Erik ten Hag | 2022/23 & 2023/24

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I disagree. While I love Martinez and Casemiro, I don't think his recruitment has been particularly good. Eriksen has been good. Jurys is still out on Antony. Malacia is ok as a backup. Weghorst doesn't do much. A mixed bag really. What's more impressive is EtH's ability to get the players at his disposal to play good football. He has improved Rashford, Shaw and to some extent AWB and yesterday, we went toe to toe with number one in La Liga with Fred and Weghorst in the team.
What..?
  • Casemiro - best DM in the world and the perfect add to transform the team -10/10
  • Martinez - most didn't see CB as a direct need. Ten Hag did, and bought a player most didn't know about, who has turned out to be a young world class CB who is vital to both our defending and our build up play - 10/10
  • Eriksen - on a free, ten hag saw him as a deep playmaker when nobody else did. Was excellent and key in the first half, though not perfect of course, but on a free? - 9/10
  • Malacia - bought as rotation and future growth as a young, cheap left back. Has far surpassed the cost paid, put in excellent performances in big games, attitude a big reason for our improvement too. No, he isn't Shaw. But he's young, provides other pluses, and again.. was 12m and has proven to be a very useful and reliable squad player. Our LB situation is literally perfect and probably the best in the world between starter and competition - 9/10
  • Antony - profile wise, I maintain Antony was perfect for our needs. He's a player who is press resistant, can slow the game down when the rest like going at 100mph, he has great technique, work rate, is young and has high potential. Time will tell what level he can reach. Price was exorbitant and way too much of course, I'd love for us to have alternatives but the only problem with Antony was that he was 100m and not 50 or 60m. We still play far better with him than without. - 6/10
Our summer window was excellent, the only problem was cost on 1 player, but even still, left footed right winger are so so rare and hard to get, that I understand the push Ten Hag had to just get him in.
 
Agree with this all.

We can mix it so many ways at the moment, we are operating like a top team.


I love him, best thing to happen to us since Fergie went. Don't even feel like need to question his decisions as he knows what he is doing, why frustrating sometimes when people are nitpicking looking for issues be it subs too late, or maybe playing a player they think shouldn't start.

The subs one a weird moan, as I think we are top of table for points gained after subs, or late in games so hes been mostly spot on in that regards. Hard to argue with what he is doing. He has total confidence in the team turning it around.

It's crazy mate. Because you can't really question his incredible 70% win rate, the moaners have resorted to questioning his subs, transfers and away win rate. I mean, just feck right off.

He hasn't just done an absolutely incredible job on the pitch; he's made us be respected again and brought back that connection between the fans and the players. This is the most connected I've felt to this club since the Fergie days, and I fecking love it!
 
I think he’s further highlighted the over-exaggeration about ‘structure this and structure that’ at the club. Apparently not having a DoF and what not was the reason for our struggles for so long.

Get a good manager in and let him work with the players he wants and that is surely the most important ingredients.
 
I love this man, keep the great work going Sir!!
 
That’s the thing, only 2 Ten Hag signings started last night (don’t really include Weghorst) and one was Malacia who wouldn’t play if Shaw wasn’t moved inside .He’s got the entire squad humming

But generally speaking, rather than just one game, the new signings have made a massive difference. I'm not discrediting ETH, he's signed them. He's got right what the previous guys got wrong.

But even last night, imagine Telles instead of Malacia, McTominay instead of Casemiro. Or if Varane was always missing like last season. Just those three being in the team made a massive difference last night.
 
I think he’s further highlighted the over-exaggeration about ‘structure this and structure that’ at the club. Apparently not having a DoF and what not was the reason for our struggles for so long.

Get a good manager in and let him work with the players he wants and that is surely the most important ingredients.
I'm still willing to bet City's "amazing" structure falls to pieces the second Guardiola leaves, same with Liverpool's when Klopp goes. Although in fairness it is on the higher ups to pick the manager and get the appointment right.
 
I think he’s further highlighted the over-exaggeration about ‘structure this and structure that’ at the club. Apparently not having a DoF and what not was the reason for our struggles for so long.

Get a good manager in and let him work with the players he wants and that is surely the most important ingredients.
That's a good point as its gone hush since we started getting results again along with needing a full season to evaluate and get a tune out of the team, although we did make some changes in the background which probably helped.
A combo of a good manager and having the right people and players around him certainly helps.
 
It completely kills the myth that managers need seasons to get it right. A good manager gets you going straight away. The signs have been there from the very beginning.
 
I think he’s further highlighted the over-exaggeration about ‘structure this and structure that’ at the club. Apparently not having a DoF and what not was the reason for our struggles for so long.

Get a good manager in and let him work with the players he wants and that is surely the most important ingredients.
A great manager with sensible people above with no egos has done wonders for us.
 
The way we played under Ole and Rangnick last season where we can't string 2 passes together and played like complete strangers. We feared for the worst.

This season the expectation was low. I only hope to see our style of play improve even if we missed out on top 4. Post SAF we were always in "rebuilding" phase year after year.

ETH came in and completely changed that. In such short period of time, he brings the club back to where it belongs with high expectations, pride and performance. We have been dragged down so low by Moyes, LVG, Jose and Ole.

I can't believe that we were the better team at Camp Nou and played brilliant high intensity football.
 
I think he’s further highlighted the over-exaggeration about ‘structure this and structure that’ at the club. Apparently not having a DoF and what not was the reason for our struggles for so long.

Get a good manager in and let him work with the players he wants and that is surely the most important ingredients.

Some posters even blame SAF left the club without establish a structure for the club that caused our downfall post SAF. The actual fact is that we appointed incompetent managers.

ETH came in without any structure too. New DOF, no scouting department, no data analyst, medical, nutrition and whatnot. Even the signings are all his signings. And he completely transformed the club.

That's what SAF used to do. He was the structure.
 
I disagree. While I love Martinez and Casemiro, I don't think his recruitment has been particularly good. Eriksen has been good. Jurys is still out on Antony. Malacia is ok as a backup. Weghorst doesn't do much. A mixed bag really. What's more impressive is EtH's ability to get the players at his disposal to play good football. He has improved Rashford, Shaw and to some extent AWB and yesterday, we went toe to toe with number one in La Liga with Fred and Weghorst in the team.

You must be on a wind up....
 
what you finally have is a manager who loves football and is passionate about football.....Everyone bar Ole post Fergie were guys who are dinosaurs in the game and stuck in their old ways with no true progressive thinking

Ole was young, enthusiastic, loved the club BUT too inexperienced to run this club and did struggle with in game adjustments tactically

EtH is proving that he's fuking a bright manager, very well thought out in how he sets up against an opponent, very planned and structured with his recruitment of players but more importantly hell most importantly EVERYONE knows he's in charge. He set a standard for discipline and players understand that so they know exactly what to expect. That is huge for players to have those boundaries and guidelines. This guy is just a real footballers manager and you can see it again finally with how the players stick together and react on the pitch...speak in their interviews
 

Playing Weghorst as a number 10. Bruno wide right. Stuff like that, going back to throwing Maguire on up front at Sociedad.

Please note I’m saying “weird”, not “wrong”. I’m 100% sure ten Hag knows what he’s doing.
 
The way we played under Ole and Rangnick last season where we can't string 2 passes together and played like complete strangers. We feared for the worst.

This season the expectation was low. I only hope to see our style of play improve even if we missed out on top 4. Post SAF we were always in "rebuilding" phase year after year.

ETH came in and completely changed that. In such short period of time, he brings the club back to where it belongs with high expectations, pride and performance. We have been dragged down so low by Moyes, LVG, Jose and Ole.

I can't believe that we were the better team at Camp Nou and played brilliant high intensity football.

Ten Hag deserves all the credit, but I think Ten Hag had better players than Moyes and Van Gaal did initially. Still, he sorted them out after two games, which is damn impressive. The signings were spot on as well.
 
ETH is doing a good job. But I get nervous when all the plaudits come in before he has actually won anything. As I do with Rashford's hot streak when he gets 'best in the world' comments in the press. Build up to knock down, they do it all the time. Lets see where we are over the next two years.
 
Playing Weghorst as a number 10. Bruno wide right. Stuff like that, going back to throwing Maguire on up front at Sociedad.

Please note I’m saying “weird”, not “wrong”. I’m 100% sure ten Hag knows what he’s doing.
That's just Ten Hag, I think it was Maclaren who did an interview about him and said he'd do weird shizz that doesn't look right, but just works somehow.
 
I think he’s further highlighted the over-exaggeration about ‘structure this and structure that’ at the club. Apparently not having a DoF and what not was the reason for our struggles for so long.

Get a good manager in and let him work with the players he wants and that is surely the most important ingredients.
Not having a complete football structure was why we kept hiring wrong managers. We left that decision to Woodward.
 
Playing Weghorst as a number 10. Bruno wide right. Stuff like that, going back to throwing Maguire on up front at Sociedad.

Please note I’m saying “weird”, not “wrong”. I’m 100% sure ten Hag knows what he’s doing.

Fair enough, but Wout was playing as an 8 last night.

Let's put it this way - Barca rejigged their whole defense to deal with Rashford at left wing and it still didn't work - Ten Hag certainly won the tactical battle with Xavi.

In a game without Licha, Eriksen, Antony, Martial, Sabitzer, Dalot etc, we went to Camp Nou and dictated the game to La Liga table leaders - and are disappointed at not winning.

"Weird" or not, Ten Hag played a blinder.
 
Not having a complete football structure was why we kept hiring wrong managers. We left that decision to Woodward.

That’s a cop out to me, and simplistic 20/20 hindsight. Any structure could have appointed Ten Hag. The point was the many a thesis that was written about our lack of success being due to us not having hired Michael whoever, who was the specialist data man, or Adam this and that in the position of link between the tea lady and centre forward like all the other top clubs who had recognised this years ago has all quieted. If all everyone meant was we need to overhaul the club from top to bottom to improve our chances of getting an effective manager they should have said that - but there was a fair bit of over analysis in my humble opinion.

When it’s all said and done and a transfer window closes, it is a manager and his players pretty much until the next 12 months passes. The fact that Woodward was held accountable for everything in between, or the lack of Chief x, or Technical lead Y always seemed far fetched to me. I don’t see any reason why the right manager could not have done better over the last decade at any point. Ten Hag has come in and largely been given the players he has asked for, despite me being told on here for ages that this is sacrilege and you need a transfer specialist or whoever to pick targets so that we can have ‘continuity’ or whatever.

If you get a top manager and a group of quality players, especially the ones he wants, there’s no reason to expect him not to do well.
 
I think he is doing so well that other clubs are going to want to poach him. My greatest fear.
 
Ten Hag deserves all the credit, but I think Ten Hag had better players than Moyes and Van Gaal did initially. Still, he sorted them out after two games, which is damn impressive. The signings were spot on as well.

Last season was so bad that we need to get rid of entire team to challenge again. Even Rangnick said and many agreed that we need to sign up to 10-11 new players. I would say the situation was worse than Moyes and LVG. ETH came in and changed all that. He is able to resuscitate players like AWB, Dalot, Shaw, Fred, Rashford (last year looked death and buried), DDG. Sancho and Garnacho are work in progress.
 
That’s a cop out to me, and simplistic 20/20 hindsight. Any structure could have appointed Ten Hag. The point was the many a thesis that was written about our lack of success being due to us not having hired Michael whoever, who was the specialist data man, or Adam this and that in the position of link between the tea lady and centre forward like all the other top clubs who had recognised this years ago has all quieted. If all everyone meant was we need to overhaul the club from top to bottom to improve our chances of getting an effective manager they should have said that - but there was a fair bit of over analysis in my humble opinion.

When it’s all said and done and a transfer window closes, it is a manager and his players pretty much until the next 12 months passes. The fact that Woodward was held accountable for everything in between, or the lack of Chief x, or Technical lead Y always seemed far fetched to me. I don’t see any reason why the right manager could not have done better over the last decade at any point. Ten Hag has come in and largely been given the players he has asked for, despite me being told on here for ages that this is sacrilege and you need a transfer specialist or whoever to pick targets so that we can have ‘continuity’ or whatever.

If you get a top manager and a group of quality players, especially the ones he wants, there’s no reason to expect him not to do well.
Yup. Said it before. A good manager can be successful with a bad structure. A bad manager can't be successful with a good structure. United's first and foremost problem has been just bad/wrong managers for the club. Having a good structure means the guys above the manager know and understand what type of manager to look for more often (see Brighton replacing Potter effortlessly), while bad structures are like Villa or Everton where they go from one extreme to another and no consistency. Everyone can get duds, important to not have them often.

The structure above the manager sure can raise the highest potential level, sign fewer duds etc, but the main thing is managing transitions better. If you aren't in a place where you need to transition between managers, then "the structure" is responsible for just getting a better transfer record... Which the manager also plays the biggest part. The manager needs to tell them what he wants. What type of player. What position. And some influence on the players. If a manager doesn't understand exactly what he needs for his side, they'll never be successful. And that's much easier said than done, to know what type of players you need to build a successful side.
 
Fair enough, but Wout was playing as an 8 last night.

Let's put it this way - Barca rejigged their whole defense to deal with Rashford at left wing and it still didn't work - Ten Hag certainly won the tactical battle with Xavi.

In a game without Licha, Eriksen, Antony, Martial, Sabitzer, Dalot etc, we went to Camp Nou and dictated the game to La Liga table leaders - and are disappointed at not winning.

"Weird" or not, Ten Hag played a blinder.

Absolutely, I couldn’t be happier with how he’s going.
 
Some posters even blame SAF left the club without establish a structure for the club that caused our downfall post SAF. The actual fact is that we appointed incompetent managers.

ETH came in without any structure too. New DOF, no scouting department, no data analyst, medical, nutrition and whatnot. Even the signings are all his signings. And he completely transformed the club.

That's what SAF used to do. He was the structure.
Yeah. Quite simply, it is very hard to see if a structure is successful. You need to judge over a long period of time with many different managers to know. Brighton you can say have a good structure. They replace Potter easily, repeatedly make good signings, punch above their weight regularly. With the big clubs... How much of it is it down to structure vs how much is just having a top manager? People praised Liverpool but really they just have a great as manager. Was it a good structure buying the right players or getting lucky with a transfer run? People praised City, but they were mediocre before Pep got there. We'll see how they do when Pep leaves.

United blew loads of money on failed transfers. How much of that was on the players and not the manager? Di Maria for example. A player that many managers would love and fit them perfectly. A winner with Argentina, Real Madrid and PSG. Here it just didn't work for him and he and Van Gaal hated each other. Put a different manager in charge of him and you get a wildly different career outcome for Di Maria with United. People always wanted to blame the structures and sure the structure probably isn't good. That does not excuse the managers in any way though, who were simply not good enough managers or the right managers for our needs.
 
You must have insanely high expectations then.

Martinez, Casemiro and Eriksen have been superb. Antony gives us a shape we lack when he's not there, and at 22 has huge potential. Malacia has shown he's way better than a mere backup - just look at some of the woefully average backup full backs we've had since Fergie!
I might. But when you’re given 95m to spend on one player, I expect him to be a world beater. Antony might become that one day but he hasn’t been this far and there’s no indication he has the physical tools to ever beat his man regularly in the Prem.

Regarding Eriksen, he’s integral to the way we play and a good signing on a free but it’s also very obvious that he’s a liability defensively. For some reason we spent the Summer chasing FdJ when there were plenty of good CMs available.

I love Malacia’s attitude but I don’t think he fits the Prem either with his lack of physicality and pace. Weghorst is a Championship level striker IMO while the jury is still out on Sabitzer.

Look, I’m not saying EtH’s recruitment has been poor. But it’s not what I’m most impressed with about him.
 
I think he’s further highlighted the over-exaggeration about ‘structure this and structure that’ at the club. Apparently not having a DoF and what not was the reason for our struggles for so long.

Get a good manager in and let him work with the players he wants and that is surely the most important ingredients.
Well I guess a competent DoF would help to make that happen. Murtough certainly seems like an upgrade over Woodward, but the jury is out until we see how he (or any other DoF) works without having the Glazers hovering him.
 
I disagree. While I love Martinez and Casemiro, I don't think his recruitment has been particularly good. Eriksen has been good. Jurys is still out on Antony. Malacia is ok as a backup. Weghorst doesn't do much. A mixed bag really. What's more impressive is EtH's ability to get the players at his disposal to play good football. He has improved Rashford, Shaw and to some extent AWB and yesterday, we went toe to toe with number one in La Liga with Fred and Weghorst in the team.


:wenger::wenger::wenger:
 
It's crazy mate. Because you can't really question his incredible 70% win rate, the moaners have resorted to questioning his subs, transfers and away win rate. I mean, just feck right off.

He hasn't just done an absolutely incredible job on the pitch; he's made us be respected again and brought back that connection between the fans and the players. This is the most connected I've felt to this club since the Fergie days, and I fecking love it!


Aye the buzz at the moment is unreal. Old Trafford is absolutely rocking at the moment. belief is there now that we can win stuff again, and are a threat for any competition.


As you say can't argue with that win rate, but can moan about the subs, scraping the barrell they are.
 
I think he’s further highlighted the over-exaggeration about ‘structure this and structure that’ at the club. Apparently not having a DoF and what not was the reason for our struggles for so long.

Get a good manager in and let him work with the players he wants and that is surely the most important ingredients.

Although I do think this has also come about as a change of structure we had last season.

The thing is, a change of structure is what led us to a good manager right?

Do we think Woodward would have appointed Ten Hag? he would have gone with Conte or Poch option I think.

Also, its always seen as a negative getting a DOF after the manager is hired, we have seen it in the past in clubs where a new DoF comes in and they dont agree with the manager.

We should not be making any drastic changes right now.
 
I disagree. While I love Martinez and Casemiro, I don't think his recruitment has been particularly good. Eriksen has been good. Jurys is still out on Antony. Malacia is ok as a backup. Weghorst doesn't do much. A mixed bag really. What's more impressive is EtH's ability to get the players at his disposal to play good football. He has improved Rashford, Shaw and to some extent AWB and yesterday, we went toe to toe with number one in La Liga with Fred and Weghorst in the team.

Well that's pretty good isn't it? You're happy with four out of five(Given Malacia was bought as a backup). I'd take that as a ratio any day of the week.

I think if you take away the new signings we'd quickly be back to struggling. We've seen it in snippets when players are missing.
 
Although I do think this has also come about as a change of structure we had last season.

The thing is, a change of structure is what led us to a good manager right?

Do we think Woodward would have appointed Ten Hag? he would have gone with Conte or Poch option I think.

Also, its always seen as a negative getting a DOF after the manager is hired, we have seen it in the past in clubs where a new DoF comes in and they dont agree with the manager.

We should not be making any drastic changes right now.

Who knows, but it’s certainly feasible that he would have. He’d have certainly interviewed him anyway, and he wouldn’t have made the decision autonomously either.

I do think it’s a little simplistic to say ‘it was the structure of the club all along, the new structure has appointed a good manager which proves the structure was all wrong.’

Besides, who appointed Murtough in the first place? And I can’t see how this can be a celebration of structure when there were a number of reports that Ten Hag basically threw our shopping list out of the window when he joined and ignored the likes of Pau Torres and got his own guy. You ultimately live and die by your results, and our manager is getting them at the moment, which another manager could have done at a difficult point I think. I cannot see how Mourinho, Ole or whoever else was so handicapped by the evil Woodward as was often made out.
 
I disagree. While I love Martinez and Casemiro, I don't think his recruitment has been particularly good. Eriksen has been good. Jurys is still out on Antony. Malacia is ok as a backup. Weghorst doesn't do much. A mixed bag really. What's more impressive is EtH's ability to get the players at his disposal to play good football. He has improved Rashford, Shaw and to some extent AWB and yesterday, we went toe to toe with number one in La Liga with Fred and Weghorst in the team.

:lol:
 
I might. But when you’re given 95m to spend on one player, I expect him to be a world beater. Antony might become that one day but he hasn’t been this far and there’s no indication he has the physical tools to ever beat his man regularly in the Prem.

Regarding Eriksen, he’s integral to the way we play and a good signing on a free but it’s also very obvious that he’s a liability defensively. For some reason we spent the Summer chasing FdJ when there were plenty of good CMs available.

I love Malacia’s attitude but I don’t think he fits the Prem either with his lack of physicality and pace. Weghorst is a Championship level striker IMO while the jury is still out on Sabitzer.

Look, I’m not saying EtH’s recruitment has been poor. But it’s not what I’m most impressed with about him.

Malacia certainly doesn't have a lack of pace.

I think some people measure pace as being almost olympic sprinter levels like Rashford and Mbappe sometimes.
 
I disagree. While I love Martinez and Casemiro, I don't think his recruitment has been particularly good. Eriksen has been good. Jurys is still out on Antony. Malacia is ok as a backup. Weghorst doesn't do much. A mixed bag really. What's more impressive is EtH's ability to get the players at his disposal to play good football. He has improved Rashford, Shaw and to some extent AWB and yesterday, we went toe to toe with number one in La Liga with Fred and Weghorst in the team.
Laughable post. :lol:
 
Last season was so bad that we need to get rid of entire team to challenge again. Even Rangnick said and many agreed that we need to sign up to 10-11 new players. I would say the situation was worse than Moyes and LVG. ETH came in and changed all that. He is able to resuscitate players like AWB, Dalot, Shaw, Fred, Rashford (last year looked death and buried), DDG. Sancho and Garnacho are work in progress.

Well I think the players weren‘t the problem except for a couple of deadweights that are now gone. It was clear many players were not preforming to their potential and we are seeing evidence of that this season.

To say last season‘s squad was worse than Moyes/LvG, is being proved wrong by how they are performing.
 
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