Life after ETH — the next United manager

[Teja]

Point should be to hire a proper training ground coach. Preferably one whose style fits our existing squad - we have players who are good playing short passing sequences, a back 4 + keeper who are good playing it out from the back, and attackers (Bruno, Rashford, Garnacho) who should be lethal in transition. Doing the De Zerbi type baiting the opposition press and playing through them with synchronized short passing to create transitions should be a very workable system for this group. And luckily, McKenna, Hurzeler, Hoeness, Inzaghi, Iraola and even Arne Slot (obviously unavailable to us) do some version of the patient at the back, direct in attack style.

Interestingly, there was a discussion on Twitter about this exact style of play taking shape more and more in the premier league. The Pep version of football that people have come to accept over the past decade was that a top team needs to defend with the ball and ball retention is generally something to aim for. But this is only true if there is a significant gulf in quality between the top sides and the bottom sides and that's not the case in the PL.







I think it's a good trend to pay attention to when hiring the next coach and I agree with your take that the De Zerbi style bait and bypass press is a good fit for these players.

 

[Rolaholic]

Do we have a list of candidates who haven't turned us down over the last 6 months?

Tbf to Alonso, he also turned down Bayern but that makes about all my top candidates who've either turned us down or taken other jobs.

The only one left of my preferred optipns that I don't know whether we actually approached him or not is Amorim and he turned down Liverpool over the summer so I figure the answer would be the similar if we did/have approached him.

 

[Teja]

Do we have a list of candidates who haven't turned us down over the last 6 months?

At least they talked to all the right people and seem to know what's up. I was briefly worried about the Southgate links no matter how flimsy they were.

 

[sullydnl]

There was never really any chance of Alonso joining us, but if you're a top club looking for a manager you have to take a shot at convincing him I suppose.

Will be interesting to see who we ultimately end up with, because there really is no obvious choice.

 

[croadyman]

Do we have a list of candidates who haven't turned us down over the last 6 months?

Tbf to Alonso, he also turned down Bayern but that makes about all my top candidates who've either turned us down or taken other jobs.

The only one left of my preferred optipns that I don't know whether we actually approached him or not is Amorim and he turned down Liverpool over the summer so I figure the answer would be the similar if we did/have approached him.

Yeah it's certainly not a good look for the club to keep being turned down by managers

 

[Who's Kissing Cameras?]

With Tuchel out of the picture hopefully Iraola can be in the frame if Erik can't obtain our objectives this season (ie trophy or CL football).

So would you be in favour to keep Erik this season if we came 10th but won the League Cup?

Interested to hear your POV on this.

 

[Pscholes18]

Afraid of having to build a cohesive team than walking into a ready made scenario like Madrid. He will end up back there when Carlo is done

This.

 

[DarkLord1984]

Do we have a list of candidates who haven't turned us down over the last 6 months?

At least this shows that we are being proactive and talking to other managers. I've seen so many posts on here slagging off INEOS and the new upper management team because EtH is still here - as if they think they are happy with how it's going and are confident he's doing a good job. They're clearly not happy and are looking elsewhere.

I honestly believe the only reason EtH is still in a job is because the right candidate isn't available right now. The upper management are just waiting on the right timing to get rid of him.

 

[Pscholes18]

Ahem...



Get on the Seb Hoeness train, comrade. His team are really good at quick, short passes, even against Real Madrid in the Champions League -



Stuttgart did lose this game 3-1 though. But still. They're quite fun to watch. And had Real on the ropes in the first half. It just turns out having your entire team parked in the oposition half while you're outplaying them is not always a good strategy if the other team has Mbappe, Vinicius and Rodrygo as a front 3.

But in possession, they're one of the best attacking sides in Europe this season -



But they're quite high risk out of possession, though.



But have the most intense pressing in the Bundesliga.

We don't have the players for that style of play, otherwise would be watching ETH Ajax ball on a weekly basis.

 

[Squeaky_Bum_Time]

My hunch is that we will go for a manager who is unemployed right now. Clearly we are being financially prudent and if it continues to go south under ETH, we're going to have to pay out quite a bit to get rid, and we won't want to also pay a club to release their manager.

With that in mind, these are the unemployed options:

• Massimiliano Allegri
• Graham Potter
• Ruud van Nistelrooy (employed but by us)
• Xavi
• Gareth Southgate

I have to say, not that inspiring. My guess is that if these are the options, we would it probably give it Ruud till the end of the season, and see if a manager we want frees up by then.

 

[daba]

So would you be in favour to keep Erik this season if we came 10th but won the League Cup?

Interested to hear your POV on this.

Of course. Guaranteed Europe next year (which isn’t looking likely at this stage of the season), another trophy in the cabinet, stopping likely one of our closest rivals winning another trophy.

If the question however is 10th + league cup but we stick with ETH going into next season too then that’s a tougher question. Probably not. Would get him out, let the new manager have a “reset” season with no Europe, more time on the grass drilling a new system, more rest, less injuries, trim more deadwood, leaner squad, and really focus on league performance. We’ve seen teams like Chelsea have such seasons in the past and instantly bounce back to top 4 / challenging again.

 

[ayushreddevil9]

I wouldn’t even say the standards are in the gutter. They are well below that level when fans suggest that they would take 10th and a trophy.