Last season saw us play some of the most tactically naive football I have ever seen from a top team. There was no progression at all in terms of getting better and more coherent as the season wore on. We completely changed style for the last few games, which got us over the line in the FA cup and saved Ten Hag’s job. But an inch the wrong way in the semi’s, and Coventry would’ve knocked us out and we wouldn’t be here talking about Ten Hag today. A margin that fine for success, when the measurements of failure were overwhelming, really shouldn’t have been enough to keep him employed here.
Despite being massively impressed with Ineos so far, I heavily disagreed with the decision to keep Ten Hag, as I have never seen anything from him as United coach that suggests he is even remotely good enough to lead this club. The way we have started the season is depressingly predictable. With the squad of players he has, and the time he has had to work with them, and the support he’s received, he simply should be doing so much better.
Personally, I think losing 7-0 to Liverpool should be an unsurvivable event for any United manager, bar Ferguson or Busby. If Real lost 7-0 to Barca, that coach is done. Pure and simple. Likewise Bayern against Dortmund or Milan vs Inter. But….he survived….ok. But then last season, the statistics for our performance with a record number of defeats, goals conceded, shots conceded, the exceptionally low goal return, shocking goal difference, record low PL finish, and just generally shocking performances, should always have been enough to move on from Ten Hag. Im not sure what rational was in place to give this man more time. I just don’t see it.
He doesn’t play good football, he’s a dreadful tactician, he doesn’t know how to set a team up, his team is boring and predictable, he’s terrible at rotating….the only good thing he’s done is the promotion of youth. People will point to the two trophies in two years, but when you measure where we are against the best sides - in the league and Europe - then he has us going backwards.
I really hope he succeeds, because I hate changing managers during the season but absolutely nothing about the guy gives me any confidence at all that he knows how to manage this team. He just isn’t good enough. We will lose a lot of games this season. Just like we did last season, because if we get even a couple of key injuries, the wheels will completely fall off. The system he’s put in place is so flimsy that it really doesn’t hold up to any pressure except under the absolute optimal circumstances, and that just isn’t good enough.
If he goes on to have a good season this season, I will happily eat my words. Happily. Nothing I would rather be right now than wrong. This is also the last I’m going to say on the subject, because I can’t do another whole season of saying the manager is terrible. It becomes toxic and I just have better things to do with my life. I already know that this is a season where my investment in the team, through time and energy, will be limited. United losing in limp circumstances really ruins my weekend, as it genuinely emotionally upsets me. United losing is something I can tolerate, and look to bounce back from, but United losing in predictable and limp fashion just drains me of any realistic hope of something better to come. It’ll just be another yo-yo season with a man in charge who is massively out of his depth.
The fact that every friend I have who supports a rival club was celebrating when we kept Ten Hag, tells you all you need to know about how the world views this man’s capabilities. It’s just known that we will be incoherent, naive, and have a soft underbelly. Ripe for a few thrashings, and all in all largely irrelevant in the picture of the big prizes.
People talk about signings way too much. While recruitment is very important, the ultimate pinnacle of performance, the tip of the spear, is coaching. It’s getting the most out of what you have and creating something that is greater than the sum of its parts. Ten Hag has never done that at United. He’s gotten less than the sum of its parts, and never shown any sort of thinking that makes us a genuinely difficult opponent for any team to face. Everyone who comes up against us fancies their chances, and with good reason. We are very poorly coached, with a baffling array of non-sensical instructions given to our players. Predictable going forwards, and open and lax in defence. Signing Ugarte or Pele isn’t going to make an appreciable difference, because the coaching is just fundamentally flawed. There are so many managers out there getting so much more out of so much less. I can only imagine what an Alonso or Emery would get out of this squad. A coherent football team for a start.
