Dwight Yorke believes the FA Cup is Erik ten Hag’s only hope at keeping his job | OneFootball

If ever a win could feel like a loss, Manchester United’s ‘victory’ over Coventry City in the FA Cup semi-final on Sunday afternoon was it.

As the clock ticked past the 70th minute mark, United were in cruise control. 3-0 up without really having conceded a clear chance, Erik ten Hag’s side were already mentally preparing for their return to Wembley in a month’s time to face Manchester City for a repeat of last year’s final.

Then, as has become customary this season, United conspired to almost snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.

A poor sequence of defending gave Coventry an easy goal in the 71st minute, before a bizarre deflection off Aaron Wan-Bissaka left Andre Onana for dead, but brought the cup tie back to life.

3-0 to 3-2 in the space of eight minutes, with an equaliser feeling inevitable, based on this United team’s inability to cope with any semblance of adversity.

With the pressure mounting, United’s performance predictably capitulated from a state of calm control into complete chaos. While Coventry had been thoroughly outplayed for the first 71 minutes of the match, they were by far the better side for every single minute after it.

With only a few minutes of added time remaining, the Sky Blue’s pressure finally caused United to relent, courtesy of a soft handball by Wan-Bissaka, which the referee immediately penalised. The VAR team analysed the incident but did not find enough evidence to overturn the decision, and Haji Wright promptly stepped up to convert a clutch 95th minute penalty to send the blue half of Wembley into bedlam.

3-3.

It came as absolutely no surprise to any United fan at Wembley that their team was unable to recover in extra-time after surrendering such a comfortable lead. Coventry’s ascendency in the match continued beyond the 90th minute, with the Midlands side able to carve through Ten Hag’s tired team with ease.

Eventually, the dam burst, with Victor Trop scoring as extra-time drew to an agonising close, sending one half of Wembley into absolute pandemonium and the other to the exit door. It was a goal which marked the completion of one of the all-time football comebacks, and would have constituted the greatest moment in FA Cup history, given the context of the match. But the cruel hand of technology had other ideas.

VAR brought a swift end to Sky Blue celebrations, adjudging Wright to have been marginally offside in the build-up for the goal, as the winger’s left toe straying beyond the line. The referee was instructed to disallow what would have been a certain winner and, instead, the match dramatically headed for penalties.

United’s players now faced the bizarre scenario of having been winning 3-0 with less than twenty minutes remaining, to being utterly relieved to have barely limped over the line to penalties with a 3-3 draw. Coventry, by contrast, were deflated and disappointed in equal measure – a rare feeling for a Championship side against one of the world’s biggest clubs.

The conflicting feelings in both halves of the stadium offered a damning indictment on Ten Hag and his players.

Bruno Fernandes won both tosses for the penalties, able to choose both his team as the first takers (correcting a mistake he had made in the 2021 Europa League final) as well as the shoot out taking place at the United end.

And yet, despite both these advantages, Casemiro strolled up to take to take the first penalty with confidence, before essentially chipping the ball into Bradley Collins’ – Coventry’s goalkeeper – grateful arms. It felt like the beginning of the end for United.

But, somehow, they persevered, scoring the next four penalties while Coventry missed two, meaning Rasmus Hojlund’s excellently taken fifth spot kick was sufficient to send his side through to a final they should have secured nearly an hour previously.

The muted celebrations from the United team told its own story, despite the egregious behaviour of Antony.

The majority of the squad recognised they had been spared one of English football’s most embarrassing moments and acted accordingly. In their joint post-match interview, Fernandes and Harry Maguire resembled players who had lost on penalties, rather than reached an FA Cup final courtesy of them.

Ten Hag struck a more upbeat tone in his interview, praising his side for showing “resilience to win the penalty shoot out” but also criticising them for falling foul of the same mistakes made in recent weeks.

Deep down the Dutchman will have known his precarious future at Old Trafford would have been sealed had Coventry’s winner at the death not been disallowed. The performances this season have gone far beyond the line of inexcusable and there is no style of play nor discernible philosophy to fall back on.

Without the prospect of an FA Cup final, it would have been the final straw for Ten Hag’s future; which is certainly a view held by Dwight Yorke, the former United striker who played such a pivotal role in the greatest season in the club’s history – the 1999 treble winning year.

Speaking exclusively to The Peoples Person, courtesy of TvSportsGuide, Yorke offered his assessment of Ten Hag’s position as manager, describing United’s football as “terrible” and revealing the prospect of an FA Cup trophy is the only thing which could “possibly save his job”.

“If we were to finish where we are now [in the league], which we are likely to, or even less, and lose the FA Cup, I think that might be his fate,” Yorke said of Ten Hag. “I think the only thing that is saving him right now is that FA Cup final. If he were to lose that, not qualify for Europe at all, I think he hasn’t really got a leg to stand on.”

Yorke contends United have been “really bad this season” with the league table “suggest[ing] where we are as a team at the moment, we’re not even close to European football, let alone Champions League.”

With United stranded in 7th place, sixteen points adrift of Champions League qualification and possessing a negative goal difference, having already crashed out of Europe in abysmal fashion earlier in the season, it’s difficult to disagree with this assessment.

When asked why this year has gone wrong, given the positive strides United had appeared to have taken under Ten Hag in his first season, Yorke responds by saying “everything starts with the manager”. He is quick to point out the players “have to take responsibility as ultimately they have to go out and really perform,” however.

The 52 year old doesn’t believe the Dutchman has looked “comfortable in press-conferences” this year, always appearing “on the defensive”. There are few people as qualified to speak on the pressures of representing a footballing behemoth like United as Yorke, and he is adamant that “when you are losing the battle in the press, it’s never a good sign.”

We then asked Yorke who he believes would be the ideal candidate to replace Ten Hag, should that decision be made at the end of the season. He replied by describing United as an “exceptional club” who, as such, need an “exceptional manager”. The managers who fall into this category for Yorke are Jurgen Klopp, Pep Guardiola, Carlo Ancelotti, Zinedine Zidane and the “newcomer to the equation”, Xabi Alonso.

Given a move for four of these coaches is impossible, Yorke believes Zidane is the only “exceptional” option in his eyes who is available at present. “Stop going with just ‘good’ managers…[as] good is not good enough for United,” he concludes.

Nonetheless, the former United striker maintains victory over City in the FA Cup “should give [Ten Hag] another year”, as no manager at Old Trafford in the post-Sir Alex Ferguson era has been able to win trophies in back-to-back seasons. Success at a club with the expectations of United is not easy, yet Ten Hag has shown an ability to deliver at key moments.

“The bigger picture is our football is not great, but somehow he’s got the potential of delivering two trophies for us, so you have to figure that out as a manager and fans what you prefer – to go to Wembley and play against City with the possibility of winning another cup…[versus] the lack of of style of play…”

INEOS, who gained full control over the sporting operation at Old Trafford following Sir Jim Ratcliffe’s ratification as co-owner in February, are yet to make a decision over Ten Hag’s future. But it’s widely reported that the performances and results the Dutchman is able to extract from his players as the season draws to a close will be integral to their choice.

Which is why Sunday’s game would have proven so contradictory for United’s heirachy.

It was a dreadful performance from the 71st minute onwards against a Championship side United should always be able to dispatch with ease. It constituted another example of calamitous mental fragility from a squad Ten Hag has been given over £400 million to buttress and nearly two years to work with, yet still displays the exact same issues as under previous managers. And, if not for an incredibly tight offside call, it would have been the most embarrassing result in the club’s history.

Yet, on the other hand, United have reached their third final in two seasons under Ten Hag, having only reached one in the previous five years before the Dutchman arrived in Manchester. If he was able to win the FA Cup over United’s bitter local rivals, in addition to last season’s Carabao Cup win, there is a pattern of repeated success which would be extremely difficult for any ownership structure to let go.

And while United have previous form for sacking a Dutch manager following an FA Cup win as he hadn’t secured Champions League football, as Louis van Gaal found out, that was a decision taken by an executive structure which no longer exists at the club.

If it were up to Yorke, a trophy on May 25 would be sufficient for Ten Hag to be backed for one another year. Whether this is a view shared by INEOS is a question which will rumble on in the background at Old Trafford over a fraught final month of the season for United.

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