At the time of writing this I am not in favor of sacking Ten Hag, just to make that clear. I just want to jot down the numbers so that we have something concrete to compare the situation with. I will update this thread until we are past round 12 (when Ole got sacked).
Ten Hag currently (After 7 PL rounds):
- 9 points
- Goal difference: -4 (7/11)
- League position: 10
- Points behind top four: 7
Ole after 7 rounds:
- 14 points
- Goal difference: +8 (14/6)
- League position: 4
Ole at the time he got sacked (Round 12):
- 17 points
- Goal difference: -1 (20/21)
- League position: 8
- Points behind top four: 6
(Holy shit Ole's collapse was brutal)
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Ten Hag needs 8 points in the next 5 games to match Ole's collapse. We got Brentford, Sheffield United, City, Fulham and Luton next so he should be able to pull this off even with poor performances.
Results will always dictate how long a head coach/manager stays in the job. But we also have to take into consideration the team ten Hag inherited from the previous two managers. And that team was not suited to playing a more proactive brand of football where it's a requirement to have the technical ability in possession against the opponent's press, physical and athletic ability to defend larger spaces which would then allow the team to press from the front more effectively. Solskjær in his first summer transfer window made two massive mistakes after saying he wanted to play a high line like Jurgen in a press conference.
And after signing both Maguire and Wan Bissaka he created a problem for himself where Wan Bissaka was weak going forward and Maguire had a problem in confined spaces and wasnt strong at defending large spaces in defensive transition. And then on top of that he was happy to go along with Lindelof and De Gea. He'd locked himself in by signing players who just weren't suited to a more expansive game style. And if any manager or head coach makes big mistakes at CB and fullback when signing players for a high-line method, then you're in trouble and the fallback option is always a lower block method. IMO it would've been more beneficial if Solskjaer had targeted different profile of players and looked to remove De Gea from the team. But Solskjaer's mistakes benefited De Gea who could then just carry on with his shot stopping which had a detrimental effect on the development of a play style which was never going to take effect with players like Maguire, Lindelof, AWB and De Gea. Wan Bissaka can be utilised in defensive transition and he's very good at stopping opponent's in that way. But he's not a fullback that can elevate the team in a higher defensive line in possession.
Solskjaer then signs Bruno Fernandes, which again doesn't make a lot of sense due to the composition of the midfield that already existed at the club. Pogba had huge potential in possession but wasn't very good at all out of possession. So imo it would've been better to sign a deeper lying midfielder who either had high passing volume or a midfielder who could contain and manage a large space. But instead he tried to shunt Pogba into a deeper lying midfield position which contributed towards unbalancing the midfield.
But his biggest mistake was to come and that was the signing of Sancho. And Sancho wasn't a mistake because he was a bad player but rather we were said to be looking for a right winger and Sancho was never a right winger and myself and a few others argued this in the transfer forum at the time. Sancho arrives and plays on the left with Journos asking Solskjaer why he wasn't utilised on the right. Solskjaer's responds by saying Jadon prefers playing on the left. We can blame Woodward for a lot of things but he didn't force Solskjaer to spend a combined £150m on a CB and fullback that weren't suited to a more expansive game higher up the pitch. He also didn't force him to sign Sancho when it was reported that the players were asking Solskjaer to sign Grealish but Solskjaer wanted Sancho instead only to play him on the left.
Then he decided to sign Ronaldo after it was reported that his coaching staff advised him against signing Ronaldo due to his deficiencies out of possession. Solskjaer admitted that he made a mistake in signing Ronaldo. And that was Another mistake which ten Hag had to deal with.
Every club makes mistakes when signing players. But the previous two managers signed players that were were far away from being ideal for a play style that is currently dominating the top end of the EPL. And there's no such thing as a best in class DoF imo, all you have to do is sign players that fit into a particular playstyle. And just to give you a example, the DoF at City was someone who was good friends with Joan Laporta at Barcelona hence he got the DoF's role without ever having the experience in such a role. At every single club the recruitment should be led by the head scouts whilst being backed up by analysts in different sectors. At Liverpool it was Barry Hunter and Dave Fallows, at Man City it's Gary Worthington and currently at Brighton it's Sam Jewell who is the Son of former Wigan manager Paul Jewell. It's not difficult at all to sign the correct profile of player for any selected playstyle. That player or players could still fail to live upto his/their potential, but the player has to tick certain boxes as far as technical ability and physical/athletic ability is concerned imo.
And regarding ten Hag, he still has the CB, RB, holding midfielder and versatile forward positions that are still there to improve upon. And from what we know, Jose Mayorga and Simon Wells are now in-charge of recruitment and identified Hojlund as the striker signing to make. And the Hojlund signing took me by surprise because I didn't see that coming. It was a out of the box signing and a signing I really like. So I can see them doing something similar again next summer.
