As things stand we need to changer something. In my opinion Ten Hag would be the perfect replacement for Ole, and here's a couple of reasons why:
He plays the 4-2-3-1 formation that transitions to a 4-3-3 during attack
Our players are used to both of these formations. Last thing we want is someone coming in mid season and flopping because they don't have the necessary players to fit their desired formation. With Ten Hag we won't have such an issue as he plays the formations mentioned above.
We have the perfect players for his formation
Pogba can play the De Jong role perfectly. He can drop deep to pick up the ball and use his deadly short and long range passing to start attacks.
He likes to play with 2 ball playing CBs. One that pushes up into midfield and one that covers. Well, we have 3 really good ball playing CBs in Varane, Maguire and Lindelof. So Maguire can push up while one of the other 2 can sweep the lines.
He likes to play with an AM that drops between the lines and makes runs of the shoulder of the CF. He used to play Van den Beek in this role at Ajax, but we also have Bruno who can play this role.
He plays with 2 wide forwards. One that cuts inside with pace and the other who acts sort of like a playmaker from the wing. For the cutting inside we have Rashford and Greenwood. Sancho can play the playmaker role.
He has a well defined system or patterns of play if you will that will help a lot of our players
Our squad relies too much on individual brilliance to gain a result. As a result we have a lot of players who look absolutely clueless in possession while others are constantly underperforming. The explanation is that those players are garbage or flops, but in my book some players need more guidance then others.
It's one of the first things that Ten Hag will change. I expect Sancho, Mctominay, Fred, Shaw to improve massively under him. Also he might benefit Bruno, as of right now he looks erratic and seems to try too hard. A manager that is going to clearly define what he has to do and what he should stop doing might do him a world of good.
He is a young and up and coming manager that technically adaptable
We've never had one of these. So far our managers(bar Ole) have been proven candidates. The only thing they've proven is that they're past it. For once it would be refreshing to see a manager that is on an upward trajectory.
One of the things that remained constant during his time at Ajax is that he would lose his key players. As a result he would have to adapt and change for his system to work. For example: In his 2018-2019 Ajax side, the fullback would always push up. Right now though because they're not as lethal in attack they actually drop in front of the CBs while the CMs push up. So this might actually work for someone like Wan Bissaka.
Has continental experience
A lot of the grief with Dutch managers run away with the Eredevise only to flop in Europe. Ten Hag is the exception. Everyone remembers his 2018-2019 run with Ajax where he lost the semi-final literally with the last kick of the game. I'm fairly certain that is he progressed to the final Ajax would have won it instead of the dippers.
As things stand Ajax is first in it's CL group level on points with Borussia Dortmund. So far they hammered Sporting 5-1 in Portugal and dispatched Besiktas with a 2-0 win. His next 2 matches are against Marco Rose, another up and coming manager we should be looking at. Will be interesting to see how he fares in those 2 matches. The battle of the hipster managers if you will
That being said would you consider him as the next manager?
@KirkDuyt @AjaxCunian and everyone who watches Eredevise on a regular basis. How do you think he will fare at United?
