Manchester united has reportedly agreed to part ways with manager Erik ten Hag after the FA cup final regardless of the result according to Di Marzio. This came after their abysmal season came to an end with united finishing 8th their lowest finish since the 1989/1990 season. Though the team has been bombarded with injuries all through the season, that does not excuse their underwhelming form. Here we look at reasons why Erik ten Hag should be sacked as Manchester United manager.
Erik’s Bad Signing
When Erik ten Hag joined Manchester United in the summer of 2022/2023 season, one of the agreement was the manager’s autonomy towards transfer which the fans lauded due to bad transfers made by the club over the years. But ever since getting the authority, majority of ten Hag’s transfer has been questionable with only a few perceived to be good ones.
He signed Antony for a sum of £86million ($108m) in his first season with the Brazilian scoring just 11 goals in 82 appearances. He also signed Mason Mount for £55million ($69.5m) despite having only one year left in his contract. Despite the expensive fee, Mason spent the majority of the season injured scoring just 1 goal in 19 appearances. Other mediocre signings include Tyrel Malacia, Andre Onana who conceded 82 goals in just 50 appearances, Sofyan Amrabat and Wout Weghorst .
Though a few of them were considered good like Lisandro Martinez, Casemiro, Rasmus Hojlund and Christian Erikson, his overall transfer decisions are really poor which lead to the team board withdrawing his authority over transfer policies.
Favoritism In Player Selection
Another major factor to Erik ten Hag woes at Manchester united was his team selection. He had a reputation of using his favorite players despite their poor form. Players like Marcus Rashford, Antony and Scott Mctominy had a lot of minutes despite their abysmal form which led to the fight between Erik and Jordan Sancho. His late and most times wrong substitutions also added to the team woes.
Erik ten Hag’s Tactical Gamble Backfires
Manchester United’s midfield woes is also a major talking point. Teams across the league, from established names like Man city to surprise packages like Bournemouth, have found it worryingly easy to exploit the gaps in the center of the park.
The root of the problem seems to be Erik ten Hag’s tactical approach. His preference for a three-man attack necessitates pushing two midfielders high up the pitch. This strategy leaves the sole remaining defensive midfielder, whether it’s the experienced Casemiro or the new prospect Kobbie Mainoo, woefully exposed and outnumbered. Its so bad that fans believed that prime Claude Makelele, widely considered one of the best defensive midfielders of all time, wouldn’t be able to plug the leak.
After the Bournrmouth defeat in december, Bournemouth boss Andoni Iraola said after his team’s win: “They [Manchester United] send a lot of players forward so you will get spaces. We knew they would make our wingers run backward, but we knew when we could recover high our forwards would have space. We knew in transitions we would have our chances and we took them.”
This is mostly caused by his favoritism of Scott Mctominy due to goals from midfield, paired with Bruno Fernandes leaves too much space for a single DM to cover which in turn open up the defense.
Should Erik ten Hag be sacked
It could be argued that Manchester united woes this season is mostly due to injury as key players like Lisandro Martinez, Luke Shaw and Anthony Martial were hardly available this season, yet this does not justify the underwhelming performance.
The team crashed out the champions league group stage with just 4 points, a record in premier history despite having teams like Copenhagen and Galastasaray in their group.
Manchester United faced 660 shots in the league second only to Sheffield united(671) who finished last in the league. They also finished with a goal difference of -1 and a lot of bad records were broken this season.
Its not evident if Erik ten Hag will eventually be sacked or asked to continue. But if the board decide to let him go, then Erik ten Hag could fault no one but himself.
