Erik ten Hag | 2022/23 & 2023/24

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We are, but if he uses McFred as first XI throughout the season, it's doomed.

Every manager that used McFred got the same treatment. Ten Hag should too.

its clear for 3 years that we cannot control a midfield offensively or defensively with McFred.
 
He was outcoached comprehensively in the first half. Brighton set up to shut down his system and he didn't have any adjustments in game. The second half was a bit better but still underwhelming. His triple substitution on 90 minutes was bizzare. It kiboshed any chance of getting back into it by changing too much. Brighton saw the game out with ease in the end.

He does need someone like De Jong in the middle of the park though. Both McT and Fred are too inept/afraid to take the ball under pressure.
 
Wow. This is a lot more negative than anticipated.

We’re giving him more than one game right?
Yes, of course. He's an excellent coach and I hope he's given at least a couple seasons to stamp his mark and build something decent. We are still allowed to discuss and be critical, however.
He's made a very naive start to the season, and his desire to sign Arnautovic is a huge red flag for me. It reminds me of Moyes taking over, chasing Fabregas all summer, failing, and then resorting to buying a shit player he was familiar with
 
Every manager that used McFred got the same treatment. Ten Hag should too.

its clear for 3 years that we cannot control a midfield offensively or defensively with McFred.

But there is a reason why he started them. He could have signed new midfielders…..he signed a LB and CB, which arguably was less of a priority
 
But there is a reason why he started them. He could have signed new midfielders…..he signed a LB and CB, which arguably was less of a priority
We know theres a reason. But we've watched him longer than he has I bet, and whatever reasoning he had is clearly flawed.
 
In that 90 minutes he’ll have learnt more about these players than the entire preseason. Next few games will be more of the same and realisation will set in about just how big a job this is. He’ll be wishing he could start window all over again.

He’ll quickly work out all the things he was told by those already at the club about the players and how good they really are is total nonsense.
 
We know theres a reason. But we've watched him longer than he has I bet, and whatever reasoning he had is clearly flawed.

So you are saying that a manager that has built a rep on being meticulous hasn’t watched what he was inheriting. Don’t make me laugh. If it’s flawed, must be the same as the previous managers too….
 
In that 90 minutes he’ll have learnt more about these players than the entire preseason. Next few games will be more of the same and realisation will set in about just how big a job this is. He’ll be wishing he could start window all over again.

He’ll quickly work out all the things he was told by those already at the club about the players and how good they really are is total nonsense.

…..pretty sure he would have done his own homework.
 
I hope things kick on soon and we get the players he needs.

2nd half of the season you should expect some visible progress. The players need to be drilled into the movements enough times that it becomes muscle memory. That doesn't happen overnight.

YOu can see that so many of the players were hesitating or lost on what to do next.

Example -- Dalot. Going forward he is an inverted FB who some reason forgot to track back to his default position when we lost possession and into the back four to allow that space for Gross to score. In fact, both goals were uncontested shots. That's fixable.
 
I think his comment about lack of belief is quite telling. In a way, it speaks volumes about how this lot play when there is no pressure on the result vs when there is something riding on the game.
 
…..pretty sure he would have done his own homework.

There is always research and analysis. But then when it all kicks off, against live opponents, its always different.

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That will be part of the learning curve. What he had expected of Potter turned out to be contrary of what he thought.

Like Tyson, brilliant managers like Pep and Klopp struggled and had to go on a steep learning curve in their first 12-18 months.

One game tells us nothing about ETH. Or even one season.

This early in his tenure, his United has very few approaches or ways of playing. It will be easy for teams to suss us out at the moment. When he adds more options to his playbook then we will be more difficult to beat.
 
…..pretty sure he would have done his own homework.

Clearly but that homework will have involved hearing opinions of others and he’ll only have done so much.

His opinion on these players will probably be totally different after 6 or 7 games to what it was before yesterday and if it isn’t he’s doomed already.
 
But there is a reason why he started them. He could have signed new midfielders…..he signed a LB and CB, which arguably was less of a priority

Yes, I agree but he clearly wants FDJ. The club have obviously told him they can get him and have failed.

Regardless of the manager, the club should have enough football acumen to realise that McFred aren't good so they need to scout midfielders. Its not rocket science imo
 
I hope he learns quickly, no way in hell can a midfield of Mcfred and Bruno play possession football, they're going to be pressed and they'll loose their shit every time. No coaching can fix that.
 
He will have learnt a lot from yesterday. A few hard lessons. It’s probably better that there isn’t some unreal expectation after one game and now we go again. Rome wasn’t built in a day and all that….

The FDJ saga though has been a real problem though - all eggs in 1 basket and now we’ve got to do some drastic work…..when we kept hearing we were keeping other options ‘warm’ - I worry what ‘warm’ looks like based on Arnutovic….
 
I hope he learns quickly, no way in hell can a midfield of Mcfred and Bruno play possession football, they're going to be pressed and they'll loose their shit every time. No coaching can fix that.

Its clear they aren't playing his way or his footballing philosophy. Fast attacking possession football.

They need to be drilled in further to make it muscle memory.
 
There is always research and analysis. But then when it all kicks off, against live opponents, its always different.

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That will be part of the learning curve. What he had expected of Potter turned out to be contrary of what he thought.

Like Tyson, brilliant managers like Pep and Klopp struggled and had to go on a steep learning curve in their first 12-18 months.

One game tells us nothing about ETH. Or even one season.

This early in his tenure, his United has very few approaches or ways of playing. It will be easy for teams to suss us out at the moment. When he adds more options to his playbook then we will be more difficult to beat.

Agree the best understand that boxing generally means there is no surprise that thats what happens. Im not suggesting he’s the problem, just that the problems we think it is, might not be the same.
 
Ah, that one again. If you read the Dutch original, he says that it's 'doodzonde' what happened to Van de Beek. That indeed means 'mortal sin' if you translate it literally (or actually: 'dead sin'), but that's not what it means. It means 'great pity' in Dutch, and what Ten Hag was saying, is that it's a great pity what happened with Van de Beek. It wasn't a criticism of United, but a reflection on how things turned out for Van de Beek after his transfer.

I had been wondering about that. I thought it was a bit weird at the time. Thanks.
 
Drop points against Brentford and we find ourselves in a real deep shite. Even if we win, it will certianly be a loss against the scousers, thus 3 points from the first three games. Another right off could be on hands come November.
 
Clearly but that homework will have involved hearing opinions of others and he’ll only have done so much.

His opinion on these players will probably be totally different after 6 or 7 games to what it was before yesterday and if it isn’t he’s doomed already.

or not. I’m sure people said the same of the managers before him.….
 
Drop points against Brentford and we find ourselves in a real deep shite. Even if we win, it will certianly be a loss against the scousers, thus 3 points from the first three games. Another right off could be on hands come November.

I think it might be sooner than that if we persist with Mcfred midfield.
 
Drop points against Brentford and we find ourselves in a real deep shite. Even if we win, it will certianly be a loss against the scousers, thus 3 points from the first three games. Another right off could be on hands come November.

You must be expecting us to be in the Top 4 by the end of the season?
 
Wow. This is a lot more negative than anticipated.

We’re giving him more than one game right?
I think people are shocked not by the result, but the fact he played Mcfred and wants fecking Arnautovic
 
Yes, I agree but he clearly wants FDJ. The club have obviously told him they can get him and have failed.

Regardless of the manager, the club should have enough football acumen to realise that McFred aren't good so they need to scout midfielders. Its not rocket science imo

Well it’s turning into a science cause it’s the same discussion at the start of another season with another new manager.
 
Drop points against Brentford and we find ourselves in a real deep shite. Even if we win, it will certianly be a loss against the scousers, thus 3 points from the first three games. Another right off could be on hands come November.
Depends on the other top 6 sides. If similar to the past few years a strong second half of the season could be enough to challenge for top 4.

He needs and should get time, while I'm concerned about his transfer targets, this is something that he shouldn't be burdened with anyway.
 
Wow. This is a lot more negative than anticipated.

We’re giving him more than one game right?

Of course.

we got to stick with him and put some trust in him.

what I would say though, after watching this team game after game, manager after manager, excuse after excuse… we needed him to be ruthless, we all know these players. We’ve seen it over and over. They are not good enough. Giving them a clean slate and playing pretty much the same team that the previous managers have played.. it isn’t going to work.

it shows that the powers that be believe it was the previous managers and not the players.. getting a POTENTIAL top manager and just chucking him in would sort it. That’s not the case, this entire squad needs a reboot. We need ETH to be the change.

that team that played yesterday needs to replace one centre back, a right back, two midfielders, right wing, left wing and a striker to be competitive with the big boys because the ones we have are nowhere near good enough when compared with the likes of city and liverpool, that’s 7 of the 11. You got to pretty much have world class in every position. If he thinks just coming in and changing their fitness levels, tactics and routines will do it, it won’t.

Hopefully that game will really bring a shock to him that causes a reaction. A change has to come.
 
There is always research and analysis. But then when it all kicks off, against live opponents, its always different.

0*SF8MoBa0HCATEpUb.jpg



That will be part of the learning curve. What he had expected of Potter turned out to be contrary of what he thought.

Like Tyson, brilliant managers like Pep and Klopp struggled and had to go on a steep learning curve in their first 12-18 months.

One game tells us nothing about ETH. Or even one season.

This early in his tenure, his United has very few approaches or ways of playing. It will be easy for teams to suss us out at the moment. When he adds more options to his playbook then we will be more difficult to beat.
That's the key. As fans we have to separate what can be rightfully criticized as a tactical decision for 1 game and the overall assessment of the manager which can't be done this early. Personally, my issue is just for this game, it's not affecting my general view of ETH
 
Am I right in thinking that the clubs he managed previously all struggled a bit for the first few months? His track record as a coach suggests he will improve the team given time, but these things take months, not weeks.

Having said that, no manager on earth could improve the players we have to the extent required. Our window has been really poor with our inability to replace the McFred duo. We’ve got other weaknesses too but that’s the glaring one. You can’t win football matches if you don’t have control in the midfield and the ability to move the ball through the lines.

We’ve got to get FDJ over the line or Murthough will be buried by the fans, whether he’s better than Woodward or not.
He won’t be afforded that luxury at United unfortunately.

My biggest concern about bringing someone like Ten Hag in is that it could take a year before we start looking good and it’s the system or nothing when it comes to playing style. We aren’t going to do a City and spend a billion trying to find the right combination of defenders for him.
 
or not. I’m sure people said the same of the managers before him.….

That’s a possibility but he won’t last long with his brand of football and these players, it’s a recipe for disaster. I don’t think it will be long before we see a back 5 and a much more cautious approach.

He’s also surrounded by incompetent people off the field and we’re probably entering more ‘no value’ years so even if he does know what to do he probably won’t be able to do it.
 
First impression of him is not too good. Going after Dutch players or from Eredevisie mainly is a worry like Neville said.

But all the fans wanted ETH. Just hope it doesn't end up like with LvG, Jose, Ralf where all fans also wanted them.
 
First impression of him is not too good. Going after Dutch players or from Eredevisie mainly is a worry like Neville said.

But all the fans wanted ETH. Just hope it doesn't end up like with LvG, Jose, Ralf where all fans also wanted them.
Got more of a Sarri vibe than anything at the moment.
 
Depends on the other top 6 sides. If similar to the past few years a strong second half of the season could be enough to challenge for top 4.

He needs and should get time, while I'm concerned about his transfer targets, this is something that he shouldn't be burdened with anyway.
People in charge of our transfers have hardly set the world alight in the last 10 years. Seems like they are now allowing Erik to buy who he wants. If things go south, it will all be on the gaffer. Unfortunately, we are one of the least competent footbal clubs in the world. Luckily, we still have that heritage and nostalgia of glorious SAF years, but those are eroding very fast.
 
Yeah. Not the first few months I was hoping to see. That said, we are just one game in and of course all can change very quick.
It can and I’ll always support the manager regardless but the scrutiny here is going to be unreal, this isn’t Holland, this isn’t Ajax, you don’t get time here.
 
It can and I’ll always support the manager regardless but the scrutiny here is going to be unreal, this isn’t Holland, this isn’t Ajax, you don’t get time here.
True. And the club backing him with signing Dutch/Eredevisie players will be another big rebuild if ETH fails. With Ole we started with signing British players, that seems all gone now. We just have no long term plan.
 
If we could give Ole 3 Years of our United Lives.....Im willing to give ETH 10 Years for his project!

I think we will see a real transformation if by miracle we get 4th spot which would then allow us to get top notch players

Im going to be very patient with him and ready for dissapointments.
 
He is doing himself no favors and it's not wrong to call him out on it. It doesn't mean "kNiVeS aRe oUt aLrEaDy".

It's obvious his influence during this transfer window is not insignificant. This obsession to primarily have players he has worked with before is weird and shortsighted. A competent DoF would step in in this situation, but Murtough is as incompent as Woodward, so that's obviously not happening. So it's up to Ten Hag to forge his own destiny. The way he is going about it doesn't exactly inspire confidence so far. De Jong or bust? What about a DM? And a 33-year-old Arnautovic!? Really?

I think he is a bit naive and is both overestimating what he has and underestimating the league. And no, I don't want to hear how McTominay was rated by 4 other managers so he must be good.
Well, I agree that’s mostly the fault of not having a competent sporting director who can fix the style Ten Hag plays and we want to play and find players who will fit right in. Instead we have a guy who is only there because we have a rotten board who works by nepotism.
this Ten Hag tendency to want only players he knows from work is only because he always had a competent director and CEO above him. Times of managers doing it all are gone.
We will stay in dire state as long as we don’t recruit competent people from outside the club. I am not optimistic.
 
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