Erik ten Hag | 2022/23 & 2023/24

[Westerkerk]

Not sure if this has been posted, part of a longer piece

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/videos/cn009eqqdleo

Asking the question whether Manchester United need a more personable manager - which I assume to mean a "friend" style manager in the mould of a Klopp who bumps chests with the players in front of the cameras, gnashes his teeth at them and wraps an arm round them.

Find it all so strange given OGS was labelled as being too friendly with the players and not providing enough discipline.

Also, you cannot fake body language, win or lose, and many of the interactions between ETH and the players after the cup win looked genuine to me, in that the relationship between manager and player is there, and is positive

Folks are looking far too deep into this "Stay or Go" narrative, the only question is whether ETH can take the club further next season in terms of league position and performances.

 

[RepardReece]

But you cited Pep, because the view he put forth (for whatever reason - perhaps he was being genuine, perhaps not) supports your own.

It's obviously your perogative, I'm just playing Devil's Advocate here because the man is the consummate slippery eel.

Yeah, I did cite him. Say what you want, the guys one of the best managers period, and knows what he's talking about when it comes to football, even if there may be blabber at times.

Regardless, we're moving out of conversation now.

 

[JPRouve]

With Pep saying the opposite to this post, you should know what you've come out with is a load of rubbish.

That's fair, Pep also said that Valencia was the best winger in the world 12 years ago. Now 2012 is prime year for a handful of the best wingers in the history of the game. Do you think that Guardiola actually believed it or that it was some gamemanship?

And I'm not suggesting that Valencia wasn't very good at the time.

 

[JPRouve]

He stands out because he's got a bit of character, which is otherwise completely missing from the team. In That sense he's essential and does elevate us when he plays.

Elevated us to some proper batterings.

 

[romufc]

Same. But I hope and believe it's the press making up shit.

I do feel Journalists are looking at the Ashworth and Southgate England links and making a story up. I mean if you look at the level of journalism over the last week on this, its been hit and miss really. None of them know anything, they cant collaborate their stories and are just putting it out there more in hope to be right.

 

[Von Mistelroum]

Looks like it's time to get out my crystal ball:

I forsee United giving in to fan pressure and keeping Ten Hag next season.

The summer will be largely uneventful with a few new names coming in later on in the window.

Regardless, the new names will be enough to get fans excited for the season ahead, imagining how these new signings will allow Ten Hag to finally play his way!

One of these new signings will be injured for the start of the season, so one of the deadwood players we failed to move on will step back in for a few games.

The season starts with a plucky win or two as the new players give the fans and players a boost. There's still no real style of play evident, and some baffling game management, but we're sure things are on the up.

Midway through the season, and we're midway through the league table sitting in 10th after a heavy defeat to some 'progressive playing' lower level side like Brighton whatever.

Heading towards Christmas and doom has set in. We're back to being in favour of Ten Hag leaving the club (hopefully he's not been given a new contract on the back of those early wins) and fans are once again asking why the club are taking so long to act without a hint of irony.

We scrape a conference league place and there's been a couple of drama situations between Ten Hag and...I dunno... Rashford and Luke Shaw that have hurt team morale. The season is finally over though, having set a few new unwanted records and finishing with a negative goal difference because we didn't buy anyone who can supply the striker still.

Finally Ten Hag gets the boot while a handful of fans lament not giving him more time. The rest of us rejoice until Southgate is brought in due to a lack of other options still available. Thankfully Gareth has been unemployed for a few months now so we're 'lucky' to get him in...

 

[VP89]

I think claiming he’s the difference between a comfortable top 4 finish and 8th, that he’s a top 5 defender in the world and that he’s our best player are all more of an exaggeration to be honest.

We do that with every player that’s out for a while though, have done it since Fergie days. It’s like being injured elevates you every week. I remember how we all thought Fletcher being out for CL final made us lose to Barca.

No one has claimed that solely he is the difference though. You've cherry picked him from a series of reasons and peddled it as though it's only that.

 

[Tincanalley]

I'll liken this outpouring of euphoria to the difference between a holiday romance and a real, tangible relationship.

Once the dust settles on the holiday romance, practicality of real life starts to seap in, and the farther away the holiday romance was, the more the feelings for it lessen and compartmentalise.

I suspect, in a less euphoric state, when the season we've endured as a whole is realigned, a fair portion of those buzzing so much their opinion swayed, will change their position once more. In the meantime, posts and thoughts will remain overwhelmingly positive, much to the chagrin of those who are vehemently ETH out.

Oh, jayzissis. Leaden metaphor of the season. I hope you enjoy sowing your wild oats

 

[RepardReece]

That's fair, Pep also said that Valencia was the best winger in the world 12 years ago. Now 2012 is prime year for a handful of the best wingers in the history of the game. Do you think that Guardiola actually believed it or that it was some gamemanship?

And I'm not suggesting that Valencia wasn't very good at the time.

fair counter.
We all have opinions on players, as we have with Martinez.

 

[Sarni]

Dalot played the most games for us at LB of anyone in the squad. He also played the most at RB (a perfect 1/3 and 2/3 split) so it’s clear he was used there. He’s not natural though and that is a disingenuous argument to make.

Shaw managed 28.1% of the season to be on the pitch. Given the number of injuries at the same time and the patchy nature of who was available and when I just think you’re being overly harsh and negative given this isn’t something other clubs dealt with better than us even if you were to argue Chelsea or Newcastle or whoever else had injuries they still underperformed.

I’m not comparing cup games etc I’m looking at the PL as we did quite well in the cup and so I’m not sure why we would want to use those games to look at impact.

We are all upset with our low league position finish so it makes sense to league at the league play time and see is there a reason why we might have been below par?

Id argue not a single CB playing half of our games, Jonny Evans being our 2nd most played CB and not having a LB probably had an impact.

Does he? Are there other CBs that he has said the same of this season? I can’t think of any. He specifically singled him out for praise which suggests he’s a very good CB unless you believe you know more than Pep Guardiola @Sarni ?

It’s ok to just say you don’t like a player. But when the best manager in the world says something it’s probably because he’s very good.

It’s not just that. You seem to criminally underrate him despite all available evidence suggesting you probably are wrong.

I’m not sure anyone has claimed he’s the sole difference but I certainly believe you have him and Shaw available for even 60% of our season each and we go a lot higher up the table. Of course that is purely speculation on my part.

It’s one of the strangest argument I’ve ever been in. I criminally underrate Martinez because I don’t think he’s one of the best 5 defenders in the world and because I don’t think his presence by itself would get us 4-5 places higher in the league.

I’m not even sure I can think of a single player in the entire league who could be worth a 15-point swing. I’m not even sure Messi in his prime in that Barca team was worth 15 points on his own, and yet because I don’t think Martinez is worth that I am now an obsessive hater, despite clearly saying he’s a good/very good defender.

It’s like you can’t even merely say he’s very good, you must rate him as the best defender ever or else you are a hater?

 

[Tincanalley]

But you cited Pep, because the view he put forth (for whatever reason - perhaps he was being genuine, perhaps not) supports your own.

It's obviously your perogative, I'm just playing Devil's Advocate here because the man is the consummate slippery eel.

Try being God’s Avocado, and supporting. Being proud. Licha is powerful goods in a small parcel. Ask Haaland.

 

[Infra-red]

If INEOS are looking at Southgate as a serious managerial candidate, then we're doomed.

Indeed. In my view, there aren't many wrong choices available to us this summer. Personally, I could get behind Ten Hag remaining, or being replaced with Tuchel/De Zerbi/Pochettino/Amorim.

Southgate is absolutely a landmine that needs to be sidestepped, though. He'd be a disastrous appointment.

 

[Sarni]

yes. Also known as facts

Yeah, the beauty of data is that you can present it in many different ways, leading to many different conclusions, using the exact same set of information each time.

 

[John XII]

Elevated us to some proper batterings.

Can't argue with that. We're clearly better when he's playing than when he isn't. Whilst I agree that the top 5 defenders in the world stuff is a bit daft, I really don't see any reason to be criticising him as he's not part of the problem. If we are going to get out of the mess we are in he is going to be an important part of that.

 

[JPRouve]

fair counter.
We all have opinions on players, as we have with Martinez.

And you think that it makes more sense to consider Martinez as a great defender even though he has never shown it because he has never been in that kind of stage, instead of considering that he is a good player?

I mean we are talking about a player that has not regularly played at Football's highest stage and he has also been a main feature in many absolute drubbings. And while I don't put any of the losses on him, it definitely negates the idea that he has some magical intangibles that transforms a side. Martinez is a good player with a personality that everyone wants to support but we don't need to go overboard with the ratings.

 

[Sarni]

Then you’d have to also factor in when players are ‘available’ but not fit or just on the bench for an emergency after coming back from an injury. If you don’t trust that model you can also just read the Athletic article which shows we’ve had the worst injuries in the league?

You can question if ETH is somehow causing the injuries but it’s foolish to question if the injuries actually occurred.

I’m not questioning injuries occurred, I am questioning that in this particular case Varane was available for significantly more minutes that he played. May have not been the case with other players (and wasn’t, the only other one I can think of being frozen for any time was Rashford and honestly speaking he should have been benched much more).

 

[Sarni]

And you think that it makes more sense to consider Martinez as a great defender even though he has never shown it because he has never been in that kind of stage, instead of considering that he is a good player?

I mean we are talking about a player that has not regularly played at Football's highest stage and he has also been a main feature in many absolute drubbings. And while I don't put any of the losses on him, it definitely negates the idea that he has some magical intangibles that transforms a side. Martinez is a good player with a personality that everyone wants to support but we don't need to go overboard with the ratings.

He has played in 1 knockout round of CL, barely featured at the World Cup and has had one full season of top league football (being injured for most of the second one). He’s a good, talented defender with some unique skills but there’s no world in which he can claim to be one of the best 5 defenders in the world. One of the best 5 defenders in the world is huge, you can’t be that without showing it time after time against the very best.

Again, we have been there with so many players. It’s like you can’t be just merely good here, you are either this fecking player letting everyone down or one of the best in the world. This goes for almost our entire squad even right now. There’s golden boys like the youngsters, Martinez, Shaw who are the best in class, the fecking players like Rashford, Mount, AWB, Antony, Lindelof, Casemiro who are hopeless and should be sent to football prison, and Bruno who keeps levitating between both categories but can’t find any space in the middle.

 

[Judas]

My biggest worry about sticking with Ten Hag is them sacking him in December and hiring Southgate.

This is my genuine fear, it's insane to me that we could actually be seriously looking at Southgate.

 

[Fortitude]

Oh, jayzissis. Leaden metaphor of the season. I hope you enjoy sowing your wild oats

But I’m not wrong. People are giddy right now.

 

[Fortitude]

Try being God’s Avocado, and supporting. Being proud. Licha is powerful goods in a small parcel. Ask Haaland.

At no point have I said I don’t rate Martinez.

 

[FortunaUtd]

https://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/fc-chelsea/ausfallzeiten/verein/631

So how can you post this link while asserting with a straight face that their injury problems are 'not near to ours'?
At this point one can only laugh at the level of disingenousness at work in your posting.

 

[JPRouve]

He has played in 1 knockout round of CL, barely featured at the World Cup and has had one full season of top league football (being injured for most of the second one). He’s a good, talented defender with some unique skills but there’s no world in which he can claim to be one of the best 5 defenders in the world. One of the best 5 defenders in the world is huge, you can’t be that without showing it time after time against the very best.

Again, we have been there with so many players. It’s like you can’t be just merely good here, you are either this fecking player letting everyone down or one of the best in the world. This goes for almost our entire squad even right now.

Exactly, I like Martinez and the only long term worry that I have is with his health but today we are not talking about an accomplished player. My hope is that he is a bit of a late bloomer and reach these lofty levels in a similar way Thiago Silva did. But he isn't close to be there yet.

 

[Longshanks]

Looks like it's time to get out my crystal ball:

I forsee United giving in to fan pressure and keeping Ten Hag next season.

The summer will be largely uneventful with a few new names coming in later on in the window.

Regardless, the new names will be enough to get fans excited for the season ahead, imagining how these new signings will allow Ten Hag to finally play his way!

One of these new signings will be injured for the start of the season, so one of the deadwood players we failed to move on will step back in for a few games.

The season starts with a plucky win or two as the new players give the fans and players a boost. There's still no real style of play evident, and some baffling game management, but we're sure things are on the up.

Midway through the season, and we're midway through the league table sitting in 10th after a heavy defeat to some 'progressive playing' lower level side like Brighton whatever.

Heading towards Christmas and doom has set in. We're back to being in favour of Ten Hag leaving the club (hopefully he's not been given a new contract on the back of those early wins) and fans are once again asking why the club are taking so long to act without a hint of irony.

We scrape a conference league place and there's been a couple of drama situations between Ten Hag and...I dunno... Rashford and Luke Shaw that have hurt team morale. The season is finally over though, having set a few new unwanted records and finishing with a negative goal difference because we didn't buy anyone who can supply the striker still.

Finally Ten Hag gets the boot while a handful of fans lament not giving him more time. The rest of us rejoice until Southgate is brought in due to a lack of other options still available. Thankfully Gareth has been unemployed for a few months now so we're 'lucky' to get him in...

Thanks, you may have just induced some nightmares.

 

[Who's Kissing Cameras?]

Pep loves praising an opposition player/coach beyond reason. Martinez is definitely not a top 5 defender in the world, not even a chance.

He’s a good defender though, sometimes very good.

Pep loves praising an opposition coach but never really a player like this.

Martinez is world class.

Still no excuse for playing shite football all last season though. ETH needs to pay the price for gross negligence of the team style of play.

 

[Vault Dweller]

Top reds to turn on Cantona in 3, 2, 1…

He's the fecking King for a reason.

 

[Wilt]

If INOES are genuinely reviewing the past season (which I doubt) then absolutely Ten Hag has to be sacked.

Just get on with it and move on.

 

[JPRouve]

Pep loves praising an opposition coach but never really a player like this.

Martinez is world class.

Still no excuse for playing shite football all last season though. ETH needs to pay the price for gross negligence of the team style of play.

Guardiola does it all the time and he is generally full of it.

"But, I like the way they play, the qualities they have. Lindelof I saw him in Benfica, Luke Shaw is an incredible type of player, Maguire, one of the best central defenders in the world. The people up front they are so fast. Matic and Fred, they are incredible players, Matic is an outstanding player. In time, they will do it and be back to what United was for many years.”

That man is an absolute menace.

 

[tomaldinho1]

I’m not questioning injuries occurred, I am questioning that in this particular case Varane was available for significantly more minutes that he played. May have not been the case with other players (and wasn’t, the only other one I can think of being frozen for any time was Rashford and honestly speaking he should have been benched much more).

He was dropped for poor form when he was awful for a period but he didn’t look fit, it was right to drop him in my opinion. Rashford agreed although options were scarce with amad injured for so long.

 

[Tincanalley]

At no point have I said I don’t rate Martinez.

Okay. But it’s easy to get locked into negativity, I feel. I saw someone in another forum listing the positives of a pretty horrible season. I even considered starting a thread called Moments FC, in which great moments are seen - not as a negative, in a world obsessed with tiresome systems - but as a positive. Garnacho goal, Bruno from half way, second goal on Saturday, etc. The strategy side has been like experimenting on a weapon in the middle of a battle (I joined the bad metaphor club). I keep rerunning that first half. Maybe it’s euphoria, but I cast my vote way back. I can’t wait to see what ETH produces next.

 

[Herman Toothrot]

Madness has washed over the fanbase. If it's consumed INEOS too, then I'm a bit worried about all that fine margin nonsense being for nothing.

 

[Tincanalley]

Guardiola does it all the time and he is generally full of it.

That man is an absolute menace.

Have to agree with you there. But we all admire Licha anyway, as United fans. We hardly need Pep to tell us how great he is.

 

[pocco]

We sacked LVG straight after a final. If they’d already decided before the final like a lot of reports and people are saying. Then they’d of waited a couple of days and let him celebrate the win and then tell him. Not drag it out. Theirs been a few managers available for ages so they’d have already spoken to some. It needs to be resolved before the start of June I’d say. I still think their gonna announce that he’s staying as their isn’t anyone better available which they obviously won’t say that’s the reason.

My feelings on the situation are that, they absolutely were going to sack him. The radio silence over the past few months from Ineos, with regards to him, has said it all. You don't not back a manager that you want to keep and lead the team forward. Even after the FA Cup final, SJR could have built him up a bit with some nice words but he decided not to. I think they wanted to come across as making fair and balanced decisions before sacking him, and that is why they started to 'review' his position and everything around the team 5 weeks ago. These are all things that you don't do without undermining the manager, so to publicly come out with this already shows that you have a dim view on the manager. Everything they have done has shown the lack confidence in ETH.

After the final, I think they probably wanted to let the dust settle before pulling the trigger, hence mention of this review again (which we were told was happening 5 weeks ago, and I believe ETH has said has been completed). I do think there is a good chance that they bottle it as fans are living on a wave after the FA Cup final. I don't believe they actually want to keep him, so if they do then that is a red flag straight away, as they should ignore the fans anyway. If Gvardiol and Ortega don't have a mix up, and City take any of their other chances, then we aren't having this discussion still today. That is what they need to realise, that fans are fickle and they are the ones with all of the inside details as to what has gone on. If he is sacked, he will be a distant memory by the start of next season for most fans.

 

[Wolfbot]

The situation is very frustrating for me in that Ten Hag clearly can get results and win things, three cup finals and two of them won in two seasons is unarguably successful, not many managers can say that.

The problem is that he has achieved this by making decisions on personnel and tactics that are largely different to what he chose to do in the league that resulted in an eighth place finish and early elimination from the champions league.

It's a bit harsh to want rid of someone who's won trophies, but I can't get past the fact that I wouldn't be happy to watch the more compact, functional, counter attack based football every week in the league. At same time, Ten Hag's attempts at something more expansive and attacking have actually been worse to watch and led to poor performances and results overall. On that basis I don't think it's wise to keep him into next season.

 

[Plant0x84]

.
Of course, single games wins are much easier to achieve than having full good seasons, which is why the goal is to become a good football team that can play sustainable winning football and gradually improve to become one of the best in Europe. We haven’t achieved that or really got any closer in the last two years.

Yup that is the goal, I agree there.
But starting from where we started, and with the problems we’ve had along the way - do you really believe that is something achievable in 2 years?
SJR is asking for patience and has said he thinks it will be another 2/3 seasons before we are really challenging.
Success isn’t going to be a linear progression, there are going to be ups and downs along the way but I do believe ETH is a better coach than this season has shown and when it clicks we will be a very exciting team to watch. At this point however he is still unraveling the mess and missing a few key pieces of the squad.

 

[The Firestarter]

Guardiola does it all the time and he is generally full of it.


That man is an absolute menace.

Does not matter, Pep who usually I consider a fraud but just for this one , he said something I agree with, hell if I am going to admit he might just be full of shite. /s

 

[JPRouve]

Can't argue with that. We're clearly better when he's playing than when he isn't. Whilst I agree that the top 5 defenders in the world stuff is a bit daft, I really don't see any reason to be criticising him as he's not part of the problem. If we are going to get out of the mess we are in he is going to be an important part of that.

That's true there is no reason to criticize which is why I didn't and won't. In fact unlike many I have largely shared the idea that individually our players are far better than many pretend, none of them are perfect but the vast majority are good PL players. The issue is that some want to go to either extremes and it's generally senseless because they want to build a narrative.

 

[pocco]

Have to agree with you there. But we all admire Licha anyway, as United fans. We hardly need Pep to tell us how great he is.

Guardiola does it all the time and he is generally full of it.


That man is an absolute menace.

This was my favourite about Maguire being 'so fast' He's a troll and City must love it because our club buys into it and our fans hang off his every word. I remember when he used to say some crazy things about Ole and his tactics too, clearly a WUM but has the ability to keep a straight face.

https://www.skysports.com/football/...ong in the air,to United for this signature."

 

[hobbers]

Anyone trying to say Chelsea's injury problems were not almost exactly comparable to ours is disingenuous or deluded.

Both lost their most important full back for the whole season. They missed Nkunku and Fofana all season, we missed Martinez. They missed Chalobah and Badiashile for most of the season, we missed Varane for about a quarter. They missed Lavia all season, we missed Mainoo for the first 4 months. Chilwell and Malacia. etc etc

And some of our worst injury problems were to players who wouldnt have contributed much anyway. Malacia, Mount, Martial. Casemiro has also dragged our football down whenever hes played.

 

[BenitoSTARR]

That is undeniable, but would he have been the difference between the disaster of a league season we had to even a semi decent one? I doubt.

I believe him and Shaw would yes. When you consider the lack of Martinez meant Evans played 40.7% of our league games and a lack of Shaw meant 30.9% of our season was Dalot at LB (no other player played more there).

Martinez is not the same profile of player as Varane, Maguire, Lindelof and Evans I would hope we could all agree he is the best on the ball and the best at picking out passes through the lines and breaking the first line of an opponents press.

You look at Chelsea and all their CBs are far more similar in profile for example.

I think you’re massaging things a bit here. Days out injured is really the only categorical way to quantify an injury situation.
Some of what you’ve said here is a little loose on the factual side.

- Chelsea can only submit a certain amount of players for their PL squad. I’d imagine United and Chelsea submitted similar squad sizes.

- Yes we had to utilise a make shift left back most of the season whereas they probably only did for a few games.

- Nkunku can be replaced by Madueke, Sterling, Gallagher and Mudryk? I’m not sure how considering none of them play in Nkunku’s position(s) either second striker or striker.

- Chukwemeka and Lavia might not be starters but James, Chilwell, Nkunku, Sanchez are and missed most of the season. We also had some regular starters out and some squad players out.

- Only Gusto was under 21? Quick Look shows Palmer 21, Colwill 20/21. I’m not even sure it’s really relevant. Those three young starters of ours you mentioned have actually arguably been 3 of our better players this season. Garnacho kept out a more experienced Antony. Mainoo a more experienced Amrabat/Eriksen. So I don’t see how that can be used as a negative when squad assessing. We’d have literally been worse off if we played the “over 21’s” instead of them.

I haven’t seen your thread, perhaps you could post it but you seem to be using subjective and slightly massaged opinions. I don’t think there’s any doubt our injury situation has been disastrous but it has been for the two clubs who finished directly above us too and at a comparative rate.

The only trouble with days out injured is it doesn’t take into account squad depth, positional injuries and their relative impact and also the subjective nature of when a player is fit.

See my thread regarding Chelsea. They absolutely had it bad with James, Chilwell and Nkunku but they also had replacements available for those players the majority of the season.

https://www.redcafe.net/threads/end...s-and-chelsea-done-rest-of-league-tbc.482902/

Nkunku when available played 4 times as CF, 3 times as AM and 2 times as LW. I would argue that shows the other players I listed are sensible alternatives to consider given he wasn’t played in one fixed role. Gallagher played least 14 times last season in the more advanced midfield role that Nkunku would potentially occupy and the other forward roles saw Jackson, Sterling, Mudryk and Palmer share minutes.

Apologies completely forgot their ages at the start of the season Palmer is 22 now and I thought Colwill was too but he is 21. It’s worth noting though that Gusto had 2 seasons of men’s senior football under his belt from Lyon, Colwill had a full season in the Championship and time in the PL under his and so Palmer weirdly was the only inexperienced player being played (and what a season he had).

The reason I bring that up is because you can reasonably expect more experienced players to deal with adversity better. I love Garnacho and Mainoo but we really shouldn’t be trying to compete for CL spots with two teenagers being key players.

I’ll be finishing Newcastle at some point today but having had a look I can say confidently we’ve had the worst luck of the 3 clubs. So for me it makes perfect sense that we might not finish above them. I don’t like it in fact I’m annoyed to no end by it.

Well we don't know that because they were injured all season. It's possible that Lavia in particular could have been a particularly good solution for their midfield problems. He was a very good player at Southampton. If Palmer had been injured all season you might have said it doesn't matter because he's not a first team player.

2nd bolded sentence suggests to me that you're starting with your conclusion and working backward from it. Colwil, Gusto, Enzo, Madueke, Palmer, Caicedo, Jackson, Badiashille, Mudryk, and Fofana are all under 23, plus Petrovic, James, Gallagher are 24. So you may be technically correct at this moment in time (although probably a handful of these players were 21 during the season), but the actual facts undermine your point about experience/inexperience imo.

Last point I would make is it's the job of the manager and club to assemble a squad that can absorb injuries.

Caicedo and Fernandez were bought for £115m and £107m respectively. I think it’s fair to say they are first choice over Lavia (who I rate very highly but I’m just being realistic here).

Look at how many senior team minutes those players had in previous seasons. They are all far more experienced with the only exception being Palmer. The majority of them have 2/3+ seasons of first team mens football at a good level.

Agreed on your last point job of manager and club but mainly club. We don’t have the squad composition of the profile of players needed yet. I’m sure we will in the next 2 seasons regardless of manager.

yes. Also known as facts

Then you’d have to also factor in when players are ‘available’ but not fit or just on the bench for an emergency after coming back from an injury. If you don’t trust that model you can also just read the Athletic article which shows we’ve had the worst injuries in the league?

You can question if ETH is somehow causing the injuries but it’s foolish to question if the injuries actually occurred.

Glad to see someone understanding the rationale. We already know we’ve had the worst injuries based on that article so there is no point debating that fact. What I was interested in is what did this make our team look like across the season vs other sides in the league.

 

[Solius]

So the FA Cup will be the Ineos version of that night in Paris where the best laid plans are ignored for the expediency of giving in to sentimentality inspired by euphoric mobs. The more things change the more they stay the same and when he is eventually sacked Sir Jim's Brexit brigade will bring in the mediocre waistcoat clown to really finish us off.

The way this has turned out really highlights what incompetent muppets Jim has brought in, no best in class at all just nepotistic old boys positioning their mates for roles. There is no serious company that goes into what is supposed to be a crucial period, after a difficult year where you need to plot a recovery, without their ducks laid in a row. This review period is what they were supposed to be doing in March, there was enough evidence even then, a replacement secured and already signed.

Another season wasted because the executive has no backbone to make a decision amidst all the noise. The Glazers really fecked us over by doing a deal with indecisive clowns like these.

Look how mad you've gotten over a hypothetical in your head.