I think Ineos will want the same kind of attacking, play-out-from-the-back, high-press football that all the top teams play now and will try to get a coach in line with those principles. After Brailsford did an audit at Nice last year to try and fix the problems there, they appointed a new Director of Football and appointed Francesco Farioli as manager on the explicit premise that he would help them play dominant possession oriented football (as per the DoF). So there's no way they settle for counter attacking football or a pragmatic coach like Conte or Allegri.
With that in mind, and also given that ten Hag will almost certainly get sacked (to start the Ineos era with a clean slate if not for any other reason), I think the next manager will either be De Zerbi or Nagelsmann (if Postecoglou were still at Celtic, he would be in the frame too, IMO). Nagelsmann because he is easy to get (his Germany contract ends after the Euros in the summer), is young and comes with a big reputation (Bayern paid 20m to get him from Leipzig, his failure there notwithstanding) for playing exactly the kind of dominant football Ineos will want. De Zerbi because he's also young, has shown he can instill that dominant playing style in the PL with Brighton (and remember, he also got Sassuolo playing the exact same style and scoring loads so it's not just Brighton having the players for this style) and he's been widely reported to be admired within the City Football Group as a potential Pep replacement, and given Ineos have poached Berrada from City, it's easy to see why they might go for him. Plus, I should point out that their choice at Nice - Farioli - used to be a aprt of De Zerbi's coaching staff, so the admiration for De Zerbi clearly goes beyond just Berrada and the City Football Group. I mention Ange Postecoglou because he also has previous links to the City Football Group, Berrada was Head of Football Operations there so must be already familiar with him. But he's now at Spurs and there's no way Levy lets him join United (and I don't think he would even want to - he seems the loyal sort and won't leave Spurs for a rival).
I was an adamant supporter of appointing Ten Hag because I hoped he would instill the Ajax playing style at United. And given how easy on the eye his Ajax side were, it seemed more enticing to me than Pochettino. But at United, he's shown himself to be rather pragmatic. Last season, his pragmatism proved to be a major boon as we broke a 5-season trophy drought (before Klopp won the CL in 2019, Liverpool had not won anything since 2012 and the last trophy before that was 2006. Trophy droughts have a way off snowballing very quickly - just ask Spurs and Arsenal - and it was important to put paid to that IMO), got to the FA cup final, the Europa League quarters (this is my only complaint from his first season, we were the best team in the tournament and the collapse against Sevilla was incredibly disappointing - the first half at Old Trafford was a bloodbath and they were lucky to be only 2 down at half time. If you'd told me then that United would lose this tie 5-2 I'd have laughed in your face) and our 2nd highest points total since Sir Alex - only Mourinho's 81 points in 2017/18 was higher and considering De Gea had a monster season, that tally rather flattered the team IMO. Contrary to what many on here will say, I genuinely think last season was far and away our best in the post-Fergie years and the only one that looked even remotely sustainable (the year Ole finished 2nd was built on a string of second half comebacks away from home, which wasn't really sustainable IMO).
But all of that makes this season even more disappointing. And while I don't want to rewrite ten Hag's entire tenure based on this season (as I said, I think his first season went about as well as anyone could reasonably hope), I think the failure to build on last season and instill an identifiable playing style should cost him his job. At least at United, Ten Hag's approach has been too reliant on individuals. When Dalot is fit, he inverts into midfield but when Wan Bissaka is playing at RB, he gets pushed up high and wide; when Antony plays RW, he comes inside a lot to receive the ball whereas Garnacho stays wide; when Mainoo and Casemiro play in midfield, both of them stay relatively deep in midfield during build up, but take one of them out and put in McTominay and he plays basically as a second striker. We don't have a coherent playing style/patterns of play because Ten Hag asks the team to do radically different things from game to game based on the XI on the pitch. Now you might defend Ten Hag on this and say he's not been able to do the same things consistently because of all the injuries, and he asks the replacements to do radically different things because they are radically different players and that speaks to how incoherently the squad has been built and that's fair, but Spurs managed to dominate our midfield at Old Trafford with their Hojbjerg and Skipp despite the first choice (Bentancur and Bissouma) being out and that should tell you the power of dogmatism in terms of playing style - even lesser players are able to execute the system because the team does the same things every week and hence, they learn the system just by repetition and are able to deputize well.
To rebuild the team, we need a similarly dogmatic coach as Postecoglou and so, I think De Zerbi and Nagelsmann may both be good options even if I have my doubts about both. Nagelsmann is a good option in that he comes with more pedigree - he arguably comes with more pedigree than Ten Hag even, and Bayern picked him even though they had to pay a pretty penny to get him so they must think highly of his ability - and despite relative failure at Bayern (still won the league in his first season, was top of the league in his second season and on an 8 game winning streak in the Champions League when he got sacked, exit to Lazio in his first season is a disappointment still), he overperformed wildly at Hoffenheim getting them to back to back top 4 finished having taken over with them in the relegation zone. Also did relatively well at RB Leipzig - got them to a CL semifinal (though that has an asterisk over it given it was a COVID single leg knockout CL), got them to a cup final (where they lost comfortably to Dortmund, so another asterisk but it is still respectable) and finished third in his first season and second in his second season. I think his Bayern team were quite underwhelming his entire tenure but they did score by the bucket loads.
For anyone looking for tactical breakdown, here's a video that goes into detail about his methods. In short, he favours a possession oriented style and likes to build centrally by exploiting spaces between the opposition midfield through quick one-touch play (in contrast to Guardiola who will ask his wide players to stay as wide as possible during build up to stretch the opposition backline, Nagelsmann positions his players to stretch the opposition midfield), and plays a compact midfield so that even if possession is lost while playing through the middle, having bodies there allows him to win possession back quickly via coordinated pressing to sustain attacks. The video also goes into detail about how Nagelsmann altered his methods at Bayern due to the demands of his players (he also reportedly had a falling out with Lewandowski who did not take kindly to this preppy, arrogant kid telling him how to position himself in the box to get on the end of chances), so that might go some way towards explaining his failures at Bayern. We have to hope that the Bayern thing really is an exception in his trajectory caused by tensions between him and the senior players and management and that in a (hopefully) better environment at United, he will shine.
I should also point out that he will probably be in high demand this summer with Liverpool (they are probably a shoe-in for him if Alonso stays at Leverkusen), Barcelona, Bayern (the people who fired him have all left) and probably Chelsea (he rejected them after Potter but may be up for it now) all looking for a new coach. So, if we do deem him a good fit, we'll probably have to act quickly.
Yeah, I think he will probably be the first choice given his admiration within the City setup and as stated, Ineos appointed one of his former staff as manager at Nice, so the admiration is clearly shared there as well. Plus, being Premier League proven also probably helps his case. I would also take De Zerbi because he is a known footballing dogmatist. He has this very particular style that he is adamant is the best way not just to win football matches, but also to get the fans onboard and excited as well as for the development of the players (his theory goes, if you consistently play through the opposition press using short, quick passes, it makes the player feel better about themselves and that confidence is infectious in terms of growth). Plus, if you've seen Kevin Prince Boateng's interview on Rio's podcast, he's an absolute nutter who is obsessed with football and will routinely stop training to tell players they are a few inches off position to play his style correctly. Adam Lallana confirmed this in an interview said that he is the most hands on, detail oriented manager he has ever worked with and will often pause training and participate in training himself to show the players how to position themselves and the correct body shape to receive the ball. And the football his teams play is certainly a testament to his ability as a teacher and coach. If we appoint him, I don't think anyone would be able to accuse us of lacking patterns of play or a defined playing style. Here he is explaining his build up play and philosophy -
But the problem with De Zerbi is also that he is completely dogmatic and won't change even if results are bad.
As you say, his teams cannot defend for shit. And this isn't just true at Brighton this season (where to be fair, they have had serious injury issues and have been playing European football for the first time in their history and we've seen loads of smaller teams struggle to cope with the increased workload), even his Sassuolo teams conceded tons of chances and would, like Brighton this season, often go on these runs of 15-20 games of poor results. In fact, as I learned from The Athletic's James Horncastle this week on a podcast, De Zerbi is at the centre of something of a culture war in Italy where the most hipster section of the public think that Italian football needs to shed its old ways and follow along with De Zerbi's tactics since they are more in line with the cutting edge in the game, whereas the older folk like Fabio Capello do the "if he's so great how come he's never won anything?" routine.
There's also the issue that De Zerbi plays the same man-to-man pressing/defending system that so many have criticized Ten Hag for this season. Now obviously, Brighton also play the high line to go with that system and so, don't leave oceans of space in midfield like we do (and so, don't concede 20 shots a game like we do). But still, they do have the issue where clever teams can manipulate the man-to-man system and create a lot of space in the middle of the park.
De Zerbi for his own part also seems to be more interested in style than trophies -
https://www.skysports.com/watch/vid...n-trophies-my-target-is-to-enjoy-and-be-happy
I think De Zerbi would be a great option to implement a style and then, we have to hope that with a bigger budget and better players, his style will lead to success to go with the fun style of football.
Yeah, most of the choices for us seem to have question marks over them. But I don't think sure fire options are often available. Liverpool got lucky with Klopp but City did not - they planned systematically to get Pep. They made the decision early that they wanted Pep and put Begiristain/Soriano in place in 2012 to create the system in anticipation of Pep's arrival. As you know, Pep was not available in 2012 and went to Bayern in 2013 after a year sabbatical. So Soriano/Begiristain simply built the structure and appointed a coach with the same possession principles in Pellegrini to help build the team for Pep. We should follow suit. Hire whoever we think most likely to implement the style we want and keep an eye out for the next Pep/Klopp, because you never know when they might emerge. A year ago, no one would have had Xabi Alonso down as being one of the world's elite coaches and now, the biggest clubs in the world are fighting for his signature. If we have the right structures in place, we will get our chance so long as we keep our eyes peeled.
