Opinion: Stop Old Trafford being a graveyard for managers

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·6 October 2024

Opinion: Stop Old Trafford being a graveyard for managers

Despite Erik ten Hag’s failings at Manchester United, especially over the last 12 months, there is still a vastly underrated manager underneath the tough exterior of the Dutchman, and some of the online insults towards him are far from fair.

There are, of course, the fans who are coming from an objective place. The first thing to mention is that Manchester United’s performances since last August have not been good enough, and of course, any manager in charge of a team not getting results does have to shoulder some of the blame and take the criticism that comes with it. This is, as Harry Maguire mentioned last night, part and parcel of playing for a club the stature of United.

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The same old story

Unfortunately, certain suggestions in recent weeks have fallen back to old tales fans told themselves about the likes of Ralf Rangnick, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, and Louis van Gaal, as well as Jose Mourinho. The topic of “no tactical knowledge” is a buzzword always thrown into the conversational sphere by fans, but it’s just not true on any level. People will point towards Ten Hag’s team and the way they played on Wednesday night against Porto, which of course, was a mess in many positions, but his Ajax side have gone away to tougher sides and shown they can be compact in Europe, so why can’t this happen at Manchester United?

In the 21/22 season, Ten Hag’s Ajax went unbeaten in all six group games in the Champions League, becoming one of eleven managers to achieve that feat in a group that contained Sporting Lisbon, Borussia Dortmund, and Beşiktas.

These are all sides this current Manchester United team, as talented as they are, would certainly struggle against in Europe. For context, Dortmund finished second in the Bundesliga that season, Sporting the same in the Portuguese League behind Porto, who United struggled against midweek, with Besiktas the odd one out of the group, finishing 6th in their league.

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A collection of results like that, which included a 5-1 win away against Sporting in Portugal, are in stark contrast to what has happened in recent months at United, with defeats to Galatasaray, Sevilla, and Bayern Munich and draws to Twente and Copenhagen, as well as last night’s result against Porto.

The Premier League being better than the Dutch League argument definitely holds up well, with the Dutchman’s tactics in theory definitely taking more work to push home in England due to the sheer step up tactically across the league, but how can you explain United’s performances in Europe? Against arguably lesser opposition with better individuals at their disposal?

What’s gone wrong since Barcelona?

In Europe, Ten Hag has shown an ability to go away to a cauldron and perform admirably. United were dominant against Barcelona away at the Camp Nou in his first campaign but since that game, the team has continued to struggle, winning just one of their last ten European fixtures.

Why is this happening? Can the blame really be levelled entirely at Erik? There are examples of Ten Hag’s tactical quality in the biography written by Maarten Meijer, with many citing the Dutchman as a meticulous detail-oriented man who leaves nothing to chance on the pitch or on the video tape watching games back.

Considering these are opinions held and statements made by those who worked under the manager, it’s hard to imagine he does not see the sheer level of space teams are getting against Manchester United, but it does pose a question as to why it’s not being rectified.

The truth of the matter is, Erik was not lucky to achieve what he did at Go Ahead Eagles, FC Utrecht, and Ajax. He is regarded as a tactical master, and that’s an opinion held widely by a number of people in the game.

Perhaps many close to Ten Hag feel he was unlucky to come into Manchester United when he did, which is the opinion of most who have come through those famous doors at Old Trafford since Alex Ferguson left. Managers come into the club with a huge reputation, hailed as a tactical genius, only to be told within 17 months they have not got a clue about football. It’s all been a bit too much, and something needs to change fast.

Why Is Old Trafford a graveyard for managers?

So the question remains from there: why are all these managers failing at Manchester United? It’s not just been one; it’s been six. All with similar failings. The same conversations have been taking place over the last decade on Sky Sports and TNT Sports. The same segments that happened under David Moyes are taking place 10 years later surrounding Ten Hag.

The suggestions these managers have no style of play. The commentary team’s asking, ‘what do they do in training?’ It’s all gone around in a merry circle for the last ten years like clockwork, and we’re here again. It’s like a director releasing the same movie in the cinema for the last ten years and changing the name, pulling people in to come watch it and passing it off as a different film. Nothing has changed, but why?

That mental block after Liverpool

Harry Maguire referenced a mental block leading to the players conceding these bundles of goals one after the other. The three goals to Coventry are an example many look back on as the most startling. Why are these things continuing to happen? The 7-0 defeat to Liverpool likely has something to do with it. It felt like that result destroyed the mentality inside the group at Manchester United, and every time they concede a goal after playing well, as they did in the first half against Liverpool, they feel that familiarity again and fear the worst.

Even further back than the Liverpool result, these two or three goal swings have been evident for a number of years. It’s not difficult to think back to West Ham away under Van Gaal, when United conceded two goals in four minutes despite being 2-1 up as they hunted for a Champions League spot.

A month earlier, United conceded three goals in six minutes away from home against Tottenham Hotspur in a harrowing 3-0 defeat. Stoke City scored two in five, and Alexis Sanchez and Mesut Ozil scored two goals within a minute of each other three months into Van Gaal’s reign.

It would also be rude not to mention that Leicester game, when David Nugent and Esteban Cambiasso made it two and three nil within two minutes of each other, with Jamie Vardy and Leandro Ulloa making 4 and 5 within three minutes of one another later on in the game.

In another famous game as United tried to gain legs in the title race under Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, the Red’s went into the half-time break 2-0 up at home against Everton. Five minutes after the second-half began, it was 2-2, with the away side scoring twice in three minutes.

These capitulations aren’t new. They’ve been around for decades, so why are we acting like this is solely an Ten Hag thing?

One of the other most famous examples was under Jose Mourinho when Manolo Gabbiadini scored a brace in stoppage time in the Carabao Cup final. Weeks later, Danny Welbeck and Granit Xhaka scored within three minutes of one another at the Emirates.

Capitulations in Europe are not new either; Barcelona away under Ole Gunnar Solksjaer yielded two goals in four minutes. Wolves away three weeks earlier, two goals in six minutes. The first leg of the PSG game saw two goals go in within seven minutes of each other, followed by a Pogba red card late in the game.

David Moyes had Manchester United 1-0 up away at Bayern Munich in the Champions League Quarterfinal through Patrice Evra, only to concede two minutes later and end up 3-1 down within 16 minutes.

The cycle remains

This has been going on a long time, under six different managers. These are repeating circumstances that are highlighted every six months. Insert name-out campaigns, with propaganda being surfaced on the internet of another magician manager that they believe is going to come in and fix the problems at the club, only to campaign for that same man to leave the club 10 months later.

It’s the same cycle, year after year, window after window. This is not a suggestion to vehemently suggest Manchester United need to keep Erik ten Hag and to categorically demand that he is the only man to take this club forward. But who expected ten years of mismanagement to be changed in 10 games? Who anticipated the mentality of a club that has been sleepwalking behind the giants of today’s game to suddenly flip a switch within two months of their first campaign under new ownership?

The manager has to take responsibility for some of the setups and the utilisation of the players at the moment, which is something he cannot run from or not take the blame for. The gaps in midfield are remaining on a weekly basis, but this surely can’t be something not spotted internally by INEOS, Jason Wilcox, Dan Ashworth, or any of the coaching staff internally at the club.

Ten Hag has shown in the past he can coach a compact midfield, at Manchester United and before Manchester United. The 4-2-2-2 block against Manchester City stifled their progress through the central areas of the pitch, and every single red player on the pitch looked like they knew the role they were assigned.

Now none of them look like they know their role, and the system, both collectively and individually, is a complete mess in every single aspect in these last two games. Villa Park later today is a chance to switch the narrative going into the international break or put further pressure on a group of players that are not losing for the want of trying.

This is not players throwing a manager under the bus. This is not a group of players that don’t care about this football club; such suggestions are wrong and frankly disingenuous. It does, however, feel like a group struggling to get out from under the thumb of the sheer size of Manchester United and the pressure that it can bring, so a win before they go away with their countries is worth its weight in gold.

Sunday may be judgement day, or simply just another day

There’s a chance, as some are pointing out, that Erik ten Hag may be United’s Steven Gerrard or their Brendan Rodgers, and if so, that’s fine. He’s won two trophies and brought success back to the club, so if today is to be his last game, that’s something he can always say he returned to United when all is said and done.

Unfortunately, on the flip side, there’s a chance Erik ten Hag becomes another Jose, or Louis, or Ole, and it’s now up to INEOS to make sure that cycle stops repeating itself no matter what the final decision on the head coach is.

Erik ten Hag may leave Manchester United, and it may be something that ends up being best for both parties in the end. But this football club, as Gary Nevile said, has got to stop being a graveyard for managers and players.

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