I don't know...a lot of our players are here because they have shown they are capable. Sometimes we judge our players based on what we are seeing right now under a certain style, but they have all actually thrived in different systems previously.
Erik ten Hag | 2022/23 & 2023/24
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I don't know...a lot of our players are here because they have shown they are capable. Sometimes we judge our players based on what we are seeing right now under a certain style, but they have all actually thrived in different systems previously.
Achieving 60-65% possession is far easier with Ajax in Eredivisie than any club in the PL. As we found out last night, even a team like Brighton can starve you of the ball and look after it well.
The team with way more ability (like Ajax were in Eridivisie) always end up with more possession. Did Ajax's possession/ball dominance notably improve under ETH or was it just the same as Bosz?
I don't know without looking, but the crop of youngsters that emerged under him may make that discussion a bit of a grey area, as that was the best Ajax team in years and largely because they had very high calibre of youngsters join the first team.
EDIT: I checked a couple of matches from the Bosz season and they had like 67% possession. So they were already doing it. Same under Reizeger after him.
I didn't realise FdJ and De Ligt were already playing pre ETH though. I thought he brought them through.
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Feel sorry for him. He has vital players missing at the back (although to be fair the replacements have done pretty well). He is trying to plan for the summer, but who will he be dealing with. Will both new owners bring in their own DOF. Will he be able to work with them and are their plans for the team the same? He is trying hard to get us Top 4, but all this must really be a distraction.
Love the guy but he needs to do something about the selfishness in our attack. We cannot allow players to take a shot where a pass creates a guilt-edged chance.
This is on the manager because if it happens time and again, he's letting it go. No player should feel safe in fecking so much and this is definitely what Luke Shaw alluded to as well
This is on the manager because if it happens time and again, he's letting it go. No player should feel safe in fecking so much and this is definitely what Luke Shaw alluded to as well
I think he was smart enough to know that he was probably going to be sacked midway into the season if he had insisted on playing his own system/playstyle with the players at his disposal, regardless of their skills at playing his way.
He adapted after the first 2 losses to a hybrid of how he wants to play and how the players he has can actually play. This is great at it shows he's actually adaptable to circumstances and isn't stubborn to keep trying his own approach over and over to the detriment of his team (a la Bielsa).
Expect him to bin off some players in the summer and get players who suit his style more. I suspect we'll see a clearer style of play as ETH wants next season.
He adapted after the first 2 losses to a hybrid of how he wants to play and how the players he has can actually play. This is great at it shows he's actually adaptable to circumstances and isn't stubborn to keep trying his own approach over and over to the detriment of his team (a la Bielsa).
Expect him to bin off some players in the summer and get players who suit his style more. I suspect we'll see a clearer style of play as ETH wants next season.
I'd say he's pretty fecking thick if he thought that was going to happen. We haven't sacked any of the useless feckers before him in their first season or until it was too late.
If this summer he spends anything like what he did last summer, then it will need to be cystal clear what his style of play is. Because rightly or wrongly, the expectation will be to push City all the way in the league. Anything less and I don't think he'll survive. If Qatar come in, he'll probably be gone without a PL or CL trophy.
Agreed. It's been a very difficult season for us. Off field distractions, congested fixture list and injuries to key players. A trophy (possibly two) and top four would be a great achievement.
Anyone who expects that is deluded. We're way off them. The expectation should be to make progress in our overall play, improve our away form, iron out the collapses, and make top 4 again, which won't be easy given Arsenal and Newcastle's progress, and it's highly possible Liverpool and possibly Chelsea will bounce back next season.
We'll hopefully be looking at a title challenge in 24/25.
I am curious after reading this. It reads to me that you’re suggesting if you match last summer’s spending (or thereabouts), fans would be expecting a title challenge?
Or have I misread that?
No he’s saying that if Qatar come in and spend £200-250m they will expect a title challenge and he’s not wrong they most certainly will even though that’s not realistic.
Gotcha - yes, I agree. You’d hope to be competing.
And that is my exact worry. Ajax lost a handful of first team players and they still seem to dominate possession quite easily. That is a concern.
I don't really understand, but did you expect Leicester to win the title? Now they are fighting relegation should they be still challenging for top four?
The point is clearly, if teams at Brightons level spend 45 million and finish in 12th place, they can afford to develop these signings as the expectation for them is not top 4 and it also doesn't affect their finances either way. This already doesn't include their recruitment as it is which is well structured and based on how they want to play as a club, rather than the manager.
Like I said, if they finish 4-7th, do you expect them to challenge for top 4 next season based on a small budget? If they spend 200 million should they win the league or be a dominant top 4 side?
Because we just gloss over this fact for some reason for clubs outside of the traditional top 6 or whatever people want to call it.
The objective this year was Top 4 and a trophy and to show progress which he's achieved.
Next year the objective will be the same.
I think we're still a bit off a title challenge.
Top 4, a trophy, more progress and a decent run in the CL will be next year's objectives.
He's improved our style of play and the first 11 this year but has been hindered by injuries and suspensions all season.
I'm not sure if we've ever had our first 11 on the pitch together. Just as Eriksen and Martial came back, Martinez got injured.
We're also 3 or 4 quality first team signings away from a challenge. We desperately need a proper striker.
I think he's achieved a B+ for this season. If we win the FA cup and stop City winning the treble, I'd give him an A-. If we'd won the EL also I'd give him an A+.
If they continue to be successful then expectations will change and they won't be able to blood these youngsters like they can do now. Also, players will still leave for bigger clubs, and the ones that replace them won't always be as successful as somebody like Mitoma.
The same thing happened with Leicester after they won the league and then tried to establish themselves as a UCL team. Not everyone will turn into a Mahrez or a Kante.
A lot of people are looking at the negative stuff from last night and fair enough, whatever.
I thought we were great first half and are at times so close to being an outstanding team. We cut through them so easily at times and created great chances.
Despite that we were a stupid last second handball away from a very solid point, which we’d probably all have taken before the game.
I thought we were great first half and are at times so close to being an outstanding team. We cut through them so easily at times and created great chances.
Despite that we were a stupid last second handball away from a very solid point, which we’d probably all have taken before the game.
Think EtH is absolutely the right manager for us, but some of the performances over the last few weeks have been worrying and reminiscent of some of the tumescent performances largely the same group of players put in under two/three successive managers. I don't know if it's fatigue, attitude or something else but it's something I'd like to see EtH address.
Eriksens been a huge loss. Martinez also.
Weghorst is probably the worst striker in the PL also
Not trying to WUM you guys, our season is as shit as it could be without being relegation. Just seen this and thought it relevant.
Yep we are fully aware of the away form. We'd be challenging for a title if it could be addressed.
I think ten hag has displayed some naivety but he also looks like he does need better players to implement the style he wants in a consistent manner with the right mentality.
Im not too surprised to be honest, there are a bulk of games that we prob would put to bed early and silence the away crowd if we had a striker.
This is my exact point, I'm not even saying that will happen to Brighton either as they do seem to have a great recruitment system, but if they next season spend 100 million and end up 10th it won't have a similar sort of scrutiny still.
Well the opposite way to look at that is we improve this by 10-15 points next year and we’re title contenders or in that area.
Actually thought we were the better team first half, created the best chances outside of mitomas from a bad ball from Lindelof.
So did I. I thought we were brilliant first half. Pressed them back to their own goal line at times and forced them to hoof it out.
Something to build on. 6-12 months ago we’d have lost that by 3/4 but we were on the cusp of a positive result until a daft mistake.
He'll be gone if we don't make top 4. I'm not saying he should be gone, probably he shouldn't, but I don't think we are going to keep a manager who doesn't secure us a CL spot. We did not do that with any of the previous managers, all of them were gone the minute we did not make CL.
Couldn’t care less personally. I think he deserves at the very least another full season.
Our away form is 5th on the away table only Brighton, Newcastle, Citeh and Arsenal have been better away
Here's the thing that the anti-ETH and WUMs don't want to acknowledge outside of Citeh and Arsenal everyone's a bit shite away.
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I think we have a big lead ahead of Liverpool at the moment to bottle this considering we have 3 home games coming, but if we manage to do the impossible and bottle 4th from our spot, I'll honestly want him sacked on the spot, no kidding.
That's the only scenario in which I'll have no issue directly asking for his head.
Finish top 4 and with League Cup trophy and it would be a decent/not bad season. It was better prior to that cup win and we have been crap since then so this deducts a lot of points from this year.
Some are too negative here to look at it that way.
It's where a top striker and a few better players on the ball will make a difference. When you go away to other top teams we need to be able to starve the teams of the ball, like Brighton did to us, and take chances when they come. We just don't do that like we can at home or against weaker opposition away.
There's no point in arguing this. Most have made up their minds in that we're still as bad as we were last season and some of the previous ones before that.
Also if he stuck to his supposed possession philosophy and we could see gradual improvement as well as who fits and who doesn't fit. He wouldntve been sacked as we would know the direction we're going...
Even if we finish 5th, I think it would be madness if we sacked him. I'd be just beyond fed up with us and football if we acted in that manner.
We are pretty good at over paying, and overrating players and after they come here, they are shown to be not good enough.
He is brought on as a defensive reinforcement. Martial‘s workrate is terrible. Who would YOU bring on when our team is knackered?
This is literally a WUM take. What are you on about?
LVG had some absolute plodders dominating possession against the likes of City. It's all about set up of the team, players positioning and movement and just drilling it into players to be calm on the ball through practice. So yes I agree with you, if we want to play possession then you obviously start straight away. But, I suspect we don't. I think everything we see in our shape and eagerness to ping balls over the top or quickly into the feet of the attackers is exactly what he wants.
Yeah. Also we were not great at home. He has turned OT back into a fortress. Sort the away form out against our rivals and we could be going somewhere.
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