Erik Ten Hag

[rickyqpr]

So what do you all think - sack or retain?
He has had two years, the gap between United and the top teams is huge now.
He has terrible injuries this season - and yet he won the FA Cup.
The players seemed to be behind him after Saturday's game.
Major talent is not performing for him - what has happened to Rashford?
30 players were either sold or loaned out this season.
Eight expensive first team squad players were loaned out (Sancho, Van De Beek, Hannibal, Pellistri, Gore, Williams, Fernandez & Greenwood).
Sancho was purchased for £85m, loaned back from whence he came, and is now said to be worth £25m.
Hard to say how much the recruitment is down to the manager, but there are some pretty huge financial losses going on at United through underperforming players - is that the fault of the manager and coaches?
Stick or twist, what do people think?

[kerrins]

All good points there Ricky but there is one issue that you have not quite specifically focused on. I live in the Greater Manchester area and I can assure you from the very start of the season that for some reason Erik Ten Hag had a huge problem with a number of "star" players sulking, objecting to the training methods and in horse racing terms being "non triers" Difficult for a manager to over come that kind of situation and build success.

Sure to compound matters the manager did make mistakes throughout the campaign and Manchester United certainly for most of the time did not perform to expectations.

If he had lost the Cup Final he was certainly a goner but now who can say?....Local talk is that Pochettino is still on the Cards to take over.

[rickyqpr]

May 28, 2024 15:56:22 GMT kerrins said:

All good points there Ricky but there is one issue that you have not quite specifically focused on. I live in the Greater Manchester area and I can assure you from the very start of the season that for some reason Erik Ten Hag had a huge problem with a number of "star" players sulking, objecting to the training methods and in horse racing terms being "non triers" Difficult for a manager to over come that kind of situation and build success.

Sure to compound matters the manager did make mistakes throughout the campaign and Manchester United certainly for most of the time did not perform to expectations.

If he had lost the Cup Final he was certainly a goner but now who can say?....Local talk is that Pochettino is still on the Cards to take over.

Yes, I have heard this from pals in the area, and some stuff about how 'distracted' Radford is.
It does seem though that the United fanbase is quite split over Ten Hag. Many pointing to the toxic culture and blaming the players and not the manager whilst others just point to the poor performances under his tenure.
But the problems at United go back further than just this manager. The poor culture has spanned several managers - of course McClaren has survived there - just like he did at QPR.
But I cannot help but compare with the situation at QPR. Until October 23, we had gone through manager after manager, with a squad full of players who when it suited them just phoned it in. We were not a top Championship squad, but we were far better than the performances and results.
Ainsworth's approach was to lower expectations to a point that we were expected to accept that the problem was that we were inferior, lucky to have players like Begovic signing, with a focus on survival. We all knew that we had to change manager, but the catalogue of changes has been huge. Director of Football, Principal Owner, Coaching Set-up , Chief Executive, plus the usual turnover of players.
But the change in attitudes, togetherness, communication, structure and performance at QPR has been radical, from a point that I did not think was possible.
Can the Manchester United situation be fixed and how deep does the cleanse need to be? 
If United bin all their players at giveaway prices, they will face a huge write off, and our old friend FFP may become an issue. 
For most clubs the answer is to change the manager, but as often said, the definition of madness is repeatedly doing the same thing and expecting a different outcome. We did that for years. 
I actually feel that at QPR, this all feels very different at last, but one wonders what the right thing would be for a club as big as United.

[kerrins]

Ricky. My own view is that the Manchester United players more so than the manager are mostly to blame for the under performance.

As you say not all agree with that.

[Lonegunmen]

It's the ghost of Sir Alex Fergusons legacy that has haunted that club since he retired as coach. Now that he's on the board, the expectations are still expecting his type of flukiness. The sooner he is banished, the better the club will be.