Is ten Hag still *the one* (for you) or another placeholder?

He has flaws like others, namely too rigid to plan A (his subs still feel like a plan A+ than an actual plan B)
Overly confident in transfer market. Apparently most United's managers are like this, trusting his "network" & ex players instead of club's scouts.

But who else is better seriously? Take that in mind that the person must have to work with incompetent board. So instead of experimenting on another hipster/fotm manager, I'll rather stick with him for another season or two.
 
Revaulx said:
Does it?

Counter-attacking involves sitting back. We certainly don’t do that; he’s trying (with varying amounts of success) to get us playing on the front foot. Many people complain that we are “too open”.
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It's exactly what it means, it's a euphemism. He never mentioned anything about possession.
 
For now, but its getting harder and harder to see him suddenly clicking and become a Pep or Klopp.
 
horsechoker said:
People can pine for De Zerbi but he's managing one of the best run clubs, put him in the chaos at United and he'll struggle to do better than ten Hag.

Ten Hag looked a superstar at Ajax with Overmars running the show, after the two left Ajax became a shambles.

Klopp did marvellously at Liverpool when they were getting every transfer right, when that stopped they slipped down from title contenders to barely in the top 4.

Pep has had everything his way at City but if you took away that structure he would also struggle.
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This. And it’s still early days considering the tasks he faces at Man Utd. More of his chosen players will blossom in a year or two. Rome wasnt built in a day.
 
I said it would get worse before it gets better. I hoped I was wrong, but we have to see it through.
 
I've said for years there is no magic manager that will overcome bad recruitment. Until we have a squad worthy of challenging the best then we won't.
 
I think he's been a good appointment so far and the right one for what we are trying to do, i.e. establish ourselves in top 4 and stabilize for the next few years. I doubt we are going to win any major trophies with him in charge but at the same time we probably won't end up having disastrous seasons where we finish below EL spots etc., and I don't think there are any managers available that we could realistically trust with overseeing the rebuild while also delivering results.

Until we sort out the recruitment and squad building I don't think there's a way to fix this club, unless we get a manager with good, broad knowledge of the markets and players out there (ETH certainly isn't one).
 
I think we might try to appoint directly one of His Majesty's Prosecutors. For efficiency.
 
Look to Arteta. Took 3rd season to fully morph into a top team, with 8th and 5th finishes and he had Obameyang and Ozil to deal with.

We should back TH into the 3rd season regardless of what happens this season. He has finally got one striker that is still a hope rather than a certainty, although I have a good feeling he will be good. He finally has a DM that hasnt played yet. There are another 34 Premier games and even if we did finish 6/7th, (I think we will still finish top 5). I would still give him the 3rd year, otherwise we will be in the same boat again with a new manager who will want a big upheaval again, rinse and repeat .
 
The Mitcher said:
He hasn't in anyway tried to implement a possession style, he wants a "transition style" which means counter-attacking. Aside from Nottingham Forest, we have not dominated possession against any of the teams we've played. In the moments in games we get some kind of possession, Forest aside, it was meaningless possession passing from defence to goalkeeper.
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We have 2 attackers in Bruno and Rashford who only know how to play a direct counter attacking style and that will hamper any team trying possession.
 
Backing Ten Hag completely. There are no managerial geniuses out there who can make the best out of this squad. The media loves the "Manutd are in crisis" stories and look to have brought the knives out against Ten Hag. We have a very talented coach and even if we finish in non-CL places, we need to stick with one who can do a job. If it takes time, so be it. We need a proper Woodward purge and anyone who has been retained from that period and not given a new contract under the new regime needs to go eventually.

The only point which does require structural improvement is that the recruitment needs to be taken out of his hands and move savvy DoFs need to come in. Not just from a buying perspective, but also specifically selling. We can't have 80 million players playing at a level of a rookie 19 year old from the academy. The club just needs to become more professionally run from a transfer dealings perspective.
 
mu4c_20le said:
For now, but its getting harder and harder to see him suddenly clicking and become a Pep or Klopp.
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The bigger issue is that it is very hard to see United clicking and becoming a City/Liverpool. As a club, United are all washed up, with the glory days firmly in the past and unlikely to be repeated

EtH has done about as well as it is possible to do at such a dysfunctional club, but we all know how this story ends...
 
wolvored said:
Look to Arteta. Took 3rd season to fully morph into a top team, with 8th and 5th finishes and he had Obameyang and Ozil to deal with.

We should back TH into the 3rd season regardless of what happens this season. He has finally got one striker that is still a hope rather than a certainty, although I have a good feeling he will be good. He finally has a DM that hasnt played yet. There are another 34 Premier games and even if we did finish 6/7th, (I think we will still finish top 5). I would still give him the 3rd year, otherwise we will be in the same boat again with a new manager who will want a big upheaval again, rinse and repeat .
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Also Klopp, who finished 8th, 4th and 4th before making a title challenge in 18/19.

The key thing with both though is that while progress may have seemed incremental at times, and there were periods during seasons when they were heavily doubted, there was overall season on season progress. In terms of league position and/or underlying measures of performance levels.

As long as we see that from ETH, everything is fine. What would hurt is a backwards step, such as finishing outside the CL places this season.
 
I have never thought of him as 'the one'. Since he has taken over I have been cautiously optimistic. I do have serious concerns over some of his recruitment decisions.
 
Infra-red said:
The bigger issue is that it is very hard to see United clicking and becoming a City/Liverpool. As a club, United are all washed up, with the glory days firmly in the past and unlikely to be repeated

EtH has done about as well as it is possible to do at such a dysfunctional club, but we all know how this story ends...
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I will give his new signings another couple months to settle, but when you are managing a top club like ours, and have 150-200m to spend every summer, it should be possible to do what Klopp did. We still have the money and pull. just have to get it right.
 
I thought he the one, then he let us get beat 7-0 by Liverpool. Should’ve been sacked on the spot. I said it at the time but there’s no coming back from that.
 
Until we get new owners and back any manager with whatever they need this is going to be the continuous story, good in parts then ultimately fall apart.

There’s so much shit in the squad and we continue to paper over cracks.
 
AltiUn said:
I thought he the one, then he let us get beat 7-0 by Liverpool. Should’ve been sacked on the spot. I said it at the time but there’s no coming back from that.
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:lol:

Jesus Christ.
 
sullydnl said:
As long as we see that from ETH, everything is fine. What would hurt is a backwards step, such as finishing outside the CL places this season.
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I think that's always been the bar for all our managers at the end of the day.

We will stand by the manager..... until he finishes outside of the CL places.

Considering we're currently in 11th, we should probably start heading up the table. Early days yet though.
 
JJ12 said:
:lol:

Jesus Christ.
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Jesus Christ it all you want, it’s the worst result in our history. Won’t matter either way, he’ll be gone by Christmas by the way things are going anyway.
 
I am convinced that it has nothing to do with the manager anymore at our club. If they miraculously come here, I won't be surprised to see Pep or Klopp fail too. The whole structure behind the team seems to be rotten and the transfer dealings, players' fitness, player contracts, and club sale are only a handful of proof of how badly the club is run. Sadly nothing is going to change until Glazers are in charge, so you can change another 10 managers but sooner or later he will fail just like the others.
 
mu4c_20le said:
I will give his new signings another couple months to settle, but when you are managing a top club like ours, and have 150-200m to spend every summer, it should be possible to do what Klopp did. We still have the money and pull. just have to get it right.
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I don't think we have the expertise to spend the money that is available. We're getting appalling value for the money we are investing in new players. It's miss after miss, which completely negates any financial advantage we might have (or, rather, might once have had - it has largely evaporated).
 
Most of you deserve the mess we are in right now." ETH needs to go " honestly you really don't get it. He has had no striker of worth his whole time here and you want him gone. The very least you can do is allow him a few windows to get rid the dead wood that is still here but no, it's all on ETH. If i was advising him I would say resign and walk. This Club was a laughing stock long before ETH got his hands on the wheel. Put in perspective we tried all summer and i mean all summer to sign Amrabat on a loan deal for 3m, I'm sure having Maguire and Evans at the back on sat was his fault andIf you think this is a well run club and all our woes are down to ETH well i give up.
 
He's still the one. The away record is shocking though and needs to be sorted out. Some of his judgements on signings are questionable at times but he's got one hand tied behind his back with the penny pinching Glazers.
 
I expect him to learn what works and what doesn't work in EPL. He knows EPL is touggherrr than its looks. Antony may plays well in the Dutch or Champion league, he is just average in English league. I think his recruitment will get better, I think we will do alot better in his 4th season where Mainoo, Hoijund, Rashford, Mount, Garnacho and Antony will be alot better. Onana, Martinez, Shaw and AWB is still around. We probably need to get 1 quality CB to replace Varane and hopefully we have 2-3 more promotion from our youth team. We will definitely look better.
 
I think he deserves the benefit of the doubt, and I do still think he's the guy. Going from a shambolic, dumpster fire 6th place to a 3rd place finish with a cup trophy and another cup final in one season was incredible progress, and should be a good sign that he's in the process of building something promising here.

Between the Greenwood Affair, and now the Sancho Affair and the Antony Affair, and Slabhead refusing to leave, and the Ownership Saga, and the injury crisis, he must feel like he's constantly waiting for the next thing to go wrong. I can't imagine that any manager envies the position ETH is in right now.

I've been as critical of our summer window as anyone, but I'm eager to see what the team can do once Hojlund, Amrabat, and Mount are playing regularly. I'm also really interested to see what, if anything, happens in the January window.

The absolute earliest I'll begin to question the manager is at the end of this season, after he'll have had two full seasons and four transfer windows to get the team where he wants it. Hopefully by then we'll all have evidence that we're on our way to great things.
 
@Amadaeus do you think ETH is still the one for United or do you think perhaps in hindsight Pochettino might have been the better option?
 
Sarni said:
I think he's been a good appointment so far and the right one for what we are trying to do, i.e. establish ourselves in top 4 and stabilize for the next few years. I doubt we are going to win any major trophies with him in charge but at the same time we probably won't end up having disastrous seasons where we finish below EL spots etc., and I don't think there are any managers available that we could realistically trust with overseeing the rebuild while also delivering results.

Until we sort out the recruitment and squad building I don't think there's a way to fix this club, unless we get a manager with good, broad knowledge of the markets and players out there (ETH certainly isn't one).
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Do they really exist? Managers are supposed to spend a few hours per day training, then analyzing opponents, watching videos of opponents to find weaknesses in their team, watching videos of previous games to find what mistakes the team did and how it can improve, making the tactics and so on. It is a very demanding job, the likes of Pep were spending 12 hours per day 'working'.

After that time, it is hard to then go and watch videos of players from other teams. So, I do not think any EPL manager will have such a good knowledge of players outside of EPL and probably big European teams (or teams they face in UCL). Which is why it is idiotic to trust the manager in transfers.
 
This is the Social Media Age so after 6 points from 12 on offer we’re naturally going to look out the window and wonder if it’s time to jump.

Cool heads must prevail. We cannot know in this day whether ETH is man to lead United for the next decade, but what we do know is that at the end of the season, regardless of how far he is into his contract, club management will assess whether to go forward with him or sack him. That can’t be decided today.

That said, we’re all free to praise and criticize him for individual decisions, but this is not time to reassess whether he is the right man for the job right now.
 
Yes, but it won't matter if the transfer structure isn't changed because as I've said before no manager in the world should have full control over transfer targets, much less Ten Hag. You can see the roots of how he wants to play and elements of good coaching, but then it's often fecked up by poor individual play (many of whom Ten Hag had backed).

It's quite clear at this point that he doesn't want to just copy the Ajax style of play and wants a more dynamic/transitional team, but then he's gone and signed players like Antony that don't work in that style at all.
 
Revan said:
Do they really exist? Managers are supposed to spend a few hours per day training, then analyzing opponents, watching videos of opponents to find weaknesses in their team, watching videos of previous games to find what mistakes the team did and how it can improve, making the tactics and so on. It is a very demanding job, the likes of Pep were spending 12 hours per day 'working'.

After that time, it is hard to then go and watch videos of players from other teams. So, I do not think any EPL manager will have such a good knowledge of players outside of EPL and probably big European teams (or teams they face in UCL). Which is why it is idiotic to trust the manager in transfers.
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They don't, which is the whole point. Even Klopp had a shocking last few years in the market post Edwards leaving.
 
For the record, I'm completely behind him.

I acknowledge some issues such as the midfield and what the plan for our football in general is.

I will preach patience at this time.
 
I don't know what to comprehend from the situation that has creeped upon us in the last 17-18 months with EtH on-board. I always thought when I saw his Ajax team play that he instilled confidence in his players and they always played great football but no matter who takes in charge of this United squad, it goes straight down hell for them. I don't what is happening in the background with the Galzers but their indecision with the ownership of the club is definitely playing with the mindset of everyone who's in the club. We just cannot see any improvement around the club and it is basically showing in the way we play. Ridiculous!
 
Sarni said:
I think he's been a good appointment so far and the right one for what we are trying to do, i.e. establish ourselves in top 4 and stabilize for the next few years. I doubt we are going to win any major trophies with him in charge but at the same time we probably won't end up having disastrous seasons where we finish below EL spots etc., and I don't think there are any managers available that we could realistically trust with overseeing the rebuild while also delivering results.

Until we sort out the recruitment and squad building I don't think there's a way to fix this club, unless we get a manager with good, broad knowledge of the markets and players out there (ETH certainly isn't one).
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And that's down to basically the owners and their way of working with finances.

And I don't think that type of manager exists anymore
 
sullydnl said:
Also Klopp, who finished 8th, 4th and 4th before making a title challenge in 18/19.

The key thing with both though is that while progress may have seemed incremental at times, and there were periods during seasons when they were heavily doubted, there was overall season on season progress. In terms of league position and/or underlying measures of performance levels.

As long as we see that from ETH, everything is fine. What would hurt is a backwards step, such as finishing outside the CL places this season.
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That is slightly misleading. The 8th he took the team at half-season (October or November) so in those cases, all managers except Chelsea's and Zidane do not do well.

His first season in charge, 4th place, so similar to EtH last season.

His second season, 4th place but also an UCL final. I would be extremely happy if we reach UCL's final this season.
 
I back him for now, but I won't lie - I do have some major concerns.

For all the good things he's done, there have been just as many negatives. Heavy defeats, woeful away form, no clear playing style, etc.

He is quite robotic and I don't think that's a particularly endearing quality either.
 
The only thing I'm concerned about is the fact that it has looked like the side as whole has looked like they're regressing back to being ill-disciplined, low energy and mentally soft at times. The inability to turn that around is what doomed Mourinho and Ole imo all be it for different reasons, and as is the nature of professional football he'll suffer the same fate if he cannot turn that around. Otherwise it's 100% yes.
 
I still fully back him, because any other manager is still going to be a gamble and it should be pretty clear by now that the position of Man United manager is not exactly an easy one. Unless the season turn out to be a complete disaster it would be utterly daft to sack him

That being said, i cant help feeling a bit let down by the start of the season and how we have looked so far, especially in attack where we have looked very toothless
 
Revan said:
Do they really exist? Managers are supposed to spend a few hours per day training, then analyzing opponents, watching videos of opponents to find weaknesses in their team, watching videos of previous games to find what mistakes the team did and how it can improve, making the tactics and so on. It is a very demanding job, the likes of Pep were spending 12 hours per day 'working'.

After that time, it is hard to then go and watch videos of players from other teams. So, I do not think any EPL manager will have such a good knowledge of players outside of EPL and probably big European teams (or teams they face in UCL). Which is why it is idiotic to trust the manager in transfers.
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Right, they don't exist. Expecting a manager to also be de facto DOF and Chief Scout is a fool's errand. Any manager in such a structure is doomed to failure.
 
You will still get the same result (or worse) with any other manager in his place. We all are aware of where the problem stems from and it's above the manager's head.
 
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