Erik ten Hag | 2022/23 & 2023/24

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I don't feel offended, I welcome different opinions I'm just saying for your own benefit it's not a good look bashing and generalising the entire fanbase calling them morons and children if they don't all believe the sun shines out of the managers backside after what we've been subjected to so far which has been a mixed bag of mediocre performances and games where we've looked coherent as a team.

I don't see how I contradicted myself, Ajax had a far superior squad to all of the 18 teams of the league. bar Feyenoord and PSV. All the rest of league were championship level and that's even a push. In that environment he could afford play players out of position, not have to make difficult mid game changes while his star studded ajax team were wheeled out to bully and dominate less quality teams week in week out

He doesn't have that luxury here in the premiership. Most of the teams in the premiership are fearless and are accustomed to pressing and have squads filled with internationals, not semi professionals and part timers so being tactically astute and flexibility is imperative to success

He can't afford to keep playing players in different roles trying to force them to play a way they are not suited as we've seen with fred, Rashford and early in the first few games where he played eriksen as a cdm.

Former ajax manager Aad De Mos seems to think he has quite a few flaws which we some of us ''children' and ''morons' have picked up on

De Mos “I think that Ten Hag does not read the match well, as always.

“It takes far too long before Erik ten Hag strikes with his substitutions. He already did that too late in Lisbon. Brian Brobbey should be brought in much earlier. He didn’t have to substitute [Sebastian] Haller, but if you could have just added him as an extra striker, they would have been in trouble.

“You also have to show some guts in these kinds of games and not hide in your dugout. You have to have some fire show up, get to that line and stir things up a little bit when things get messy in the field. And that was it. You helped Benfica into the saddle by playing the game they like. It’s all too noncommittal at Ajax.''

Now we have seen lack of intensity in games, we have seen him dither and not make any changes until late ina game when it's been calling for changes to be made earlier. In the first half we actually out worked by Newcastle and only made a sub in the 72 min

Imagine if he brought Rashford on earlier we might have had a better chance of winning the match when it was clear things were not working out for Ronaldo. And why isn't Ten Hag telling his player to stop trying to force feed everything to Ronaldo? That's what hurt us the most, players not playing for the team but playing instead to serve ronaldo. Was that a direct command from ten hag or are the players doing their own thing?

I'm also one trying to understand the genesis of a lot of your "concern" regarding Ten Hag.

Your argument that he is forcing players to play a way that is not suited to them is a weird one. Because if we suddenly switched to a low block, low possession, counter attacking style that too would be forcing players like Martinez, Eriksen, Sancho etc to play a style that is not suited to them. That is not a Ten Hag issue, that is an issue relating to the fact that we have a mix of different style/profile of players at this club which is a problem. Martinez is suited to high line/possession football, Maguire on the other hand would be better in a low block. But this is something that we knew coming into the season and will only be solved by successful recruitment geared towards one style of football, which has already started.

In regards to EtH sticking to his style, when Pep joined city in his first year and just about scrapped top 4 with arguably the best squad in the league and best manager and best finances, a lot of people were saying similar things about forcing his style on players and that it was easy to play his style in weaker leagues like Spain and Germany but he would struggle to replicate it in England and we know how that turned out. If Ten Hag's goal is to create a team in his image, which the recruitment has been centered around, why waste a season playing in a completely different style? Which based on past performances only really guarantees a top 4 result if those around us perform poorly. If anything I think its important EtH does not steer away from his style and sticks with it. Eventually if he keeps identifying the right profile of players the makeup of the squad will lend itself to possession football.

Despite the above, even with players who according to you are not suited to possession football guess what? They've started to have consistently more possession against teams.

In regards to EtH's substitutions, rather than quoting criticism of him from his Ajax days, just base it on what you have seen of him at united. To me and a lot of people he has made substitutions in a few games at points which have turned the games around (Martial v pool, subs v arsenal, martial v omonia etc). I would imagine if there was a stat for managers this season who have made subs that have impacted games he'd probably be pretty high in the list. The other reality is the majority of the time subs don't really have an impact. Even under SAF.

So in short these weird criticisms that you keep pivoting to just fall flat when using both the eye test and stats. Now I'm not going to judge your intentions but to me it just seems like you have an issue with EtH because there is not one argument that you have made so far where I can even go "fair enough you have a point".
 
I don't feel offended, I welcome different opinions I'm just saying for your own benefit it's not a good look bashing and generalising the entire fanbase calling them morons and children if they don't all believe the sun shines out of the managers backside after what we've been subjected to so far which has been a mixed bag of mediocre performances and games where we've looked coherent as a team.

I don't see how I contradicted myself, Ajax had a far superior squad to all of the 18 teams of the league. bar Feyenoord and PSV. All the rest of league were championship level and that's even a push. In that environment he could afford play players out of position, not have to make difficult mid game changes while his star studded ajax team were wheeled out to bully and dominate less quality teams week in week out

He doesn't have that luxury here in the premiership. Most of the teams in the premiership are fearless and are accustomed to pressing and have squads filled with internationals, not semi professionals and part timers so being tactically astute and flexibility is imperative to success

He can't afford to keep playing players in different roles trying to force them to play a way they are not suited as we've seen with fred, Rashford and early in the first few games where he played eriksen as a cdm.

Former ajax manager Aad De Mos seems to think he has quite a few flaws which we some of us ''children' and ''morons' have picked up on

De Mos “I think that Ten Hag does not read the match well, as always.

“It takes far too long before Erik ten Hag strikes with his substitutions. He already did that too late in Lisbon. Brian Brobbey should be brought in much earlier. He didn’t have to substitute [Sebastian] Haller, but if you could have just added him as an extra striker, they would have been in trouble.

“You also have to show some guts in these kinds of games and not hide in your dugout. You have to have some fire show up, get to that line and stir things up a little bit when things get messy in the field. And that was it. You helped Benfica into the saddle by playing the game they like. It’s all too noncommittal at Ajax.''

Now we have seen lack of intensity in games, we have seen him dither and not make any changes until late ina game when it's been calling for changes to be made earlier. In the first half we actually out worked by Newcastle and only made a sub in the 72 min

Imagine if he brought Rashford on earlier we might have had a better chance of winning the match when it was clear things were not working out for Ronaldo. And why isn't Ten Hag telling his player to stop trying to force feed everything to Ronaldo? That's what hurt us the most, players not playing for the team but playing instead to serve ronaldo. Was that a direct command from ten hag or are the players doing their own thing?

I don’t understand your points because they are directly contradicted by the facts.

1. Many goals this season came from substitutes. Hag has made good substitutions. Rashford had a ‘100%’ header chance at the end of the game against Newcastle. He should have been a scoring sub again.

2. De Mos is master of hindsight. It is easy to criticize after a loss. Benfica is causing other teams major headaches in the CL.

3. In contradiction to last season, we are fighting hard, looking fit, playing out from the back and starting to dominate possession.

4. We were overperforming against Liverpool and Arsenal. Because we have a good manager who can motivate the players and adjust his tactics. That is totally contradicting what you said about Hag.

5. Obviously we have issues in attack with an aging Ronaldo and an injured Martial. But there are no other options available and Hag is making the best of it. Not playing the ball to one of the best goalscorers ever would be stupid.
 
Klopp got to Europa final in his first year and Pep got top 4.
And klopp also finished 8th in the same season and Pep was getting thrashed by Everton and Monaco. Pep's city took time and hence they were trophyless.

Again they didn't stamp their authority after 13 games.
 
I wish it were so simple, the scary thing is we are slightly outperforming our expected goal difference. The attack as a whole is not creating many good chances.

That's valid. I feel a lot of that is down to the lack of a proper no. 9

Also when we don't have Eriksen, our whole play suffers. But yeah the outperforming xG is a valid concern. Having said that if we are defensively strong and control games we likely will cont the way we are and end in 5th or 6th. Which is fine by me.
 
And klopp also finished 8th in the same season and Pep was getting thrashed by Everton and Monaco. Pep's city took time and hence they were trophyless.

Again they didn't stamp their authority after 13 games.

1. Klopp took over mid way of the season, did not have a pre season and got europa final. Lets see if Ten Hag even finishes in the top 8.

2. Pep was getting thrashed but were scoring goals, by the end of the season, we saw Pep's style really come into play, the last 15 games they were playing really well with 4/5 nil results.

We are getting pamed 4-0, 6-3 and barely even able to score a goal in home games. We have the lowest defensive line in the league.
 
Should be doing much much better with our famed academy there man.

I don’t think it is that good. Few players have broken through over the last 10 years.

They all got playing time in pre-season and were found not ready. None of them have started a game.

Hopefully we get some easier games so we can sub in Garnacho, Ickbal, McNeil more often.
 
1. Klopp took over mid way of the season, did not have a pre season and got europa final. Lets see if Ten Hag even finishes in the top 8.

2. Pep was getting thrashed but were scoring goals, by the end of the season, we saw Pep's style really come into play, the last 15 games they were playing really well with 4/5 nil results.

We are getting pamed 4-0, 6-3 and barely even able to score a goal in home games. We have the lowest defensive line in the league.
Yes we are barely able to score goals because of our poor finishing, not because of lack of chances created. The fact that Pep was getting thrashed shows you it isn't easy to get authority stamped after 13 games.

We are 5th right now, so we are well inside top 8. So when you say lets see if he finishes in the top 8, similarly one can say let's wait till end of the season before seeing whether he has stamped his authority.
 
1. Klopp took over mid way of the season, did not have a pre season and got europa final. Lets see if Ten Hag even finishes in the top 8.

2. Pep was getting thrashed but were scoring goals, by the end of the season, we saw Pep's style really come into play, the last 15 games they were playing really well with 4/5 nil results.

We are getting pamed 4-0, 6-3 and barely even able to score a goal in home games. We have the lowest defensive line in the league.

We beat Liverpool and Arsenal and are in 5th place despite a ridiculously hard fixture list. Hag is doing amazing. Amazing.
 
1. Klopp took over mid way of the season, did not have a pre season and got europa final. Lets see if Ten Hag even finishes in the top 8.

2. Pep was getting thrashed but were scoring goals, by the end of the season, we saw Pep's style really come into play, the last 15 games they were playing really well with 4/5 nil results.

We are getting pamed 4-0, 6-3 and barely even able to score a goal in home games. We have the lowest defensive line in the league.

We do? Genuinely surprised by that.

Even if that were right, what do you think abt that, for ex in the context of yesterday's game.
 
I'm also one trying to understand the genesis of a lot of your "concern" regarding Ten Hag.

Your argument that he is forcing players to play a way that is not suited to them is a weird one. Because if we suddenly switched to a low block, low possession, counter attacking style that too would be forcing players like Martinez, Eriksen, Sancho etc to play a style that is not suited to them. That is not a Ten Hag issue, that is an issue relating to the fact that we have a mix of different style/profile of players at this club which is a problem. Martinez is suited to high line/possession football, Maguire on the other hand would be better in a low block. But this is something that we knew coming into the season and will only be solved by successful recruitment geared towards one style of football, which has already started.

In regards to EtH sticking to his style, when Pep joined city in his first year and just about scrapped top 4 with arguably the best squad in the league and best manager and best finances, a lot of people were saying similar things about forcing his style on players and that it was easy to play his style in weaker leagues like Spain and Germany but he would struggle to replicate it in England and we know how that turned out. If Ten Hag's goal is to create a team in his image, which the recruitment has been centered around, why waste a season playing in a completely different style? Which based on past performances only really guarantees a top 4 result if those around us perform poorly. If anything I think its important EtH does not steer away from his style and sticks with it. Eventually if he keeps identifying the right profile of players the makeup of the squad will lend itself to possession football.

Despite the above, even with players who according to you are not suited to possession football guess what? They've started to have consistently more possession against teams.

In regards to EtH's substitutions, rather than quoting criticism of him from his Ajax days, just base it on what you have seen of him at united. To me and a lot of people he has made substitutions in a few games at points which have turned the games around (Martial v pool, subs v arsenal, martial v omonia etc). I would imagine if there was a stat for managers this season who have made subs that have impacted games he'd probably be pretty high in the list. The other reality is the majority of the time subs don't really have an impact. Even under SAF.

So in short these weird criticisms that you keep pivoting to just fall flat when using both the eye test and stats. Now I'm not going to judge your intentions but to me it just seems like you have an issue with EtH because there is not one argument that you have made so far where I can even go "fair enough you have a point".

Who said he needs to transition to low block low possession? We've already been doing that when we've come up against top teams

City had 70% possession when we played them Arsenal had 60% possession at old trafford where we rode our luck, Leiscter City had 53 percent possession, and Liverpool had 70 percent.

We've made a meal out of our games in Europa where you would expect us to have more possession considering the low level opponents we've faced. The EPL games we have had more possession are against Everton, Southampton, and Newcastle who were missing key players and we played at Old Trafford getting out pressed and outhustled in the first half

All those games where we have dominated possession, we have flattered to deceive where most our goals have come from a counter attack breaks, see everton game.

You cannot compare what pep did in Spain and Germany to what ETH did in the Eredevise. It's insulting, considering Pep was an innovator who revolutionised the way football is played while winning multiple major honours in the top leagues in the world. while the dutch league is 6th or 7th from what I remember. Since Pep he's come to the prem he's used many different systems and styles of play to adapt his methods to his squad.

Pep has used and been successful with 4-3-3, -4-4-1-1, 4-2-3-1 and a 4-3-3 false nine formation and there's been other formations he's used throughout his tenure at City which shows he doesn't just have a plan A, but a B, C,D and E in order to adjust to the players he has at his disposal to match his style

So far we only got a plan A of a 4-2-3-1 where players are who not well fitted in the system are being shoehorned into it and often played out of position, where we end up having to rely on a counter or individual brilliance

Regarding the subs, there have been many games, I can't remember them off the top of my head where he has been late to make changes both in europe and the prem which resulted in costing us points.

I don't have any issue with Ten Hag, I'm just providing some critique because some people are behaving as if he's completely transformed our team into something it is not. He's made our players more technically comfortable on the ball, which is good coaching, he's sure'd up our defence and dropped the likes of Maguire and Ronaldo when needed but other than that there is nothing much to shout home about regarding the standard of football. There's been many instances where it's been stale, negative in terms of lacking intensty and grinding.

When Pep and klopp arrived their teams may had slow starts but the football was always intense and immediately showcased the style of play their manager had imposed on the team, and neither did they get all the players they wanted to fit their style. The difference is they moulded their philosophy to suit the players, they didn't need specialised players in every single position to play the football they wished to play.

All summer we targeted players who only knew ETH's system, and if they didn't we didn't want to know about them.
 
Who said he needs to transition to low block low possession? We've already been doing that when we've come up against top teams

City had 70% possession when we played them Arsenal had 60% possession at old trafford where we rode our luck, Leiscter City had 53 percent possession, and Liverpool had 70 percent.

We've made a meal out of our games in Europa where you would expect us to have more possession considering the low level opponents we've faced. The EPL games we have had more possession are against Everton, Southampton, and Newcastle who were missing key players and we played at Old Trafford getting out pressed and outhustled in the first half

All those games where we have dominated possession, we have flattered to deceive where most our goals have come from a counter attack breaks, see everton game.

You cannot compare what pep did in Spain and Germany to what ETH did in the Eredevise. It's insulting, considering Pep was an innovator who revolutionised the way football is played while winning multiple major honours in the top leagues in the world. while the dutch league is 6th or 7th from what I remember. Since Pep he's come to the prem he's used many different systems and styles of play to adapt his methods to his squad.

Pep has used and been successful with 4-3-3, -4-4-1-1, 4-2-3-1 and a 4-3-3 false nine formation and there's been other formations he's used throughout his tenure at City which shows he doesn't just have a plan A, but a B, C,D and E in order to adjust to the players he has at his disposal to match his style

So far we only got a plan A of a 4-2-3-1 where players are who not well fitted in the system are being shoehorned into it and often played out of position, where we end up having to rely on a counter or individual brilliance

Regarding the subs, there have been many games, I can't remember them off the top of my head where he has been late to make changes both in europe and the prem which resulted in costing us points.

I don't have any issue with Ten Hag, I'm just providing some critique because some people are behaving as if he's completely transformed our team into something it is not. He's made our players more technically comfortable on the ball, which is good coaching, he's sure'd up our defence and dropped the likes of Maguire and Ronaldo when needed but other than that there is nothing much to shout home about regarding the standard of football. There's been many instances where it's been stale, negative in terms of lacking intensty and grinding.

When Pep and klopp arrived their teams may had slow starts but the football was always intense and immediately showcased the style of play their manager had imposed on the team, and neither did they get all the players they wanted to fit their style. The difference is they moulded their philosophy to suit the players, they didn't need specialised players in every single position to play the football they wished to play.

All summer we targeted players who only knew ETH's system, and if they didn't we didn't want to know about them.

I saw a Ten Hag team yesterday. I have followed Ajax so I know what it looks like.

Ten Hag stamped his authority from day one, and laid down the law after game two. Since then we have been working hard and looking aggressive, with the City game the exception (we looked paralyzed).

As regards to playstyle: 4 3 3 is his preferred formation. We are playing a different system. It fits the players we have, no one is being shoe horned into it.

I’m not sure what your issue is, but you are not making any sense.
 
Oh the moaning!

Newcastle is a very good side now that works hard and presses aggressively, held City to a draw. Why would it be a walk in the park for us?

Considering we had no Eriksen yesterday, we did well. Fred presses well but does not offer much in possession.

I was pleased to see us match the intensity of Newcastle, which is a prerequisite to get anything out of the game.

We continue to improve in playing out from under the press, and had good spells of possession in the second half.

What was missing was Eriksen in midfield, the right runs and better finishing.

We had them on the ropes the last fifteen minutes. With more composure we would have finished them off.
Abso bloody exactly
 
I saw a Ten Hag team yesterday. I have followed Ajax so I know what it looks like.

Ten Hag stamped his authority from day one, and laid down the law after game two. Since then we have been working hard and looking aggressive, with the City game the exception (we looked paralyzed).

As regards to playstyle: 4 3 3 is his preferred formation. We are playing a different system. It fits the players we have, no one is being shoe horned into it.

I’m not sure what your issue is, but you are not making any sense.

Exactly he's already imprinted his style on the team and the standard of football is leaving a lot left to be desire which is the issue. We're predictable, at times sterile and lacking in intensity. The players work harder for each other for sure, but we still lack intensity going into games.

Players are playing for Ronaldo rather than the team whenever he features and, we don't know if they are commanded to do it or if they are doing their own thing. We have wingers always cutting inside to play safe passes instead of trying to beat their man. At times are midfield are all over the place. The only area where we've seen consistent considerable improvement is in the defence and even though we've conceded 15 goals only 5 less than 10th place Bournemouth and this is after investing over 77 million on defensive reinforcements. Not to mention we have only scored 13 goals in the league, individual players have scored more goals in less games than our entire team put together

After last season horror show, I understand standards and expectations are in the gutter and just seeing players work hard, put in a shift and string more than 2 passes together can seem transformative. But if after spending 230 million and 7 months into a new manager's tenure, and all we can say is that the players are more aggressive and they now play for each other then something is very wrong.
 
Yes we are barely able to score goals because of our poor finishing, not because of lack of chances created. The fact that Pep was getting thrashed shows you it isn't easy to get authority stamped after 13 games.

We are 5th right now, so we are well inside top 8. So when you say lets see if he finishes in the top 8, similarly one can say let's wait till end of the season before seeing whether he has stamped his authority.
Not sure about the bolded part. We did well to convert our chances in previous games. In fact I don't think we lost points in any game due to poor finishing (assuming not every chance will be converted obviously).
 
Not sure about the bolded part. We did well to convert our chances in previous games. In fact I don't think we lost points in any game due to poor finishing (assuming not every chance will be converted obviously).
Well, we should have score 5 plus goals against Omonia and defenitely beaten Newcastle after a clear cut chances that rashford and fred have. Again, Newcastle are no mugs so they will be hard to beat this season.
 
Well, we should have score 5 plus goals against Omonia and defenitely beaten Newcastle after a clear cut chances that rashford and fred have. Again, Newcastle are no mugs so they will be hard to beat this season.
Yea they've conceded the fewest in the league, having played a few tough games
 
Low xG can be a symptom of not getting an early goal. If you get one the game opens up and you get more chances both on the counter attack and because your confidence is up.

We saw against Arsenal and Liverpool that taking a first half lead can mean you get goals 2 and 3 later in the game.
 
I’m still in the Stay camp for him even if we finish 6th again this year. We had such clusterfeck of a team five months ago. A bunch of them have thankfully left and their replacements have all performed quite decently early on. I feel like after the summer window next year and at least another 4 players in, we’ll see something more exciting and promising.
 
Seriously can't believe some in our fanbase are already criticizing the Ten Hag after only 10 games into the season. Did they not see where we were last season, we were rock bottom in terms of morale and results.

He's not a miracle worker and there's going to be some bumps in the road. We already look more secure at the back and more confident in possession. Newcastle are a good team and were always going to cause a few issues. We can hardly blame him for strikers missing easy chances. Think some of our fanbase think we should just win because of our name, because we have a highly rated team in FIFA or stuck in the Fergie era where we won near every week.
 

You can have a laugh at Luke Shaw but what do you expect? You're playing for a big club, have a well known manager and everything you say is going to be scrutinized. He's not going to talk shit that's for sure. If you wanna dive deeper though it seems like he's saying 1) ETH isn't fecking around, more more mates rates; 2) Ole is a nice guy.
 
Well, we should have score 5 plus goals against Omonia and defenitely beaten Newcastle after a clear cut chances that rashford and fred have. Again, Newcastle are no mugs so they will be hard to beat this season.
We got 3 points against Omonia, so our finishing didn't cost us in the end (what was my initial argument).
Against Newcastle we had some half chances, but I don't have feeling we "should've" scored and draw was a fair (although disappointing) result.

Looking in general at our season, finishing chances is not a big issue. We will obviously miss some, but we're fine. The biggest problem is we don't create enough clear chances.
 
I don't feel offended, I welcome different opinions I'm just saying for your own benefit it's not a good look bashing and generalising the entire fanbase calling them morons and children if they don't all believe the sun shines out of the managers backside after what we've been subjected to so far which has been a mixed bag of mediocre performances and games where we've looked coherent as a team.

I don't see how I contradicted myself, Ajax had a far superior squad to all of the 18 teams of the league. bar Feyenoord and PSV. All the rest of league were championship level and that's even a push. In that environment he could afford play players out of position, not have to make difficult mid game changes while his star studded ajax team were wheeled out to bully and dominate less quality teams week in week out

He doesn't have that luxury here in the premiership. Most of the teams in the premiership are fearless and are accustomed to pressing and have squads filled with internationals, not semi professionals and part timers so being tactically astute and flexibility is imperative to success

He can't afford to keep playing players in different roles trying to force them to play a way they are not suited as we've seen with fred, Rashford and early in the first few games where he played eriksen as a cdm.

Former ajax manager Aad De Mos seems to think he has quite a few flaws which we some of us ''children' and ''morons' have picked up on

De Mos “I think that Ten Hag does not read the match well, as always.

“It takes far too long before Erik ten Hag strikes with his substitutions. He already did that too late in Lisbon. Brian Brobbey should be brought in much earlier. He didn’t have to substitute [Sebastian] Haller, but if you could have just added him as an extra striker, they would have been in trouble.

“You also have to show some guts in these kinds of games and not hide in your dugout. You have to have some fire show up, get to that line and stir things up a little bit when things get messy in the field. And that was it. You helped Benfica into the saddle by playing the game they like. It’s all too noncommittal at Ajax.''

Now we have seen lack of intensity in games, we have seen him dither and not make any changes until late ina game when it's been calling for changes to be made earlier. In the first half we actually out worked by Newcastle and only made a sub in the 72 min

Imagine if he brought Rashford on earlier we might have had a better chance of winning the match when it was clear things were not working out for Ronaldo. And why isn't Ten Hag telling his player to stop trying to force feed everything to Ronaldo? That's what hurt us the most, players not playing for the team but playing instead to serve ronaldo. Was that a direct command from ten hag or are the players doing their own thing?
With all due respect mate, but there isn’t a soul in the netherlands that takes Aad de Mos seriously. He has been too often wrong in his predictions about players and managers.
 
Feck me, I really should keep away from some threads.

ETH hasn't been perfect, there are plenty of things to be negative about but then there are much more to give benefit of the doubt on. I have no problem with expecting more because I believe we all do and justifiably should be. However, to then compare his tenure to the best 2 managers in the league, without context and choosing when and what to compare, AND fecking Burnley is mind boggling pessimistic.

These fans are not really fans of the club, just the success only. They are used to seeing us dominate during SAF days, so they always expect immediate success. This is why they will never be able to appreciate the positives and always feel disgruntled unless we show great dominance.

Bravo. Some fans treat football like a statistic.
 
You can have a laugh at Luke Shaw but what do you expect? You're playing for a big club, have a well known manager and everything you say is going to be scrutinized. He's not going to talk shit that's for sure. If you wanna dive deeper though it seems like he's saying 1) ETH isn't fecking around, more more mates rates; 2) Ole is a nice guy.

I ain't laughing, just posted the old tweet to show you that it would be prudent to take Shaw's words and judgement with a pinch of salt
 
I'm a troll, because I expect us to be playing better football after spending over 230 million and bringing in Pep's apparent prodigy? Get over yourself , we've brought in an unproven manager from a weak league who has question marks around him and I'm simply questioning exactly what he's brought to the table so far. And so far there's a lot to be desired. We've already been stomped on by the likes of Brighton, Brentford and city where we could have lost 10-0 if city didn't make wholesale changes to rest key players.

I'm not talking about today even though we could has easily been 2-0 down in the first half after Varane dropped one of their players in box and then the corner miss I'm talking about games against arsenal, Liverpool, Leicester and key parts of everton game where we've ended up sitting deep and relying on counters

All the players who brought forth toxicity and dressing room leaks mostly have left, pogba, lingard, henderson, Cavani, Bailey. The only player that's left who's toxic is Ronaldo. Other than that he's been given a clean slate.

We all heard over the summer that he needed his players which were all from erevidese league to help implement his special system immediately. He's got his players and I dont see any system being implemented other than a few good overlaps with the wingers and fullbacks and a bit more hunger from the players.

Tactically there is nothing revolutionary and I watched Ajax a lot last season under Hag and I didn't see much special then other than flat track bullying teams with a quarter of Ajax's budget.
HEATHEN!!!! If you cannot see the genius of the ETH, then you don't know football!
 
HEATHEN!!!! If you cannot see the genius of the ETH, then you don't know football!

To be fair Ten Hag is not responsible of the current state of the club. He is doing the best he can considering current circumstances (which isn't so bad).

We beat Liverpool and Arsenal, got thrashed by City, which to be fair was a reasonable outcome all things considered.

Give the man time, his signings so far have been reasonable and productive, specially Martinez.

I'm happy with the job hes done so far.
 
I don’t think it is that good. Few players have broken through over the last 10 years.

They all got playing time in pre-season and were found not ready. None of them have started a game.

Hopefully we get some easier games so we can sub in Garnacho, Ickbal, McNeil more often.
Can't be worse than Macguire ronaldo and mctoms surely?
 
Possession has improved, however would like us to get to the by-line and cut the ball back against low blocks a lot more often. Our final ball in general is rarely good enough and it has to be to win games like yesterday.

Our Play and movement around the penalty area is non existent. We’ve been like this the whole time post Zlatan. we are a lot better when martial is on form because when he plays as a 9 he at least takes up the correct positions and brings others into play with his quick feet but he’s totally unreliable. Our fullbacks don’t get to the byline much either because there’s nobody ever really in there. We are trying to force these tiny openings through cut back after cut back, side to side with the odd floated Hail Mary ball in the hope someone makes a run. it’s just far too easy to defend against.
 
1. Klopp took over mid way of the season, did not have a pre season and got europa final. Lets see if Ten Hag even finishes in the top 8.

2. Pep was getting thrashed but were scoring goals, by the end of the season, we saw Pep's style really come into play, the last 15 games they were playing really well with 4/5 nil results.

We are getting pamed 4-0, 6-3 and barely even able to score a goal in home games. We have the lowest defensive line in the league.

City got Pep's ex-teammate to be their DoF and spent half a billion pounds bringing in players for him before he even got there. You're talking about it like they were shite when Pep arrived but they already had a world class squad. They also spent another half a billion the next few years after he got there.

Also this will be controversial but that Liverpool squad Klopp inherited in 2015 wasn't as bad as United were at the end of last season. They downed tools on Brendan Rodgers but they had some talent, which is why Pool were able to make a few hundred million selling off their unwanted players and Coutinho while United can't even bin anyone off even without a transfer fee.
 
We do? Genuinely surprised by that.

Even if that were right, what do you think abt that, for ex in the context of yesterday's game.



Our defensive height this season is on par with Everton and Palace, our pressing is on par with them and they are nearer to the bottom of the table.

I am worried about that. We wont be able to dominate games if our defensive line is that deep, we will be ripped apart like we have seen this season.

We are a lucky team still, I dont think much has changed from last season. We are better on the ball in the first two phases but other than that, there is alot of improvement required before I say Ten Hag is doing an amazing job.
 
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