Erik ten Hag | 2022/23 & 2023/24

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There's something really fecking wrong with the mentality of some of our players if they let their standards drop after winning the Carabao Cup. Not that that's suprising, we have seen them play these past years after all.

The worst part is that it had only been a week. fecking hell, what happened in that week?
 
Think it was SAF who said after the 6-1 to City that the players themselves should realise how the game is going and see it out at 3/4-0 rather than conceding the last two.
Think I remember SAF saying the Flecther goal was the worst thing that happened to us as the team kept charging forward (we already had a man sent off btw) and leaving gaps everywhere. Often you get back into these games by slowly chipping away and nicking goals while keeping shape. Sometimes the anarchy approach can work but other times you just get picked off.

After the 6-1 defeat to City it was extremely evident in the next few games after that we played more cautiously and we won 4 of the next 5 games by a 1-0 scoreline. LVG gets a lot of stick for his tactics after the Leicester debacle but it happened with Fergie too. I wonder how EtH will react and if he changes anything or just views the game as an anomaly?
 
Dont believe me wrong what we saw on the pitch on Sunday was really bad from our perspective, we didnt just lose 3 points, we got hammered, shred to pieces, and as a united player or staff member you should never allow that to happen, especially painfull that this happens against Liverpool offcourse. BUT i do understand Liverpool was more hungry this game and everything they touched turned to gold. For Them it was the game of the season..because of their utter weak season and playing Man Utd at home, united players have been on a high and less hungry or more tyred for this game and you do have such games that almost everything goes wrong. Understandable, but not acceptable.

Losing 3 points and no title in this season OK.. but United should never get their ass kicked like we saw on Anfield this weekend. Each goal should feel as a extra humaliation. Hopefully they really get their shit together mentally and show us that hunger and passion we saw a week earlier, the skills are there we now that.
 
I think it’s much more logical and realistic that it was just an extremely bad day at the office and some players just having a disappointing attitude, than them thinking they’ve made it and suddenly having a terrible approach because they won the league cup.
 
Luke needs to look in the mirror because two of those goals he was directly involved for being lazy and not properly tracking guys who ran in behind him.....shouldn't case stones in a glass house mate

I was praising Shaw on this very site about a week ago about his maturity and honesty but this interview coupled with that performance has reminded me that actually he's a classic case of someone who tries to insulate himself from criticism by getting in there first, ie. talking about team standards etc. before anyone can question his own pathetic standards in the game, while at the same time hoping fans will respect his honesty.

It happened shitloads with him and the likes of De Gea under Ole, the worst offenders are often the first before the cameras after the match.
 
I was praising Shaw on this very site about a week ago about his maturity and honesty but this interview coupled with that performance has reminded me that actually he's a classic case of someone who tries to insulate himself from criticism by getting in there first, ie. talking about team standards etc. before anyone can question his own pathetic standards in the game, while at the same time hoping fans will respect his honesty.

It happened shitloads with him and the likes of De Gea under Ole, the worst offenders are often the first before the cameras after the match.

You do know that the players don’t decide who gets interviewed?
 
Who does then? Enlighten me.

Do Sky Sports decide every time we get panned that Luke Shaw is the man they need to speak to?

Yeah 99% of the time it’s the broadcasters who pick the players. Regarding MUTV the press officer/player liaison person might have a small chance to send who they want but it’s never the players who make that decision.

Do you honestly think that after that hammering on Sunday the first thing Shaw thought was ”Yeah I really fancy going to the media, better get my agenda out there before anyone else says anything”?
 
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I still believe there are people in that dressing room he doesn't trust but cannot replace at the moment. Last season was a watershed. Actually, Sunday was Watershed Down.
 
One thing is clear, we still desperately need a better director of football.

Although we signed some good players in the summer we can't just brush the Antony signing under the carpet. We could have bought a good rw and cf with that fee and instead we have neither and are desperately short on options up front.

Ten Hag may have an eye for a player but the Antony signing and prolonged pursuit of fdj show the danger of relying too much on the manager and not having someone competent to check and challenge
That I think we can all agree on. Having a manager take all the shots isn’t how well run clubs do things now. You have to have a good support system. Most of our signings have been excellent but Antony is definitely worrying atm. Either way we have to improve in the structure of the club to aid the manager
 
This is where ETH will truly show his worth. If players are as bought in as they seem and as we've been told for months they should be taking the ETH criticism and direction with conviction. If not, then we are truly in for a longer hill to climb to long term success than we thought a week ago...

That said...I have full trust that ETH will handle this in a way that works for the team, and that the tram will respond in a positive way. He's earned that trust until further notice.
 
One thing is clear, we still desperately need a better director of football.

Although we signed some good players in the summer we can't just brush the Antony signing under the carpet. We could have bought a good rw and cf with that fee and instead we have neither and are desperately short on options up front.

Ten Hag may have an eye for a player but the Antony signing and prolonged pursuit of fdj show the danger of relying too much on the manager and not having someone competent to check and challenge

Honestly don't think we could have bought a "good RW and CF" with that money anyways. It's part of the reason we were after Antony, the RW market sucks even more than the striker market currently. Ajax sort of knew that Antony was the best option of a bad bunch and that ETH knew the player already, so they bent us over a barrel after the FDJ miss.

I really hope Amad can make an impact in that position.
 
Honestly don't think we could have bought a "good RW and CF" with that money anyways. It's part of the reason we were after Antony, the RW market sucks even more than the striker market currently. Ajax sort of knew that Antony was the best option of a bad bunch and that ETH knew the player already, so they bent us over a barrel after the FDJ miss.

I really hope Amad can make an impact in that position.
It's one of those where United should know when to wise up and say "no" and pivot to maybe an older and shorter term option, like Arsenal did with Trossard instead of Mudryk. We did spend 85m or whatever ultimately on Antony. He might have huge potential, but in terms of what we are getting right now, it's nowhere near that. Pushing through with these big risk signings for a lot of money isn't a good idea to constantly do.
 
I'm not arguing for Poch? I don't want him anywhere near the club. And that's great but we could finish below Liverpool and end the season with just a league cup, which in the grand scheme of things will be a failure considering we have been comfortably in the top 4 all season.
I think that's a negative viewpoint. I understand the negativity because of the result, but are we going to draw conclusions over one fat L after a fantastic winning streak?
 
Three players in this list were against United.

Not an indictment to Ten Hag but a pointer that playing progressive, front foot football, with 2 man midfield will be obliterated by superior players.

Add genuine good 2 Midfielders + 1 Striker we will be a epic team next season.




There are lot of vs Man Utd there
 
I think that's a negative viewpoint. I understand the negativity because of the result, but are we going to draw conclusions over one fat L after a fantastic winning streak?
It is and it’s largely down to the result but there’s still a whopping 39 points to play for and this is the most important stretch of the season. It’s not inconceivable that the wheels come off here, football is about momentum and I’m concerned that result killed ours and handed Liverpool a massive boost.
 
Why don't we just wait to see what happens in the next games before we start saying we're going to drop out of the top 4. It's one game after a very impressive streak. We don't have to play arsenal City or pool anymore this season. It's going to take alot for us to miss out.
 
It is and it’s largely down to the result but there’s still a whopping 39 points to play for and this is the most important stretch of the season. It’s not inconceivable that the wheels come off here, football is about momentum and I’m concerned that result killed ours and handed Liverpool a massive boost.

Momentum is not some mystic force. Its based on hard factors. I mentioned this in another post, but while momentum is important it's usually boiled down to fatigue, certain tactics being exposed, and the loss of mental sharpness by players (and at times management). I have a family member in the NHL who I talk to about this often...

- Fatigue is surely a factor...so we can tick that box. We need to do something about this given our recent amount of games played...the only true suggestion is to have more of a rotation (and the obvious future bolstering of the roster for next season).

- Tactics being exposed is a game to game type of issue largely for anyone thats ever played organized sports...so we can half tick it. It think we ran into a buzzsaw of a highly motivated team that is also very well managed. Klopp found some holes and the players correctly exploited them. Whether others have "figured us out" has yet to be seen. I also feel we (finally) have a manager that can adapt their tactics. So I'm actually not too concerned here. This issue is usually the manager that plays one way and can't change, who is then "figured out"..cough cough Ole...

- Mental sharpness. I think it was clearly lacking in the last game, but overall I feel it mad to think we "lack" mental sharpness in general given our rather large sample size of results. But, it's admittedly something we are going to find out quickly if we actually can sustain it. This is sort of an incomplete for me, but I instinctually would not tick this box.

Back to my family member in NHL...he often finds the fans and pundits logic behind poor results hilariously dramatic and overcomplicated. It's often much simpler than most here think...i.e. they just all had a bad game in a tough environment. Players also seem, from my experience through him...to move on much quicker mentally than fans and the media.

All this is to make the point that the issues that led to the last game are all very fixable, and its more likely a logical correction (I never felt we were a league champion level team as yet) than some sort of endemic emergency. ETH will make adjustments, players will refocus, and I think we have a comfortable position to make the top 4 and perhaps win one more trophy...that feels realistic and miles off of the wheels falling off. Maybe I'm wrong...but I feel the actual evidence shown this season (bouncing back after the first few games, Ronaldo fiasco, form after WC) all point to ETH being able to handle the coming few months with relative success.

The main issue is a fan base that probably lifted expectations higher than the clubs quality...it's not either a quadruple or total failure. We can still have a great season and at the same time be beaten by the scousers 7-0....
 
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I still believe there are people in that dressing room he doesn't trust but cannot replace at the moment. Last season was a watershed. Actually, Sunday was Watershed Down.

Yeah I'm sure there are some he wants to boot
 
Why don't we just wait to see what happens in the next games before we start saying we're going to drop out of the top 4. It's one game after a very impressive streak. We don't have to play arsenal City or pool anymore this season. It's going to take alot for us to miss out.

If we win the games we're expected to win, we'll finish top 4 easily.

It's just a b
I still believe there are people in that dressing room he doesn't trust but cannot replace at the moment. Last season was a watershed. Actually, Sunday was Watershed Down.

It's obvious he doesn't fancy Dalot, AWB, Fred, McTom, Maguire, Lindelof, Sancho.

I think we're open to offers for all of them.

Not sure about Shaw. He was terrible for 3rd goal.
 
Think he needs to adjust the tactics drastically if we are going to have success away from home. The man to man stuff isn’t working against competent opposition.
 
Not sure what he means here. Is he referring to fatigue? Or some hangover from winning the Carling Cup? Hopefully, it's not the latter, it's the Carling Cup ffs (no disrespect, but it's an irrelevant trophy in the bigger picture)

It was literally one fecking week ago jesus christ. Theres standards dropping then capitulation
 
I still believe there are people in that dressing room he doesn't trust but cannot replace at the moment. Last season was a watershed. Actually, Sunday was Watershed Down.

There definitely is people in there he would want out if he had a functioning club with money behind him. Shaw has basically pissed all the plaudits he was getting for his good form up the wall with that shoddy performance., I hope Malacia starts v Betis.
 
One thing I was considering today.

We've bought some excellent players and they're doing great for us at the moment.

However, basically all of the good to great players (and Weghorst and Sabitzer) are in their 30s or approaching them fast.

We saw what happened with Casemiro at the weekend where it was clear he felt something and Varane probably wasn't 100%. Eriksen is also old and so is Fred.

Offering a contract to Sabitzer, even if he does well, would have to be at a decent wage, otherwise we need to look for the next big thing that's not Bellingham or Caicedo.

We may be able to do OK next season but this just emphasises the fact EtH has a job on his hands. Without Qatar money, we'd struggle to compete for the league.
 
It's one of those where United should know when to wise up and say "no" and pivot to maybe an older and shorter term option, like Arsenal did with Trossard instead of Mudryk. We did spend 85m or whatever ultimately on Antony. He might have huge potential, but in terms of what we are getting right now, it's nowhere near that. Pushing through with these big risk signings for a lot of money isn't a good idea to constantly do.

I don’t disagree, just was more saying that there wasn’t some great other option that we could turn to for that position. The market for RW is as bare as any position in football. Trossard is also a LW. It’s just different.

It’s just annoying that we overpaid so much. I don’t even think Antony has massive potential personally, too many limitations for me
 
I don’t disagree, just was more saying that there wasn’t some great other option that we could turn to for that position. The market for RW is as bare as any position in football. Trossard is also a LW. It’s just different.

It’s just annoying that we overpaid so much. I don’t even think Antony has massive potential personally, too many limitations for me
That is what worries me the most about Antony. For example, i have no fear over Sancho and i would pay 80 mil again for him. But in Antony's case; i don't see some big potential. He can become slightly better and that is it.
 
One thing I was considering today.

We've bought some excellent players and they're doing great for us at the moment.

However, basically all of the good to great players (and Weghorst and Sabitzer) are in their 30s or approaching them fast.

We saw what happened with Casemiro at the weekend where it was clear he felt something and Varane probably wasn't 100%. Eriksen is also old and so is Fred.

Offering a contract to Sabitzer, even if he does well, would have to be at a decent wage, otherwise we need to look for the next big thing that's not Bellingham or Caicedo.

We may be able to do OK next season but this just emphasises the fact EtH has a job on his hands. Without Qatar money, we'd struggle to compete for the league.
Since when was 30 old?

30 is considered one of peak years of a players career, is KDB, the same age as Eriksen and Casemiro too old?
 
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