Manchester United fans are largely expecting to see communication from club chiefs in the coming days regarding the future of Erik ten Hag.
Should he last until Thursday evening and sustain defeat to Leicester City in the Carabao Cup, INEOS will surely have no choice but to part ways.
Yesterday’s defeat at the London Stadium has left the Red Devils 14th-placed in the table, sandwiched between the Foxes (15th) and West Ham United (13th).
Of course, the manner of the loss – a dubious penalty kick given deep into injury time – has left Ten Hag and his men feeling hard done by, which they’re well within their rights to. However, you have to question why a side who are off the back of spending another £200 million+ in the summer can’t comfortably overturn a floundering, out-of-form Irons outfit.
Diogo Dalot has faced widespread criticism during the clash for his remarkable open-goal miss in the first half and has since only taken further stick, given that United left London with zero points. His chance was perhaps harder than it was to blaze over than it was to slot home, yet the scoreline stayed tied until Crysencio Summerville’s opener in the 74th minute.
Ten Hag: Fans can’t heap all blame on Dalot
Post-match, Ten Hag rallied behind the fullback, instead cherry-picking a quartet of players who were also at fault for not converting their chances across the 90-minute affair.
“We created so many chances and played so much good football, especially in the first half,” the manager told the press, as cited by The Mirror.
“Six or seven 100 per cent chances we should have scored. But when we don’t score, we have to stay calm. All over, I don’t have so many criticisms about my team – other than not scoring.
“It’s not fair to pick one player (Dalot) out. I can also say [Alejandro] Garnacho twice, [Rasmus] Hojlund one time, [Marcus] Rashford, [and] Bruno [Fernandes]. So many were missing chances.”
Hag moaning we missed loads of goal scoring attemps, but he is to blame for not buying an out and out striker.
The penalty was seriously wrong. I think Michael Oliver is …. well …. I daren’t say for legal reasons.
Despite that, this was Man Utd’s game to lose but lose we did. While both this season and last the players must shoulder a significant portion of responsibility for underperforming, IMHO, there is also significant underperformance in coaching and management. Whilst it will be (because I think it’s a foregone conclusion) somewhat unfair to hold Ten Hag solely accountable for underperformance to date, the single most effective change that the Man Utd board can now make is to replace the manager. Fundamentally, football is a results-driven business. (Don’t worry about Ten Hag – he’ll be handsomely compensated).
The obvious question is: who will be able to pull Man Utd’s first team together and lift their performance for the remainder of the season? Is there anyone available who can do that? It’s a tough decision for the board.
Well, there goes another ‘must-win’ match which we contrive to lose. I haven’t changed my long-held opinion that ETH isn’t the Manager for us, but this result is in no way down to him. Appalling misses and a Citeh-supporting Ref in charge of VAR ( so sue me ) – how would ETH, or any other Manager, plan for that? Just be thankful Garnacho’s opening goal in the Cup Final didn’t fall to Dalot.
But we seriously need a ruthless chance-taker in front of goal; this must be addressed in January regardless of who the Manager may be by then.
Well, Ten Hag is SACKED according to Ornstein. Que sera, sera.
It’s a shame we can’t sack a bunch of players, too, in order to be completely fair. Can we at least dock their pay?