The axe has finally fallen on Erik ten Hag as Manchester United manager.
His last official engagement was in London, just as his first was.
It ended in defeat, which is how it started, although he was only watching at Selhurst Park on 22 May when United were beaten 1-0 by Crystal Palace in Ralf Rangnick’s last game as interim boss.
The day after, in the media room at Old Trafford, Ten Hag spoke for the first time about the challenge in front of him. The former Ajax manager was adamant joining United was not a risk despite the mess he seemed to be inheriting at his new club.
As he has repeatedly reminded everyone after his side won the FA Cup final in May this year, only Pep Guardiola at Manchester City has done better than his two trophies since the summer of 2022.
But another couple of observations Ten Hag made on that Monday morning have not survived the test of time.
One was about the dominance of Manchester City and Liverpool under Guardiola and Jurgen Klopp and whether that era could come to an end with the pair still in post. “Yes,” was Ten Hag’s curt reply.
The other was about how he planned to achieve it. The 54-year-old said his plan was “huge” and that it would be rolled out to staff and players. “You will see,” he said.However, for the sixth time since Sir Alex Ferguson retired in 2013, the fifth time since Liverpool appointed Klopp and the fourth time since Guardiola joined City the following year in 2016, United have once again concluded that they have the wrong man leading their team.
And a major reason for that is that Ten Hag’s ‘plan’ was never in evidence. Or at least it was, just once, in last season’s FA Cup final at Wembley, when the manner of victory over Manchester City was the chief reason for him keeping his job.
City were beaten thanks to a perfect plan that was on show from the opening minutes – suck defenders to the ball and play long, precise passes into space for the quick players and then support them. It was thrilling and brought a richly deserved success.
However, other than that victory, it has mostly just been words. Ten Hag has been increasingly mocked on unforgiving social media platforms for his repeated use of phrases such as ‘project’ and ‘game model’, and demanding players and fans ‘stick to the plan’, which he said again before the Brentford game on 19 October.
Source: BBC