Erik ten Hag | 2022/23 & 2023/24

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Some of the criticism on here for this man is fecking ridiculous! Why do some of you conveniently forget what the players have proven to be under numerous managers for the past 6 years? They're weak, spineless and are just not good enough. To be in the position we're in with a trophy already is testament to what this man has done, yet people want to criticise him for not swapping one shite player for another shite player because "no one is above criticism"?

That result was on the players, pure and simple. No amount of changes ETH made, save if he was allowed to change the entire team except De Gea, could have fixed it and even then, who the feck is he going to bring on?
 
On the other hand, the team's had it's best period this season with him playing up front. Not that I'm not eagerly looking forward to when we have better options, but it's not as simple as that.
Apart from the Barcelona games I'm not sure what you're referring to. We're 3-2-2 in the league since he came.
 
People pointed out that the reason we played poorly was because Cas was missing. But I think even with him, we have struggled in most games since that Cup Final.
 
He has my full support but he's got to take some blame for the recent crap performances. Losing is acceptable. But not showing any fight, determination and initiative is completely unacceptable and it has happened several times now. It's his responsibility to make sure the players are ready, hungry and know what to do.
 
Can't wait to come back and quote some of these posts at the end of the season. Embarrassing stuff.
 
Lads, do you honestly think he wants the likes of wout, sab, mctominay, a crock in martial, sancho, maguire as squad players. Ralf was right that we need 10 players and we have signed some decent ones this year. We need another transfer window before we start giving off to the manager, but don't get me wrong he made huge errors today, but some posters here are going overboard with the criticism.
He has my full support but he's got to take some blame for the recent crap performances. Losing is acceptable. But not showing any fight, determination and initiative is completely unacceptable and it has happened several times now. It's his responsibility to make sure the players are ready, hungry and know what to do.
True that
 
We are only 3 PTS better off than this time last season under the Ole implosion and caretaker Rangnick experiment.

It's not as absurd as it first appears.

FA Cup last year: 4th round exit
FA Cup this year: Semi-finals and counting

CL last year: Knocked out in RO16 by Atleti
EL this year: Quarter finals and counting

League Cup last year: 3rd round exit
League Cup this year: Champions

Played god knows how many more games and still performing better in the league, it's a bad comparison. ETH has done better. Our schedule is also easier from this point onwards. Last year this time around we still had to face Liverpool twice, Arsenal and Chelsea.
 
In the top four, already won a trophy, quarter final of the EL and has us in the semi final of the FA Cup. He has a chance of winning three trophies in his first season. Seriously, what is the point of him?
The wrong 3 trophies I'm afraid and we've been playing crap for a while now. We ain't winning anything if this keeps up btw.

I don't see much wonderful coaching I'm afraid.
 
If we end up losing it all this season questions will be justifiably asked of whether ETH made a miscalculation in going for all the available trophies/competitions with such a shallow squad. Yes its good to win a trophy or two but surely not at the expense of progression in the league which has implications on the money available for strengthening, attraction and retention of players and thus affect overall growth of the team.

Key players look spent and those who are fresh aren't good enough. Add to the injuries and suspensions I think we'd end up asking ourselves whether the huge push for all the Cups was worth it. I think ETH was a bit naive in picking his battles and now it could be too late to reverse the decision and get players back in top condition. He will learn though.
 
Some of you need to realise that both things can be true. We don't need world class players in every position to put in a team perfomance. ETH was schooled today by howe today. One of those things. Our tactics seem to have descended to hope rash does something. Hopefully ETH figures it out.
 
FA Cup last year: 4th round exit
FA Cup this year: Semi-finals and counting

CL last year: Knocked out in RO16 by Atleti
EL this year: Quarter finals and counting

League Cup last year: 3rd round exit
League Cup this year: Champions

Played god knows how many more games and still performing better in the league, it's a bad comparison. ETH has done better. Our schedule is also easier from this point onwards. Last year this time around we still had to face Liverpool twice, Arsenal and Chelsea.

There's definitely some factors to be considered but in the grand scheme of things we are 22pts behind Arsenal. It's not really great is it?
 
Whilst I’ll admit I was baffled by Dalot over AWB, most of the other options really aren’t a choice at all:

- with Casemiro & Eriksen out, we have McT, Fred & Sabitzer for two midfield places. None of them have the ability to control a midfield battle so, barring putting a CB (either Martinez or Lindelof) as DM, which has its own pitfalls, he’s got no other options.

- with Weghurst, the only other option is Antony, Bruno, Sancho with Rashford up top, leaving only Elanga/Pellestri as our attacking options with Garnacho injured. Martial’s the opposite of reliable and, without actually being able to spend cash-money on a real ST, we have to deal with poor equivalents.

People seem so quick to forget just how razor-thin our squad is.
 
Might be time to rethink the striker position, Erik.

Also wasn't too pleased seeing Antony go off.

A rare off day, maybe.
 
People pointed out that the reason we played poorly was because Cas was missing. But I think even with him, we have struggled in most games since that Cup Final.
It’s true. We miss Eriksen’s calm and cool head. When Casmiro plays, he can help us calm down without Eriksen. When both are out, we are lack of any coherent idea what to do as a team but have to resort to reactive play.
 
You'd seriously sack him?

no. sacking is too good for him. plus we’d then owe him a severance package.

Seriously, every time we lose we get absolute nonsense like this post. ETH isn't beyond criticism but this is a whole new level of idiocy

you’re only as good as your last result and it’s been over two weeks since our last good result.

What do you think about getting Brendan Rogers in? Could be worth a shout IMO. Knows the league, has good teeth, quite small so presumably wont have big person bias? Also doesn’t finish every sentence with heh.

really smart move. he’s proven himself time and time again, winning better domestic cups than so called erik, and who can forget leicester’s league win? people will remember that season forever. rodgers, leading an unfancied leicester side to the summit of world football. i’d imagine they’ll get rylan to play him in the biopic.
 
Two quotes are making me worried.
One; he is open in keeping Wout.
Two; he said after the game how team didn't had enough desire. That is something which he is saying often lately. What the hell is going on? How they can lack desire when they had 2 weeks to prepare mentally for this game? Same was after Pool game. Biggest game in England. How you can lack desire in that game?
 
I've said this here before, but anyone hailing ETH as the right man for us, and conversely anyone questioning his credentials are both far too premature.

I've seen people here claim that our football is better and has more structure but it's just not the case. We still score most of our goals in transition and rely on individual brilliance to win games. But maybe that is to be expected given his signings barring Malacia didn't really get a pre-season with him and we have no CF.

He has a lot to prove but we can only truly judge him after he's had another window and a full pre-season with his signings. We've won Mickey mouse cups under Jose and won loads of big games under LVG/Ole and in terms of tangibles, we haven't seen anything this season that we haven't at different stages post SAF. So jury is still out. For what it's worth I think he's done a good job this season but so did other managers before and they ultimately failed to bring us back to the top. Let's wait and see how it pans out for ETH.
 
The improvement in comparison to the crap Ole and Ralf period is undeniable, though the problem of us being miles away from the top 2 spots still exists. At one point of the season we looked very close, but now we are back to being a top 4 team at best.
 
Speak for yourself. Any of the available trophies matters to me. Not equally perhaps, but they matter.
Of course they matter and especially coming off last season. Imagine telling yourself this time last year that the new manager had a realistic chance of winning three trophies and finishing inside the top four. It was unthinkable.
 
The wrong 3 trophies I'm afraid and we've been playing crap for a while now. We ain't winning anything if this keeps up btw.

I don't see much wonderful coaching I'm afraid.
Short memory I’d say. Remember the games against Barcelona. We are there. But the depleted midfield options make us play so poorly.
 
Two quotes are making me worried.
One; he is open in keeping Wout.
Two; he said after the game how team didn't had enough desire. That is something which he is saying often lately. What the hell is going on? How they can lack desire when they had 2 weeks to prepare mentally for this game? Same was after Pool game. Biggest game in England. How you can lack desire in that game?

Previous managers have said the same thing about these players, their attitude is like a tap and they're simply too unreliable to play at the top level consistently. The reason he's saying it is because it's true.
 
I expect something a bit more innovative from a top tier manager when we’re missing big players or getting outplayed in the 1st half.

He’s generally been quite good at changing things second half, so he gets a decent leeway, but we can’t use Casemiro as an excuse for being completely outplayed. Any manager could’ve signed Casemiro for Man Utd. We need to have a better plan B.
 
I said when Ole left the squad needed to be dismantled and it would take three summer windows.

ETH has done well but part of reason why everyone has got so excited is because of how bad we were last season. The reality is we’re back to similar level we were under previous managers, a team that might finish top four, get 65-70 points and maybe win a Cup.

That is about as good as it was going to get, the next phase of trying to compete with City is going to take time. ETH has done well so far but where we are now is probably a fairer reflection of state of our squad than when we were clinging on to City and Arsenal.
 
There's definitely some factors to be considered but in the grand scheme of things we are 22pts behind Arsenal. It's not really great is it?

It definitely isn't, but like you said some factors to be considered. A mid season world cup and our best striker acting like a mad cnut which causes us to be stuck with a Championship level striker is far from ideal. I fully expect this team to do better next year, but considering where we came from and what he had to deal with he did fine this year and still better than Ole/Ralf did.
 
Short memory I’d say. Remember the games against Barcelona. We are there. But the depleted midfield options make us play so poorly.
That's a fair point but it goes to my original point about a coach having very little influence without good players, whoever that coach is. Again my anger is directed at knobheads who slated our previous managers for less than that shambles today.
 
Casimero and Varane is fresh and that will help tremendously in final part of the season. (If they stay fit/not banned)

Rashford has carried the whole attack game himself since January. Someone else needs to step up now. Antony or the mentally unstable lad need to start producing and Bruno needs a frecking vacation!
 
No but we were told there would be a defined style. What is that style?

Limpness?
You literally just said it's one of two trophies that matter. So everything else was pointless this season and ten Hag would have to do something unthinkable to be successful in your mind. How convenient.
 
I see the usual short sighted, reactionary, window-licking imbeciles are out in force.
 
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