After Manchester United’s worst league performances followed by a shock FA cup victory against their neighbours at Wembley, does Erik Ten Haag deserve to be backed for the final year of his contract or should INEOS bite the bullet now find their own man?
8th
Manchester United endured their worst season in the premier league and it felt like it from the outside looking in. I, like many others, thought they would have a strong season building on last season’s 3rd place, but it was clear from the off that this season was not going to follow the same pattern as last time out. Their champions league run was shambolic from start to finish topped off in Copenhagen with a petulant Rashford kick out earning him a red card before United collapsed to an embarrassing 4-3 defeat in Denmark.
When we look at the premier league table Manchester United finished below a new look Aston Villa, a Spurs without Kane, a chaotic Chelsea and a injury-stricken Newcastle. The one team in that list is a real shock for United to finish below is Chelsea who were one of the most inconsistent teams this season, being dragged through games by a 22-year old Cole Palmer. United fans will come with the argument of injuries which I will come on to, but when we look at United’s squad on paper, it is not a team which should be 8th. Marcus Rashford’s form has fallen off a cliff, Bruno Fernandes struggled throughout the season till he actually came back from his injury (maybe he actually needed a rest), Casemiro looked a shadow of the player signed only 2 years ago and Onana was signed as one of the top goalkeepers in Europe last season, just to name a few squad players.
It’s not just the premier league position which we question as fans, but as an outsider at several points throughout the season we said ‘Surely Ten Haag can’t survive this’, and this wasn’t once or twice but, on several occasions, where the result was horrendous, but also the performances of players were atrocious, looking like at times they downed tools for only a week later to be fighting again. It made no sense. This was highlighted the most in their champions league campaign with only 1 win in 6 games, conceding 3 goals in 4 of those games. Being battered at home to Bournemouth, 3-0, away to Crystal Palace, 4-0, and like I said it’s not just the results, as I think about their 1-1 result against Brentford away which was the biggest robbery of the season almost as United were battered for 90 minutes and almost snatched it at the death only for the team to switch off and concede in the last minute. This is not the Manchester United I remember growing up in the 00’s.
Injuries
Now injuries have been a major issue this season for all teams with the increase in games causeing problems, overloading players. Manchester United have felt this problem more than most teams, now teams like Newcastle, Liverpool, Chelsea and Aston Villa have suffered some a lot of injuries this season.
Aston Villa suffered 2 long-term injuries in the first month to starters in Buendia and Tyrone Mings, immediately depleting their European squad, along with Jacob Ramsey who missed most of the season. These were first team players who regular start for a team who are now new to midweek European competition. Chelsea on the other hand had the most injuries recorded in the premier league this season, but the point for Chelsea is that they also probably have the largest squad in the league, so they should have the most injuries going off probability. Nevertheless, they themselves had to play some of their academy graduates at points in the season due to the injury crisis, when at one point I believe they had only 13 fit first team players. Newcastle finally suffered the second most injuries this season and unlike they Chelsea they had Champions league football to contend with, with a squad who were not ready for Europe’s elite competition in terms of the squad depth. Newcastle’s drop off from first XI to their bench is massive and so injuries derailed their season as well, with players like Krafth, Dummett and youngsters like Miley and Anderson getting more gametime then they would have expected.
The one difference for United and where I have sympathy for Erik Ten Haag is that his injuries were predominantly all in the same area of the pitch. The centre-halves were dropping like flies this season, with Raphael Varane being their fittest central defender this season, a player who is known for his injury issues normally. United went from being the best defence in the league the season before, to parting like the red sea at times in this season. The constant changing of central defenders does destabilise a team and means that partnerships can’t be developed whether that’s between the defence and midfield, centre half and full back or the centre halves themselves. Also, when we look at the types of defenders they have, Varane and Martinez are very front foot defenders who can play a high line with their pace. Then we look at Maguire, Lindelof and Evans, these players do not want to play that high line so Ten Haag can’t implement his tactical vision with these guys in the team, and it lead to a lot of issues of the defence stepping off not wanting to press but the midfield and attack trying to press, leading to those viral photos where the midfield is 40-50 yards away from the defence.
Transfers
With INEOS’s arrival at United there will surely be a rethink when it comes to transfers, now I’m sure Ten Haag did not have anything to do with the fees involved, but he certainly would have had a hand in the recruiting of players as he worked with a large number of them before. Straight away Antony comes to mind, arguably the worst signing in Premier League history this guy, since his arrival he has just been taking minutes off other players for no return. When I saw Amad get some minutes on the right wing towards the end of the season it was refreshing to actually see some end product but it made me wonder, why has Ten Haag persisted with Antony this season and not given Amad a look-in?
Then we have Amadou Onana…I don’t know where to start here, first of all releasing De Gea was a mistake, you surely keep him even as a no.2 and agree he can leave if a team come in for him. De Gea won the golden glove award last season and he was a good shot stopper, world class at times, his main issue was when the ball was at his feet he was like a deer in headlights. Now Onana, the calm man with the ball on the deck, but my word is he a downgrade in terms of shot stopping ability…the goalkeeper’s primary job. Yes, he improved in the second half of the season but he improved from being the worst keeper statistically in the league and potentially in Europe if I remember correctly. A chaotic defence didn’t help him but it did expose his faults even more, clanger after clanger from routine shots, even in the FA cup final vs Manchester City where he had a really good game, he almost ruined it with his poor piece of goalkeeping to let Doku score.
Now Tan Haag did clearly want Frenkie De Jong for his side and that makes sense, Ajax man for ajax system who’s he’s coached before. It’s a smart signing but it’ a signing every club would probably want to make and as it so happened he did not want to make the move to United, the project as United is not as attractive as others across Europe anymore. Having said that to have Casemiro or Amrabat instead of De Jong as a holding midfielder is really ‘chalk and cheese’ in terms of the football you want to play, so it would limit Ten Haag in that regard. But then we also look at other transfers like Mount, Malacia and Amrabat, who have all underwhelmed since signing, with the prior due struggling to even get fit enough to play. Rasmus Højlund is probably one of the best signings under the Ten Haag era, even though he only scored 10 goals this season he did show promise this season when he was being fed. The issue for most of the season was that Rasmus had to feed on scraps from the majority of the season with players like Garnacho, Bruno and Rashford being more goalscorers than creators at least this season.
Silverware
This section is short and sweet. Ten Haag may have overseen United’s worst league position but he has also won two trophies in two years, which in normal circumstances is good, but in a time when Manchester City compete for everything and often win, this feat is more impressive considering this is a poor united squad compared to the past united teams. He has also confirmed European football now for United as well thanks to their FA cup win, another massive bonus.
The Fans
INEOS do need to consider the fans reactions when they weigh up their options here as the majority do want Ten Haag to remain in charge, especially after the FA cup win. Now I think INEOS were waiting for an FA cup defeat to justify sacking Ten Haag but it didn’t work out that way, and the fans have now piled on pressure to the new partial owners. Do INEOS really want one of their first actions as the new footballing owners to be one which will cause a massive stir within the fan base against them?
Replacements
It did seem a bit odd when De Zerbi announced his departure from Brighton and then a week later, murmurs of Ten Haag getting sacked came out, right around the time of De Zerbi’s compensation having been paid by an unnamed club. Clearly now that club is not united but the former Brighton man is still available. Another name which is always floated round United is Zinedine Zidane but he is a smart man as shown when he left and later returned to Real Madrid to gain that extra power he wanted originally, so I don’t think he would touch this united job as there is so much uncertainty round the club.
Then we have another couple of experienced managers in Thomas Tuchel and Mauricio Pochettino, now Tuchel I would steer clear of if I was united as if I look at his track record, he has fallen out with the board at the last 3 clubs he has been at and right now united need a calm head to oversee all the change at the club. Now Pochettino I personally do like, even as an Arsenal fan, I do rate Pochettino and I thought his sacking from Chelsea was a crazy decision which reeked of panic and hotheads upstairs making the decisions. He is a calm hand at the wheel, he develops young players, and he even managed to turn that sinking Chelsea ship around towards the end of the season. But I don’t see him at United anytime soon.
Southgate is also linked but if I was united I would pray for this not to happen, so the last option within reason, which is linked with the job is Kieran McKenna, who shockingly led Ipswich to back-to-back football league promotions to the premier league. While that’s impressive and Chelsea have hired a championship promoted manager in Enzo Maresca, McKenna has no experience managing at the top level. Manchester United are still the biggest team in England, despite City’s recent success, so pressure for the man at the top is huge, would you really want someone who would be in their first big job after two successful leagues in the football league?
What do I think
Now it’s been posted round that INEOS like the Arteta project that took place at Arsenal, living through that was no picnic though, back-to-back 8th place finishes with a squad which was much worse than this current United one. At one point we didn’t score from open play for almost two months, and it was Mikel’s first job. So you would think Ten Haag can produce some results if he’s trusted a bit more as he has more to work with currently.
If I was INEOS, I would look at the current managers out there and realise only Poch in my opinion is better, but it’s not worth stopping this project for another one which could be riskier. Ten Haag has one more year left on his deal, let him have that year, make some smart signings this summer who will match the club as well as the manager, and give him this year. If after this year it hasn’t worked then the fans will be more receptive to letting the manager go so you earn faith with them as well and the management landscape could look very different next year.