[ad_1]
eRick ten Hag arrived at Manchester United promising to inspire dynamic, exciting transition football. And, you have to say, mission accomplished. You just had to watch Crystal Palace pour forward on Monday night speed, or Sheffield United bombed the pitch at Old Trafford a few weeks ago or indeed Coventry City in the last FA Cup semi-final. Thanks to Ten Hag, United fans are treated to gorgeous counter-attacks almost every week, even if – unfortunately for Ten Hag’s job prospects – most of them these days seem to be played by the opposition.
Yes: it’s an even year, so we’re debating whether Manchester United the manager should be fired. So to David Moyes (2014), Louis van Gaal (2016), Jose Mourinho (2018), Ole Gunnar Solskjaer (pandemic postponed 2021) and Ralf Rangnick (2022) almost certainly one might add Ten Hag (2024), another experienced manager who simply didn’t have what it takes to run a huge club like United. Seriously unhappy! How do they keep ending up with these guys?
Ten Hag talks a lot about “following the script,” and if he’s read this particular treatment to the end, he’ll know that the moment of reckoning is probably near. And of course there would be a satisfying structural turnaround: a reign capped by two stunning 4-0 defeats in London, 30-year-old and 32-year-old Christian Eriksen rotating equally in midfield, a coach bereft of explanations at the end as it was at the beginning.
“Individual mistakes; we had a good plan, but we threw it in the bin,” Ten Haag said afterwards the brentford game in 2022. “Big mistakes; you don’t follow the plan or the script,” he said after Palace’s defeat in 2024. Sometimes you just have to obey the pull of the narrative.
So barring a miracle win in the FA Cup final against Manchester City or an unlikely reprieve from the new Ineocracy, the Ten Hag will likely be gone at the end of the season. And – you know – fair enough. You just can’t play that badly, that often and expect to keep your job. Most defeats in any season since 1977-78 Most goals conceded since 1976-77 A now-familiar inability to stop teams from shooting: indeed, in the time since you started reading this article, Andre Onana saved four more shots and hit two more.
But even more terrifying than the statistics are the optics. The general feeling of panic and disarray that spreads throughout the team as someone rushes towards them. The stalwart Jonny Evans, reliably perched 10 yards behind the rest of his defence, looked like he was auditioning to be their drummer. The unfortunate sight of Casemiro slipping into Michael Olisse on Monday night and missing not only Olisse but the memory of Olisse: like a man who walks into a room and immediately forgets why he entered it.
Of course, everyone knows why United keep conceding. The front three press high, the defense fails to rise and there are such huge gaps in midfield that far better midfielders than Sofyan Amrabat would struggle to cover. Beat the first push and you have 60 yards of clean, beautiful air. Fullbacks can overlap. Quick switches and passing balls magically open up. The result: crosses, shots, chaos, smoke.
If a guy on YouTube can see all this, then let’s assume that the former Bayern Munich, Ajax and PSV Eindhoven coach – a man once described by Pep Guardiola as the ideal candidate to succeed him at Manchester City – can too. So why didn’t he fix it? The staff is one of the reasons. Lisandro Martinez, a defender signed as Ten Hag’s field general, has only played nine league games all season; Luke Shaw 12, Tyrell Malacia none.
That’s three quarters of the Ten Hag’s first choice back line. In their absence, he has been left with more reactive back-line defenders like Evans, Victor Lindelof and Harry Maguire, or non-defenders like Amrabat and Casemiro, who lack the ability to play complex, organized high-line defense. Could Ten Hag have tried it anyway, even if the staff wasn’t right? Could he reconfigure the whole setup, go back to a low block, abandon his principles entirely? Could United have helped him out with an emergency signing in January? maybe But we have to admit that none of them felt like a guaranteed solution at the time.
And then we come to what Mourinho so beautifully expressed as “football heritage”. Ten Hag has probably gone further than any of his predecessors in trying to figure out how to build a United team Must to play instead of just implementing their own ideas into the existing team. His stated desire to make United “the best transitional team in the world” stems not only from his own principles but also from an assessment of what United fans – and importantly, United pls – would want. Back-and-forth play, lightning-quick counter-attacks, pace and enthusiasm in attacking areas, exciting wings, heroic comebacks, plenty of goals, late drama.
And again, you have to say – with less sarcasm – mission accomplished. United scored eight times in the first 10 minutes, won seven games in the last 10 minutes, conceded 13 times in the 87th minute or later. They have failed to close out a winning position 11 times in all competitions. Their matches this season average 3.4 goals. This may not be the optimal result for the United team. But it’s a clear win for United, the global entertainment product.
after the promotion of the newsletter
Meanwhile, the likes of Alejandro Garnacho and Kobbie Mainoo blossomed into irreplaceable talents, Rasmus Højlund found his feet in a tough league, Diogo Dalot improved, Willy Kambwala impressed. Bruno Fernandes stood up for them again. Onana, Amrabat, Marcus Rashford and Mason Mount have all struggled but are not so bad as to be completely irreparable. The point is this: despite all the horrors of the last 12 months, United have won a trophy and reached two finals and are probably a working defence, Jaden Sancho was sacked and a few other incremental improvements, far from being quite good.
But of course, that’s not the thing that moves the dial at a club like United. There have been numerous stories recently about how everyone at the club has theoretically been declared for sale, about how the new regime of Dave Brailsford and Jim Ratcliffe wants to clear the decks, starting but not ending with Ten Hag.
This thing feels good and cathartic. Purification, bloodshed, burning everything and starting over. Drain the swamps. Rinse the bowl. By a happy coincidence, it’s also the approach that drives the most content, incites the most transfer gossip and late-night discussions, fuels the most performative online chatter, shines the spotlight most gloriously and most profitably on the holy name of Manchester United Football Club.
So the cycle begins again. Thomas Tuchel, Gareth Southgate, Graham Potter. A tranche of new signatures. New dawns and new hope. Give the new manager time. Give new players a chance to settle in. Late goals, heroic victories. Rashford is back. But is football really an improvement? Are United going backwards? Hits, humiliations, going out on a glass. The players are unhappy with the training, reports an unnamed source from the dressing room. Mark Goldbridge is trending. Official statement from the club. The search for a new manager begins. Welcome to Manchester United, where the transition never ends.
[ad_2]
