He's managing in a Championship level league were Ajax are among the richest of the lot. Its very difficult to gaige how he performs under pressure, how teams develop and the tactical influence on his team on that particular level. I mean with due respect, we're talking of a league were an ancient LVG and Mclaren could pop in, manage a random side, and win the league title with it.
There is little to form an opinion about the guy on?
- He has been at Ajax for 3.5 seasons. In the season he came halfway Ajax did not play European football at all as we failed to qualify for the Europe League. From there on he went on to become the #10 club in Europa in UEFA Coefficients since his first full season. He went on to survive in Europa over the winterbreak three times in a row (of which one Champions League semi final), which was extremely rare for Ajax in the decade before. He did so in a way which was widely praised across Europe in terms of playing style.
- On pressure, for Ajax.. Television money is absolutly shit, about 10 million euro's per year. Champions League is extremely important for Ajax in terms of money (especially since the Covid outbreak and supporters werent allowed in the stadium anymore). In his first year at Ajax he had to qualify in July/August three qualifying rounds to get in the Champions League, which he did. In his second year he again had to survive three qualifying rounds in the Champions League even though we were Dutch champions the league before (because our league is só shit the Champions had to qualify), and he survived again.
- Consider also that he basically needs to form/build his team from scratch every year (this season actually is an exception as all our important players stayed put), because every year we lose our key players/starters.
Since he came we lost Kluivert, Frenkie de Jong, De Ligt, Ziyech, Donny, Veltman, Schone, Dest, Dest, (Onana to some extent), Huntelaar, Dolberg which we all players who were regular starters at least, and some key players).
- Besides this, consider that he won áll domestic prizes since his first full season in NL and there hasnt been a single player so far who he fell out of grace with or who talked badly about him.
So please note this IS NOT an argument to make Erik Ten Hag United manager, this IS an argument that I think its absolutely ludacris to state there isnt enough information out there to form a solid opinion about the manager Erik ten Hag. There is defintely a lot of information to analyze him and come with some real arguments whether you would want him with United or not in stead of: He is Dutch and he comes from a Mickey Mouse league so he not suitable by default.