I said this last season too - its so easy to praise managers in year 1. It was incredibly frustrating to hear about posters here and the media love Ange and how he can show a style of play from gameweek 1. He's proven so far to be nothing more than a poundland Brendan Rogers at his absolute best, and the 2nd season is where honeymoon periods end. We'll see how he transcends the team now. It's not easy.
Erik ten Hag | 2024/25
- Thread starter Cheimoon
- Start date
And who is that on? You think any other major club's fans would accept that? West Ham fans have higher standards than United fans, they won a Europa Conference and still wanted Moyes out because of their league finish, most of our fans wanted the manager to get a new contract.
If the fans are willing to accept this mediaocracy then why do the people in charge need to do anything? They still get paid and they get to be less involved if no one is making demands.
I disagree. A team full of confidence would have gone way harder to try and get the win. We seemed reluctant almost to have a proper go at the end. Either that or we were simply incapable. Both comes down to the manager.
That's incredibly ironic as it's the exact same for EtH. The moment honeymoon phase was over it showed he simply isn't a good enough manager
Name and shame
Seeing as we're only capable of scoring goals against Championship level opposition we need to accept one of two things.
1. Our forwards are Championship level and aren't good enough to play for United.
2. The manager isn't good enough for this level.
Seeing as we've seen the players do it before, my money's on the manager.
Yesterday to me just again told me that with a better manager we’d be in a better position. I don’t think he’s got what it takes to get us where most of us want to be. Too many are settling and happy to wait forever, give so much time. Bugger that.
Honestly, I think I still want him sacked but we absolutely should've won yesterday. The problem he has now is that he can't win with a lot of our fans. We've improved massively from the shitshow that was last season and you could easily say we've been unlucky to not have scored more. Garnacho vs Fulham and Brighton, Zirkzee missed two sitters against Liverpool and again, yesterday, Bruno, De Ligt, Zirkzee and Nacho missed some piss easy chances.
I've no idea why people think we're going to dominate for 90 mins. Even at our best under Fergie, we didn't do that. Football ebbs and flows, and Palace were obviously going to create some chances and it was written in the stars that we would fall off at some point. That said, thats 4 out of 5 games this season where we've actually been significantly better than our opposition. 17 big chances missed tell us that we're actually good at creating chances, we look solid defensively... theres a lot to build on and I'm quietly confident we can walk over Spurs next week.
If he gets sacked tomorrow, I wouldn't shed a tear. I've seen enough from this team this season to know that we're more than capable. This place just feeds off the doom and gloom, where actually theres a lot to be excited about - the young core, the solid defence, Onana look confident and definitely the most fluid we've looked in a long, long time.
When the club is doing nothing and the fans aren’t mounting any pressure to change things that’s the same as being happy with our position.
The club and the fans seem close to reaching a point where they accept they are the Brightons or Fulhams instead of trying to change things and at least try to have a go at reclaiming top spots.
Mainoo should have gone off instead of Eriksen. In that situation, where we are looking at a player to pick out a killer ball in the final few minutes, Eriksen is a way better choice than Mainoo.
And ETH is to blame for our last 20 minutes. Not that we didn't score or create, that can happen, but the team made no attempt to do so. I cannot imagine a Klopp or Pep or SAF team (irrespective of the quality of the team) not even attempting to take the game to the opposition.
At this point there is a clear dissonance between what the fans expect and what ETH wants from this team. He seems happy to go on cup runs and point out he's won secondary trophies without ever addressing the fact that we don't look remotely capable of being a top 2-3 PL team. The fans on the other hand, rightly I might add, do expect a Manchester United manager in his 3rd season to try and play like a top team.
It's hard though when Fulham and Brighton are also backing their managers by spending a billion quid on players they want. How are we supposed to compete?
Seeing how we played and dominated, I am very happy with the game we had. On normal day it would have been 3-1 or 2-0
I’ve heard him talk about mentality so often yet I don’t really think he has it, or gets it, and a lot of different factors are to blame for that. He seems to think he’s got all the time in the world here, and that’s not right, with how shit we’ve been how can any manager be allowed to feel so comfortable?
That isn't a normal day though is it? If it was a normal day we wouldn’t be 11th and wouldn’t have finished last season 8th.
Backing him in the transfer market with whomever he wants, spending the summer trying to find a replacement and failing, extending his current deal, the fans accepting mediaocracy. I bet he can't believe his luck, imagine getting a mid-table gig where they let you spend a load of money and expect nothing back but a good cup run?
He probably thought he was gone multiple times last season and he somehow survived, he probably thinks he can get away with it now.
ETH is the best manager on the globe and can win cups anywhere he goes, if you don't believe me, just ask him!
Great football until he shit the bed and took off Zirkzee.
This would be a promising match if it was his 1st season. It’s his third. How has he still not have it figured out.
See how the next few months go but it’s not good enough. We’re barely fighting for top 6.
This would be a promising match if it was his 1st season. It’s his third. How has he still not have it figured out.
See how the next few months go but it’s not good enough. We’re barely fighting for top 6.
On a normal day it would've ended 0-0. Oh wait, it was a normal day
I still don’t understand how ETH saw that performance and thought let me take off Zirkzee instead of Bruno. That move killed our attack.
One of the best first half performance i have seen from United in a long time. Good control but that 2nd half and ETH in game management decisions shows that there is still a lot of work needs to be done
One of the best first half performance i have seen from United in a long time. Good control but that 2nd half and ETH in game management decisions shows that there is still a lot of work needs to be done
Next 5 games:
Spurs (H) - D
Villa (A) - L
Brentford (H) - D
West Ham (A) - L
Chelsea (A) - L
Spurs (H) - D
Villa (A) - L
Brentford (H) - D
West Ham (A) - L
Chelsea (A) - L
Yeah, this is a normal under ETH. What's his away record now overall? It seems like we've only won a couple of them in his entire reign.
Results are what's most important and he'll live or die on them but I think patience is needed for now. We can clearly see an improvement in overall play, we're making chances, the goals will come. Now would be a terrible time to sack him.
Could easily go that way. There isn't a single game there that i'm confident we could win. A damning indictment of ten hag, 3 years in and spent millions.
We failed to win that game because of EtH's in game management. Taking off Zirkzee, then Amad and Eriksen shortly after completely stunted our ability to sustain attacks. It's a bit understandable with Eriksen due to age but for the other two it was criminal. Rashford was a complete non entity in that kind of game, and Bruno was attrocious and didnt deserve to play 90 mins.
At 60 mins, Bruno should have come off for Ugarte and Eriksen moved further up to focus more on final third moves. After about 10 to 15 mins, take off Eriksen for Mount and Garnacho for Hojlund. Then you go for it with Mount and Amad playing from wide to inside, and Zirkzee and Rasmus up front with the former dropping inside for his usual link up play.
EtH seems to be incapable of managing this squad either due to favoritism, cowardice or a complete misunderstanding of the quality at his disposal.
At 60 mins, Bruno should have come off for Ugarte and Eriksen moved further up to focus more on final third moves. After about 10 to 15 mins, take off Eriksen for Mount and Garnacho for Hojlund. Then you go for it with Mount and Amad playing from wide to inside, and Zirkzee and Rasmus up front with the former dropping inside for his usual link up play.
EtH seems to be incapable of managing this squad either due to favoritism, cowardice or a complete misunderstanding of the quality at his disposal.
Terrible in the league and champions league but was dealt a difficult hand in various departments too. Hel need to show what he's about this season. Ultimately if you finish out of top 4 back to back it's sackable which is why Ange is in a different position.
After 3 seasons we need patience?
Reading this thread is what it must feel like to talk to Trump supporters
Liverpool were ponderous for periods vs Forrest even after their goal. Your point has little practical relevance. It's nice in theory but not always how games go in the final 10.
It was probably the best away performance I've seen from us under ETH, in terms of control, shots against and creating chances.
Yep, i really expect we will be in 8th in a couple of months time having scored very few goals yet some of our fans will still be pointing to positive signs
Has anyone actually said this?
What people seem to be saying is we played more than well enough to win the game. So there’s some acceptance that it wasn’t a complete shit show.
This season we’ve looked vastly better. Our forward line is made up of youngsters for the most part but there’s a lot of promise there. ETH will live or die by the results but the actual performances, bar Pool, I don’t think people can honestly complain about too much which is a welcome change from last season.
Probably says a lot about the standards he has set
People say this like it has been nightmarish throughout. In reality he had a great first season, we finished in a respectable position with a trophy. In the second season we got hit by unprecedented injuries, it was not good enough admittedly but you can't tell me other managers would not have struggled.
The reality is this season he has everything available to him and we are seeing that we are playing good football. We are controlling games. We are making big chances. These usually lead to points on the board.
Yeah definitely up there. It's a shame because we were so close to a win. I think if we scored one of those big chances the attitudes in here would be completely different.
The match wasn’t even that comfortable in the grand scheme. The xG was something like 0.99 Palace - 1.8 Man Utd. Eze missed at least two or three good chances of equal quality to the ones Fernandes, De Ligt, and Garnacho missed.
In fairness though, the opposition will always have at least a few of those chances on the road. Bottom line is we should have been 3 or 4-0 up by the time they had those chances.
The biggest frustration yesterday was the total lack of desire to go and win the game from the 60th minute onwards. In injury time we were playing at a snails pace and lacked any will to win. We need to throw caution to the wind in games like yesterdays as a draw is no good to us against fodder like Palace
lots of posters keep saying fans are happy at 8th etc but I haven’t seen a single person say that’s acceptable.
I saw positive signs yesterday and thankfully the club aren’t acting on emotion and making rash decisions by sacking EtH.
Disappointing not to get 3 points yesterday but still positives and felt like a move in the right direction.
Next 5-6 games are crucial, pointless discussing whether he should be sacked now, he’s going no where until at least those games have been played.
I saw positive signs yesterday and thankfully the club aren’t acting on emotion and making rash decisions by sacking EtH.
Disappointing not to get 3 points yesterday but still positives and felt like a move in the right direction.
Next 5-6 games are crucial, pointless discussing whether he should be sacked now, he’s going no where until at least those games have been played.
Okay. We're playing good football. We're controlling games. We're making big chances.
Lovely stuff. Shame we're 11th and all that counts for bugger all.
All I'm seeing is the same straw clutching I've seen on this forum for the last 11 years. It's desperate people massively inflating tiny flakes of optimisim because they struggle to accept the depressing reality of our situation.
Ten Hag will be sacked when the season is in tatters. That's the reality of where we're at.
I don’t know if Mainoo for Eriksen would have made a big difference. Zirkzee played as a false nine and together with Dalot coming infield we outnumbered them in midfield. The first big turning point was Martinez’s stupid lunge at which point Palace’s energy went up a notch. The next was Hughes replacing Nketiah and plugging up the midfield. All of a sudden we couldn’t move it through them anymore and bringing on Hojlund meant we would try to play over the top, except that Palace just dropped deeper and denied the space. I think the right move would have been to bring Ugarte on for Amad and move Bruno into the false 9, and hope that Rashford and Garnacho produce. Our best football (controlling games/creating chances/moving through the park) going back to the last couple of games of last season has been with this false 9 play, although our wide forwards haven’t been efficient.
This is my take exactly. We're playing much better football this season. That's what most of us wanted to see.
Either our finishing improves and results follow, or ETH gets the boot and we hope a new manager can get those metrics going in the right direction.
We're creating very good chances at a rate that puts us near the top of the league this year, without sacrificing 20 shots a game. I would killed for that last year.