Erik ten Hag | 2022/23 & 2023/24

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We are notoriously known to be one of the most hated fanbases in the game. There is a minority of our fanbase can understand why - seem to be happy if we fail to prove they were right.

There are a lot of “ten haag out fans” who wouldn’t mind us struggling at the start of the season and that culture is rotten
 
As to why Rashford started underperforming (again):
has probably little to do with tactics. He missed chances that he put away the year before. Someone could do a stat analysis to either corroborate or disprove that.

Rashford got a new PR agency in September 2023. The same as that of Sancho and Varane.

Ten Hag fell out with both Sancho and Varane at the beginning of the season, and Rashford had disciplinary issues a few times.

As with Sancho, the problem is probably between the ears.

What do you do when you are out of form? Sulk, or work hard? Rashford does one of those two things only.

It is best if he looks for a new challenge.
Well, since you ask, I’m probably more inclined to sulk ;)

Apart from that, it seems that the PR Agency is the real problem here.
 
Please I beg of you, cut it out.
Not sure what you mean. I’ve said I’m not going to do my routine anymore and I’m not, the above is a normal comment. We have some very challenging fixtures to start the league and people should manage their expectations, especially if we take more than we should to bring new players in. 6 points is obviously extreme as we are capable of getting more but if we are struggling come August-September context should be taken into consideration.
 
Not sure what you mean. I’ve said I’m not going to do my routine anymore and I’m not, the above is a normal comment. We have some very challenging fixtures to start the league and people should manage their expectations, especially if we take more than we should to bring new players in. 6 points is obviously extreme as we are capable of getting more but if we are struggling come August-September context should be taken into consideration.
if we are struggling in September this place will be on fire and the media frenzy will be at an all time high.

Erik Ten Hag has to ensure the team are set up and coached properly to start the league campaign strong otherwise he is finished.
 
if we are struggling in September this place will be on fire and the media frenzy will be at an all time high.

Erik Ten Hag has to ensure the team are set up and coached properly to start the league campaign strong otherwise he is finished.
As it should. 3rd season in, there are no "freshman" or "not his squad" excuses.
 
well I know a couple people who genuinely hate ETH and would love to be proven right, so their must be plenty. Also just have a look on Twitter/fan channels and you’ll see a lot of it.

I dont really use twitter anymore. United fans on there seem completely unhinged. Most fan channels I have seen are very pro Ten Hag. The only one that is Ten Hag out is Terrence from the Football Terrace but he has said he wants Ten Hag to prove him wrong, much like most the Ten Hag out people I have seen on here.
 
I don't think Ineos should compromise on what they want. Perhaps he could be a great head coach but if he's not willing to be flexible then we should just agree he leaves at the end of his contract and we get in a replacement for 2025/26.
Yes agree with this. He has a season left anyway and the longer it went on the more power goes to Ratcliffe in a deal to keep TH
 
An upgrade is anything that produces better results. A manager of generally the same tier being an upgrade is not where the space time continuum will break.
From 8th to 7th or even 5th isn't an upgrade. That's beside the point that I don't agree that Tuchel is an upgrade whatsoever nor do I believe he can be a long-term manager here. A slight bump to top 4 with zero trophies then a complete collapse in the second season in which he goes out guns blazing and we're right back to square one.

Firstly, we don't know the reasons as to why they've decided to stick with Ten Hag. Could be that they genuinely believe he's the best for the club at the moment, could be monetary reasons, etc. Secondly, and more importantly, the supposed wisdom/smart insight in this decision is yet to be corroborated. We won't have a verdict for at least another season.

Ultimately, my statement was that yes, underperforming managers should be sacked. You then asked if Ten Hag is underperforming, to which I replied with my opinion that he is and simply pointed to the divide in the fanbase and more importantly the lengthy process the club engaged in to procure a replacement
Monetary reasons is a nonsensical argument since ETH is in the last year of his contract and it certainly wouldn't really cost that much to sack him. Not to mention he is apparently discussing a new contract.

Your statement was - "I would argue Ten Hag is at the position Klopp was when he left Dortmund."

I replied - You'd be wrong

You then said - "when Klopp left Dortmund they finished 9th after a disastrous season. His stock wasn't at an all time highest and many people were saying he was gonna flop in England."

To which I replied - by the time Klopp left Dortmund he was already one of the best managers in the world and much more accomplished than Ten Hag

Of course there were people that didn't think he'd do well, but they're not at the same position because Klopp had a lot more juice by being more accomplished. It's not an absurdity that more accomplished people are given the benefit of the doubt/more time/patience and leeway than those with less. Ten Hag has barely kept his job, if you think he'll survive another one of these, then-
Facts & stats don't say I'm wrong. In fact I'd argue ETH was in a better position than Klopp. Klopp left Dortmund at an all time low, ETH left Ajax at an all time high. It's as simple as that. You still harp about Klopp being more accomplished yet stats don't back you up, yet you conviniently use stats to showcase how this was supposedly our worst season ever. Hypocrisy at its finest.

Yeah, I'm not about to engage nor read an exercise in which you try to pretend whatever Ten Hag did had him up there with post-Dortmund Klopp. Make a new thread and make a poll or ask in this thread. If people agree with you then that's that. I'm not making a commitment to that craziness.
You don't have to engage because you don't have any arguments that support your notion.

As previously mentioned, you seem to have conversations with yourself a lot - I never said I'm all about stats to you. You just up and fabricated that. I said Ten Hag has reigned over our worst prem campaign ever. You said that's a ridiculous statement and I simply presented you the verifiable evidence. Any assumptions you've made about me from there are your damage, not mine.
I'm just using your logic. You used stats as the be all end all of why the last season is our worst, which is a complete nonsense, and you refuse to budge from it because... well, looking at the numbers is all that matters. You continue to spout that last season was our worst campaign ever which is completely nonsensical. And I tried to explain to you why and you keep repeating the same thing over and over without anything to back it up (except just looking at the stats). But apparently same stats don't really appeal to you when it comes to the ETH/Klopp post-Ajax/Dortmund argument. Then they are unimportant.

More fanfiction. I made a simple, factual and verifiable statement. Ten Hag has presided over our worst prem campaign ever. You've been wrestling with it since.
You can keep repeating this over and over again until the cows come home. Won't make it true.


One match isn't an entire season.
 
We “didn’t have a DoF in place. It’s not fair to judge him until there is a complete structure in place”

“there are no other managers on the market”
"Southgate is out of job now. Can't give INEOS the chance to hire him, even if its the minimal of chances based on random speculations. So what can you do? You can't fire ETH!"
 
From 8th to 7th or even 5th isn't an upgrade. That's beside the point that I don't agree that Tuchel is an upgrade whatsoever nor do I believe he can be a long-term manager here. A slight bump to top 4 with zero trophies then a complete collapse in the second season in which he goes out guns blazing and we're right back to square one.

You can't just try to re-write what an upgrade is :lol: It's a very simple notion. I don't know why you're struggling with it.

Monetary reasons is a nonsensical argument since ETH is in the last year of his contract and it certainly wouldn't really cost that much to sack him. Not to mention he is apparently discussing a new contract.

It's not an argument. It's a possibility, a real one, to highlight the fact that we don't know the reasons as to why the club decided to stick with him. Sacking him and his staff would incur costs, as it would hiring a new manager and their staff. The fact you need your hand held through this is ridiculous; I also presented the possibility that they could genuinely believe he's the best for the club at the moment. Ultimately, we don't know. And again, the wisdom of the decision is yet to be determined. A contract renewal is also not surprising to anyone here since the decision is seemingly to stick with him.

Facts & stats don't say I'm wrong. In fact I'd argue ETH was in a better position than Klopp. Klopp left Dortmund at an all time low, ETH left Ajax at an all time high. It's as simple as that. You still harp about Klopp being more accomplished yet stats don't back you up, yet you conviniently use stats to showcase how this was supposedly our worst season ever. Hypocrisy at its finest.

You don't have to engage because you don't have any arguments that support your notion.

You're spiralling. Klopp was more accomplished than Ten Hag by the time he left Dortmund. Again, you have options - you can make a new thread with a poll, or ask others in this thread. If people agree with you then that's that, I'm not making a commitment to that craziness.

I'm just using your logic. You used stats as the be all end all of why the last season is our worst, which is a complete nonsense, and you refuse to budge from it because... well, looking at the numbers is all that matters. You continue to spout that last season was our worst campaign ever which is completely nonsensical. And I tried to explain to you why and you keep repeating the same thing over and over without anything to back it up (except just looking at the stats). But apparently same stats don't really appeal to you when it comes to the ETH/Klopp post-Ajax/Dortmund argument. Then they are unimportant.

You can keep repeating this over and over again until the cows come home. Won't make it true.

Ultimately though, last season was our worst prem campaign ever, and Ten Hag presided over it. Harsh realities you need to come to terms with.
 
You can't just try to re-write what an upgrade is :lol: It's a very simple notion. I don't know why you're struggling with it.

We will see if you are the same if we finish 7th next season cause that would be an upgrade right?
 
We will see if you are the same if we finish 7th next season cause that would be an upgrade right?

I think TsuWave is saying that you can improve performance without needing a "higher tier" manager. This shouldn't be controversial as it is how football clubs generally operate.
 
I think TsuWave is saying that you can improve performance without needing a "higher tier" manager. This shouldn't be controversial as it is how football clubs generally operate.

But we wont improve with Tuchel if you talk performances. Bayern, PSG are examples of that.
 
if we are struggling in September this place will be on fire and the media frenzy will be at an all time high.

Erik Ten Hag has to ensure the team are set up and coached properly to start the league campaign strong otherwise he is finished.
I don’t think whatever happens on here should really matter to INEOS or ETH. Matchgoing fans are likely going to stand firmly behind him anyway and this is what is felt first, online sentiment can be ignored.
 
As it should. 3rd season in, there are no "freshman" or "not his squad" excuses.
Well it all depends on where the squad is. If we fail to address key issues by August, which seems entirely plausible with limited budget and no structure in place yet, that will also impact how we start the season.

There are some glaring weaknesses that need to be addressed. It’s a team that finished 8th last year and arguably it was higher than we deserved too. Many of the teams around us are going to improve, get healthier, get better players in. Bournemouth and Palace both finished below us last year but were actually better towards the second half of season so could be in contention.
 
Don't forget we still don't have FDJ, and you can't play good football without FDJ.
Actually this one might no longer be valid since ETH stumbled upon Mainoo.

"If we can't get de jong we have to look for those qualities within the club and develop them "

Who said that ? I'll give you a clue , he's bald .

Stumble across ? He told us he was looking for that type of skillset .

If you think that mainoo was an inevitability , too good not to be noticed. I'd disagree . It all depends who is looking and the qualities they are looking for .

Jose didn't look for those qualities to develop , he looked for a big lad with presence in mctominay .

To find something , you need to know what you're looking for .

There's plenty to dump on ETH for without resorting to downplaying something he definitely got right .
 
We “didn’t have a DoF in place. It’s not fair to judge him until there is a complete structure in place”

“there are no other managers on the market”

SAF finished 12th in his third season and won nothing.

Are you one of those who wanted to sack Sir Alex?
 
The Zirkzee interest has ETH's paws all over it.
Why? Because he's dutch? This is a lazy correlation. Zirkzee has had a good season and was a big reason Bologna played so well so everyone can see why we'd be after him. He's a perfect option to dovetail with Hojlund as he offers something different and can play with Hojlund if needed too. Imagine 20 mins to go we need a goal and can have those two on the pitch. We didn't have that option last season. We haven't since Cavani was here with Martial on fire too.
 
SAF finished 12th in his third season and won nothing.

Are you one of those who wanted to sack Sir Alex?
Do you believe that the situation now is the same as then?
Do you believe that EtH has the same role and skills as SAF?

If you answer yes to both questions, than your comparison makes sense.

But it would also show that you have no idea what you are talking about.
 
We “didn’t have a DoF in place. It’s not fair to judge him until there is a complete structure in place”

“there are no other managers on the market”

"The Structure is still not in place. Cant judge anything until Ashworth has signed the entire squad"

"The euros have caused burnout for all our key players."

"Shaw is still crocked."

"Ineos sabotaged him in the summer review and now the players aren't following him."

"Wilcox is undermining his philosophy and training methods"

"We didnt sign the players he asked for"/"We stupidly signed the players he asked for which is in no way his fault"
 
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SAF finished 12th in his third season and won nothing.

Are you one of those who wanted to sack Sir Alex?

Ffs stop disrespecting the great man for an average manager who achieved feck all in grand scheme of things.
 
I don’t want to bracket anybody anything but we all do it to fair.. I hate people labelling me something because I have one viewpoint on one topic. Particularly happens in emotional discussions, I find in general people are really bad at open dialogue when they take a “if you don’t agree with my interpretation of this thing you are (insert some derogatory or insulting word)”. What is really frustrating is when you try to elaborate on a view and people ignore it so they can keep you stuck in the bracelet that suits them.

As I said, there is no right/wrong viewpoint to have regarding whether the club should keep/sack ETH. With that, there is no argument that can say why it was right/wrong to keep him.

What you have to ask and what any objective observer would do, is what are the reasons why it might of made sense to keep him. This is where people struggle. Instead of doing this, they revert to “only reason is cause they don’t know what they are doing or don’t see what I see” sort of sentiments. I can come up with plenty of reasons why he should be sacked or kept, I don’t think the answer is perfectly obvious given where the club is at the moment.

The only objective stance on this is to be unsure on his position. That doesn’t mean you can’t be unsure of even leaning that it’s a huge risk.

Many people have made balanced posts on why it might make sense to retain him. I’ve made posts, quite extensive , but like you say, you get one word snarky responses or they pick one element and focus on that ignoring all else.

It looks like it comes down to the fact that since ETH has been at the club; it’s been a mess. He joined a mess, has had to work with uncertainty over his position since the club was up for sale, had ridiculous amount of player issues/dramas in a really short period of time and the injuries on top of it.

I feel a lot of people have been taking a “yeh but..” approach that is really sidestepping the probable reason why he’d been kept. It is very difficult to quantify how much all the injuries/drama/dysfunction has been playing with the management of the team. Perhaps it doesn’t explain what we got last season, perhaps it’s some, perhaps it’s a lot of the problem. We don’t know, but many presume “it’s not an excuse” and they quote one thing from another club with none of the combined issues our club has had for a decade, as if that proves a point.

Going back to your stats discussion. I wasn’t saying stats don’t matter, I was saying they don’t categorically prove “that manager is not good enough” in isolation. If we looked at the stats of most league winning teams outside of city, the season after they win the league, I’d say they paint a very interesting picture. A lot of league winners struggle the next season.

New United managers have been getting a decent bounce, one good season and it all falls apart, we don’t win leagues but I feel there’s multiple layers of issues that can include players realising the squad isn’t good enough to react peak levels and/or club not being able to build on momentum which can demoralise the squad (like when Dalot/fred were bought after we finished 2nd).

Why is that relevant? Because it’s not necessarily a reflection that a manager is not good enough, it’s a reflection that for numerous reasons, the squad has struggled to maintain standards. The manager can be part of that, but we’ve seen seasons where league winners have fallen apart. Leicester, Chelsea, even Liverpool.

Oddly enough, after Liverpools league win the next One where they only got 11 more points then our paltry 57 this season. The season before ETH took over , pool played as many games as United in ETH first season and they looked bad the season after.

That’s what some of us think about United who played similar amount of games as pool the next season in ETH first season , but also had a World Cup squeezed in between. A lot of EPL teams have been having injury issues , but a lot of them didn’t also play as many games as United, having multiple player dramas while the clib was for sale leaving everybody at the club clueless to the direction it was going.

How do you think senior ambitious players felt with so much ambiguity over the club and manager ? Most felt new owners will want their own man, so ETH position has been on the block since 6 months into his reign at the club.

Does all this make our weird formation/form/performances ok or understandable ? No, it doesn’t , but it adds more context to “we concede loads of shots and play awful football” that really assumes United has had a period like every other club and the only real issue is a manager who hasn’t been able to get us playing decent football. He’s had so much sh*te to be handling or navigating, it’s not easy to say for certain that none of that has impacted his ability to do what he is capable of doing. Regardless of anything else, trying to create a positive/winning squad culture could not of been easy.

So it looks like INEOs reviewed a lot , including the awful football and felt that the mitigating circumstances were extremely relevant. Coupled with that, they felt that where the club is right now, that replacing ETH is unfeasible or just not required for numerous reasons that could include the alternative options.
Its quite clear why they have kept him. I am not sure how much more balanced you require this?

1. Manchester United structure is not in place - Berrada and Ashworth are not in place, which means they cannot plan long term until those 2 are settled in the club, so making a rash managerial decision could cost 10m to sack Ten Hag, 2/3m to hire new manager, 10m to sack said new manager.

2. Limited choice - It has been clear that they looked at various mangers, from Tuchl to Marco Silva and were not impressed by any. Why hire a manager when you are not impressed by them?

3. Trophies - Clubs / managers are judged on trophies and league position. He has 2 trophies in 2 seasons, record speaks for itself.

4. Squad - The way we want to operate now is to have a good squad irrespective of the manager, so reglardless who comes in, with this squad they will struggle anyway, so why not spend the money on getting the squad right rather than a manager that can give us short term lift and no trophies?
You both have plenty of good points which makes good sense. Especially regarding the club structure and noise around non footballing thing in and around the club the last couple of years.
The problem for me is that the bigger issues at the club doesn't make up for the; in my book, horrible season we just had with him as a manager from a footballing perspective. His performance was in my opinion on a far to low level to justify keeping him here for another season, and he didn't show me any signs it will be better next season. The underlying numbers are just too bad, too bad to putt on the injuries and non football noise around the squad and club. Which I have posted many posts about in this thread with stats, comparisons, arguements etc. Having more than one problem at club doesn't justify keeping a manager who is not doing a good enough job.
If I believed he could do a good job here next season I wouldn't be against keeping him here, but I fear it will damage the club and squad further to keep him. I will be very sursprised if ETH still has a job here in January.
 
We “didn’t have a DoF in place. It’s not fair to judge him until there is a complete structure in place”

“there are no other managers on the market”
Any chance of you not posting like a newbie or a full time troll? There is enough shite polluting the thread as is.
 
You both have plenty of good points which makes good sense. Especially regarding the club structure and noise around non footballing thing in and around the club the last couple of years.
The problem for me is that the bigger issues at the club doesn't make up for the; in my book, horrible season we just had with him as a manager from a footballing perspective. His performance was in my opinion on a far to low level to justify keeping him here for another season, and he didn't show me any signs it will be better next season. The underlying numbers are just too bad, too bad to putt on the injuries and non football noise around the squad and club. Which I have posted many posts about in this thread with stats, comparisons, arguements etc. Having more than one problem at club doesn't justify keeping a manager who is not doing a good enough job.
If I believed he could do a good job here next season I wouldn't be against keeping him here, but I fear it will damage the club and squad further to keep him. I will be very sursprised if ETH still has a job here in January.

The numbers, stats I agree look very bad on him and were very bad, no one is sugar coating that.

What I will say though is, I dont think no one says its making up for the bad season, the fact that INEOS actually went and looked for an alternative suggest even they were not happy with the season, which I hope was communicated to Ten Hag.

What does it say about the candidates that a poor performance Ten Hag is making a bigger impact in interviews than the other candidates?

Its all well and good sacking a manager but spending £10m to sack him and another £6/7m to get another manager in which you are not convinced about is not the way to go either.

INEOS probably looked at it and thought.. is there a chance if we keep Ten Hag we sack him by next season? answer is yes
Is there a possibility or hiring Di Zerbi / Tuchel and sacking them by next season? Answer is yes too.

We have to also be fair, if we are looking at Ten Hag last season being really poor, Tuchel and Di Zerbi were worse for their respective clubs too.

Then, imagine sacking 2 managers in 1 season, INEOS will start having a hire/ fire reputation, which I am sure they are trying to avoid.
 
Any chance of you not posting like a newbie or a full time troll? There is enough shite polluting the thread as is.
Why are you singling me out for that comment? I simply joined in today with the excuses we’ve already heard or are likely to hear.

if you read my posts you will see that I was ETH out but am prepared to give him a short leash to see if he can prove us wrong.

another half a season like we have just seen in the league and there can be no excuses for him anymore.

if however he turns it around, hurrah, we all want United moving in the right direction
 
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