Shot stopping is not DDG's weakness. Distribution, passing, corners yes, but he's amongst the best at saving long shots. Gundogan's shots today had a whiff of luck about them.
Erik ten Hag | 2022/23 & 2023/24
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Bore off
Been the case for the last 5 yrs.
The bit in bold - what the feck? How has he managed to finish 3rd, win a trophy, and run City close in the Cup Final if the man was having stuff 'done for him' at Ajax?! Who was he supposed to play instead of DDG? Was he supposed to just give up on Sancho?
Not sure why I am biting cos you are clearly trolling.
Ah just like how they couldn't get out of 2nd gear at OT. Seems to be a bit of a trend there...
I agree. Sack the manager.
Agreed. But we won't be able to sign all those players in one window.
Erik ten Hag has done a good job and quickly realised the technical limitations of his team, which I give him credit for. And in the game earlier, he got his tactics spot on and made City look worse than their form suggested. I think if we can get new owners in quickly then I believe ten Hag has the blueprint to implement a plan that will cause Guardiola a lot of problems and potentially beat him. But you need the tools and the backing from the owners for the football departments to thrive. Because at City, Sheikh Mansour has provided the financial backing to the football departments who can then back Guardiola. And even if they get transfers wrong, the financial hit has been absorbed by Mansour. So our ownership situation is critical towards how things develop in the now, midterm and long-term.
We need a striker but the critical need for ten Hag to control the game in possession is to significantly raise the technical level of the players who are weak in the build up phase. I think i'd go with Varane and Dalot for now but it's imperative we sign a GK and midfielder to raise the level on the ball. And if we can do that, then the high defensive line becomes a reality because evading/resisting the press will break the opponent's resolve and they'll retreat into a lower block.
So then we need the attackers to show a high level of intensity off the ball to maintain control of the game without the ball by pressing and counter pressing effectively. This is where Mason Mount fits in, and his high intensity play, off the ball will improve us in advanced areas off the pitch in a high defensive line. Mount is also capable on the ball in advanced areas of the pitch. So if we can control the game with and without the ball, then we'll be playing the game in the opponent's half. And the key is to develop the team, so they can play the game in the opponent's half, which is what ten Hag and other modern proponents of positional play look to develop. Guardiola, Arteta, De Zerbi and even Klopp follow similar methods but unlike them, ten Hag doesn't have the tools at his disposal, as yet.
The issues that the previous managers had was that either their methods were outdated (LVG/Mourinho) or they just failed to implement those ideas after talking about wanting to play a high-line in Solskjaer's case. Erik ten Hag at the very least, must sideline De Gea and I believe he'll do that.
@TsuWave for what it's worth, I completely agree with you regarding Eriksen and Wout.
Shot stopping has downgraded significantly to a point to be considered a real weakness now
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That's a nice piece of analysis. Honest and realistic without the relentless negativity. Hope you're right about ETH.
I cannot separate us winning the Carabao Cup with the very favorable draws we had in the competition. Only the final was truly a real test.
Winning this cup gets way too much praise as far as I'm concerned but I may just be a sour cnut
Yes if only Mourinho and Ole had Ten Hag's good fortune. Instead, fate cruelly snuffed out their their EFL cup campaigns with 3rd round draws against titanic clubs like West Ham and Derby County.
I'm afraid it's this if you truly can't recognize that winning the cup was a good achievement. You know everyone else flopped in it? It's never a bad achievement to win a cup, and downplaying it because a specific draw is nonsense.
I didn't say it wasn't a good achievement, it's just been ridiculously blown out of proportion on the Caf. Having a favorable draw increases your chances of winning. It shouldn't be even said since it's so obvious.
Yeah but ETH is supposed to be infinitely better than them so obviously I won't compare them
We did have an easy path to win league cup but I don’t think we won’t won it if there were tougher opponents on the way, because our form since the World Cup was second to none almost up to the final.
The season is not great but we saw what ETH will build this team to. He has cleaned up a lot mess and it can only get better. Just hope he can do it quickly.
The thing is about that run after the World Cup, the only good win was City at OT (thank you referee), all the other games were winnable. Lost away at Arsenal too
Yeah, this can't be stressed enough.
If he's backed with some 300M-500m this summer (as an example),
there's going to be huge pressure on him to compete for PL and get to the later stages of CL, regardless of who the signings are.
I quite like Kane, Rice and Mount, but don't like the prices we're supposedly asked to pay for them.
they'll go for a combined fee of like 250m.
We sign these 3 and the pressure is on- while the squad will still be left worryingly thin.
why we can't seem to find more signings in the mold of Evra, Vidic, Chicharito for the past 15 years or so is beyond baffling to me.
How can Brighton unearth gem after gem and we can't?
Why the hell do we have 1290124 scouts for?
to sign Malacia that WTH knew from Holland?
No way you're serious. Saw a fact that United points to goals ratio is the best in the league this season.
It's crazy to think that if we had score 25 more goals this season we would've won the league.
Fine we might need more players to challenge in all competition, but the squad can beat anyone at this moment.
I'm confident with Kane and a new backup striker alone we can challenge better next season.
At this point we should make a PowerPoint with all DDG's howlers and how many millions we lost because of him which has cost us on prize money and CL qualifications, and send it to glazes. Maybe then they will understand why it's financial sound to buy a 50 mil GK instead of giving a 200k per week contract to DDG.
Well, our transfer policy has been like you described in the first part of the post. We buy 70-80-100m players we make them look much worse than they were at the start, rinse and repeat.
I'd actually be content with finding the right players, even if they are expensive, nevermind cheap talent, that's too far of our reach.
This season Martinez and Casemiro improved us massively, maybe ETH should be given the credit for this and enough power to decide our future transfers.
First things first; it’s my opinion. Second; learn to be a bit more respectful.
Now I never said EtH is better, I said that Pep is not better. I rate Erik ten Hag and see him in the same bracket. Also, give EtH the same as Pep and we will see. Ffs I really rate Pep, but the guy only work with teams who are really good from the go.
Pep better than Fergie?
You're wrong. He's got a long way to go to be on par with Pep.
I also said some consider him better than Fergie. I don't personally. I think Fergie just edges it because he built several great teams and didn't have the wealth of a nation to do it with.
You seem incredibly bitter. Pep is one of the best of all time. We just have to accept it.
Brighton have gem after gem and finished 6th. We should be operating at a higher level than fecking Brighton.
We do try, we signed Pellistri and Amad and got shit for it. We have a 18 year old kid in Garnacho that is better than any player Brighton have imo.
There’s a thread on here of a talented Atalanta player that a lot of posters don’t want because he’s considered not ready for United.
In no way should United ever operate like Brighton
ETH has done a lot better in his first season than a lot of us ever expected.
He has had a better first season than Pep did at citeh.
Its easy to forget the absoloute shambles we were against Brentford and all the pressure that was on him almost immediately. He swept up the mess that was Harry Maguire, battled through the Ronaldo mess, didnt have Casemiro playing until the end of September ane he still missed a further 8 PL games through suspension.
Managed to get Rashford into the form of his life for 4 months when we all thought he was done.
Beat all of the top clubs at home and had us pushing hard in 3 competitions.
Had the Glazer sale going throughxbut managed to keep the conversation about football.
This club was absolutely rotten on and off the field 12 months ago, thanks to ETH its only now rotten off it
He has had a better first season than Pep did at citeh.
Its easy to forget the absoloute shambles we were against Brentford and all the pressure that was on him almost immediately. He swept up the mess that was Harry Maguire, battled through the Ronaldo mess, didnt have Casemiro playing until the end of September ane he still missed a further 8 PL games through suspension.
Managed to get Rashford into the form of his life for 4 months when we all thought he was done.
Beat all of the top clubs at home and had us pushing hard in 3 competitions.
Had the Glazer sale going throughxbut managed to keep the conversation about football.
This club was absolutely rotten on and off the field 12 months ago, thanks to ETH its only now rotten off it
I personally think you're crazy if you think that's all we need
I'm not sure that goals to points ratio is an overall positive. It basically means we've had a lot of really tight games we've managed to edge. Which equally could have gone the other way. Which is actually how its felt all season.
Within that yeah there's something good but its not an overall positive.
With the depth, lack of striker and fact that there's still a lot of things stopping him from playing his preferred style of play, he has achieved ithe absolute maximum he could with this squad.
Really looking forward to seeing which players he gets to improve us and just hope he gets the backing to do what he wants.
Really looking forward to seeing which players he gets to improve us and just hope he gets the backing to do what he wants.
Pickford is supposedly good at shot stopping, look where Everton are. There is a lot more to being a world class goalie than just doing great saves for the cameras. As you say his judgement of shots is not what it was.
I am not bitter at all, but it might be we are thinking a bit different on the same subject. I know Pep got more silverware and more honours than EtH. I know that he is world class. But I can see that EtH got something special.
It’s like new players coming through and they are not able to match silverware and honours to the players that have been around for years. That doesn’t mean that they are not in the same bracket and probably will do exactly that in the future.
For me I can see that Erik is definitely one of the best in the game regardless of less silverware and honours. I will be amazed if we very soon are not talking about him in the same manner as Pep and Klopp.
It's clear we need a goalkeeper and a striker as some of main priorities but buying a midfielder has to be as important. This season we mostly struggled against top/decent sides away from home and even got thrashed in some of those games and think it's mostly because of not having ability to control games. Even at Old Trafford against likes of City/Arsenal/Liverpool we had to let them possession for large parts of the game as we're not capable of dominating those teams yet even at home.
Also De Gea's passing ability and overall game is not helping if you want to be a team that's confident in possession and have control in games.
Even with whole season now finished my favorite game is still the one back in October against Spurs at OT. The way we showed domination in that match was brilliant. Sure it was partly due to Conte's defensive tactics but still I loved it.
I'm worried with whole sale of the club still not finished as transfer window is close and we have to buy right players to improve more for next season. If we don't then it's stagnation and we possibly won't even finish top 4 with likes of Liverpool and possibly Chelsea having better seasons than this one.
Also De Gea's passing ability and overall game is not helping if you want to be a team that's confident in possession and have control in games.
Even with whole season now finished my favorite game is still the one back in October against Spurs at OT. The way we showed domination in that match was brilliant. Sure it was partly due to Conte's defensive tactics but still I loved it.
I'm worried with whole sale of the club still not finished as transfer window is close and we have to buy right players to improve more for next season. If we don't then it's stagnation and we possibly won't even finish top 4 with likes of Liverpool and possibly Chelsea having better seasons than this one.
Barcelona?
Luckily there was no such thing as fixture congestion for us to contend with this season!
But yeah, I say that half jokingly. I don’t want to compare and go through Ole v EtH debates. Just happy with EtH at the moment. Hopefully he gets backed the summer and we can really kick on next season.
A bit different to playing 4 league games in 8 days due to the rescheduling/protests. Top 4 was done anyway. Most likely without that kind of scheduling we would have won a few more points in 21. But doesn’t matter at the end anyway, 2nd is 2nd and we weren’t close to 1st place regardless.
Yeah agreed and hence also very difficult to compare different seasons and stuff.
We played 4 in 10 days on several occasions this season, with absolutely crucial games involved. Between 22nd Jan and the 1st of Feb we played Arsenal in the league, plus a 4th Round FA Cup tie and both legs of the League Cup Semi-Final. Then from Feb 16-26th we played Barca twice, a league game against Leicester and the League Cup Final. In 10 days in April we played away at Sevilla in the Europa Semi-Final, an FA Cup Semi against Brighton, and league games against Spurs and Villa. for 6 months this season was absolutely relentless for us, and when you look at the bench we had in the FA Cup Final it shows the lack of options ETH had. I know we spent big in the summer, but that was on the basis of having Ronaldo as a centre forward - once he gave the club no choice but to sack him it was unforgivable to not find the funds to make a centre-forward signing.
It’s not the same really. Games in different competitions is not the same as 4 league games in 8 days (it’s different requirements, in the league there are points, in cup competitions even with a draw you can progress if you win the penalty shootout, etc.).
Top clubs will always have a lot of games if they are competing in different competitions and getting far in most of them. But 4 league games in 8 days has never happened in the Premier League before or since.
And in the league in 21 we didn’t really care any longer once top 4 was done. Didn’t we even start one of those league games with Greenwood as one of our most senior/experienced player?
We were already 2nd, couldn’t get 1st or 3rd, so what was the point? It’s very likely we could have won at least a couple of points more if needed.
There was not much point comparing them. One is gone and we need to hope ETH will do better. That Ole season was decent and would have been good if he won the cup. But the next season was just unbelievably bad. Jose's last season was similar to that too. It's a reminder for us though that it can happen again. I am a lot more cautious with our manager (whoever that is) nowadays.
well yeah, but couldn't you say the same thing about all of our cup games this year? If we didn't have so many of them then we'd probably have scored more points in the league (like Arsenal for instance). The crux of your argument seems to be that 4 league games in 8 days makes for a harder season (in terms of league points accrued) than going almost as far as is possible in all cup comps - in a season that has already been negatively impacted by games being cancelled by the Queen's death and the insertion of a World Cup halfway through.
Just checked and in 21 we played league games on 9th May, 11th May and 13th May. That should not be allowed to happen. Thankfully top 4 was secured / other teams were too far behind, otherwise that scheduling would have made it impossible for us to achieve it.
Yeah, it was a hard period certainly, but nothing on the relentless slog of this season. Like you say, with top 4 already secured we'd most likely have relaxed, played youngsters, and probably dropped points in those games anyway.
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