Which would be an unmitigated disaster?
Erik ten Hag | 2022/23 & 2023/24
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Which would be an unmitigated disaster?
No Frank De Boer at Crystal Palace would be an unmitigated disaster.
If he does a shite job then yes, we certainly will. There’s nothing impressive about blind faith, he’s got to give us something.
Who is happy?
There’s also a lot of talk of “will the board back him when things aren’t going well! Will the fans turn?” Which I can only assume mean when results are beyond shite.
ETH doesn't have the players to play his style though. There might be a season or two of growing pains whilst he gradually gets his squad together.
Even Pep only got fourth in his first season, with a much better squad than we have.
I do think the target should be top four, but I won't be surprised if we struggle to get it.
Now when Darwin has said no to us, i remember my theory on why we fail. Glazers don’t spend when we are already in the Champions League, next year we fail to reach CL, we sack the manager, give money to spend for the new manager. Good players who don’t want to play in Europa League won’t come, we buy second best players with Champions League wage, next year barely reach Champions League, Glazers don’t spend, well, because we are already in the CL.
I'm sorry but if you think Ten Hag is in any way similar to all our appointments you're bang out of order.
Moyes and Ole were never good enough to manage a club of this level. LVG and Jose had good CVs but on the downward slope.
While Ten Hag isn't an elite manager(yet) he's the first manager we've hired since Fergie who's stock is growing with a good balance of being proven to play a modern style of football, a solid record in Europe something Ole/Moyes didn't have, proven capability of rebuilding a team, proven ability to instill a philosophy and a serial winner at Ajax(yes it's the Dutch League but Ajax were in a trophy wilderness for 5years). He also had other offers besides Utd and a list of demands to be met which The Glazers rarely if ever agree to. It may seem like it was easy at face value because of his clause reported in the media but behind the scenes good chance things were very different to what we see so you're again out of order to suggest he was the "easy" choice as if Pochettino the PL proven guy wasn't going to be sacked end of the season or as if Conte wasn't available for free when we sacked Ole.
The players at Ajax may not have the "superstar" status as those in bigger leagues but they're massive names in Netherlands and the 18/19 team had big names and young players with top potential including the Golden Ball Winner(De Ligt) that thrived under him so this notion he can't handle big players is heavily biased and cynical. The only "big players" at Utd are Varane, Ronaldo and De Gea to some extent, first two are consumate professionals with De Gea being the only trick he has to work round since his reputation is inflated. Literally nobody else at Utd is a star or big name.
Nobody is expecting Ten Hag to deliver success from the word go far from that. The expectation is he'll be our own version of Klopp that builds us over time rather than in an instant. He still needs to prove himself on a bigger stage but the work he's done at Ultrecht(I suggest you find time and read about his time there) and Ajax have been promising and unique enough to show he has the nous to adapt to a step up. He won't be the first manager needing to prove himself with a bigger step.
Also will you please just wait and see how he does before rendering him a failure in 2/3 years time? Maybe he gets sacked but it's extremely disrespectful and distasteful to suggest he'll be a failure before he's even in the job. He's overperformed everywhere he's been it's wildly premature to suggest he'll underperform here
We bought Sancho, Varane and Ronaldo last summer. That was a decent spend and we were in the champions league
So much nonsense in one post but I would only address Nunez part don't believe every thing when it comes to transfer news ,won't be bit surprised at all if Nunez moves to United before transfer window closes if We really want him .
I think not getting CL football next season will be a big disappointment. If I`m not mistaken, from next year the first 5 clubs will have a CL spot. Top 5 finish is the minimum we should be aiming for.
I have absolutely no doubt we will be top four next season
Agreed, top 5 is the most likely outcome but I would like to see us go deep into the EL, in a strange way I am really looking forward to those Thursday nights. I have really fond memories of the run under Jose.
It is more about coping with reality than being happy about it.
We all hope for a miraculous title push of course but you are setting yourself up for disappointment if you are expecting it.
Didn’t say or even indicate that anywhere.
Nothing to do with being happy and everything to do with recognizing where we are and expecting accordingly. We are at rock bottom. Our position on the table doesn't tell the whole story. We have a GD of 1. 1! The only reason we are not lower on the table is because of Ronaldo doing Ronaldo things and De Gea having the season of his life.
A portion of this squad has been undercoached for years and they will still be here next season. Most of them also lack physical conditioning. These things don't get fixed over a couple of months. Klopp's first season was awful because it took some time to condition Liverpool's players to his style and drill it in them. And of course just as when things are slowly starting to click some of the players will be whisked away to the Qatari furnace.
I fully expect next season to be just as bad as this one in terms of our points tally and position on the table in the end. If Conte sticks around and gets the support he needs Spurs will be stronger. West Ham started out good this season, but ran out of steam towards the end. I wouldn't dismiss them so easily either.
You say we’re at rock bottom. And even then we were in with a shout of finishing 4th up until about a month ago. If that doesn’t tell you how shite our competition is nothing will.
And no, Klopp’s first season at Liverpool wasn’t “awful”. He made 2 cup finals and had some great wins, big wins away at Chelsea and City in the league stand out. And that was before he’d had a full transfer window and pre season so it isn’t even comparable to the situation Ten Hag will be in next season.
People recognise top 4 isn't the only metric of football progress. I'd trade a bottom half finish with Klopp over top 4 with Ole because the former is a superior builder. There are factors that make it bearable. Factors that aren't always on paper.
At this club top 4 isn't even a football goal, it's a financial one. We don't actually celebrate top 4 because we think we're ready for a CL run. Instead top 4 is treated like the cup.
The glazers have done a number on us to be celebrating qualification for a cup we expect to lose.
At this club top 4 isn't even a football goal, it's a financial one. We don't actually celebrate top 4 because we think we're ready for a CL run. Instead top 4 is treated like the cup.
The glazers have done a number on us to be celebrating qualification for a cup we expect to lose.
You said that some people would be happy to see us outside the top end of the table next season, and my point was that no one would be happy with it.
It just is what it is. As good as ETH might be, it will most probably take some time to implement his ideas on this squad and get it to work out on the pitch.
Baffled by some comments here. Absolutely zero reason United can’t make top 4 next season. That should be the objective along with a cup run
This. What a horrible cycle of drip-feeding the squad. Boom and bust at its worst.
We have playEd really poor-average football for the last few years. We are inconsistent, we don’t work hard and we have really struggled to beat teams at every level in the PL and Europe. We have looked basically incompetent against Everyone but Leeds.
just because we are Man Utd...the name means fuk all at this stage. ETH has a huge job on his hands and I fear for him if fans are not more realistic about the size of this challenge.
- overhaul squad
- improve fitness
- improve attitude
- implement a new style/set of tactics
in 2 months?
im not saying he won’t do it but would love to hear why you think we should expect it?
If we get a fantastic transferwindow yes. Otherwise its highly doubtful.
Mitchell van der Gaag kinda looks like Michael Stipe with those shades.
And is that Denzel Washington in the window reflection of McClaren?
This is an absolutely meaningless comparison. You’d take Klopp over Ole because Klopp is miles better. And if Klopp was the type of manager who would finish bottom half with us, he wouldn’t be miles better. So you wouldn’t take him, because he isn’t.
While that is true, there will be a lot of pressure on ETH should he fail to qualify for CL. Despite what is being said now, a lot of the fans will turn on him if we fail to make the top 5 and the media will be not shut up about it. Reaching a CL qualification in some way will surely mean that he is allowed to continue managing the team and retaining the financial support we need.
I don't view top 4 as a trophy but I still acknowledge that we will have a new manager with new mentality and way of implementing his ideas, mass exodus of players and staff, new signings and a higher up management that seems to want to run things differently. Those are of moving parts that must come together and overcome a way of thinking and doing thing which has been predominant in the last decade.
Not necessarily. We can say with almost 100% certainty that the top 3 clubs are set in stone, even if their actual standing in the table is not. Several teams are below their level and I'm not expecting the smooth sailing with ETH that some of the other posters seem to. He had issues in his first season with Ajax and was under a lot of pressure, this is a new and tougher league, new country, new and higher profile players (despite what their performances might suggest). Taking all of those things and the other teams into consideration, it could be an uphill battle.
Nope, it is Barack Obama
"I run this shit, y'all just work here"
I don’t think so. I assume you mean Chelsea but things aren’t looking great for them. Rudiger, Alonso, Azpi and Christensen all leaving has them looking very thin at the back. It leaves them with Silva, Chaloba and Sarr as their only centre backs (bearing in mind they play 3 at the back.) No backup wingbacks either. They’re going to be right in the top 4 race.
It was said at the time that Sancho was supposed to be brought in the previous summer and was signed with the budget that had been set aside for his signing at that time prior to Dortmund wanting a higher fee than expected. Varane and Ronaldo were brought in for what, £45-50m? Which was pretty much the prize money we'd just picked up for finishing 2nd, without even counting £100m or so TV money clubs receive on top of that or the money from the Europa League run etc. In addition we also picked up £30m for selling Dan James.
So yeah on the face of it, it was a decent spend, but in reality it was in line with other years where our spend was down after qualifying for the Champions League.
You might want to acquaint yourself with how analogies and hypotheticals work. You seem you be shouting my own point back at me. A low starting point with a superior manager is preferable because there's more to assessing them than just looking at position. You got that much. Even a hypothetical single season collapse wouldn't lower his standing in the long term.
Yeah let's not take the state of the team and the gap to City and Pool into account.
Win the league next year Teny or you're gone. We're Man United.
That's the spirit
oh my God. Harry Maguire has been horrible this season. Hasn't he? So in what way am I not justified in thinking that Harry Maguire wouldn't win you titles or is not a Manchester United quality centre back. Did you watch him play. He doesn't even have any intelligeince to make up for his lack of pace. Frequently makes dum decisions.
Started already. 74k subs. 
Yes, that’s exactly what I said.
Why the hell are you comparing 2 centre backs who were world class to Harry Maguire. Hummels and Puyol had football intelligence to make up for their lack of pace. Harry Maguire doesn't. Frequently makes dum decisions and completey messes up one on ones. Have you not watched Harry Maguire play this season?
You see Harry Maguire doesn't do that. If he actually was intelligent and read the game then his lack of pace wouldn't be an issue. My issue isn't his pace. Its the fact that he just isn't a very good centre back. Its almost as if you never watched Harry Maguire this season.
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