Is it nearly over for Ten Hag at Manchester United?

Erik ten Hag looks more and more likely to be the first manager fired in the Premier League in the 2024/25 season after a humiliating 3-0 loss at home to Tottenham. Despite League and FA Cup triumphs in recent seasons, his league performances have been inferior. Let's take a look at how his time in charge at Old Trafford has gone.

When Ten Hag was hired, the Manchester United website released a statement from John Murtough, the club's Football Director, reading, “Erik has proven himself to be one of the most exciting and successful coaches in Europe, renowned for his team's attractive, attacking football and commitment to youth.”

Ten Hag swung for the fences during his first transfer window at Old Trafford, raiding his old club for Lisandro Martinez (€57.37m/£56.7m/$61.66m), and Anthony (€95.00m/£85/$100.3m), while also adding Tyrell Malacia (€15.00m/£12.9m/$16.1m) and Christian Eriksen (free). His biggest signing was Casemiro from Real Madrid (€70.65m), adding some steel and nose to the center of the pitch.

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Sky Sports analyst Jamie Carragher famously claimed Martinez (1.75m/5'9”) was too small to play in the Premier League as a centre-back before United lost 4-0 away to Brentford. He was later forced to apologize for his comments as Martinez proved successful during his first season in England, but the timing of the initial comments seemed ominous.

Following a disastrous start, Ten Hag's team seemed to have turned a corner, as an Opta article from January 2023 notes, “he has done an unbelievable job, far exceeding what anyone anticipated in year one of the rebuild.”

Following the aforementioned loss to Brentford, Ten Hag told journalists, “It's naive, how we played today, you have to play more direct,” which is exactly what they started to do, with great effect. As Opta notes, at the halfway point of the 2022/23 season United were top of the direct attack list with 51 and joint top of the through-ball rankings with 48, and it seemed to be working.

Ten Hag had initially attempted to reproduce his Ajax style at United. He soon learned a control-based Pep Guardiola-style wouldn't work with the players at his disposal. Instead, he changed his ways with his attacking players taking fewer touches before unleashing shots, per Opta.

Despite these changes, Ten Hag's United still struggled for control, which has become key to so many successful modern teams, this was in part to his players' struggles, but also, Ten Hag's choice. Opta describes Ten Hag's decision to, “embrace the Ole Gunnar Solskjaer methods of deep-lying, counter-attacking football in big matches,” not the Manchester United style of old.

Despite United's flaws during the 2022/23 season, they were a solid team, with Ten Hag laying the foundations for the style he wanted to play, but not sacrificing results to do so. A third-place finish in the Premier League plus a League Cup win and FA Cup runners-up medal is nothing to be laughed at.

United entered the 2023 summer transfer window with a clear need to improve in multiple positions. Goalkeeper, midfield and striker were the priorities and Ten Hag et al. moved to sign big-name players in each spot. Andre Onana (€50.20m/£43.8m/$57.3m), Mason Mount (€64.20m/£55m/$69m), and Rasmus Hojlund (€73.90m/£64m/$82m) were added to bolster United's squad.

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Despite United's new signings and Ten Hag having a year of Premier League experience under his belt, the 2023/24 season did not start well. By match week 10, United sat in eighth with just 15 points and a -5 goal difference following a heavy defeat to Manchester City.

United followed their terrible start with a solid run, winning four out of their next five to move up to fifth. However, a 0-3 loss to Bournemouth at Old Trafford suggested the cracks were beginning to show.

Every club in professional football struggles with injuries, but Ten Hag's United side has apparently been dealt with a rough hand. At various points throughout the season, they have been missing their top-six center-back options, per Premier Injuries.

That offers Ten Hag an easy way out, when, in reality, he has been unable to consistently manufacture a workable defensive game plan. Per Sky Sports, United have conceded 81 goals in all competitions this season, their worst record since 1976/77.

Nothing adds up to Ten Hag's issues more than the four-goal defeat away to Crystal Palace. Palace are a good side and United were forced into playing Casemiro as an auxiliary centre-back, but the performance was abject. Following the match, Ten Hag said, “They didn't bring it on the pitch. “We got hammered,” it is never a good sign when managers start blaming their players.

The defeat was such, that Jamie Carragher went so far as to call United, “one of the most poorly coached teams in the Premier League.” A brutal summation of how far and how quickly Ten Hag's team has slipped.

The 2024 Summer transfer window saw Ten Hag's United spend even more money, bringing in Lenny Yoro, Manuel Ugarte, Matthijs de Ligt, Joshua Zirkzee, and Noussair Mazraoui for a combined £179 million (€214 million/$240 million). Yoro hasn't played a minute so far due to injury, and De Ligt and Mazraoui were both with Ten Hag at Ajax, which has been a troubling pattern for the Dutchman.

We had some optimism here at Sports Unlimited News that Ten Hag might have been able to turn things around this season given his experience and the amount of money spent on players clearly at his request. Instead, United look worse than before, with no discernible style, no structure and continued excuses and bristling from Ten Hag in press conferences.

The only reason Ten Hag still has a job was the lack of a suitable replacement to take over from him, with numerous options turning United down in the Summer. Now, with the club floundering once again, will new owner Jim Ratcliffe take the drastic next step and move on from Ten Hag?

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