That's been typical. This summer might be better than usual though, at least we got much needed GK and striker. And 2 midfielders.
But your fundamental point is the biggest issue. Nothing will change as long as Glazers are our owners.
Is ten Hag still *the one* (for you) or another placeholder?
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That's been typical. This summer might be better than usual though, at least we got much needed GK and striker. And 2 midfielders.
But your fundamental point is the biggest issue. Nothing will change as long as Glazers are our owners.
That is all fine, we are here to back our manager BUT I don't think all bad performances/results can be explained simply because "he still doesn't have all his players".
We peaked against Barca/Newcastle in Cup final last season. In all of those games we started Wout Weghorst and Fred (Eriksen was out injured). We have not been close to this level ever since. He could do it with that squad - what was a great indicator of future success. He has his squad now like you said so it will be very interesting if we can reach that level once again soon.
I'm starting to just completely disconnect from the club in general. There is a deep rot at the heart of it and I'm struggling to care year after year. I think he is a top manager but we are seeing the same issues with discipline coming back. Effort levels on the pitch are embarrassing at times again.
I don't buy into the notion of us ever finding "the one". Far too many on here have become weirdly obsessive over certain post-Fergie managers: especially with Jose/Ole. Which is very odd in itself, as both were pretty bad during their tenures.
I feel the club has an atrocious structure in place, and until this is rectified, we'll remain a perpetual mess, with no real success. ETH is a good manager, but ultimately, he won't achieve much here with the current structures that are in place.
I feel the club has an atrocious structure in place, and until this is rectified, we'll remain a perpetual mess, with no real success. ETH is a good manager, but ultimately, he won't achieve much here with the current structures that are in place.
Any body who is even thinking of thinking that ETH should be sacked is a plastic fan and hates this club. You don't create a vile thread to gather comments
For a couple of months last year we looked the real deal, sweeping aside all the top teams at home, and just giving the impression we were onto something big.
All without a "proper" striker.
It crumbled a bit with the Casemiro suspensions and the Martinez injury, and the away record was still scandlous.
This season we've not been helped by the horrible player issues, Greenwood, Sancho, Antony and a really sluggish on pitch start where we looked like we'd totally misjudged pre-season again and looked short of fitness and pace. Wolves looked like olympian athletes compared to us, yet have been nothing special since for example.
2 defeats from 4 games, with the other 2 wins being a little sketchy (crawled past Wolves getting away with a last min shout, and going 2-0 down to Forest in 5mins), are the real reason everyone is a bit worried.
The losing to anyone half decent away record hasn't got better so far, and it's unlikely we'll live up to last year's incredible home form.
Mount in seems uninspired so far, now injured. We really have to hope Amrabat and Hojlund hit the ground running and hope the Antony situation turns out to be overblown.
All without a "proper" striker.
It crumbled a bit with the Casemiro suspensions and the Martinez injury, and the away record was still scandlous.
This season we've not been helped by the horrible player issues, Greenwood, Sancho, Antony and a really sluggish on pitch start where we looked like we'd totally misjudged pre-season again and looked short of fitness and pace. Wolves looked like olympian athletes compared to us, yet have been nothing special since for example.
2 defeats from 4 games, with the other 2 wins being a little sketchy (crawled past Wolves getting away with a last min shout, and going 2-0 down to Forest in 5mins), are the real reason everyone is a bit worried.
The losing to anyone half decent away record hasn't got better so far, and it's unlikely we'll live up to last year's incredible home form.
Mount in seems uninspired so far, now injured. We really have to hope Amrabat and Hojlund hit the ground running and hope the Antony situation turns out to be overblown.
Keep.
A month before Liverpool bought VVD, my Liverpool supporting friend was telling me how Klopp was not going to be the answer as the team was still so disjointed after two seasons. He was pushing for Klopp's sacking as he believed the man was trying to implement a style of play that would not achieve any reasonable success in the premier league. Liverpool would go on to break the transfer record for a defender and the rest they say, is history.
Definitely not the one, he was my second choice. But, I reserve judgement on him till halfway through the season to see if he is a placeholder. I m not a fan of how we are playing, but we are getting results. Sounds a lot like Ole. It is too early to give up on him though.
Keep. We need him way more than some of these players.
No point in spending big of he clear house, instead we need a new recruitment team and need to sign young hungry players on low money, most important low money. Don’t need 500 million for that.
He deserves two full years, possibly three, at which point we can assess where we are. So far, he's been a qualified success amidst unprecedented adversity.
They clearly backed Ten Hag after a top 3 finish. Mount purchase seems stupid, not the glazers fault.
Yes i agree. They are still a huge problem but in this particular context yes they have backed him better than what they did others.
Yep. Too many fans are keen to throw people under the bus around here at the first sign of trouble. ETH showed more than enough last season that he is worth backing. Plenty of time to turn it around, crikey if you are going to have a wobble while you change the setup, now's a good time to have it.
Far, far, far too early to say.
It’s not too early to say they backed him… Mount, Onana, amrabat, Hojland, three starters and an expensive “backup”.
they backed him this time around. Kane was gonna be 150-160 million, wasn’t gonna happen.
We need different scouts and a legit DOF, it’s not a matter of spending or not, it’s upper management and negotiation skills
Fails to qualify for CL next season - fired at end of season
Doesn't challenge for the title but does qualify for CL - gets to start next season as manager, then see how it goes, needs a genuine title challenge as the minimum in his 3rd season. If that looks out of reach at some stage during the 3rd season then get rid.
Genuine challenge for the PL (not a distant 2nd as happened under Mourinho and Solskjaer) or CL this season - gets all next season
This applies to whoever happens to be United manager in their 2nd season, assuming they didn't win either the PL or CL in their first season.
I haven't been particularly impressed by Ten Hag so far but I'm willing to see how this season goes. I struggle to comprehend several of his decisions with respect to PL football. It appears as though he believes height, physicality and athleticism aren't particularly important.
Doesn't challenge for the title but does qualify for CL - gets to start next season as manager, then see how it goes, needs a genuine title challenge as the minimum in his 3rd season. If that looks out of reach at some stage during the 3rd season then get rid.
Genuine challenge for the PL (not a distant 2nd as happened under Mourinho and Solskjaer) or CL this season - gets all next season
This applies to whoever happens to be United manager in their 2nd season, assuming they didn't win either the PL or CL in their first season.
I haven't been particularly impressed by Ten Hag so far but I'm willing to see how this season goes. I struggle to comprehend several of his decisions with respect to PL football. It appears as though he believes height, physicality and athleticism aren't particularly important.
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He deserves time, had a good debut season apart from one or two aberrations, are there better managers out there? Yes, Tuchel would have been great choice imo but in Ten Hag we trust, I imagine like a few of us it's the prospect of the club having new owners that's prevented him walking away from the circus that the club is at the moment.
If he’s your second choice that’s about as high praise as is possible to be honest!
On the one hand I’d say that Ange at Spurs and De Zirbi at Brighton makes the whole ‘He needs 3 years’ line feel a bit empty.
However… Ange May finish 8th while playing one game a week and De Zirbi May finish in a worse position (think they could make a decent fist of Europe though).
I still won’t criticise any United manager that’s working under a truly shocking recruitment and sales team though. Why does it take us so long? For over a decade we wait until the last possible minute to overpay, and the last possible minute to recoup a fee from a player.
The Glazers have spent so much money. But it’s always at at least a 20% premium. When we bought Antony we could have paid £60m and got a £20m squad player. We could have paid at least £5m less for Mount and used that sum to write off a portion of Maguires contract to an extent he could join West Ham.
He’s working with inept people. Amrabat had no other suitors and could have been acquired under the same structure a full two months ago.
His bosses are desperately shit. It’s maddening. If you’re going to pay Sancho £350k a week, he would make Dortmunds lives unbearable if we told him to. It’s garbage behaviour, but overpaying on both fee and salary is a uniquely United trait. We now have this massive fee on the books, a huge contract, and he’s unsellable. Why? Nobody else is doing this dumb shit.
However… Ange May finish 8th while playing one game a week and De Zirbi May finish in a worse position (think they could make a decent fist of Europe though).
I still won’t criticise any United manager that’s working under a truly shocking recruitment and sales team though. Why does it take us so long? For over a decade we wait until the last possible minute to overpay, and the last possible minute to recoup a fee from a player.
The Glazers have spent so much money. But it’s always at at least a 20% premium. When we bought Antony we could have paid £60m and got a £20m squad player. We could have paid at least £5m less for Mount and used that sum to write off a portion of Maguires contract to an extent he could join West Ham.
He’s working with inept people. Amrabat had no other suitors and could have been acquired under the same structure a full two months ago.
His bosses are desperately shit. It’s maddening. If you’re going to pay Sancho £350k a week, he would make Dortmunds lives unbearable if we told him to. It’s garbage behaviour, but overpaying on both fee and salary is a uniquely United trait. We now have this massive fee on the books, a huge contract, and he’s unsellable. Why? Nobody else is doing this dumb shit.
I rated ETH highly at Ajax. Surprised, he hasn't implemented a better footballing philosophy yet. I know if we go to the likes of Arsenal, chelsea (under Pochettino), Liverpool, Manchester city, Newcastle, brighton (under De zerbi) and even spurs (under postecogeleu), we will be out footballed. We may win by counter attack, but i want this united team to dominate games, play better football and win games. Not play bad football and win games. I have seen glimpse of good football here, but not consistent enough, which is why I am reserving judgement and giving him time.
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Who was your first choice?
Pochettino and I m not surprised that he is dominating alot of the positive attacking stats for chelsea in the league. Other team is lucky that chelsea didn't get Oshimen or even vlahovic because I feel with a proper goalscoring striker, that chelsea side will walk the league. You will see how good chelsea is when nkunku comes backs.
In his first season he had to deal with a legend of the game having a bday fit whilst trying to stamp his authority and philosophy on the squad - not to mention the whole MG thing and just how poor the squad was.
this transfer window, I don’t think he got the top targets he wanted, apart from Onana. Even then, two of the main ones didn’t come in until the end of the transfer window and only one of them has managed to play 20 minutes.
he’s a same good coach and manager - we need to trust him and get rid of at least 5 more dead woods and get who he actually wants to play how he wants.
this transfer window, I don’t think he got the top targets he wanted, apart from Onana. Even then, two of the main ones didn’t come in until the end of the transfer window and only one of them has managed to play 20 minutes.
he’s a same good coach and manager - we need to trust him and get rid of at least 5 more dead woods and get who he actually wants to play how he wants.
Mount purchase being stupid, that is far too early to say. Too many people have it in for him, and now ETH as a result, when we haven't yet really seen him play. It's irrational.
Fully back him. It's what's happening all around him we should be pissed about. The Mount transfer does feel completely unnecessary though.
I'll give him at least two more seasons. He may not be Guardiola or Klopp level (yet) but he's miles better than what we previously had. Let him build his own team. He's still got a lot of dross to get rid of. Just fecking keep him in check re transfers. Don't follow every daft idea he has. (Mount)
I’m actually quite surprised at the negativity towards ETH. It was easy to be negative to Jose when the tide turned because he was a cnut. It was easy with Ole because he was so obviously out of his depth.
EtH had a decent first season, seems a pretty likeable and competent manager, but the sway of opinion has gone against him arguably even quicker….after losing away at Spurs and Arsenal.
I know we have borderline psychotic recency bias in general, but the about turn on him has still been eyebrow-raising
EtH had a decent first season, seems a pretty likeable and competent manager, but the sway of opinion has gone against him arguably even quicker….after losing away at Spurs and Arsenal.
I know we have borderline psychotic recency bias in general, but the about turn on him has still been eyebrow-raising
This is how I’m feeling at the moment. Sunday my flight was delayed so it meant I missed the game which usually I’d have been gutted about but I wasn’t really arsed.
Im a Poch fan too, but would have been happy with either him or EtH as the appointment. I think there would be a thread similar to this one on the Caf had we appointed Poch, with lots of people criticising him and others saying how wonderful EtH is and we ballsed up the appointment.
Hindsight…
I agree broadly although I don't know if expect us to dominate but to at least be evenly matched this season with most of those teams. I don't understand how this kind of thread has been made so quickly, it's been a bad start but there are a huge amount of external issues causing the clubs problems right now and, frankly, I don't think any teams look that great bar City so far this year. I think Poch is a good coach, always thought it was strange we didn't go for him when he was interested in coming here but I don't think he is as good as you believe - you can't really compare this early because teams haven't played other teams yet, the only team United and Chelsea have both faced is Forest at Home and United played better even ignoring the result.
| Possession | Shots | Shots on Target | Corners | xG | xG (Forest) | |
| United | 66 | 18 | 9 | 11 | 3.03 | 0.96 |
| Chelsea | 76 | 21 | 2 | 8 | 2.28 | 1.15 |
Work to be done for both managers.
Yeah, giving him three years seem reasonable although it would heavily depend on where we are on the second (this) season.
All managers will struggle under these owners. This was not what he was sold we are in a shambolic state.
I 100% wanted him and I think he's the best manager we've recruited since Sir Alex retired. I don't feel as strongly about him as I did when he first came in, though. Our overall performances are not that great. I don't see progress in that regard. I thought things would have improved more by now. The thrashings we've experienced and the away record against the top half is very worrying. This may change this season if/when we integrate Amrabat and Hojlund and having Onana in goal. I would still give him this season and see how things improve with our new players. He also did win us our first trophy in 6 years. With past managers, I'm sure we would have lost to Newcastle in the final. He has also had a tonne of bullshit to deal with since becoming manager. Ronaldo, Maguire, Greenwood, Sancho, and Antony.
If we move into next season and it's more of the same, I would probably look at replacing yet another manager. It shouldn't take 3+ years to start to see a proper change in how we control games. A big chunk of this team are players that he has signed or given new contracts to. This is his squad and he has to take responsibility for how the team performs. I want to see much better than what we've been seeing. I do realise that he is hamstrung by the Glazers and other important background staff. Still need to see better with what has been spent.
If we move into next season and it's more of the same, I would probably look at replacing yet another manager. It shouldn't take 3+ years to start to see a proper change in how we control games. A big chunk of this team are players that he has signed or given new contracts to. This is his squad and he has to take responsibility for how the team performs. I want to see much better than what we've been seeing. I do realise that he is hamstrung by the Glazers and other important background staff. Still need to see better with what has been spent.
If any manager can excel here it's him. He hasn't been backed as needed though. Weghorst, Evans, loan deal for Amrabat, still giving minutes to maguire, martial etc. This is top half of the table stuff, if even. City just won a treble and spent more than us this summer.
I’m still 100% on board. He’s bought the right players with the money he had.
Shame about all the injuries but eventually they will all be back. Then there will be another 10 games before the whole thing really clicks and then we’re going to start winning like a machine.
Shame about all the injuries but eventually they will all be back. Then there will be another 10 games before the whole thing really clicks and then we’re going to start winning like a machine.
100%
Premature to start talking about sacking or mistrusting Ten Hag. We have had a bad start of the season, but at least in glimpses we've seen good football, and frankly, we have been a bit unfortunate is games. Way too early to conclude this is going to be a bad season, it can turns quickly around. We can complain about the transfers, but two of his most exiting signings, Høilund and Amrabat, we havn't even seen yet. And there were some positive performances in the Arsenal game, Eriksen springing first to mind. Maybe the Danes will safe it for Ten Hag.