Erik ten Hag | 2022/23 & 2023/24

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Quite frankly any half decent manager we bring in will have more or less the same results. An ok job hovering somewhere 3rd to 6th. I'm not even thinking of a change right now cause its pointless.

Does ten Hag deserve more time? Of course.
Has ten Hag done a brilliant job? Hmmm debatable. It's not bad, but that's pretty much my limit for now. There's plenty to armchair praise, and plenty to armchair criticise too.

That's just where I'm at.
Where did Arsenal finish under Arteta before this year?

As long as we see improvements Ten Hag should get all the time needed. There have been lots of exciting developments in our gameplay and clear improvement to the mentality.

The turnaround after the first two games was pretty much a miracle.

Do you think every other manager would have got rid of Ronaldo? Or benched Maguire for not performing?

Considering we have not been able to field a decent striker for most games, Ten Hag is doing a miracle job.

His job is far from done. Defeats like the Liverpool game show that certain players need to improve a lot mentally, still, and the squad is too thin. Compare that to Chelsea. Where are they in the table?

I just can’t see what the point is of moaning. You should get out of your armchair, drop on your knees and thank God we have a very competent manager.
 
When judging a Manager/CEO I look at three criteria’s.

1. Results.
2. Culture.
3. Decision making.

It’s a a complex job with lots of responsibilities so a 6 months honeymoon is fair and appropriate before making any serious judgements. When judging results context and starting point has to be part of the evaluation. I also include reasonable expectations and what is the benchmark of this business so I have something to judge the results against.

This is my evaluation of Eric ten Hag.

1. Results wise we’re doing a little bit better than expected but we have had some negative results on the way that has to be included when making a full evaluation. Hopefully it’s a learning process and I assume that EtH needs some time to fully handle playing in the PL but mistakes can’t be repeated too many times so it becomes a habit. My verdict so far is 8/10

2. Our culture has massively improved. Most under performing players has improved to expected standard, some players like Rashford and AWB has even get better then we expected after Ten Hags arrival. The positivity is back and almost everyone is behind our manager as our long term manager/solution. In this category I must give him 9/10.

3. Decision making. Absolutely world class from first to last decision. We can always have opinions about team selections and substitutions but that’s subjective opinions but when it comes to dealing with personnel, media and internally my verdict is 10/10. I don’t find anything that I can complain about.

My overall verdict so far is 8,5/10.

If we make top 4, go to one of the FA/EL cup finals then it’s 9/10.

If we take everything in to context and where EtH started in the summer 2022 I have so far full confidence in our new manager. No hesitation whatsoever.
 
Unfortunately, the most incredible improvement from last year is Casemiro. A midfielder that we needed for years now.

Without Casemiro, or when Casemiro does not play well as with Sevilla, we look lost, we still play Ole ball.

But it is still early days. It is not easy for ETH (or anyone else) to transform a team in a few months.
Agree, Casemiro has been amazing.

We have had good games without Casemiro, to say we fall apart every time he is out is an exaggeration. We do need a good backup for him.

Without him, we can be fine if everyone does their tasks, but it just comes naturally to Casemiro, with his experience and talent.
 
Yes, there are many reasons we did not improve much.

The fact remains that we did not improve much!

We don't disagree.
If you think we didn‘t improve much after last season, I don‘t know what to say to you. The difference is night and day.

We went from an apathic lethargic uninspired shambles to a progressive, front footed, quick passing murderous outfit.

Existing players perform better and the new players have the right mentality.

That‘s why we are still in all these cups. Oh wait, we are out of the league cup, we won it.

You must be a rival fan who hates MU, only explanation.

I‘m going to enjoy the continuing journey.
 
Pep's City was actually very good in his first year, not at the level of his later teams but still really impressive by any other standard. They finished with a +41 GD and were by far the best team in the league in terms of XG differential (actually much better than Conte's Chelsea). Pep was still figuring out how to control games without getting hit on the counter but they were also very unlucky in some respects and Claudio Bravo was just disastrous. You could very clearly see where Pep's project was going, they were imposing their will (not always winning, but always dictating the flow) on every match, including against top opposition. At least in terms of league form, they were really in an entirely different class than this year's United, both in terms of the overall performance level and in terms of how they played. That's not to say ETH isn't doing a great job (he is) but its a flawed comparison to just say "Pep finished 3rd his first year" without the context of how they played and how dominant they were in terms of chance creation.
You can‘t really compare Pep‘s first year to Ten Hag. Before Pep came, the groundwork was laid for several years.

Pep did not start from scratch, but Ten Hag did (start from scrap).
 
Well that tells you how close I follow Brighton then.

On the contrary, Lallana, Lamptey and Sarmiento don’t start for them.

United are currently without Shaw, Varane, Martinez and Rashford.

3 of the back 4 and the clubs top scorer in Rashford.

There’s really no comparison to be had.
 
Well you said you were "wowed" by Rashford's transformation. Said AWB was "god awful" before ETH's arrival. So it does sound like you think they're playing at levels never seen before.

Reality is Rashford has played better than this before. He had to improve from last season. He was so poor it'd be unthinkable for him to be that bad again. In reality his overall game is much the same. He's just keeping it simple now and has had a good couple of months in front of goal.

AWB is no better now than he was in his first one or two seasons. Maybe a bit better but you'd expect some natural improvement given he's a young player developing.

Ultimately you're seeing what you want to see. What about all the players who haven't improved at all?

This isn’t me criticising ETH by the way. It's more about unrealistic fans thinking managers can transform players.
To say AWB is the same player or even just slightly improved is flat out factually incorrect
 
You can‘t really compare Pep‘s first year to Ten Hag. Before Pep came, the groundwork was laid for several years.

Pep did not start from scratch, but Ten Hag did (start from scrap).
What is this starting from scratch? :D

Let's accept the team spirit was at its lowest because of the Interims Interim manager issues but boy make no mistake.

Ten Hag inherited one of the most expensive football squad, yes not his own making but added 230m of players on top of it, acting as if he got a bad Bolton team is hogwash.

Even Edi Howe or Emery got Newcastle & Villa at relegation battle and made them better teams maybe you can say from scratch.

What I mean is, Ten Hag has to be judged by his time here, yes in context of the bigger picture but making it look like we were from administration to top 4 is a big lie.

As another poster as said, alot of managers we can get now can only deliver position 3-6.

Has he shown he can deliver a League title consistently? Yes he can, because primarily of how he took control of the club off the pitch. But now the bigger job is for him to take control of football games on the pitch.



You saw with Arteta, how he took control of the club off pitch (Ozil, Abumayeng sagas) Ten Hag has done the same with Ronaldo and Maguire.

Arteta then went a step ahead and found a way of controlling football games consistently, now this is what our bald head guy needs to do.

That's why for me, this season is a learning curve for the manager BUT it's critical he needs to find a way of controlling football games from next season.

We can't go next season without control, we know our players better, the Shaws, Brunos who when the going gets tougher capitulate in spectacular fashion.

We cant be going away to top teams then capitulate embarrassingly, the manager will sadly be fired.

So for his own survival he needs to find a way of Man United controlling games either through coaching or through new players.

He's paid top dollar to achieve that.

I have a genuine feeling he will achieve it, that's why I have been saying we need to support him when some of this players are shipped away. The bigger names.

To achieve 90 points a season you need a inch perfect team, sadly now we are very poor on the ball.
 
Where did Arsenal finish under Arteta before this year?

As long as we see improvements Ten Hag should get all the time needed. There have been lots of exciting developments in our gameplay and clear improvement to the mentality.

The turnaround after the first two games was pretty much a miracle.

Do you think every other manager would have got rid of Ronaldo? Or benched Maguire for not performing?

Considering we have not been able to field a decent striker for most games, Ten Hag is doing a miracle job.

His job is far from done. Defeats like the Liverpool game show that certain players need to improve a lot mentally, still, and the squad is too thin. Compare that to Chelsea. Where are they in the table?

I just can’t see what the point is of moaning. You should get out of your armchair, drop on your knees and thank God we have a very competent manager.

Lots of managers are competent. Mourinho is competent, Van Gaal is competent, hell Ole before last season was competent. Free agent Nagelsmann is also likely to be equally competent. Still, they are not eternally protected in their jobs.

If you want me to believe his working a 'miracle job', I need to see some miracles. There are no miracles. We are still 20 points behind the leaders, like almost every year as usual. I don't expect to win any titles of course, but improvements have not been 'miraculous'. It's been decent. He's doing good, but there are some aspects to his work that warrants discussion (Maybe this is not the right thread? Then just point me in the right direction to the right one.)

On the record, I like the boss. He's on the good path, he deserves more time, and he will get more time. Just don't make me believe he is a miracle worker and deserves full adulation without a single criticism allowed.
 
Lots of managers are competent. Mourinho is competent, Van Gaal is competent, hell Ole before last season was competent. Free agent Nagelsmann is also likely to be equally competent. Still, they are not eternally protected in their jobs.

If you want me to believe his working a 'miracle job', I need to see some miracles. There are no miracles. We are still 20 points behind the leaders, like almost every year as usual. I don't expect to win any titles of course, but improvements have not been 'miraculous'. It's been decent. He's doing good, but there are some aspects to his work that warrants discussion (Maybe this is not the right thread? Then just point me in the right direction to the right one.)

On the record, I like the boss. He's on the good path, he deserves more time, and he will get more time. Just don't make me believe he is a miracle worker and deserves full adulation without a single criticism allowed.
I'd be tempted to go that other thread then as well. I totally sign on to your last sentence. Especially after the Ole clashes that started pretty similarly I find it puzzling, that a few posters are so adamant on killing off any criticism. As if there's even the slightest chance of that changing peoples opinion. Only thing that will happen, is polarization. Maybe a few people do miss this.
 
What a massive cnut she is.



Same Alson Rudd that came out with this horrendous opinion


United live rent free in her head, the fact people like that with such clear bias are peddled as journalists makes me wonder how a United fan could listen to that stuff.
 
Lots of managers are competent. Mourinho is competent, Van Gaal is competent, hell Ole before last season was competent. Free agent Nagelsmann is also likely to be equally competent. Still, they are not eternally protected in their jobs.

If you want me to believe his working a 'miracle job', I need to see some miracles. There are no miracles. We are still 20 points behind the leaders, like almost every year as usual. I don't expect to win any titles of course, but improvements have not been 'miraculous'. It's been decent. He's doing good, but there are some aspects to his work that warrants discussion (Maybe this is not the right thread? Then just point me in the right direction to the right one.)

On the record, I like the boss. He's on the good path, he deserves more time, and he will get more time. Just don't make me believe he is a miracle worker and deserves full adulation without a single criticism allowed.
How can you even come here and think about what’s happening with Eric Ten Hag when it’s only been 17 years since the 5-0 loss to Newcastle, with Phillippe Albert chipping Big Pete?!

Have some respect and let us mourn that result in peace.
 
To say AWB is the same player or even just slightly improved is flat out factually incorrect

I think its factually incorrect to say he was always god awful before ETH was his manager.

He wasn't. He was good in his first season or two.

I'm a fan of his but AWB didn't even play the first half of this season. He's had a good second half the season but its not like ots night and day from his previous best form. There's some improvement but you'd expect that given his age. He's still pretty much the same player in the final third.

Again, this isn't criticising ETH. I don't expect him to be able to transform a player. How could he? Some fans, I think younger fans, have bought the idea managers are miracle workers.

What I expect from a good manager is the ability to pick a way of playing, identify the right quality of player and get players who suit being on the pitch together.
 
How can you even come here and think about what’s happening with Eric Ten Hag when it’s only been 17 years since the 5-0 loss to Newcastle, with Phillippe Albert chipping Big Pete?!

Have some respect and let us mourn that result in peace.

It's been 10 years since the 8-2 vs Arsenal, have you forgotten it? I still see replays on Sky to this date.

Some results are for life. Two lifetimes actually, if you have Liverpool supporting best mates :wenger:
 
What a massive cnut she is.



Same Alson Rudd that came out with this horrendous opinion



She's just awful. No talent as a journalist at all.

Considering how few female sports writers there are, it's a shame she's taking up a spot.
 
Points after 29 games:

2022-23 56
2021-22 50
2020-21 57
2019-20 45
2018-19 58
2017-18 62

Not great, not terrible.

But I am sure that ETH will lead the team to better results next year.

These sort of comparisons are about as useful as a chocolate teapot.

Completely meaningless.
 
Eriksen on the bench with Bruno wedged into CDM again…
Almost as if Eriksen is coming back slowly from a long term injury and might need to be eased in.

In other news, why didn't EtH take Sabitzer off before he got injured? Ridiculous management to not pre-empt that!
 
Question: Why we never switch Antony and Sancho during the game, perhaps for 10-15 minutes? SAF used to do this.
 
A striker and our deep playmaker start a game and suddenly we put in a silky smooth play style, who would have thought that individuals are important for a system to function
 
Our worst football came when Eriksen and Cas were unavailable. Now both are back and we look like a football team once again. Go figure!

Big improvement under ETH and really don’t care where we end up this season. Once this man gets all his players, we will be challenging.
 
That was a pretty good game. We made a lot of chances in 2nd half and should have won by a couple more.
 
I've enjoyed the full backs coming in today
I am not watching the game, but I saw the clip of the 0-2 and it's quite obvious there as well:



You see Eriksen dropped back between Maguire and Lindelöf and spread out across like a back 3, with Dalot in front of them right next to Casemiro, and AWB far away pretty much in RW. You can't see the attacking positioning here, but it looks almost like a sort of 3-2-5, with players shifted all over the place to make it happen. It's very attacking and I suppose great stuff for a Tifo video or something like that.
 
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