Been watching football my whole life and last season, for me, was the first time people tried to legitimise "injuries" and "structure" as excuses to underperform in the manner that we did. Mind that injuries are part and parcel of the game, and seldom do managers have everything at a club optimised to support them.
I kept asking - if he needs everything to be ideal and/or running at a optimum - what's the point of him? (because at that stage, you might as well throw Mike Phelan in the hotseat, no?) It made no sense. Managers are supposed to
manage.
Yes, we had injuries, but none of that accounted for his inability to coach a compact shape. People weren't asking for us to be winning games by 5-0 scorelines, but at one point Manchester United had faced more shots than any other side in Europe’s top 5 leagues in 2024. "Injuries" and "structure" do not excuse that. Not even "player quality" at this level. I wouldn't even expect United youth teams to produce stats like that if we were suddenly forced to field only U-23s. I even remember when this happened:
a poster here quoted me saying "
now imagine he has 4 defenders with recovery pace who can play closer to half line and allow us to compact the game. Go figure"
which left me befuddled because it's either - posters on Redcafe.net are able to recognise he doesn't have the aforementioned type of players and Ten Hag himself isn't, or Ten Hag recognises it, but is incapable of and/or refuses to do what a manager is supposed to do, which is, you know,
manage? A manager should be expected to adapt and adjust, when needed, to account for injuries/hindrances and maximise results and performances despite them. Can anyone genuinely say they feel Ten Hag has done that? 3rd season, more than half a billie in - and the sign of progress we're pointing to this season is 45 minutes against Crystal Palace. Spurs won 0-3 today. It could have been 6 (Timo Werner needs to be investigated).
People tried to "
wish & a prayer" Ten Hag into a competent football manager, and he may very well be one, just not one that's good enough for Manchester United and that's been evident for a very long time.