Erik ten Hag | 2024/25

[Judas]

Or alternatively, it shows how people will see what they want, and folks that want Ten Hag gone, especially the kind that use loaded words like "gods" and "cultists" to try to discredit dissenters, will see Palace having better chances as it fits their agenda.

Don't you dare put me in the camp of the morons who go on about cultists I'm not easily offended, but that's sickening.

I simply think the Eze chance was all things considered the best chance of the game. No massive agenda, no over dramatics, simply opinion.

 

[sugar_kane]

Dropping Rashford was just horrendous and inexplicable man management

For one, Rashford lives on confidence so to pull the rug out from under him when he’s just getting it back is a huge misstep

It just sends a strange message to the rest of the team as well, good performances should be rewarded not “punished” by seemingly arbitrary decisions.

Bruno is the one who should have been dropped, we look so much more fluid without him.

 

[hobbers]

If we could could go back to the system of 22/23 with De Ligt/Martinez and Casemiro/Eriksen, we'd be back to being a competitive top four side.

But those two cant play at that level any more, and ETH is too arrogant to go back to that system. Ugarte and Mainoo are never going to control games like Eriksen can.

As we are, the only way we can win games is if Bruno or Rashfords have moments. Bruno is probably the worst he's ever been for us and Rashford is same old same old when he's not playing league 1 teams.

 

[UnsungHero]

It's a bit sobering really when you think about it. People are attempting to use a bad draw with Crystal Palace as a 'positive' - we played OK but nothing special really, let's have it right.

Sad times for the club, we're going nowhere under Ten Hag. I just hope INEOS realise that sooner rather than later, so we don't write off another season.

 

[Zumbi]

There are valid criticisms about game management in the second half, but the context is that this was still a game we were easily the better team, dominated the first half, and still controlled large portions of the second.

So putting those two together, the context is that we were the better team, dominated the first half, controlled portions of the second half, but still didn’t win with poor game management from our manager being a feature of that. Not sure I’d read that as being an argument in favour of Ten Hag.

 

[crossy1686]

It's a bit sobering really when you think about it. People are attempting to use a bad draw with Crystal Palace as a 'positive' - we played OK but nothing special really, let's have it right.

Sad times for the club, we're going nowhere under Ten Hag. I just hope INEOS realise that sooner rather than later, so we don't write off another season.

The question is: do INEOS have the kind of experience at this level to know that we're going nowhere? It's okay owning Nice, or working at Newcastle, but is the expectation and demands the same at those teams? It's really easy to fall further behind.

 

[red.knight]

In his second season we also finished 8th in the league and dropped out of the CL group stage from what should've been an easy group. It also been shown that other teams had worse injury problems than us last year.

I dunno, mate. We're still seeing the same issues that started to crop up eighteen months ago. Ten Hag seems incapable of fixing them. Ole was sacked after getting 17 points from a possible 32 in his third season, and he managed 3rd and 2nd place finishes. We need to have standards above "we were simply unlucky". We've been "unlucky" for a while now, and I don't see how more time will solve that. I haven't personally seen much from Ten Hag to suggest he'll suddenly make everything work. We might be playing a little better but we still can't score!

I dont disagree with your points but last season was unusual with all the injuries and I personally believe INEOS made the right call in keeping Ten Hag for another season. I understand your concerns this season 7 points from 5 games isnt ideal and the lack of goals in this team is worrying and I was also very frustrated by todays result. Ten Hag has his players on the pitch now and there are no injury excuses. I expect to see an improvement in our performance and a top 4 finish or a Europa League win this season. So far I been encouraged by our performances and patterns of play and I believe goals and results will follow. Lets see how we do in the coming weeks.

 

[Red in STL]

Dropping Rashford was just horrendous and inexplicable man management

For one, Rashford lives on confidence so to pull the rug out from under him when he’s just getting it back is a huge misstep

It just sends a strange message to the rest of the team as well, good performances should be rewarded not “punished” by seemingly arbitrary decisions.

Bruno is the one who should have been dropped, we look so much more fluid without him.

Bruno plays every PL game, how would we know? Barnsley isn't an objective game to determine we're more fluid without him

 

[Cassidy]

The same number as us, but they’ve scored almost twice as many goals. What’s your point?

Read the persons post I responded to

 

[pocco]

Not saying we are going places. Performance wise we looked really good in the first half. Probably our best performance in ages in PL. Now next two PL games become must win so let us see if beating Barnsley was actually a false dawn or we are slowly becoming something decent.

sorry but that sentence just sounds ridiculous.

 

[Longshanks]

Weird post. No one is saying the result was acceptable. It's clearly a post that's saying our performances are much improved. They tend to be a leading indicator of where wel head, rather than crying about the first 5 games.

Much improved is a stretch, improved from the end of last season no doubt but not improved anywhere near enough yet.

Maybe the improvement will keep coming but today I saw a team that wasn't good enough to put away a woeful palace in the first half and we're probably a little luck not to be beat by an average palace in the second half. Hardly inspiring. But better than last season where an average Palace compleatly took us apart.

People used to whine about the lack of standards during Ole's reign, that's nothing when people seem happy with an average performance away at a consistently relegation threatened side who were actually pretty dire for half the game.

 

[Cassidy]

It's not about that, it's about knowing how to get a reaction out of your players. Dropping a player, who you played relentlessly through a patch of horrendous form after a couple of decent games, just makes zero sense.

Dropped or rotated. The wingers will be rotated. Some of you are just being silly. Now all of a sudden Rashford has to start every game when we have other inform wide players. Amad was on the bench midweek, Garnacho against Southampton. This is how it will be.

 

[sullydnl]

Dropping Rashford was just horrendous and inexplicable man management

For one, Rashford lives on confidence so to pull the rug out from under him when he’s just getting it back is a huge misstep

It just sends a strange message to the rest of the team as well, good performances should be rewarded not “punished” by seemingly arbitrary decisions.

Bruno is the one who should have been dropped, we look so much more fluid without him.

In Garnacho's case in particular, picking him is rewarding form. Across all competitions this season he has scored one more goal than Rashford despite playing around 60% of Rashford's minutes.

With Amad also having played well, there's no way to reward players with starts without removing someone else. Thus, rotation. The same rotation you get at other clubs. At Liverpool for example Jota was benched today, while Diaz was benched in the CL against Milan midweek.

If Rashford wants to ensure he's not rotated at all, then he has to be sufficiently better than Garnacho/Amad to earn that right.

 

[Cassidy]

We don’t seeing as we can’t seem to take our chances

We scored 3 and 7 in the previous 2 games. Overreacting a bit I would say

 

[Zumbi]

Read the persons post I responded to

I already had. But still, what’s your point?

The table shows that Spurs have been doing marginally better than us so far this season. That’s why they’re above us.

 

[Sarni]

There was a lot to like about this performance. He got us playing much better there than last year. Small steps.

 

[Mercurial]

ETH is not working out well for United, Eredivisie is probably his top level, sad to say, has been a firm believer that he should get peace of mind to work out any issues, but it's just not materializing. He was probably carried by a good generation of Ajax players more than he carried them, and is desperate to recreate it all while showing he has no other ideas.

 

[AndySmith1990]

Some people are willing to drop standards to any level just to support Ten Hag. Didn't understand it last season and I still don't understand it. Big clubs that are serious about winning trophies want good performances that translate into consistent results, they don't shrug and say feck it, we're midtable but at least XG is decent and the GD isn't negative anymore... progress!

If you give a shit about United you should want the best for the club. Ten Hag obviously isn't close to the best, so to those who are so eager to defend his glaring flaws, why? Why do you love some weird Dutch bloke so much?

 

[Cassidy]

I already had. But still, what’s your point?

The table shows that Spurs have been doing marginally better than us so far this season. That’s why they’re above us.

So we shouldn't really expect to get humilated by them next week then as the post said? Clearly did not read well.

 

[VP89]

Much improved is a stretch, improved from the end of last season no doubt but not improved anywhere near enough yet.

Maybe the improvement will keep coming but today I saw a team that wasn't good enough to put away a woeful palace in the first half and we're probably a little luck not to be beat by an average palace in the second half. Hardly inspiring. But better than last season where an average Palace compleatly took us apart.

People used to whine about the lack of standards during Ole's reign, that's nothing when people seem happy with an average performance away at a consistently relegation threatened side who were actually pretty dire for half the game.

I think it's clearly much improved. Liverpool was atrocious and I am in no way defending that. But we're conceding around as many shots outside of that game as say, Arsenal are. and Arsenal are the the best defence in the league. We had 56% possession and 67% possession in our last 2 away games with a mountain of big chances created. I think we are now top for big chances missed.

It's quite evident that the way we control games, keep things resolute at the back and create going forward is far improved to what it was last season.

 

[VP89]

I already had. But still, what’s your point?

The table shows that Spurs have been doing marginally better than us so far this season. That’s why they’re above us.

I think anyone looking at a table 5 games in has a wider problem with their analysis of the game.

 

[Red00012]

We scored 3 and 7 in the previous 2 games. Overreacting a bit I would say

You’re comparing a L1 team and a team that will go straight back down to a team that beat us 4-0 last season?

 

[Cassidy]

You’re comparing a L1 team and a team that will go straight back down to a team that beat us 4-0 last season?

What has the opposition got to do with quality of our finishing? We created many chances against Palace today and should have been 3-0 up by half time. The obvious trend is in every game this season we are creating chances and the previous 2 games saw us take quite a few of them. The trend is obviously a good one.

We also now have our number 9 coming back from injury. Positive signs 3 clean sheets in 3 games. If we can continue of this path its a good sign.

 

[Matt Varnish]

We scored 3 and 7 in the previous 2 games. Overreacting a bit I would say

How is scoring 3 against one of the weakest teams in the Prem and 7 against a mid table League One side nw a benchmark of our scoring capability, when we are brought down to earth by failing to score against a team, that had as many good chances as we did.

 

[Escobar]

Dropping Rashford was just horrendous and inexplicable man management

For one, Rashford lives on confidence so to pull the rug out from under him when he’s just getting it back is a huge misstep

It just sends a strange message to the rest of the team as well, good performances should be rewarded not “punished” by seemingly arbitrary decisions.

Bruno is the one who should have been dropped, we look so much more fluid without him.

He makes truly strange choices, and it backfires all the time. After the last game, he should have started Rashford and Garnacho (sorry Amad) and dropped Bruno.

 

[red.knight]

I would love to see improvements in our performances but all I see is us playing with intensity for a set period of the game, the opposition weathering the storm, and then us retreating into our shell while the manager can't adapt to the changes the opposition make while we almost, or actually do, lose the game. Today we were good for 60 minutes, against Brighton we were good for 20 minutes, against Spurs? Who knows! Could be 15 minutes, could be 80, but I promise you, it will be more of the same and you'll be in here banging the same drum ruing missed chances and whatever else.

When we are consistently, and that's the key word here, playing like this full for games and winning the ones we should, I will be delighted for Ten Hag to stay.

I admire your hope for Utd to play like this for an entire match but thats not going to happen. We dont currently have the quality to dominate teams for a full 90 minutes. We simply need to convert our chances to win more games than we draw/lose. Remember we been in the wilderness for the past decade winning only 5 trophies since Fergie retired with Ten hag winning 2 of those. No manager can come in and make this team dominant again overnight. It will take time to bring Utd back to the top. Personally my expectation for this season is to see progress in our performance and finish in top 4 or 5th spot and a Europa League win.

 

[VP89]

We played OK but nothing special really, let's have it right.

Sounds like you need to get it right first.

 

[always_hoping]

It's a bit sobering really when you think about it. People are attempting to use a bad draw with Crystal Palace as a 'positive' - we played OK but nothing special really, let's have it right.

Sad times for the club, we're going nowhere under Ten Hag. I just hope INEOS realise that sooner rather than later, so we don't write off another season.

Don't see it as any positive when it's a game United should have won with the amount of big chances created so was very much two points dropped.

As for playing OK, 1st half performance was as good and as dominant United have been in away Premier league match for a few years.

 

[VP89]

I admire your hope for Utd to play like this for an entire match but thats not going to happen. We dont currently have the quality to dominate teams for a full 90 minutes. We simply need to convert our chances to win more games than we draw/lose. Remember we been in the wilderness for the past decade winning only 5 trophies since Fergie retired with Ten hag winning 2 of those. No manager can come in and make this team dominant again overnight. It will take time to bring Utd back to the top. Personally my expectation for this season is to see progress in our performance and finish in top 4 or 5th spot and a Europa League win.

I've asked him to name which clubs are able to maintain intensity in any of their games this season so far. And I'm yet to get a reply.

 

[Cassidy]

How is scoring 3 against one of the weakest teams in the Prem and 7 against a mid table League One side nw a benchmark of our scoring capability, when we are brought down to earth by failing to score against a team, that had as many good chances as we did.

Palace did not create us much as we did for one. Secondly quality of opposition restricts your ability to create chances more than take them

 

[Cassidy]

Patterns of play and midfield structure merchants have now moved on to finishing I see. Clear trends moving in positive directions is good.

 

[FujiVice]

You had to play Rashford today. Every manager in the world would have. I'm taking Scott Parker and Ronald De Bour type managers. He's scored 3 in 2, and looked as if he finally looks like he's enjoying himself for the first time in 18 months. You have to see if that momentum is still alive. Even if its simply a short burst of form, at least you'd get your answers. Why would you not play him today? fecking lunatic of a coach.

 

[VP89]

We scored 3 and 7 in the previous 2 games. Overreacting a bit I would say

We've missed a lot of big chances in the other games though. We are among the top for big chances missed.

 

[golden_blunder]

We played great first half. The changes upset the rhythm. Annoying was the time wasting by Martinez when we needed a goal. But for all our possession we got lucky today with Eze having an off day with his finishing. On another day he’d bury those 2 chances

 

[Zumbi]

So we shouldn't really expect to get humilated by them next week then as the post said? Clearly did not read well.

Logically we shouldn’t expect to beat them either then, should we?

Therefore you saying we will clearly doesn’t read well either.

 

[Cassidy]

We've missed a lot of big chances in the other games though. We are among the top for big chances missed.

Of course. Its early in the season but if the main issue is we have we miss big chances Im pretty sure that trend will change. Especially as both Garnacho and Hojlund are good finishers

 

[Cassidy]

Logically we shouldn’t expect to beat them either then, should we?

Therefore you saying we will clearly doesn’t read well either.

Logically we should because if you coninue to create you are going to score goals. We have scored in 3 of our 5 league games this season and thats without our main striker

 

[Eddy_JukeZ]

Logically we should because if you coninue to create your going to score goals. We have scored in 3 of our 5 leave games this season

Are you trying to paint that as a positive???

 

[Matt Varnish]

I admire your hope for Utd to play like this for an entire match but thats not going to happen. We dont currently have the quality to dominate teams for a full 90 minutes. We simply need to convert our chances to win more games than we draw/lose. Remember we been in the wilderness for the past decade winning only 5 trophies since Fergie retired with Ten hag winning 2 of those. No manager can come in and make this team dominant again overnight. It will take time to bring Utd back to the top. Personally my expectation for this season is to see progress in our performance and finish in top 4 or 5th spot and a Europa League win.

I agree witth this, my one difference is that ETH hasn't shown that he is capapble of leading us into a poition where we can once again compete with the (second) best in Europe.
Narrowly missing out an and ECL place this season would in my mind be seen as a distinct improvement, I just can't see that happening with this manager and Captain, we need better leadership on and off the field.

 

[Red00012]

What has the opposition got to do with quality of our finishing? We created many chances against Palace today and should have been 3-0 up by half time. The obvious trend is in every game this season we are creating chances and the previous 2 games saw us take quite a few of them. The trend is obviously a good one.

We also now have our number 9 coming back from injury. Positive signs 3 clean sheets in 3 games. If we can continue of this path its a good sign.

What has the opposition got to do with quality of our finishing? We created many chances against Palace today and should have been 3-0 up by half time. The obvious trend is in every game this season we are creating chances and the previous 2 games saw us take quite a few of them. The trend is obviously a good one.

We also now have our number 9 coming back from injury. Positive signs 3 clean sheets in 3 games. If we can continue of this path it’s a good sign.

Let’s be realistic , what we did v rubbish teams last Tuesday and Saturday has been out of the ordinary of what’s been happening for 12 months and today was back to normality .