Crunch Time for Erik Ten Hag & Manchester United

Karan Ahgun

— 4 min read
Crunch Time for Erik Ten Hag & Manchester United

After spending big in the summer, Manchester United fans would have gone into the new Premier League season with cautious optimism. However, after 3 defeats in 3 games, the questions about Erik Ten Hag's job have reappeared again. The manner of the defeat against arch-rivals Liverpool was particularly damaging to the Dutchman's job security. The next batch of games will likely have major impact on whether ETH will still be United manager after the next international break in October. So how have we arrived at this point?

Let's go back to the end of last season. Manchester United had finished in their worst-ever position in a Premier League season with a minus goal difference and whole heap of uncertainty. But to many people's surprise, they beat Manchester City in the FA Cup Final, guaranteeing them Europa League football for this season and helping ETH keep his job. The summer was inundated with news about the manager's future and it seemed that new football decision-makers, INEOS, wanted to bring in their own man. Ultimately, they couldn't find the man they wanted and had to stick with ETH, offering to activate the 1 year extension in his current contract, rather than negotiating new terms. This fiasco highlights one thing. INEOS are not that keen on ETH being Manchester United manager. To their credit though, they have back the Dutchman this summer by giving him a new coaching staff and being active in the transfer window. All they can do is monitor the team's progress and evaluate whether ETH can really bring the team's performances forward.

On the whole, I found the performance against Fulham in the first game to be decent. I liked the pressing system that was employed and the compactness with which the team played. There were instances during that game thought where Fulham were able to easily break past the midfield but on the whole, these breaks were not as frequent as they were last season. But that all changed from the second half of the Brighton game when Mason Mount came off at half-time. The pressing triggers disappeared in the second half and United went back to having Casemiro isolated in midfield with counter attacks galore against them. You would have thought that ETH would have learned from last season not to leave a faltering Casemiro alone in midfield but that's not the case. The same thing happened in the Liverpool game, where the opposition preyed on Casemiro and Mainoo's mistakes when they were once agin isolated in midfield. ETH needs to change the midfield set up if he is to get an upturn in form.

Many Manchester United fans are pinning their hopes on Manuel Ugarte to make a big difference in the midfield in terms of stopping oppositions counter attacks at their source but without change to the midfield setup and tactics I doubt that there will be much tangible change. It may even be some time before United fans get to see Ugarte regularly, especially after ETH's comments after the Liverpool game where he said that the Uruguayan will need "weeks or months" to get ready for the league. Will ETH even be in the United job by that time?

The next batch of games up to the October international break are pretty difficult after the Southampton game (which is a must win game). Crystal Palace and Aston Villa away will pose massive challenges, especially after taking into account United's away record against Top 10 teams. I do not have much confidence in them picking up a run of form in this period but I do hope that the performances can improve and give United fans a glimmer of hope. A recent article by Jamie Jackson (The Guardian), stated that INEOS were concerned about the "game model" and were looking for improvements as soon as possible. I guess that their thinking is that as long as they see a sustainable style of play then they can have belief that the wins will start coming through soon. That must be ETH's remit now. Show them that you know what your doing and start implementing a system that will work in this league! Hopefully this happens but I am doubtful! Maybe Ruud van Nistelrooy will be the interim manager after the international break. We will find out soon!

Talk soon!

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