What do Julian Nagelsmann, Thomas Tuchel, Roberto De Zerbi, Ruben Amorim, Graham Potter, Tiago Motta, Simone Inzaghi, Thomas Frank, Zinedine Zidane and Gareth Southgate all have in common? Well, in the past fortnight all 10 of them have been linked with Manchester United manager’s job, whilst the current occupant is still in it.
By contrast Liverpool, Barcelona and Bayern Munich, all of whom are confirmed to have a managerial vacancy to fill have been linked with a total of five names between them. That’s just a small taste of what Erik ten Hag has had and is having to, deal with. But this only scratches the surface.
My colleague Brian Murphy recently compiled an extensive list of just some of the issues Ten Hag has had to deal with in his almost two years in the job. Many of them are, simply put issues that at any competently run football club, the manager would not have to deal with, someone above him would him would have that responsibility. But at United it’s all fallen on Ten Hag and its an added distraction he could well do without. In the new structure being constructed by Jim Radcliffe such things will be taken off the shoulders of the manager. Ten Hag deserves the chance to work in that environment.
Let’s not forget that this is a manager who led us to a trophy and a cup final last season and could have won the Europa League but for a David de Gea disaster class, he also has the highest win percentage of any United manager in their first 100 games with 61%. How soon we forget. Only the most delusional United fan would claim that this season has been good but let’s look at the circumstances. Only three outfield players,Diogo Dalot, Bruno Fernandes and Alejandro Garnacho, have been available for every game this season. That’s a frankly incredible rate of injuries. Manchester City lost Rodri for three games this season, they lost all three.
Ten Hag has been shorn of several key players for long periods of time. But let’s take this further because this lies at the heart of everything being levelled at the Dutchman.
One of the first criticisms of Ten Hag this season has been the lack of a style of play. The likes of Roberto De Zerbi and Ange Postecoglu are held up as examples. Brighton have won five of their last 15 league matches and conceded four goals to Luton and three to Fulham. Postecoglu is praised to sicking to his principles even when shorn of several players. But let’s delve a little deeper.
In that period Spurs lost four out of five matches and drew the other. Did anyone ask if his job was under threat? Would anyone ask if Ten Hag’s job was under threat after a run like that? Of course they would, we’re already seeing people being given his job. We’d see reports about his methods being questioned, we’d have deep dives into why it all went wrong. Similarly, Spurs are a club with a proper structure, you can replace most of their players with one of a similar profile. If you’re playing Scott McTominay in midfield you have to play a different way then you would if you were playing Kobbie Mainoo, because they’re totally different types of player. Would United have gotten a result against City if Martinez , Shaw and Hojlund were available? I don’t know, but we’d definitely have been more competitive with Martinez’s line breaking ability, Shaw’s ball carrying ability and Hojlund’s finishing and hold up play available. It’s hard to control games or play on the transition when you don’t have players capable of keeping the ball or making good decisions. Give Ten Hag the right profile of player, then judge him.
Which brings me to my next point. Ten Hag’s record in the transfer market has been called into question. Antony is certainly a very large blot on his copy book but let’s take his other signings. No one really knows what’s happening with Tyrell Malacia right now but last season he was bought for a reasonable fee to be a backup left back and he did the job well. Before the broken foot and then the knee injury Lisandro Martinez was one of the most popular players amongst supporters and remains our best defender. Casemiro remains a question mark due to his age, wage and contract length and the fact that we spent all that summer chasing a certain Dutchman at Barcelona. People can say Ten Hag still approved the singing but let’s not forget that Jose Mourinho was told he could have Fred or no one, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer was told it was Donny van de Beek or no one. If Ten Hag was told it was Casemiro or no one would you really expect him to say no? This season he’s featured less but given he was signed for free and arguably remains our best player in possession it’s not really a bad call to sign Christian Eriksen.
This summer saw the arrival of five players. Andre Onana, Altay Bayandair, Johnny Evans, Mason Mount and Rasmus Hojlund. Onana started slowly and made some high profile errors, especially in the Champions League and has faced criticism because he was signed for his ability on the ball, which he hasn’t fully showcased. But Onana, coming into a new league and a new country has had to play with 21 different back fours in 27 league games and only a handful with Martinez, the best man we have to utilise that on the ball ability. It’s going to be hard for any keeper to settle properly in those circumstances when you rely on developing an understanding with your back four, something Onana simply hasn’t been able to do, Bayandir was signed merely as backup, though maybe he could have been used more in cup games. Evans was invited to train with United to maintain fitness whilst he looked for an new club, only to get an offer from United because Ten Hag wasn’t given money to sign a defender. The jury is out on Mount because injury means he’s barley played. We may have overpaid for Hojlund but is anyone questioning it now? Every other signing has been a loan signing to try and plug holes in the squad caused by years of mismanagement.
It seems to me that Ten Hag is having to juggle simultaneous contradictory expectations. He’s expected to put in place a style and structure (and by the way, watch the younger age groups if you want to see what it is) and build for the long term but at the same time, lord help him if so much as draws a game. He’s expected to deliver short term results to keep his job (and keep the vultures at bay) but carry out a rebuild whilst doing it. There are questions for Ten Hag to answer, not least about why United are so easy to play through, but it’s clear that any manager at United pre Jim Radcliffe was set up to fail (Radcliffe himself said a much). How about we give this one a chance to succeed before we write him off.
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Yes I think it would be wise to keep him ,
Where would we be if we have had injury free season like last season?. Ten hag is the right man but with poor quality players
EtH is a classic case of ‘right place, wrong time’.
The club has made some terrible, knee-jerk decisions when it comes to Managers in recent seasons (sacking Ole?). I pray we’ve moved on from that sort of mentality. EtH is a world class Manager and the (part) owners need to create an environment in which world class football can thrive. One of Erik’s great strengths is his ability to develop academy players into first teamers. Isn’t this the philosophy that’s at the very heart of Man Utd? He is also very adept at ‘cutting his cloth’ – an essential skill when we’re still a couple of seasons away from building proper squad depth. He’s shown his ability to handle an absolute Glazer driven shit-show. He deserves the opportunity to show us what he can do with a better set up behind him.
And finally…Second seasons are notoriously tricky in the PL (De Zerbi) – and Postecoglu will have a tough old time in 2024/25.
i genuinely wonder how someone who watches football can defend ETH. I would write the many many reasons why this guy needs to be sacked but the guy at this stage is basicallly a joke, with youtubers picking holes in his so-called tactics and ESPN just constantly and correctly calling ETH delusional.
There is no way he will keep his job, the football is dire and the results are worse – a serious achievement.
Ratcliffe has already shown he is ambitious, and even more importantly he has hinted he wants a football style similar to guardiola. ETH is a goner.
at strettynews you all bigged up ole right to the end – he hasn’t had a job in football since, maybe take a step back and analyse if indeed your football analysis is balanced and objective.
ETH will have to rebuild his reputation, it is severely damaged – i expect him to go back to eredivisie or bundesliga. maybe he is a good coach, i don’t think so, i actually think he is a particularly bad one, but the proof is in the pudding. look where klopp goes, and look where ETH goes.
also the results of de zerbi & postecoglu are irrelevant when talking about a style, they play attractive forward thinking football with a worse squad, and both are doing better than united this season anyway, and both are far better rated than ETH also.
The difficult second season is a well known phenomenon. You’ll see that next season with Postecoglu – does that mean Spurs should sack him? They’d be fools if they did.
Fun facts for the day…
Utd have played 23 different back four line ups this season. The most established line up (Dalot, Varane, Evans, AWB) have started together four times all season. The back four recognised as our ‘strongest’ (Dalot, Martinez, Varane, Shaw) have started just one game together all season.
Man Utd have ten players currently out due to injury – several of them key to Erik’s ‘style of play’ – throw in a keeper and we’ve got a decent starting 11 of damaged players 😅 And those levels of injury have dogged us all season.
Going into the recent derby, City had just one injury, and yet a lot of people have been calling for Erik’s head on a plate after what was a spirited 3-1 defeat. So frustrating. Erik properly foxed Pep with his tactical approach – sure, Pep figured it out, but he was properly frustrated for most of the first half. I don’t know what more people could realistically expect from the resources available this season.
We can agree to disagree, but one thing is for sure, the FA cup tie against Liverpool will be massive in determining Erik’s future.
Come on Utd!!!!
(Loving the podcast btw 😃)
thanks for the response dunk – there are quite a few fun (funny?!) facts about how united have conceded more shots than every team except like sheff utd, and got bossed by luton, burnley etc. statistically united should be far far lower and performance wise also.
tbf maybe thats a sign of a winning manager but i don’t think so.
lets see how the football world see if ETH could have done any better – when he is relieved of his duties and he ends up at stuttgart or back at ajax, then we will see that the football world doesnt think he did such a great job – a hypothetical but lets see, i’m sure it will pan out in such a way.
I want man utd to be successful and to play good football – the latter will have to come before the former i’m afraid and so i hope ETH is relieved of his duties at seasons end.
enjoy the game anyhow mate and thanks again!
Well Dave – I’m not expecting you to change your mind on the strength of one win…but what a win, eh?😋
Hope you enjoyed.
Happy St Patrick’s day to one and all ☘️🇨🇮