He said in his press conference "we are on our way to construct a team for the future", "the team plays with an identity", "the team is progressing"..
Really not sure about that.
If we had taken the Arsenal/Arteta approach of building an a young squad and were gradually working towards a possession based style with the team's league position improving season on season as the young team gets more experienced, then you could have some sympathy. But he's actually made us significantly worse from previous season, so I'm not seeing the progress he's talking about. Granted you could say he's a victim of his own success of finishing 3rd in his first season, but there's no excuse to take us from 3rd to 8th,
This "team for the future" is so far away too as I look at our squad and I honestly wouldn't mind seeing 15 players leave this summer. The squad is full of injury prone players, past their prime older players, players who aren't good enough, and players who are fundamentally unsuited to a team who keeps possession of the football. And his hand-picked signings haven't done anything to improve the overall squad quality. If he wanted a team for the future the last thing he should have done is spunk 70m up the wall on Casemiro who's legs have gone and is ready to be shipped off to Saudi.
I'd rather have seen us finished 6th in his first season and 4th in his second season (with improved performance metrics), compared to 3rd in his first season and 8th in his second. At least we'd be able to see some signs that the more time the manager has, the more progress he will make with the team. Right now with Ten Hag you feel he's just as likely to take us backwards than he is forwards.
And we must not forget, we were lucky to be 8th this season. We performed like a lower half side. 14th/15th wouldn't have been an unfair reflection of our standard of play this season.