I agree, fans sentiment at that time was strongly pro ten Hag with petitions making circles that it would have been challenging to make that decision. They still should have made it.
The only silver lining in this is maybe as a fan base we are going to be more careful about romanticizing managers and the long term project nonsense. That is if we actually make a decision to part with him now which I doubt we will. Fully expecting it to take a lot more for him to get sacked.
Clearly results and league position aren’t enough to get him sacked, or he’d be done already. So I assume all focus is on performance and the demonstration of evolution of a playing style, and positively trending performance fundamentals.
Sadly, he utterly fails there too. So it’s hard to see on what basis he’s still in a job. At this point I’d take pretty much any other manager over him. He’s so laughably out of his depth that it’s hard to swallow. He’s the most tactically naive, uninspiring manager of my lifetime at United. Van Gaal had the dullest football by the end, but he had a clear plan and play style. But Ten Hag, he just seems to put eleven guys out there and hope for the best. In fact, he actively seems to subvert any positive trends we accidentally accumulate.
For example, the one positive at the start of the season has been our ability to keep the ball under pressure when we play technical players. We saw that evaporate against Palace when he withdrew Amad, and went for two speedy wingers (but played no balls in behind). So naturally, we dropped Amad today. This guy can’t even get the basics right. The way VdV waltz through our entire team for the opener was just criminal. It showed a complete lack of organisation. People are quick to point to individuals, but it was clear immediately that no one was quite sure what their job was; and that is 100% on the manager.
He’s so clueless, so useless it’s genuinely incredible that he remains manager of Manchester United. Every oppo fan I know was celebrating when we decided to keep him this summer. Not just celebrating, but laughing. Because they knew, just like some of us without our top red tinted glasses knew, that it would be another shambolic season under him. That we’d be laughably easy to play against.
We are at best looking at a mid table finish. I would say that if we don’t ditch him, we may not even finish in the top ten. He’s a fecking joke; and every day this continues is a stain on this once great club. Bayern, Real, Barca, City, Liverpool, Arsenal, Inter, Chelsea, Juve, Milan……the list goes on….would any of them have continued with this guy after last season? Would they now after this start? We all know the answer to that. The fact we stick with him doesn’t make us better than them, it makes us demonstrably worse. The worst part is, it’s not like we have been unlucky to lose the games we have….Brighton maybe a little, but Liverpool and Spurs could and should have put at least five past us, without reply. And that’s at our ground. This is a major crisis situation. Under Ten Hag the team is fundamentally broken. And it’s the same problems over and over and over again. It’s not new problems, it’s the same shit. It’s inexcusable not to fire him. feck fan sentiment. Our fans have been front and centre in the creation of mediocrity ever since Ferguson retired.
The most hilariously daft comparison I see drawn is how Klopp and Arteta had some underwhelming league finishes early on. But what they won’t tell you, is that for those who were looking, a clear evolution in play style and progression was happening. Each signing taking them a step closer to achieving their desired level. Under Ten Hag? None of that. He’s spent a fortune and we are going backwards. I couldn’t tell you, for the life of me, how he wants us to play. It’s all so haphazard and inconsistent. Some of the positioning off the ball today, I just had to laugh. It made no sense. I’ve seen u12 coaches with better tactical set ups than this fraud.