyes is time.

It is like that since the beginning of time in all professions. Time is all it takes.
 
Reaching its peak this week as we've got 2 extra days of the excuses stage until Monday.

Some trying to convince us that we've been decent since January is bizarre.
Our goals per game in 2024:
44 goals in 19 so 2.3 goals per game.

Our goals per game from season start to Jan 2024:
37 goals in 28 games 1.32 goals per game.

Is that not an improvement in an area of the side we can agree has had fewer issues?

As @Berbaclass pointed out we have more wins, less losses in that period too.
 
Our goals per game in 2024:
44 goals in 19 so 2.3 goals per game.

Our goals per game from season start to Jan 2024:
37 goals in 28 games 1.32 goals per game.

Is that not an improvement in an area of the side we can agree has had fewer issues?

As @Berbaclass pointed out we have more wins, less losses in that period too.
What's your thoughts on this
 
The fact that so many are willing to just let him start next season and then sack him “if it isn’t working” is fecking absurd to me. Just completely willing to write off yet another season after a full season of evidence that the current guy is out of his depth.

When someone shows you who they are you should believe them.

But it's only 1 season, who's really affected if things go tits up?

Yes 25+ players but they're a bunch of lazy sods who've propelled numerous managers under public transport.

And yeah ok hundreds of thousands of fans too.

But the important thing here above the fans, the players and even above the club is that one guy from Holland is afforded absolutely every opportunity and all the time in the world. To prove beyond any measure of doubt that he's failed. Just on the off chance he's actually Fergie Mk2 and will lead us to another 3 decades of dominance.
 
Our goals per game in 2024:
44 goals in 19 so 2.3 goals per game.

Our goals per game from season start to Jan 2024:
37 goals in 28 games 1.32 goals per game.

Is that not an improvement in an area of the side we can agree has had fewer issues?

As @Berbaclass pointed out we have more wins, less losses in that period too.
It's an improvement in goals scored. (I think I've said previously moving Garnacho to the right and dropping Antony was the main catalyst).

But even since January we're only 7th best in the league for goals scored - so it's still a "so what?" for me.
 
Arteta is another proof that the quality of a manager is meaningless, all that matters is time. You could have anyone in the job and if you give plenty of time they will turn our world class.

Ferguson is one lucky man because he got so much time at United and is now considered a legend, when the only thing that differentiates him from Moyes is time.

It is like that since the beginning of time in all professions. Time is all it takes.

You trying too hard
 
Would be too good to be true, think he'd pack his bags himself as that's apparently where he's always wanted to coach. They're surely not that daft though...
ETH would be a success at Bayern, he wouldn't have a quarter of the nonsense he's had to deal with here, and would have a proper squad to work with.
 
Why does it make sense to let a manager stay just to rebuild the squad, when you don't intend on keeping him? This is the hurdle I can't get past with this logic and, for me, it's been one of the worst arguments of them all from the pro-Ten Hag lot. I know the arguments you'll make, but I can't see any logic at all. Just right place, right time? As in, he's already here so feck it, let him do it?

And on top of this, you're trusting the judgement of a guy who had had carte blanche on signings, brought in guys who he knows very well and has worked with extensively, who have not been good enough. And he's tried to sign more dross on top but luckily failed. This is the guy who we want to trust to identify what is needed? It's just lunacy.
Assuming he has one.

Being Gung ho means pushing everyone forward and going all out attack.

That's not what we do.

You're getting too caught up on that word. I mean proactive and frontfooted in your play rather than sitting back and being cautious.

When you say, assuming he has one, are you implying he doesn't have a plan and just let's them do as they please? Or that his plan is crap?

In my opinion it's clear what he wants us to do. It's been executed very poorly this year obviously. Could be down to the personnel. Could be down to the manager. Could be down to the tactics themselves being incompatible to the prem, or a mix of all these, but to claim he doesn't have a plan is silly.
 
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.
That's quite the hot take there.

This club doesn't deserve success while there is no understanding whatsoever about how off the pitch crap impacts the on field.
 
An option of winning the final and staying?

More chance of winning the Euromillions.
I didn’t say winning. I said taking as in managing us in it.
It's an improvement in goals scored. (I think I've said previously moving Garnacho to the right and dropping Antony was the main catalyst).

But even since January we're only 7th best in the league for goals scored - so it's still a "so what?" for me.
So a tactical adjustment is making us better going forward.

Which other PL side has a 20/21 year old main striker and 18/19 year old winger as key attacking players for the majority of their seasons in the 6 teams better than us?

Also just for my own benefit where did you get the stats since Jan thing for the bolded?
 
8th and no cup is still possible and I’ll be mystified if he survives that

At best I think he can still potentially save his job, if he wins the fa cup (meaning Europa is guaranteed too)

I feel 8th is actually most likely outcome looking at the fixtures of Newcastle/chelsea.

Is there really a massive difference between 6th- 8th if there’s a few points in it? The whole point of “getting top 4” is about the champions league , it’s not that it’s particular impresive to finish 4th (or 5th if every CL spot).

And before anybody does their usual dumbass “look at him defending mid table”, I’m not defending anything. 6th position is shite, I just don’t see the actual difference to us (maybe conference qualification), it doesn’t make our season far better finishing a spot or two ahead of 8th.

At this stage, given what’s happened, I can’t see anything really change how the season looks. Even an FA cup win , while enjoyable, wouldn’t oaper over the cracks. An Fa Cup win didn’t save LVG, although I wonder if the availability of Jose played a big role in that

I feel like INEOs, right now, are sticking with him. Maybe if a certain manager becomes available or when the team being put together finally gets to officially bang heads together , it might change, but it at least looks like all plans are with him as manager next year.

I feel 8th is actually most likely outcome looking at the fixtures of Newcastle/chelsea.
 
Really good interview if others haven't seen it:


If you could get over ETH’s annoying way of speaking, this is a pretty good interview. Gary is asking him the questions that most fans are asking and to be fair to ETH he’s being honest and transparent with his answers. It might sound like excuses at times (the injuries etc.) but you can sort of read through the lines to understand his thought process and why he’s not changing his approach even without the required personal.
 
If you could get over ETH’s annoying way of speaking, this is a pretty good interview. Gary is asking him the questions that most fans are asking and to be fair to ETH he’s being honest and transparent with his answers. It might sound like excuses at times (the injuries etc.) but you can sort of read through the lines to understand his thought process and why he’s not changing his approach even without the required personal.
Yes, very good. I hope he is given a chance under the new regime. If he still fails, fine, get rid, but I think he is owed that season after the two years of an absolute shit show off the field with the Glazers, takeover etc.
 
I didn’t say winning. I said taking as in managing us in it.

So a tactical adjustment is making us better going forward.

Which other PL side has a 20/21 year old main striker and 18/19 year old winger as key attacking players for the majority of their seasons in the 6 teams better than us?

Also just for my own benefit where did you get the stats since Jan thing for the bolded?
Dropping his £90m signing helped.

https://understat.com/league/EPL/2023
 
Obviously, not exactly the same as next season, that was a clear exaggeration. But I assume you brought up Klopp to say that if we ignore this season because of the injuries and give him another chance(s?), he'll hit the heights of Klopp. Otherwise, what's the point in bringing up Klopp's name? Might as well say "Look, CL manager Eddie Howe also struggled with injuries this season."

We were far better pre injuries last season, so it's safe to assume it'll be better again next season if players are fit + players are added that fit his style of play?
 
You're getting too caught up on that word. I mean proactive and frontfooted in your play rather than sitting back and being cautious.

When you say, assuming he has one, are you implying he doesn't have a plan and just let's them do as they please? Or that his plan is crap?

In my opinion it's clear what he wants us to do. It's been executed very poorly this year obviously. Could be down to the personnel. Could be down to the manager. Could be down to the tactics themselves being incompatible to the prem, or a mix of all these, but to claim he doesn't have a plan is silly.

The latter, while it does appear to be chaos when looking at a match in isolation. We've been the same all season, it's just shit tactics, with players not suited to it and a naive ideology too stubborn to tweak it.

I'd describe our style of play as incorporating parts of all out attack and a low block. But the resulting in the worst of both worlds.
 
We were far better pre injuries last season, so it's safe to assume it'll be better again next season if players are fit + players are added that fit his style of play?
Still doesn't explain why you brought up Klopp instead of a different manager like Eddie Howe who also had injury problems affecting results.

Surely you're claiming that if ETH has the right conditions, he would deliver something like what Klopp did? Not just ''far better'' than this season, which is a stunningly low bar.
 
Arteta is another proof that the quality of a manager is meaningless, all that matters is time. You could have anyone in the job and if you give plenty of time they will turn our world class.

Ferguson is one lucky man because he got so much time at United and is now considered a legend, when the only thing that differentiates him from Moyes is time.

It is like that since the beginning of time in all professions. Time is all it takes.

Leverkusen is proof of the opposite
 
Our goals per game in 2024:
44 goals in 19 so 2.3 goals per game.

Our goals per game from season start to Jan 2024:
37 goals in 28 games 1.32 goals per game.

Is that not an improvement in an area of the side we can agree has had fewer issues?

As @Berbaclass pointed out we have more wins, less losses in that period too.

You're skewing the stats a little bit by adding in cup competition fixtures. Therefore you're inflating the goals tally by including our high scoring CL disaster as well as using FA Cups games against minnows to pump the goal stats. No shit we should be scoring goals against low quality teams. It still tells the same story but doesn't have as high numbers.
 
ETH would be a success at Bayern, he wouldn't have a quarter of the nonsense he's had to deal with here, and would have a proper squad to work with.

Yeah I'm not convinced. I heard a lot of stuff about what he was before he came here and it was all wrong, and a better manager is "struggling" at Bayern right now. They seem as big a joke as us being the scenes with all the opinions causing unrest at the club. You've got influential figures like Hoeneß straight up lying to the media about the manager to trash his reputation, just days before they play in the CL Semis.
 
You're skewing the stats a little bit by adding in cup competition fixtures. Therefore you're inflating the goals tally by including our high scoring CL disaster as well as using FA Cups games against minnows to pump the goal stats. No shit we should be scoring goals against low quality teams. It still tells the same story but doesn't have as high numbers.

CL was before January though. We have been scoring more goals lately but we haven’t really become a better team.
 
Arteta is another proof that the quality of a manager is meaningless, all that matters is time. You could have anyone in the job and if you give plenty of time they will turn our world class.

Ferguson is one lucky man because he got so much time at United and is now considered a legend, when the only thing that differentiates him from Moyes is time.

It is like that since the beginning of time in all professions. Time is all it takes.
Exactly. But it seems a lot of people don’t have patience anymore. They want instant success. Because we’ve been use to it for so long. We’ve wasted so much money and time on managers that don’t know what there doing or each have different playing styles so all have brought in different players. This summer and going forward is when we all need to give the new owners and new structure time. It’s gonna take at least a year or 2 to sort out this mess… most of it’s been done in terms of getting rid of higher people and bringing in football people, alls we need now is to get rid of players who aren’t that good or are on to much money and start a fresh with hungry players who aren’t gonna want ridiculous amounts of money to join. Ratcliffe has the right intentions in changing the environment and the way the club is run. We just all need to give it time and this is the most confident I’ve been since fergie left that things might start to turn around.
 
Exactly. But it seems a lot of people don’t have patience anymore. They want instant success. Because we’ve been use to it for so long. We’ve wasted so much money and time on managers that don’t know what there doing or each have different playing styles so all have brought in different players. This summer and going forward is when we all need to give the new owners and new structure time. It’s gonna take at least a year or 2 to sort out this mess… most of it’s been done in terms of getting rid of higher people and bringing in football people, alls we need now is to get rid of players who aren’t that good or are on to much money and start a fresh with hungry players who aren’t gonna want ridiculous amounts of money to join. Ratcliffe has the right intentions in changing the environment and the way the club is run. We just all need to give it time and this is the most confident I’ve been since fergie left that things might start to turn around.

Yeah ETH needs to get all the time he needs, if it takes 10 years for him to get us back in top 4 then be it. In the meantime all our executives, coaches and players should be working towards making life easier for him so that he can eventually succeed. We owe him this.
 
Only UTD need 3 years, perfect structure, perfect planets aligments ect.
Maybe we just need better manager?
Moyes, trash.
LvG, past it
Mou, past it
Ole, out of his depth
Hag, deluded.
 
Yeah ETH needs to get all the time he needs, if it takes 10 years for him to get us back in top 4 then be it. In the meantime all our executives, coaches and players should be working towards making life easier for him so that he can eventually succeed. We owe him this.
It won’t take 10 years to get back into top 4. I reckon we’ll be back in it next year. Villa will probably fall off with European football, spurs are already falling off. Liverpool are questionable next season with a new manager, they’ll be going through there rebuilding stage. City and Arsenal are probably the only 2 guaranteed in the top 4 so I reckon we have a good chance if we recruit well this summer.
 
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