Erik ten Hag | 2022/23 & 2023/24

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klayton88 said:
I've just watched this and had to laugh. Mostly about how he drills his teams to play out from the back and is known for having CB's who are comfortable on the ball and can carry it forward... everything most of our CBs can't do!

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Maguire was particularly good at this before coming to United. Used to run the length of the pitch with the ball. Lindelof also does this well.
 
I'm genuinely thinking we would be better off if we just put every journalist in a rocket and shot it to sun.
 
He just committed a sackable offense at Ajax, playing 4-4-2, so he might be available very shortly.
 
Adisa said:
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But I thought the point was that Overmars played a big part in all this? All I keep seeing is how much Ten Hag identifies youth and rebuilds teams which doesn't seem to be the actual truth does it?
 
L1nk said:
But I thought the point was that Overmars played a big part in all this? All I keep seeing is how much Ten Hag identifies youth and rebuilds teams which doesn't seem to be the actual truth does it?
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Ten Hag almost had nothing to do it with. All Overmars and his scouting team. But for some reason people keep saying that Ten Hag is focused on youth players, which is not true at all.
 
Blood Mage said:
I don't buy the second part. I don't think he will be allowed to bin off Rashford and Maguire so easily, maybe in his second season perhaps.
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We'll see. In the last week of negotiations it sounded like it was really really emphasized he wanted freedom to bin bigger names. Think he confirmed as much in one of his interviews although not in those exact words. It does sounds like there might even be 1 or 2 casualties.

As for Maguire actually think he will play a lot under ETH in the first year. Not necessarily because he's ideal but he does have some qualities that could work as a band aid. The Rashford issue is a big nothing. If he flops he'll be the one begging to leave. ETH cannot be forced to pick anyone.

Only concern is fan support. How many people say we need a reset but when it's suggested their favs might be on the shortlist they turn. The tweet that said he might not be keen on Ronaldo had United fans slagging him already. So what happens if he truly wants a link up striker that can press? Are fans going to riot?
 
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I honestly think next season could be great, you look at all the games this season where we had zero character or confidence, and there's no reason why we can't have 15 points more next season under a good manager.
 
Someone said:
I honestly think next season could be great, you look at all the games this season where we had zero character or confidence, and there's no reason why we can't have 15 points more next season under a good manager.
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I agree, a coach makes a huge difference. I do think it will be quite a tumultuous one at times, where we'll give and receive some batterings.
 
What would be the point in an agreement not to take Ajax players?

If you don't want to sell players, refuse bids for players. Sounds like grandstanding from Ajax towards their own fans at this point as they position themselves to do the exact opposite. Or a made up article.
 
L1nk said:
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Funny thing is he could just have said Ajax notified United of their intention to not discuss any further transfers but it was apparently easier to use the dumbest least believable phrasing. What kind of "agreement" and how can we refuse their "request" to say no to selling their own player. What the hell kind of convoluted story is this. Some of these journos need drug testing.
 
hellhunter said:
That doesn't make much sense, Ajax can just refuse to negotiate any player sales with us
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Sounds like bullshit. But if true, it’s not only to refuse to do business. Players get upset, media making a fuzz out of it, agents, family and Chilevision.
 
hellhunter said:
That doesn't make much sense, Ajax can just refuse to negotiate any player sales with us
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Ajax indeed can refuse to negotiate but I think what they really want is for Manchester United not to approach their players, because it will be difficult for Ajax to convince their players to stay if United came calling.

They are losing Mazraoui on a free and Bayern might go for Gravenberch, so they want to keep departures to a minimum
 
Pogue Mahone said:
He picks the team, right?
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He does, but he doesn't decide which players are contracted at the club. Ajax always goes for youth, academy first, if there's no suitable academy player they preferably buy a young player. So the Ajax coach always gets a very young squad, not by choice. Ten Hag's preferred signings were all players of his old club and older(Labyad, Klaiber, Haller). The fact that Kenneth Taylor has been the best midfielder the last 2 matches while being basically ignored for the whole season proves to me that Ten Hag really doesn't favor youth players and only gives them a shot when he's forced to.
 
Terranova said:
Ten Hag almost had nothing to do it with. All Overmars and his scouting team. But for some reason people keep saying that Ten Hag is focused on youth players, which is not true at all.
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I've not done hours of research but while it is true that ten Hag was not sporting director at Ajax, it has been made clear time and again, the recruitment decisions there were overseen by both him and Overmars.

Moreover, I'm pretty sure ten Hag was sporting director in one of the Dutch clubs he was at, although a smaller one. He's not a complete newcomer to any of the roles we're ascribing to him.

EDIT: Just checked, it was actually at Utrecht where he was both sporting director and head coach and he remarkably led them to 4th place, something no one had done before and no one has done since.
 
Klopp signing a deal until '24 and Pep apparently signed on until '25, he's up against it for sure.

We have to get everything absolutely spot on in every transfer window for ten Hag to stand any chance of just a title challenge.
 
Terranova said:
He does, but he doesn't decide which players are contracted at the club. Ajax always goes for youth, academy first, if there's no suitable academy player they preferably buy a young player. So the Ajax coach always gets a very young squad, not by choice. Ten Hag's preferred signings were all players of his old club and older(Labyad, Klaiber, Haller). The fact that Kenneth Taylor has been the best midfielder the last 2 matches while being basically ignored for the whole season proves to me that Ten Hag really doesn't favor youth players and only gives them a shot when he's forced to.
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I don't get this stuff from the Caf Ajax fans about he doesn't like youth. Your team constantly churning it out, he's worked well with it at different stages of his time their, as well as mixing it with experience.


He clearly values the experience to go with the youth. Looks like sound management to me.



He also been your most successful manager since Van Gaal I think. So I'm enjoying the talk from people like it's just standard from Ajax, he just doing what the club does, it's all down to the club, it's a given
 
pascell said:
Klopp signing a deal until '24 and Pep apparently signed on until '25, he's up against it for sure.

We have to get everything absolutely spot on in every transfer window for ten Hag to stand any chance of just a title challenge.
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Klopp's deal is to 2026, I think. His previous one was up in 2024. Pep's is up next year, so 2025 makes sense for him.
 
Rightnr said:
Klopp's deal is to 2026, I think. His previous one was up in 2024. Pep's is up next year, so 2025 makes sense for him.
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2026, even worse.

We have to nail every transfer window and ensure players develop accordingly, tough 2-3 years coming up but could be equally very, very exciting.
 
Flexdegea said:
I don't get this stuff from the Caf Ajax fans about he doesn't like youth. Your team constantly churning it out, he's worked well with it at different stages of his time their, as well as mixing it with experience.


He clearly values the experience to go with the youth. Looks like sound management to me.



He also been your most successful manager since Van Gaal I think. So I'm enjoying the talk from people like it's just standard from Ajax, he just doing what the club does, it's all down to the club, it's a given
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Because he doesn't seem to like youth, at least not as much as people say he is. Ajax has a proud tradition of giving loads of opportunities for academy players. Ten Hag doesn't give those opportunities. Players like Timber, Mazraoui, Dest only got in the squad because of injuries/absences and they immediately stayed in and around the starting XI, showing they were good enough all along, even though they didn't get any minutes before. The usual way Ajax eases in those players is with minutes in games against smaller opponents, games Ajax usually wins very easily. Ten Hag doesn't do that, he always makes the same 3/4 substitutes every match, unless there's an injury.
Examples of Ten Hag's reluctance to use academy players are Kenneth Taylor who has started the last 2 games after only having played a few minutes this season. He instantly became the best midfielder in those 2 matches, proving he was good enough all along. Another example is Unuvar, who has been tearing up the Dutch version of the Championship with 28 goals+assists as a winger/midfielder, yet has to play 1 minute in a league game and only got minutes in 2 cup games against amateurs.

The media and some people here seem to think that due to Ajax having a young squad(forced upon Ten Hag by the board due to club philosophy), Ten Hag favors youth. But that is totally not the case. If Ten Hag really had any power regarding transfers, he would've had a lot more players like Klaiber, Labyad and Haller, older players from his former club that aren't really good enough to play for Ajax. Luckily Haller scores a lot, but he's not good enough.
 
Terranova said:
If Ten Hag really had any power regarding transfers, he would've had a lot more players like Klaiber, Labyad and Haller, older players from his former club that aren't really good enough to play for Ajax. Luckily Haller scores a lot, but he's not good enough.
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Not good enough to play for Ajax and lucky?

Hasn’t he got over 30 goals, top scorer in the league and scored in several CL games on the bounce?

What would have made him good enough for Ajax?
 
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