Erik ten Hag | 2022/23 & 2023/24

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We were being dominated for 15 minutes before the subs were made. That’s why he made them. If he hadn’t done anything then the exact same posters complaining now would have been in here moaning about him “not doing anything”.

Yep, his mistakes weren't making subs but maybe bringing Sancho off wasn't yet needed.
 
For me the most disappointing thing is that we've only had one really good 90 minutes this season, against Spurs at home. Expected the ups and downs but our performances over 90 minutes have been patchy all season.

Still have faith in him but do have some reservations on how far he can ultimately take us.

I completely agree with all of that. I still like a lot of what I see, but I think it's naïve to ignore the flaws. Ultimately, I think he'll fall somewhere between good and great for us in the long term. I still can't get over the Wout signing.
 
The problem is most certainly the options from the bench. Anyone who doesn't see that is taking the piss.

Dont use them then. What are we playing for now? Top four. Literally could have sealed that tonight, so what are we saving legs for?

I'd rather have Anthony and Eriksen running on fumes than see Fred or Weghorst anywhere near the pitch. Plus we had Sabitzer, we could go with Elanga over Weghorst and leave Martial/Rashford as the #9.

Fred is a walking disaster and gives away possession constantly and Weghorst is so slow he allows the opposition to squeeze up 10/15 yards.

Giving the ball away + being squeezed up the pitch is not a recipe for holding on to a lead
 
If Murtough bends over backwards for him to make his own signings we won't be going anywhere and I hope the new owners sack Murtough as their first decision.

He's underestimated this league is several ways. His recommended signings other than Martinez have been below average. Antony is bang average but Malacia and Weghorst aren't players for this level.

No need to be shopping in the Dutch league with all the talent available in other leagues.

He bizarrely wants to keep DDG too which I think is inexplicable, especially considering his style of play.
 
I don't think his subs were bad. This game is on players who played shite in second half.
You don't get away with playing like Casemiro today. And Fred was somehow even worse when came on (and we probably would've agreed that was the right idea).

Sancho doesn't often play more than 60'. Antony looked weak and I think made sense to sub him.

I don't know what hapenned but once Tottenham got some momentum we couldn't get back to the game. Not sure what ETH could've done about it
 
Fred has been one of the most impactful players from the bench over the course of the season. He was of course absolutely shocking today.
But my point is he has that inconsistency in him and will always be a risk to put in a game like this with what it is at stake. I don't mind if he comes on at a home game when we're winning for more energy but not in this one because we all know he has stinkers in him.
 
The signings have been good, overall, and there's enough evidence that he's an actual coach and has some ability to change things in-game (unlike Ole), however erratic some of the results. The biggest issue is with persistent tolerance for poor passing and weak intensity.

Someone like Pep would rather risk burning them out with passing patterns and play reserve players who are willing to play crisp, slick, one touch and move, than keep players who aren't performing just for the sake of squad happiness or not push them because they're getting tired. Maybe Pep has more leverage with his 'big league' trophies (and capacity to seriously, rather than rhetorically threaten players with replacement) but despite the degree of improvement and taskmaster demeanor, I'm worried ETH isn't able to be, whether by inclination or structural pressure, ruthless enough and it's going to put a ceiling on the team's further progress beyond just competing for the top-4, particularly since everyone else is going to be stronger next season...
 
Everything's fine. It's just another embarrassing away performance, this time only the second half. Against one of the most awful playing spurs teams I've seen in a decade.
 
Some of you need your head examining, when you consider the absolute dross ETH has to work it. I think it's a minor miracle we are 4th and got to 2 cup finals. Technically and mentally about 75% of our squad are not even top 10 level in the PL. Add to that their physical fitness, I don't think you see any team from the top 10 PL clubs lining up to buy these players, it tells you everything.
 
Why are Newcastle so much better than us right now?

Absolutely thumping teams while we’re scraping draws and narrow victories.
Compare the number of games played plus the fact that they actually have a functional team with a decent GK and a CF that is not injured most of the time and the answer is self evident.
 
I already said Martinez is the only player whom I can say is a strong hit.

The other not really, no. Eriksen and Casemiro are short term business and Antony, Weghorst and Malacia have been bang average.
You said his 2 best signings were 31 years old - so you were incorrect.

Again nothing indicates Casemiro is slowing down as much as you appear to be obsessed with it. Eriksen was a very good free transfer, there should be no argument about that.

Antony, jury is still out. He's had some very good moments but needs to kick on and I think he will.

Weghorst is an actual short term signing. A position he did not want to be in.

Malacia has been average but decent value for a young LB cover.
 
I don't think his subs were bad. This game is on players who played shite in second half.
You don't get away with playing like Casemiro today. And Fred was somehow even worse when came on (and we probably would've agreed that was the right idea).

Sancho doesn't often play more than 60'. Antony looked weak and I think made sense to sub him.

I don't know what hapenned but once Tottenham got some momentum we couldn't get back to the game. Not sure what ETH could've done about it
What was the Wout sub supposed to achieve ?
 
But my point is he has that inconsistency in him and will always be a risk to put in a game like this with what it is at stake. I don't mind if he comes on at a home game when we're winning for more energy but not in this one because we all know he has stinkers in him.
Again, over the course of the season for EtH he has been an asset from the bench.

Hindsight is wonderful, but that performance was beyond imagination and certainly not something I'd put on Ten Hag. We're talking absolute basics of football which he couldn't do. Didn't seem to be there mentally if anything.

The WW sub though....that hurts my brain and I wish he'd stop that.
 
Not sure how he’s getting too much stick for Weghorst, definitely has played him more than you would hope but we literally were shopping in Poundland in January.

His squad is assembled by previous mistakes, the dip in quality once the old has beens are called upon is stark. Give the man a minute, let him build.
 
Some of you need your head examining, when you consider the absolute dross ETH has to work it. I think it's a minor miracle we are 4th and got to 2 cup finals. Technically and mentally about 75% of our squad are not even top 10 level in the PL. Add to that their physical fitness, I don't think you see any team from the top 10 PL clubs lining up to buy these players, it tells you everything.
We all know it's not true.
 
Pretty bizarre reaction here to a decent point away against one of the better teams of the premier league. And that after a grueling 120 minute match on the weekend, in what is an extremely long and exhausting season. It's disappointing to give away a 2-0 lead, for sure, but I'm struggling to understand how this result reflects negatively on ETH's coaching ability. On the contrary, the performance in the first half showed once again that once the team is fully fit (and a few jokers have been replaced), it will be ready to dominate both in the league and in the cups.
 
Nope, you are being hypocritical in that you supported Ole throughout our worst run of form for 50 years, and after 2.5 years of mediocrity, and yet you are laying into ETH after less than a season even though we're doing better than anyone could have really expected.

We aren’t doing better than anyone could have expected though. We spent over £250 million in the summer and the minimum expectation was top 4. I cannot remember a worse United side away from home as this one. It’s the same tactical and player errors time and time again.

ETH has to do better next year otherwise he could find himself under a lot of pressure with the new owners that surely won’t tolerate another season of away form like this.
 
I have said it severally, I was called a opposition fan, controlling football games is our biggest issue. The thing of controlling 2-3 games in 3 months is unacceptable but my stand remains, Ten Hag we give him till next season. The team as it is it's very unbalanced and structured. My ultimate judgement on the manager will be after summer window. If he doesn't change the midfield then I'm done with him, because you can't go anywhere with this midfield.

The most troubling thing now, is how Casemiro is playing it looks like honeymoon period is over. How he lost the ball around 75-80 minute because he couldn't run is a worrying sign. He has missed alot of games but he looks tired and beaten physically.

We are one delusional fans here who over estimate our players abilities and under estimate opponents abilities. Who in our midfield gets into City midfield? Can Bruno do what KDB did against Arsenal in a 6 pointer title winning game? Can Casemiro genuinely compete with Rodri? Can Eriksen be in the same sentence as Gundugan? Don't even talk about Fred.

We have a very unbalanced first team which people wank over here. If the manager doesn't sign 2 elite midfielders he will be gone by next season. This is the learning season but next season he has to deliver genuine progress and silverware.

Can Ten Hag compete with Pep? That can only be determined if he will go the style of controlling football games. If he doesn't then it will be a sad end to him.
 
Top 4 and League Cup is overall a good season, but ending the season in such a negative manner won't really give a lot of confidence going into summer. How you end your season is very, very important.
We literally qualified for the FA Cup Final on Sunday :lol:

You would think 2-2 away at Spurs was a 0-8 defeat to Leeds the way some people are going on.
 
Well yeah, we're also top 4 and in the final of the FA Cup.

It's like people have forgotten just how bad things have been for the last fewyears... :wenger:

I think some fans expected Ten Hag to perform literal miracles with one of the worst United teams since the 80’s, or some others had an agenda towards him from the off and nothing he ever does will be enough for them.
 
I expected us to be a better footballing side. Surely there's more to football than just "we won the Carabao cup!!", right? Especially when we had a relatively easy run in that cup.

We seem to always fold against decent sides away from home and have suffered some embarrassing losses. His in-game management and insistence on Weghorst have also raised question marks for me, but it's not as if I said I want him out. I said we're really not that good, and that I expected more - maybe the damage is mine for expecting us to be a better team.

Might be relatively easy but last season we got knocked out in a cup by Middlesbrough. Even easy runs were hard last season. There have been big improvements.
 
Eriksen has been decent but nothing spectacular.
I think Eriksen was pretty spectacular before the injury, especially when taking into account the price. He's been pretty awful since coming back from it, but then he's been rushed straight back into playing every game because there's no-one else.
 
I don't think we're much better than Ole. I think we have better players now so we have improved a bit. The poor big teams in the league plus our favourable cup runs have helped Ten Hag massively. One things he hasn't improved is the mentality. It's bloody awful.
 
To have a some semblance of a team or style of play that was expected with a better coach? But we still have posts complaining of the team being like strangers, struggling against every team we face, no fight or determination. Same old.
Why should we give a shite about what posts complain about?! 'Struggling against every team we face' - WTF?!
 
Some of you need your head examining, when you consider the absolute dross ETH has to work it. I think it's a minor miracle we are 4th and got to 2 cup finals. Technically and mentally about 75% of our squad are not even top 10 level in the PL. Add to that their physical fitness, I don't think you see any team from the top 10 PL clubs lining up to buy these players, it tells you everything.

Ole the crappy manager has brought this squad (minus 200 million worth of sexy new players) to 2nd place in the League and a Europa League final. What we are achieving now is not a miracle. It's still good though.
 
Well yeah, we're also top 4 and in the final of the FA Cup.

It's like people have forgotten just how bad things have been for the last fewyears... :wenger:
In the last few years we lost the Europa league on pens. Now we’re in a fa cup final after winning pens. Fine margins aint it
 
You said his 2 best signings were 31 years old - so you were incorrect.

Again nothing indicates Casemiro is slowing down as much as you appear to be obsessed with it. Eriksen was a very good free transfer, there should be no argument about that.

Antony, jury is still out. He's had some very good moments but needs to kick on and I think he will.

Weghorst is an actual short term signing. A position he did not want to be in.

Malacia has been average but decent value for a young LB cover.

Most of his signings actually have been either average or with questions around them. Martinez is the only one whom I'll say was a strong hit.

Eriksen has been decent but nothing spectacular. Casemiro is a very good player but paying 80m for a 31 years old player instead of investing such sum of money in a younger midfielder will come bite us in the arse within 2 years at most.

Have you watched Casemiro performance recently ? There's every possible indication that he's going to slow down sooner rather than latter. How many years are you expecting us to squeeze from him ? 2 ? 3 more years ? Such sum of money is better invested in a long term option, not someone you're going to use for 2-3 years at most before he goes down hill.

Eriksen has been decent but I have seen nothing spectacular about him over the course of the season. His season has been pretty overrated. He's also not someone you're going to build on him.

Malacia has been average but decent value for a young LB cover.

Decent value ? Is this for real ? What are we going to do with such value when he's that shit ? We needed someone to compete with Shaw on such position because Shaw himself is hardly consistent.

Weghorst was a terrible choice for a backup striker in Jan and I agree that jury is out on Antony (which is hardly spectacular considering the amount of money spent on him).

Out of this window, the only 2 players we might build upon on the future is Martinez and Antony (if he proves to be good). The rest are short term options or bad players.

Nothing really impressive about this. I would prefer to invest money into players we're going to build upon for the long term future, especially since we're rebuilding the team and not expected to win the league or CL anytime soon.
 
I have doubts about any manager who chooses to bring on Weghorst when the game is close.
 
I am a big ETH supporter and want to see him backed in the summer , but you can't ignore just how poor these performances are.

There has been some real shockers this year away from home , a lot of the good is getting negated by performances like this , Anfield , Ethihad , Sevilla etc etc etc etc

He will and should get a chance to rectify this horrible away record against top table sides , but we cannot ignore that it is a horrible record and unacceptable.
 
Would/Should we sack him if he chokes top 4 and then gets thrashed in the FA Cup final (4+ goal defeat)?
Six points clear of Spurs with two games in hand and seven points clear of Liverpool with a game in hand. We're making top four.

And on that note, if you offered any United fan at the start of the season top four and a trophy they would've snapped your hand off for it.
 
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