He seems keen on working with the players we have and see what he can get out of them. But I can only hope he is ruthless enough when he realises how shit they are. Like if certain players keep playing like this through out the season is he going to request for a squad overhaul and bin our precious players like Rashford and Mctominay, two players that look like they will retire here no matter how shit they are
Erik ten Hag | 2022/23 & 2023/24
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Yeah he's much better playing deeper.
Yup. Play any forward from the squad in the nine in that first half, we could have been in a better shape which showed that in second half.
He'll be gone by summer and Poch will be in guaranteed
One thing you don't get in pre season is the intensity of game and Brighton pressed well and compressed the game especially the midfield. This is essentially the playing conditions of the league, the players therefore have to think faster, react faster and be mentality intuitive to respond to tighter spaces. Couldn't care if United banged 5 past each opponent in pre season until the league starts the hype is absolutely pointless.
Absolutely, but quality over quantity.
If he has any sense he will be swerving the media and requesting an immediate meeting with the Glazers and telling them to get the cheque book out.
That's the spirit!
He can't say anything else in public. It would exacerbate the situation. I'm sure he knows better.Perfect appointment for the Glazers.
I know what you are getting at. Problem for him is that players in Holland are usually technically better, want to improve themselves so are willing to be coached, a lot to move on to bigger clubs. Coming into a club like United a lot of them think they are already the bees knees. He still needs a big clearout to succeed. Fancy lumbering the poor guy with McFred.
Ive been seeing the same mistakes across the reign of 3 managers now.
Maybe the players dont have the quality to be any better ? Why waste another season in a turd polishing exercise which is bound to fail ?
The never ending links to Poch, the unspecial one
Yeah, I can't see him lasting very long. He'll either be gone by the summer or by the winter next year.
There's literally nothing to consider even before today's game.
Most of these lads aren't up to it and for all their faults, I have say a metric feck tonne of blame has to be put on ETH.
What on earth was he thinking putting Eriksen up front? For all his faults the CF spot should of went to Rashford.
Picking McFred? With Donny AND Garner benched!!
Then drops Malacia after doing well in the last pre season game only to pick Shaw?
And finally a bizarre and utterly pointless triple sub in the 90th minute to change the game.
Potter absolutely humiliated him today, tactically superior in every way.
After one game?
To learn the lessons quickly like happened for the first time ever
Nothing new was learned from today's match. If ETH doesn't already know the problems with this squad, we are well and truly f'kd.
What he says to the media will definitely not be the same thing he is saying to the board if he has any sense
The treble substitution in the 90th minute was a bit disturbing. Had it happened 5-10 min earlier it might have made sense but then again none of the 3 that came on are real game changers at this level, and it just shows how extremely weak our bench is.
Massive Investments are needed and we all have to realise that it is going to be a long term project to turn this club around and hopefully we are strong enough to win the EL and qualify for next year’s CL so we can attract some of the world class players we so desperately need.
Massive Investments are needed and we all have to realise that it is going to be a long term project to turn this club around and hopefully we are strong enough to win the EL and qualify for next year’s CL so we can attract some of the world class players we so desperately need.
I have lots of hope for him. What I don't know however is if we will ever be able to get him a squad that can implement his ideas.
We need 2 midfielders, 1 winger, 1 RB, 1 striker - at least - to even start replacing the long standing problems of our squad.
We need 2 midfielders, 1 winger, 1 RB, 1 striker - at least - to even start replacing the long standing problems of our squad.
Do we love living in perpetual pessimism or what?
It will happen in time, it's a process. I don't expect this squad to win the league but they are still better than what they showed today. The nerves when in possession was LVGesque. We need to support him properly and give him time to implement the plan.
The players have been pathetic under god knows how many managers.
People already writing him off are a special kind of negative though. Even by SadCafe standards.
They were 2-0 up, they let us play knowing we weren't a threat.
He’s not a miracle wonder.
We will see if he learns anything from this game. Playing with a weird formation aside, wth with those three late subs?
But I feel a little bit more at ease though compared to the likes of Ralf at the moment.
But I feel a little bit more at ease though compared to the likes of Ralf at the moment.
Injury to Martial, 400k per week main striker can't prepare for the season, no reinforcements in attack.
Defintion of setting up another manager to fail.
Defintion of setting up another manager to fail.
How can a professional manager look at Dalot and think yeah he's good enough to start lets bring in a LB instead.
Shocking business in the market from us.
Get a few players in and we'd look much better.
ETH isn't Jesus
Shocking business in the market from us.
Get a few players in and we'd look much better.
ETH isn't Jesus
The second half was much better, moving erikson into MF especially improved things.
But the damage was done in the first half.
Hopefully its the last we see of mctominah in MF.
Maybe you can watch the second half again especially when we were able to build the consistent pressure. The whole thing takes time. Imagine you just start to learn polynomial with many theorems. Then, you get a bunch of polynomial questions to solve. How to apply those theorems/formula/statergy to address them? Remember here that 11 players need to do it together in a highly competitive match and they have only fraction of second to apply as a group together.
They simply are not good enough.
My point was that we didn't have anyone to focus on in the central position which confused our own players and wasted a lot of ball going nowhere in the first half which was solved in the second half by playing someone occupying that area and actually was a threat pretty much most of the whole half.
Reality really hit him hard today, thought it was a very arrogant team selection to just throw in Martinez against a very well organised Brighton side.
Those three subs at 89 minutes were pure desperation. He's going to have to adapt quick and make some hard decisions if he's going to be a success.
Those three subs at 89 minutes were pure desperation. He's going to have to adapt quick and make some hard decisions if he's going to be a success.
This fanbase is too hysterical.
Ridiculous that people are already getting on his back. Everyone says we don’t expect to finish in top 4 and one defeat and we are blaming the manager again? It takes time to implement ideas, especially when the squad is very low on confidence.
When the players were put under pressure, they reverted to their old habits, lost their head in the first half. Thats why it takes time - to create automatism under pressure the players need to do the same things again and again till its becomes second nature to them. So that next time they are under pressure, they can rely on these natural instincts to guide them through the tough period.
Pressure - thats the difference between pre season and EPL. Had Bruno scored first half chance, we may have performed very differently.
When the players were put under pressure, they reverted to their old habits, lost their head in the first half. Thats why it takes time - to create automatism under pressure the players need to do the same things again and again till its becomes second nature to them. So that next time they are under pressure, they can rely on these natural instincts to guide them through the tough period.
Pressure - thats the difference between pre season and EPL. Had Bruno scored first half chance, we may have performed very differently.
Needs a season to adapt, it’d be obscene if it’s a champions league or bust scenario given the competition we have.
On today, the team fully bottled it and retreated back to their usual selves. It’ll take a while for Ten Haag’s system to become natural to the players. It’s also a shit fixture to start with. People think ‘oh it’s Brighton we should be popping them’, and the crowd get on the players back when things start going wrong, but they’re always very good against all the top teams. They give City and Liverpool real problems every time they play.
We knew these results were going to happen and the meltdowns are way overboard.
On today, the team fully bottled it and retreated back to their usual selves. It’ll take a while for Ten Haag’s system to become natural to the players. It’s also a shit fixture to start with. People think ‘oh it’s Brighton we should be popping them’, and the crowd get on the players back when things start going wrong, but they’re always very good against all the top teams. They give City and Liverpool real problems every time they play.
We knew these results were going to happen and the meltdowns are way overboard.
If he keeps persisting with Shaw, Maguire, Dalot, Fred & McT he won't be doing himself any favours in the long run. This is supposed to be the hard reset. He has free reign to be as ruthless as possible and the fans will back him. I just hope he follows his instincts rather than being another Gazza Southgate.
The sorry state of our club is not on him.
The first half performance, though, is. As the commentator in my country said at one point, United were playing with a false #9, a false #10, a quasi #6 and a quasi #8. If there's a name for this, that would be "suicide tactics".
All the teams, in this first week, fielded tactics and player roles on which they had worked in their pre-seasons. Sorry, all but one. Again, the lack of depth is painfully obvious. But you can't have one injury sending you into the multiverse of tactics. Why have a pre-season, then? I believe ETH is a smart man, so won't see much of that in the following weeks. In any case, we aren't Ajax in the Eredivisie. The quality that can allow the manager to go a tad overboard with experimentations is simply not there. Furthermore, ETH is not facing, week in and week out, managers who try to make a stew out of the Dutch 433 no matter the defensive costs or the players weaknesses any more. At this level, most of the managers he'll come up against have earned their bread in the PL. If you offer them the three points, they'll take them. It goes without saying for Potter. This is something even Pep and Klopp were forced to realize sooner rather than later and make adjustments.
I argued at the start of the summer, when some on here were dreaming about Bruno or Eriksen as false #9s, that this is one of the toughest tactics to pull off in football and i would be unpleasantly surprised, if ETH tried it without coaching his team for at least a whole season and bringing in the players that will allow him to lay the foundations of his philosophy. Today, the most worrying fact for me was the "why". We basically sacrificed a forward role on the pitch so that we could get McTominay close to the box. That's comical stuff, really.
And as the saying goes, if you don't show the football gods respect, they will punish you. First, goal: McT gets easily dispossessed in the attacking half, Fred does what Fred does best (gets drawn to the ball like a headless chicken), and a forward's simple run (the kind of run we chose not to have) opens up the defence. The second goal was pretty much the same, with Eriksen getting caught while McT was sauntering at the edge of the box. Which brings up another issue that goes back to the Solskjaer debacle last season. If you have limited players on the ball, the best thing to do is keep it plain and simple. The likes of McFred, Dalot, even Rashford and Martial aren't exactly made for expansive football.
In the second half, things got just a tiny bit better because the roles made more sense. Eriksen isn't a holding midfielder, but he can pass the ball through the lines better than Fred. Which makes the debacle with FdJ reflect even worse on the club, because it made pretty clear how desperate we are for a player in those areas. Also, if we are going to use the Dane heavily in our possession game, and with the fact that both Martial and Ronnie like to play in between the lines... that kind of makes Bruno redundant, doesn't it? And it showed today. And, given Bruno's numbers, that could be a riddle to solve.
The first half performance, though, is. As the commentator in my country said at one point, United were playing with a false #9, a false #10, a quasi #6 and a quasi #8. If there's a name for this, that would be "suicide tactics".
All the teams, in this first week, fielded tactics and player roles on which they had worked in their pre-seasons. Sorry, all but one. Again, the lack of depth is painfully obvious. But you can't have one injury sending you into the multiverse of tactics. Why have a pre-season, then? I believe ETH is a smart man, so won't see much of that in the following weeks. In any case, we aren't Ajax in the Eredivisie. The quality that can allow the manager to go a tad overboard with experimentations is simply not there. Furthermore, ETH is not facing, week in and week out, managers who try to make a stew out of the Dutch 433 no matter the defensive costs or the players weaknesses any more. At this level, most of the managers he'll come up against have earned their bread in the PL. If you offer them the three points, they'll take them. It goes without saying for Potter. This is something even Pep and Klopp were forced to realize sooner rather than later and make adjustments.
I argued at the start of the summer, when some on here were dreaming about Bruno or Eriksen as false #9s, that this is one of the toughest tactics to pull off in football and i would be unpleasantly surprised, if ETH tried it without coaching his team for at least a whole season and bringing in the players that will allow him to lay the foundations of his philosophy. Today, the most worrying fact for me was the "why". We basically sacrificed a forward role on the pitch so that we could get McTominay close to the box. That's comical stuff, really.
And as the saying goes, if you don't show the football gods respect, they will punish you. First, goal: McT gets easily dispossessed in the attacking half, Fred does what Fred does best (gets drawn to the ball like a headless chicken), and a forward's simple run (the kind of run we chose not to have) opens up the defence. The second goal was pretty much the same, with Eriksen getting caught while McT was sauntering at the edge of the box. Which brings up another issue that goes back to the Solskjaer debacle last season. If you have limited players on the ball, the best thing to do is keep it plain and simple. The likes of McFred, Dalot, even Rashford and Martial aren't exactly made for expansive football.
In the second half, things got just a tiny bit better because the roles made more sense. Eriksen isn't a holding midfielder, but he can pass the ball through the lines better than Fred. Which makes the debacle with FdJ reflect even worse on the club, because it made pretty clear how desperate we are for a player in those areas. Also, if we are going to use the Dane heavily in our possession game, and with the fact that both Martial and Ronnie like to play in between the lines... that kind of makes Bruno redundant, doesn't it? And it showed today. And, given Bruno's numbers, that could be a riddle to solve.
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