Erik ten Hag | 2022/23 & 2023/24

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I imagine not.

If you look at Reguilons starts in the PL for us, he would start a game then be on the bench the next, then start the next 2-3 then on the bench again. So to say he was only fit enough for the bench is speculation. What we can say though is if he was on the bench he was available, certainly in games where he started the games before and after.

https://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/sergio-reguilon/leistungsdaten/spieler/282429
Didn't reguilon have an extended period injured? Did he return back on the bench?

I'm just curious at why you think a long injury can't be linked to managed minutes on the pitch.
 
I imagine not.

If you look at Reguilons starts in the PL for us, he would start a game then be on the bench the next, then start the next 2-3 then on the bench again. So to say he was only fit enough for the bench is speculation. What we can say though is if he was on the bench he was available, certainly in games where he started the games before and after.

https://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/sergio-reguilon/leistungsdaten/spieler/282429
No need to be arsey with me.

Him being on the bench is speculation as to how fit he is and how available as a result ergo subjective and not something I’m interested in debating because it will become circular.

22 occasions no LB.
 
This groundswell of support for Ten Hag is real, hearing it when I talk to any other Utd fans at work, traveling, whenever. A lot of blame being pointed at the club, the owner, players letting him down and injuries, can understand to a point, an FA Cup win is no small deal.

I start to feel as if I imagined this season though and all of those games of Utd being catastrophically inept, every team they played having an amateurish amount of space to play in are just a figment, that all those underlying stats illustrating just how bad it was are irrelevant and that is was obviously only injuries that were causing this, just have to blank all those games with strong line ups that Utd got smashed in out.

22 occasions no LB, out of his control, about 50 occasions no midfield, by choice.
 
Leaked pros and cons list from INEOS about Ten Hag;


Pros
- Great at integrating youth into the first team.
- Players still seem to be on board with him as manager.
- Says "cup" in a funny way and appears to do well in cups, so plenty of potential to keep hearing "cup" said in hilarious ways.

Cons
- City
- We've been terrible all season.
 
I know it’s been parroted repeatedly but we simply wouldn’t have won two trophies if we couldn’t get the basics right. I’d argue the performances since Newcastle are examples of us going back to basics and doing it very well. If we keep him at this point we have no idea where we will end up, especially with the new structure. Regardless of the manager Ashworth, Wilcox and co could end up anywhere from genius to us all wanting to sack them within 12/24 months.
So why didn't we go back to basic months earlier and we may have got CL football and not be pleading with UEFA about playing in EL. He appears to want to win trophies, but the easy to win ones that will make his CV look good.
 
Good post. I think possession football would be a tall order given the state of the squad we have now. I don’t understand why we didn’t play a more narrow shape given how easy it was for teams to breeze through the midfield though.
That’s another question, and a good one. My best guess at this point would be that there is a trade-off when you have a preseason and a squad preparing for implementing a Plan A (that is not yet solidly founded in all the squad) and get injuries. Do you change around tactics and waste much of the work implementing a Plan A, then start on scratch when the first eleven is normalized, or do you stick to a Plan A with ill fitted pieces and a few tweaks to keep the implementation process rolling over a few humps, hoping to get a quick boost when injuries pass?

An argument for this is that when many of the injuries passed, in January, we immediately had an improvement in results, general play and stability, winning 7 in 9, until new outbreak of injuries. If not for the second outbreak, chances are we would have qualified for CL with Plan A looking increasingly sensible, and the end of season review would have been more favourable.

I think we should remember that last season, Ten Hag was lauded for being pragmatical with the players at hand after a cold shower opening. He is capable of both changing plans and using different strategies even with this squad. When he didn’t this season, it’s still on him, but I don’t buy the explanation he is one- dimensional, rigid, or tactically unintelligent. He has proved the opposite several times outside of this season.

So my guess is that he tried to predict the development of the season in relation to his implementation plan and availability of first choices, and he missed.
 
I feel like we may be taking Journalist briefs as bible, and I think they may just be giving information that's not inaccurate but perceived to be incompetent.

To me it feels like Wilcox began his audit many weeks ago, collating player sentiment, training methods, medical staff etc. Into account.

That review of course needs to be submitted and discussed but you can only naturally do that at the close of the season.

So they're likely debating it out now. The brief of Ten hag being certainly sacked stemmed from a London journo not normally privy to United exclusive scoop. It's more than likely he jumped the gun from agent info and didn't piece together the full story.

I'm not saying I wholly believe the journalists, just saying that IF those reports are accurate then it sounds alarm bells ringing for me with regards to how we will operate going forwrad.

I still somewhat think Ten Hag WILL be sacked because I don't think you meet with multiple different potential managers during the season and then go into radio silence post FA cup win if you're keeping him. Logic would say you'd back him the next day. But honestly at this point I'm pretty much over the drama of it all and just want a decision to be made. I just didn't want that decision made off the back of a single game either way.

Just give me transfer rumors instead at this point.
 
This groundswell of support for Ten Hag is real, hearing it when I talk to any other Utd fans at work, traveling, whenever. A lot of blame being pointed at the club, the owner, players letting him down and injuries, can understand to a point, an FA Cup win is no small deal.

I start to feel as if I imagined this season though and all of those games of Utd being catastrophically inept, every team they played having an amateurish amount of space to play in are just a figment, that all those underlying stats illustrating just how bad it was are irrelevant and that is was obviously only injuries that were causing this, just have to blank all those games with strong line ups that Utd got smashed in out.

22 occasions no LB, out of his control, about 50 occasions no midfield, by choice.
I think they may keep him but he sure as hell needs a good start to next season as there will be no excuses this time. He will need that fan support and the team will need to be showing a lot better style of football. If we are still playing dire football and shipping goals for fun and the fans are still behind him, then the whole club is screwed.
 
Didn't reguilon have an extended period injured? Did he return back on the bench?

I'm just curious at why you think a long injury can't be linked to managed minutes on the pitch.

What was the injury?
 
Leaked pros and cons list from INEOS about Ten Hag;


Pros
- Great at integrating youth into the first team.
- Players still seem to be on board with him as manager.
- Says "cup" in a funny way and appears to do well in cups, so plenty of potential to keep hearing "cup" said in hilarious ways.

Cons
- City
- We've been terrible all season.
Does breaking Pool not count for anything?
 
No need to be arsey with me.

Him being on the bench is speculation as to how fit he is and how available as a result ergo subjective and not something I’m interested in debating because it will become circular.

22 occasions no LB.

No idea why you think I'm the one being arsey.

If a player is on the bench it could be for any number of reasons, they aren't quite fit as you've said, they're being disciplined, form, tactics, out of favour etc. So just because a player is in the matchday squad is on the bench you can't then assume they weren't fit. That's all I was saying.

The 22 games is correct and I wasn't disputing that.
 
He was out 3 weeks, from late september to mid October, for what The Athletic described as a minor injury.

Yep, he missed 4 games, then as far as I can tell was available for the rest of his time here.
 
That they were either out of their depth or the competition was stiffer? England at the moment and for the first time has the best squad arguably in the world.
So Robson, Venables, Hoddle, Sven and Capello were out of their depth, the competition is ALWAYS stiff, England do have a good squad, it contains quite a few inexperienced international players and is not that strong defensilvely, we've had better squads in the past
 
I know it’s been parroted repeatedly but we simply wouldn’t have won two trophies if we couldn’t get the basics right. I’d argue the performances since Newcastle are examples of us going back to basics and doing it very well. If we keep him at this point we have no idea where we will end up, especially with the new structure. Regardless of the manager Ashworth, Wilcox and co could end up anywhere from genius to us all wanting to sack them within 12/24 months.
We got the basics right in a one off game, yeah. Where was that for the rest of the season? You have to deliver consistency at the top clubs and we haven't come close to doing that this season.

I actually think the City game acts as a case against Ten Hag. You can see what this team is capable of if you have a proper gameplan and a touch of pragmatism. That same pragmatism is what brought us the relative success we had last season too, we certainly weren't blowing teams away. Ten Hag inexplicably changed tact over the summer and we've paid the price for it in every other competition by being ridiculously open.

Even if you isolate it to only the last month, we have blown a goal 3 lead against Championship opposition and were fortunate to see it through on pens. We lost 4-0 away to a midtable Premier League side. These things were the result of playing a style of football that's completely incompatible with our team, and even more so when you factor in the injuries.

As far as I'm concerned, the manager has proven he's incapable of recognising how to adjust to the needs of the team. There's no structure that can fix flaws as fundamental as those ones. I can forgive getting it wrong once, twice, or even a few times. When you've stubbornly persisted with a tactic that isn't fit for purpose for the majority of the season, that is unacceptable.
 


These are his words. He’s obviously changed course with his play style from Ajax which is clear with the chaotic ball we’ve watched for majority of the season.

I wouldn’t mind him staying if he decides to play more possession football, the reason we got him in the first place. His Ajax style is still the best out of all these managers we’ve been linked with


The thread to that tweet sums up my thoughts exactly on what he's trying to do. Yes it would be better with less injuries, but it's a style he's trying to implement that can lack control in games (everyone seems to have forgotten about this issue all season) and had a low ceiling. I think there'll be too many games where shit housing goals in that way simply won't work.

We've seen it this season already, but people only focus on the injuries. I remember Brighton early on at home, we started well and it seemed to be working, but after 5 or 10 minutes RDZ saw the gaps, made adjustments and we got absolutely played off the park. And that was when Brighton had a load of injuries and we didn't. Unfortunately most fans will only realise this once it's too late and we're deep into next season, or at some point in the future. There is a limit to Ten Hag that is there for everyone to see if you are willing to see it.
 
It wasn't "ages" ffs :lol: as others have said it was 3 weeks, including an international break
Yeah not ages you're right. But being injured for a month isn't short either. Either way his minutes needed management when he came back for a brief period.
 
It wasn't "ages" ffs :lol: as others have said it was 3 weeks, including an international break
For a short term loan Sept - Jan meaning 4 months total that does mean he was injured for ~ 20% of his loan period not including then recovery time etc
 
The thread to that tweet sums up my thoughts exactly on what he's trying to do. Yes it would be better with less injuries, but it's a style he's trying to implement that can lack control in games (everyone seems to have forgotten about this issue all season) and had a low ceiling. I think there'll be too many games where shit housing goals in that way simply won't work.

We've seen it this season already, but people only focus on the injuries. I remember Brighton early on at home, we started well and it seemed to be working, but after 5 or 10 minutes RDZ saw the gaps, made adjustments and we got absolutely played off the park. And that was when Brighton had a load of injuries and we didn't. Unfortunately most fans will only realise this once it's too late and we're deep into next season, or at some point in the future. There is a limit to Ten Hag that is there for everyone to see if you are willing to see it.

Early in the season Spurs toyed with us with Bissouma being constantly open just behind our front four.
 
Early in the season Spurs toyed with us with Bissouma being constantly open just behind our front four.

I remember that game, thing is when you watch it back it was actually a very even game



Even stat wise, I do remember Bissouma running through the midfield though.
 
I remember that game, thing is when you watch it back it was actually a very even game



Even stat wise, I do remember Bissouma running through the midfield though.

I recall being somewhat unimpressed by that game but yeah, watching back it doesn't look like Spurs dominance at all. We really should have scored some of those chances and I think we had a penalty appeal turned down that was obvious.
 
I remember that game, thing is when you watch it back it was actually a very even game



Even stat wise, I do remember Bissouma running through the midfield though.


If I remember correctly they were terrible in the last third.
 
I'm a little at odds with the situation personally. I think you change a manager when:

1. They have clearly lost the dressing room
2. Bad in-game management and team selection
3. Their tactics are never going to work

All of this is really reading tea leaves. With Ole and Mourinho I think they solidly had 2 of the 3 pretty much as a given to most that paid attention. For ETH it's not as clear to me. The players seem to generally like and play hard for ETH. Thats not insignificant.

His tactics in big games seem to translate as well. This is the one area I think Mourinho also did a decent job with (but he lost #1 to such a degree that him staying on was impossible). Winning tactics in a final is very very very hard, but ETH always has seem to have a knack for it. Thats a very valuable trait.

And for #2...I would say this year is somewhat incomplete. The injuries this year were massive. Especially in the back. The one thing the FA final told me was that having that back line consistently could have meant a much different season. The domino effect seemed huge in that game. At minimum we need to upgrade our talent there, but if we do why wouldn't we think ETH would be able to maximize it after that final and the performances last year? I also think his team selections were actually pretty decent given what he had to work with. There were some head scratchers that turned out to be bad, but it was also a pretty challenging year trying to piece together a team based on availability. His use of Mainoo was incredible as well, since I think a lot of managers would not have given him that level of responsibility at this age (which he completely earned and the team was rewarded for).

So at the end of the day, I guess I've come to the place where I think ETH should get one more go. IMHO, the large issues this year were a few very bad dressing rooms fits (the Sancho situation being a given here), and a very bad rash of injuries. I agree (at this point) with ETH's assessment that if he leaves he'll win somewhere else. I think he's a proper big time manager. He needs some time to really guide this team to his vision. If that's still spinning wheels in a year, then thats the time to cut bait. I don't see him as the biggest issue here...
 
We should have been out of sight by half time in that game.

We had an xG of 2.1. So no there wasn't really a point in the game where we should have been out of sight.
 
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We had an xG of 1.7. So no there wasn't really a point in the game where we should have been out of sight.

Your always right :wenger:, no your not.

Use your god given goggles above. Is the own goal class an xG thingy?
 
We got the basics right in a one off game, yeah. Where was that for the rest of the season? You have to deliver consistency at the top clubs and we haven't come close to doing that this season.

I actually think the City game acts as a case against Ten Hag. You can see what this team is capable of if you have a proper gameplan and a touch of pragmatism. That same pragmatism is what brought us the relative success we had last season too, we certainly weren't blowing teams away. Ten Hag inexplicably changed tact over the summer and we've paid the price for it in every other competition by being ridiculously open.

Even if you isolate it to only the last month, we have blown a goal 3 lead against Championship opposition and were fortunate to see it through on pens. We lost 4-0 away to a midtable Premier League side. These things were the result of playing a style of football that's completely incompatible with our team, and even more so when you factor in the injuries.

As far as I'm concerned, the manager has proven he's incapable of recognising how to adjust to the needs of the team. There's no structure that can fix flaws as fundamental as those ones. I can forgive getting it wrong once, twice, or even a few times. When you've stubbornly persisted with a tactic that isn't fit for purpose for the majority of the season, that is unacceptable.
I think the tactical change against Newcastle has benefitted us, massively. It’s only three matches, but it’s a big improvement. I don’t know if it means we will continue to improve with that style, but I do think we created a strong tactical setup for those matches.
So why didn't we go back to basic months earlier and we may have got CL football and not be pleading with UEFA about playing in EL. He appears to want to win trophies, but the easy to win ones that will make his CV look good.
We should have, I agree. He appears to want to win trophies? Of course he wants to, all managers do. There are no easy to win trophies in England, if he wanted that he would have moved to a top team in a weaker league, or just stayed at Ajax.
 
Interesting to see that Paddy Power has odds on Ten Hag being in charge at the first day of next season or not.

Not to be in charge - 8/13
To still be in charge - 11/10
 
Understood.

We definitely should have scored 2/3 goals by half time in that game. We missed some absolute sitters and completely dominated Spurs for the first 30/40 minutes, actually I think that was the best we played all season. The second half was rubbish for us and overall the game was pretty even
 
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