reading this thread is sad enough.
I'll save my copium for the first game of the season. Not wasting my energy for pre season
.Erik ten Hag | 2022/23 & 2023/24
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I'll save my copium for the first game of the season. Not wasting my energy for pre season
.Like its been said before, if you have players in midfield who treat the ball like a hot potato, you are not going to be able to keep the ball. And that's why buying Ugarte wont "solve our problems", we need proper ball players in the middle of the park.
The question has been whether ETH is willing to do that. People are suggesting that he doesn't seem to play that way, so signing those players might not be a priority for him. He likely doesn't see the lack of midfield control or ball possession as an issue he needs to address.
But then again, we need to wait more.
I don’t know if it’s true or not but I feel like Ten Hag always says “let’s be positive” about an injury concern a day or two before United reveal they’re going to be out for months
We have seen same playing style with different players configuration last season. Not sure why would anyone expected anything different in a new season, but under the same manager.
We can get better players, but we are not getting significantly better players than City, Arsenal and all the other aspirinig teams. We can get close to that level but not going further with clueless manager.
Hopefully I'm wrong and we'll blast it in the first game of the season.
Personally I think preseason means nothing if it's going well, but if you see obvious problems, it's a strong indicator you'll be in troubles once the serious games start.
We aren’t going to languish around 7th or 8th if we play attractive football. And I disagree with your logic - one of the reasons we’re in this mess is that we are constantly obsessing over winning / winning mentality without fixing the underlying issues related to performance and making progress towards becoming a cohesive attacking unit. You can get top 4 the way we often do or you can get top 4 the way Klopp did the season before he challenged (the CL final one) - both “achieved” similar things but one was headed towards challenging for and winning major trophies while for us it was the peak of our ambitions.
This makes no sense.
He’ll prove he’s not good enough within thr first few months. Hopefully we don’t wait too long with firing him and we can salvage something from the season.
All well and good bringing in new coaches, looks good for PR but nothing will change, he won’t coach them properly, getting them to play his style. He’ll be gone by October.
I recently watched an interview he did with Gary Neville where he was asked why he didn't change tactics and make us more compact when injuries were limiting our options. His response was that, if you want to implement a system you have to stick with it, because constantly changing it depending on personnel just disrupts your attempts to instil a tactic/style. It also allows you to see who can adapt to the new style.
I'm paraphrasing, but essentially that's the point he was making.
Which is worrying, because it suggests that he sees nothing wrong with the style and tactics he was using and that he believes his first XI would make them work. If he persists with that (and the early signs are that he is), I think we're in trouble.
Yep. As has been repeated ad nauseam by myself and others during his tenure — it’s so funny, we thought we were getting some Cruijffian Ajax disciple and we’ve somehow ended up with the one Dutch geezer who wants to play open chasm midfields and ’transitions’.
RE: bold - it’s not even true. Madrid dominate the ball in about 90% of the matches they play. It’s only against elite CL teams deep into the competition they’d ever cede possession.
Let's wait until the season starts but I certainly don't expect him to suddenly turn into a good coach just because we got a new owner and 2 new youngsters of which one is already injured.
I wanted him gone but the club backed him and we have to support him but I feel the inevitable sacking will come by November. This isn't about being negative, I'm one of the more positive fans on here but he's just not good enough. I'll back him till the wheels fall off though.
Have thought this to myself plenty of times how did we end up with a Dutch manager who’s so anti Dutch?!
And here i was thinking after sacking Ole that we are entering a new era of modern attacking football without knowing it would be Ole football on steroids.Half of them did fall off, and the last two are wobbling around ready to come off at any time. We've stuck a bit of tape on them and now we're trying to convince ourselves that it's enough to complete our journey.
Have thought this to myself plenty of times how did we end up with a Dutch manager who’s so anti Dutch?!
Maybe heroin is a better example. At least with steroids there's a positive impact on performance.
Stylistically, we exhibited all the same problems last season as the pre-season leading up to it. Really hoping it isn't the same this year but I suspect it will be.
Wouldn’t read too much into first preseason games with a patched up team put together just so we have 11 players on the pitch but largely being assembled in a way that will not be repeated ever again.
Ideally, the last couple of friendlies before season starts will provide a better indication of where we are and what are the intentions in terms of shape and tactics (even personnel).
Stylistically, I would not expect him to change the way we played much vs last year. At the end of the day we deemed it sufficient to engage in new contract talks.
Ideally, the last couple of friendlies before season starts will provide a better indication of where we are and what are the intentions in terms of shape and tactics (even personnel).
Stylistically, I would not expect him to change the way we played much vs last year. At the end of the day we deemed it sufficient to engage in new contract talks.
feck me it's one pre season game, with a bunch of players he's still hoping to replace.
Stop being so daft
Stop being so daft
Then we have to accept the fact that we will never be able to dominate games against the top teams in PL and Europe. We will always be the underdogs, giving away the ball, folding under pressure and going long/counterattacking to score goals. If fans are able to accept that, then sure, go ahead and buy technically limited players who are suited to transition football. But then again, werent we Ole out for this exact same reason?
Not on sexual performance.
Written off 2 friendly-games after the FA Cup win, never change Red Cafe.
3 but yes. 3 games missing half the team who were at the Euros too
Ah my bad, totally forgot about the Rosenberg game.
Lucky you! Sorry to bring it back up
Some funny crying going on here. We played very well for the first 15 mins, and lost Hojlund and Yorro during that half afterwards.
We then had a bang average midfielder up top and a green academy player at CB, whilst they were still fielding Jesus, Trossard, Jorginho, Timber, Odegard etc.
Our second half was shite but that's expected given the subs. People saying nothing has changed are so obviously moaning for the sake of it. Structurally we didn't look near as open as we did last pre season.
We then had a bang average midfielder up top and a green academy player at CB, whilst they were still fielding Jesus, Trossard, Jorginho, Timber, Odegard etc.
Our second half was shite but that's expected given the subs. People saying nothing has changed are so obviously moaning for the sake of it. Structurally we didn't look near as open as we did last pre season.
Weirdly after producing the worst football and worst league season in 30 years he is going to be highly scrutinised.
Said in another thread but this was the risk of keeping him. He needs to have an absolute storming season (which United are in no way prepared to have) or he’s going to get stomped on after every negative thing by fed up fans or media who know he’s vulnerable. We all know he was a defeat against city from being sacked.
Just one defeat in the opening games and the FA Cup win will be an afterthought and finishing 8th will be at the forefront of everyone’s mind again
I didn't get to see the game, so thank you for actually giving a straight forward summary devoid of the normal doom mongering
The main issue is it's the same worrying things coming up again. You'd think after nearly losing your job, you'd change things up and do something different but he's setting the team up the same way. This was even the perfect chance to try something new, pre season, try some fresh ideas and fix some of the mistakes from last year but no. There's this misconception that bringing in better players will suddenly change things but they won't if there's no structure. If it's all about better players then why back Eth, if the managers tactics don't matter and all we need are top class players then why persist with him? It makes no sense, the manager has to set the team up properly, no matter who's available. For example, last season, we have an injury crisis and we have first team CBs out, you pack the midfield to protect the backline, this man instead leaves the midfield wide open so the already depleted defence can get peltered again and again. It's ridiculous, he needs to change things up.
Highly scrutinised is not the same as ruling him off after one loss to a top team when he didn't play a massive chunk of key players, is it?
reading this thread is sad enough.
I'll save my copium for the first game of the season. Not wasting my energy for pre season
Yeah, I've done the same. Hard enough watching us in competitive games let alone pre season. Feels like self harm.
Er, no we didn't. We didn't play openly in midfield and hardly ever put our backline in compromising one on one positions.
I genuinely wonder if a lot of posters coming under the cracks to give a moan actually watched the game.
Ruling him off would be people saying "he definitely won't make it here" or "sack him now". Scrutiny is looking at tactics and pointing out worrying things.
I've said a number of times that preseason is meaningless, in fact our best pre seasons often proceed our worst seasons. The worst thing that happened last night was the injuries.
But there were still worrying signs which it's fair to be scrutinised for.
Actually it's the third pre season game and what, 60 odd games last season? This is continuation from last season and nothing has changed. It might magically click when we meet Fulham first game but is there anything we've seen so far to suggest that?
It's incredibly unfair to call people who rightly are worried daft when we see no progression in how we play to last season.
Sticking your head in the sand and pretend everything is fine won't change that. It reminds me of that Leslie Nilsen meme where hell breaks lose behind him and he's like "Everything is fine, nothing to see here".
People aren't "moaning" for the sake of it, people are genuinely concerned.
I hope Erik has a plan and we will kick on and get some kind of identity, but I've got to be honest, its not looking good.
I’m not speaking about myself if that’s what you mean.
He could be my own Dad and I’d still think the same because it’s inevitable.
I think Arteta will fall victim to it too if Arsenal have a poor season because they’ll start levitating from “wow we finally have a modern manager who is making us challenge again” to “he’s been here years, spent loads, and he can’t win anything, maybe we need another manager to take us over the line before we waste this great team we’ve built” - luckily for Arteta his team his team is very strong at the moment. Ten Hag will have similar expectations with a much weaker squad.
I think there is less luck involved than you think.
You have posts literally saying he won't make it past a few months.
Also, tactically there wasn't the same issues as last season, which shows people either didn't actually watch the game or they were moaning for the sake of it.
Ok “good thing for Arteta is…”
The main issue wasn't there as he played 2 midfielders which is great. If he's realised this is important then that is good.
We still pressed totally ineffectively, still only looked able to create chances with long balls or transitions that we didn't create very well, still didn't create enough passing options for our players on the ball other than a couple of instances.
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