Erik ten Hag | 2022/23 & 2023/24

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I really hope that he took off Eriksen and Dalot to give them a rest, because those subs completely changed the game in a negative manner. Kubo(?) went from being completely anonymous on their left side to arguably becoming MOTM. And in midfield we lost all momentum going forward without Maestro Eriksen.

I will give him the benefit of the doubt and use this match as an example of how dependent we are on a few key players now.
 
The 2nd stringers didn't do much to prove that they deserve a start in the PL. Ronnie has been in training for a month now? It looks like his body has given up.

If anything it shows that ETH has been making the right calls so far.
 
Another lesson for ETH, on par with the Brentford game. Starting Ronaldo kills the play of the whole team.
 
Still loads of work to go.

We still look dysfunctional when building up. Almost feels forced.

Ronaldo can't start a single important game this season. ETH will hopefully not cave in regarding him as the season progresses.
 
I have not much comment on the first eleven and performance. The team consisted of players who did not have much playing time, so this kind of performance was expected.

The first half was decent, and the second half was just meh. His game management in the second half can be widly extreme at the moment. His subs are great and horrible. I think he overthinks too much on those.
 
city-puma said:
Another lesson for ETH, on par with the Brentford game. Starting Ronaldo kills the play of the whole team.
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Add Maguire to that

Blunt instruments at either end of attacking phases.

All Maguire did is take 50 touches then mostly passed it back to the keeper or sideways.
 
If ETH is here for his 3rd season, guarantee these players won't be there: DDG, Lindelof, Maguire, Fred, Ronaldo (duh), Elanga

You can see the difference with and without Eriksen. We are fecked if he gets injured.
 
mav_9me said:
If ETH is here for his 3rd season, guarantee these players won't be there: DDG, Lindelof, Maguire, Fred, Ronaldo (duh), Elanga

You can see the difference with and without Eriksen. We are fecked if he gets injured.
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Yep. Our most influential player so far.
 
The United said:
I have not much comment on the first eleven and performance. The team consisted of players who did not have much playing time, so this kind of performance was expected.

The first half was decent, and the second half was just meh. His game management in the second half can be widly extreme at the moment. His subs are great and horrible. I think he overthinks too much on those.
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The main goal of the substitutions was pretty clearly to prevent the regular starters from playing the full 90 minutes. Winning the 4 games against Sheriff and Omonia are enough to get out of the group stage, and if the backups can't win those then the squad is too shallow to continue in the competition anyways.
 
Blood Mage said:
Got the team and the subs wrong tonight for me.
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Think he wanted to rotate the important players a bit without an obvious drop in quality after the subs so, for example, both Eriksen and Fernandes can play at the weekend, but it obviously didn't work out. Especially moving Lindelof to right-back. Makes you wonder just how far down the pecking order Win-Bissaka is if he can't even get some minutes under his belt in such circumstances.
 
I didn't watch the game, so won't comment on the performance, but while we're mostly good in big games as seen in Liverpool and Arsenal ones, I think his approach against midtable or bottom table teams have been shit even in the league, even in the wins we had we haven't been that impressive as much as we were against say Liverpool. A lot of things need to improve. He needs to make the team more aggressive against such kind of teams.
 
flameinthesun said:
He needs to figure out a way to get us having more possession.
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Is he a possession coach on the training field, with positional pass and move plays? Not specifically asking you. We seem counter attack mainly apart from a few goals, early days obviously but you can normally tell quite quickly how a new coach wants the team to play long term.
 
RedOrange said:
The main goal of the substitutions was pretty clearly to prevent the regular starters from playing the full 90 minutes. Winning the 4 games against Sheriff and Omonia are enough to get out of the group stage, and if the backups can't win those then the squad is too shallow to continue in the competition anyways.
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Obviously but still had to do better with managing the second halves consistently. I am hoping he will once everyone is getting fitter.
 
Scorpy said:
Think he wanted to rotate the important players a bit without an obvious drop in quality after the subs so, for example, both Eriksen and Fernandes can play at the weekend, but it obviously didn't work out. Especially moving Lindelof to right-back. Makes you wonder just how far down the pecking order Win-Bissaka is if he can't even get some minutes under his belt in such circumstances.
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We were chasing the game so it didn't make sense to bring on a defensive fullback. What still baffles me is why he played Fred in the 10 in the first half, I think it was one of the main reasons for our disjointed play.
 
The best eleven can be decent, but once you put Maguire in at CB, Fred in midfield, Lindelof at RB, etc., we lose our ability to maintain possession.

He couldn’t just throw the same team out there again - rotation is needed.

Also, there is no focal point in attack.
 
el3mel said:
I didn't watch the game, so won't comment on the performance, but while we're mostly good in big games as seen in Liverpool and Arsenal ones, I think his approach against midtable or bottom table teams have been shit even in the league, even in the wins we had we haven't been that impressive as much as we were against say Liverpool. A lot of things need to improve. He needs to make the team more aggressive against such kind of teams.
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We are still a counterattacking team thriving against a high line. We are yet quite poor at creating chances against all other opponents. We did not deserve to lose today but did not create enough chances.
 
el3mel said:
I didn't watch the game, so won't comment on the performance, but while we're mostly good in big games as seen in Liverpool and Arsenal ones, I think his approach against midtable or bottom table teams have been shit even in the league, even in the wins we had we haven't been that impressive as much as we were against say Liverpool. A lot of things need to improve. He needs to make the team more aggressive against such kind of teams.
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It's almost like he's new in the job and its very early days for him at the club. Weird.
 
Mike Smalling said:
The best eleven can be decent, but once you put Maguire in at CB, Fred in midfield, Lindelof at RB, etc., we lose our ability to maintain possession.

He couldn’t just throw the same team out there again - rotation is needed.

Also, there is no focal point in attack.
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We haven't maintained possession well in any of the last 4 games. In fact the three games Fred and Maguire have started have been comfortably our best possession %.
 
Cathy Ferguson said:
We are still a counterattacking team thriving against a high line. We are yet quite poor at creating chances against all other opponents. We did not deserve to lose today but did not create enough chances.
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That's my problem, all honestly. I'm not really impressed with his style of play up till now and I'm not seeing enough evidence of us trying something new in possession. We're indeed a defensive, counterattacking team just as we were under the previous 2 managers and while this wouldn't have been an issue in the early month or two of his reign, my problem is I'm not seeing any tries on the pitch to actually become a possession based one. As I said I didn't watch today's game so won't comment on it, but even in the league we haven't really tried to keep the ball or control possession once we go up, and instead were fine surrendering the ball and defending our lead hoping for a lucky break to score a 2nd if possible. We defended well alright, but that's not what I was expecting from Ten Hag.

He really needs to start letting the team try and play a possession based style a little bit and endure the early consequences. Yes we'll struggle at the start. It's normal, but I'll prefer a long term gain than, yet again, playing it safe with counterattacking shit for short term results which lead us nowhere at the end.

He needs to be a little bit brave and play his own game.
 
was lindleoff left side of defence in1st half, didnt see but reading reports as it happening
 
One thing that worries me a bit is that he is trying to be smart and use players out of position and it constantly backfires. Eriksen false 9, Eriksen as DM, Lindelöf at RB, Fred as a no. 10.

All of our loses have one thing in common. Players not playing in their natural positions.

I just don’t understand how any manager can look at Freds performance and think that it’s even close to being acceptable. It was one of the worst performances i have ever seen. Fred stopped more of our attacks than Sociedads defense.

Fred as a no. 10 should never have been allowed to happen.
 
Does he not prefer controlling the midfield ? Genuinely asking because I haven’t seen any evidence yet that he does or even try to keep possession. People here told me that he is a possession based manager.
 
Redderp said:
One thing that worries me a bit is that he is trying to be smart and use players out of position and it constantly backfires. Eriksen false 9, Eriksen as DM, Lindelöf at RB, Fred as a no. 10.

All of our loses have one thing in common. Players not playing in their natural positions.

I just don’t understand how any manager can look at Freds performance and think that it’s even close to being acceptable. It was one of the worst performances i have ever seen. Fred stopped more of our attacks than Sociedads defense.

Fred as a no. 10 should never have been allowed to happen.
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As I said earlier, he is trying too hard and probably complicates things unnecessarily at times, just like how Pep does it sometimes.

But it could be a sign that he is learning about the squad, players, himself and the league, and he seems like he will get it right. I didn't have that kind of confidence with the likes of Ole, Ralf, or even Jose in the past.
 
kaku06 said:
Does he not prefer controlling the midfield ? Genuinely asking because I haven’t seen any evidence yet that he does or even try to keep possession. People here told me that he is a possession based manager.
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Don't think he has the players in midfield for that. He really wanted FDJ or someone who can do a similar job. We bought a CDM instead. The balance of our midfield is still off kilter, a top class ball playing midfielder is still needed.
Eriksen does his best work when he vacates the midfield and pushes forward or to the flanks because he is basically an attacking mid. He can't really dictate a game from a midfield position though. Mctominay is too limited technically.
 
TMDaines said:
Every set of subs tonight made the team worse. Lindelöf to RB was a real poor choice.
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Best to learn from these mistakes in a group stage match that probably won't have much effect on us progressing. It was 1-0, not 4-0.
 
Not enough creative midfielders and we don't have a proper centre forward to finish chances, we had more than enough time over summer to address this issue.

Bit of a reality check tonight of where we are actually at. Still a boatload of shit average players in our squad.
 
This was a game for rotation. I wouldn't read anything into it other than tells you where we are as a squad.
 
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