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Erik ten Hag is no longer the manager of Manchester United Football Club. Those words have been saved in most journalist’s notepads for the best part of 12 months, as the Red Devils have been embarrassed time and time again under the watch of the delusional Dutchman.
The fact it’s taken this long for Sir Jim Ratcliffe and the INEOS group to put Ten Hag out of his misery is unforgivable. No other club in world football would have given the 54-year-old a new two-year contract after the catastrophe that was United’s 2023-24 season.
The FA Cup came back to Old Trafford after an unlikely final win over Manchester City, but that didn’t make up for United slumping to eighth in the Premier League – their worst-ever finish. To put that miserable showing into even greater perspective: rock-bottom Sheffield United were the only club to face more shots than the Red Devils as the players struggled to stick to Ten Hag’s baffling tactical blueprint.
To the surprise of no one, except Ratcliffe and his newly-assembled backroom team at Old Trafford, United’s problems have resurfaced in the early stages of the new campaign, leaving Ten Hag’s position completely untenable. It has been reported that the former Ajax boss will receive a £17.5 million ($23m) compensation package after finally being put out his misery, which represents a serious embarrassment for INEOS, but that financial hit probably won’t have a lasting impact.
Their inability to foresee the inevitable will, though. Ten Hag should go down as the worst manager in United’s entire history, and he leaves an almighty mess behind for the next man who is chosen to try and restore the glory of the Sir Alex Ferguson era.
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GettyNo clear plan
After United’s unlikely FA Cup triumph, Ten Hag developed a misplaced superiority complex, having also delivered the Carabao Cup in his first season at the club. “This club didn’t win trophies before I came, for six years,” he told The Times in July. “In two years, after [Pep] Guardiola, we won the most trophies in English football. So we are in a strong position. We can beat every opponent.”
The reality is, Ten Hag is not even close to the level of Manchester City’s charismatic genius of a manager, and his United team have lost 22 games across all competitions since the start of last season. ‘Every opponent can beat this version of the Red Devils’ is a more accurate statement.
With no clear plan, United became a team without an identity throughout Ten Hag’s tenure. He said he wanted the Red Devils to dominate games, but they could barely string three passes together. He demanded his forwards press high up the pitch, but they did so half-heartedly, which made United easy to play through.
Huge gaps opened up in midfield as United sat with a deep defensive line. Ten Hag was also unable to change the tide of a game when it started to get away from his side, often making strange substitution calls and asking certain stars to play in unnatural positions.
United always posed a threat with the pace of players like Marcus Rashford, Alejandro Garnacho and Rasmus Hojlund, but they were one-dimensional. The Red Devils could only score goals on the break, and didn’t have the tools to cope when they were countered themselves. It was farcical, and should never have been allowed to go on for almost two-and-a-half seasons.
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GettyDamning statistics
Ten Hag managed United for 128 games in total, winning 72, losing 36 and drawing 20, which gives him an overall win percentage of 56 percent. Of the six other permanent and interim managers to have led the club in the last 11 years, only Jose Mourinho has a better record (58 percent).
United’s success in domestic cup competitions has propped Ten Hag up, while he also guided them to the quarter-finals of the Europa League in 2022-23. But he also lost 31.8 percent of his matches across all competitions; only David Moyes did worse than that, and that’s only because he was in the job for just eight short months.
In the Premier League, Mourinho (1.89), Ole Gunnar Solskjaer (1.81) and Louis van Gaal (1.79) all amassed more points per game than Ten Hag (1.72). The Red Devils conceded three or more goals in 24 different matches during his time at the club, the joint-highest amount alongside Bournemouth.
The 7-0 and 6-3 thrashings at the hands of Liverpool and City, respectively, the 4-0 horror shows at Crystal Palace and Brentford, and the 3-0 losses at home to Tottenham and Bournemouth will all live long in the memory for all the wrong reasons. So will the shameful performance against Coventry City in the FA Cup semi-finals, which saw United scrape through on penalties after inexplicably blowing a three-goal lead. His predecessors all had their issues and humiliating moments, but they pale in comparison to Ten Hag’s reel of shame.
There is an element of recency bias when christening Ten Hag the worst United manager in history, with the likes of Scott Duncan, Frank O’Farrell, Dave Sexton and Ron Atkinson also deemed huge failures. But when you also factor in how unlikeable and uninspiring Ten Hag has been, it doesn’t feel like a stretch.
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GettyLacking ‘fire and passion’
Indeed, former Blackburn Rovers striker Benni McCarthy accused Ten Hag of lacking “fire and passion” in a recent interview with Zero Zero. He felt that Ten Hag was too “conservative” to affect real change at United, having spent two years as part of his coaching staff before departing in the summer.
That assessment rings true when thinking of the many times Ten Hag tried to temper expectations around his United side, including back in May, after The Guardian reported he would be sacked regardless of the result in the FA Cup final. “Manchester United won the league for the last time in 2013, 11 years ago,” he told Voetbal International. “But, still, they expect us to win every game while competing at the top. This club is not ready for that.”
When exactly would they have been ready? How much time did he want? One of the main jobs of a United manager is to demand the highest possible standards, but Ten Hag never did. That was further underlined after the 1-1 draw away at Fenerbahce in the Europa League last week, which left United 21st in the new league phase with just three points from three games.
“Point in Porto, point in Fenerbahce, that’s not bad, but of course we want to win,” Ten Hag said. “We want to win every game. From two tough away games, Porto and Fenerbahce, we take two points, this is a result.” According to the Daily Mail, several club officials disagreed with Ten Hag, and United’s inability to win either of those matches after taking the lead was seen as a key factor in the eventual decision to dismiss him.
Even after Sunday’s dismal 2-1 defeat at West Ham, which turned out to be the final nail in the coffin for Ten Hag, he had the audacity to declare: “The luck is not on my side. It will turn around if we keep playing like we are playing now and, in this block – Brentford, Fenerbahce, today – we played really good football.”
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Getty Images SportMediocre squad remains
However, the biggest reason for Ten Hag’s tenure turning sour boils down to one thing: goals, at both ends of the pitch. Looking at 2024 alone, United are ranked eighth for expected goals (xG) in the Premier League with 42.4, and they have the second-worst xG for chances conceded (52.5), behind only West Ham – according to Opta.
United have lost their clinical edge in front of goal and defensively they’re all over the place, which is a consequence of Ten Hag’s poor recruitment choices. After being handed an underserved second chance by INEOS, Ten Hag celebrated by splashing £219m ($284m) on Joshua Zirkzee, Matthijs de Ligt, Noussair Mazraoui, Leny Yoro and Manuel Ugarte in the summer window, taking his overall outlay on transfers past the £600m (£778m) mark.
Suffice it to say, none of these new additions have made United a better team, or solved any of their glaring issues. Yoro can’t be judged yet having seen his competitive debut delayed by a cruel injury blow, and Mazraoui has settled in nicely, but Zirkzee has struggled to get to grips with the intensity of Premier League football, De Ligt’s physical limitations have been exploited consistently and Ugarte has only started one league game since being heralded as United’s potential midfield saviour.
It has been suggested that Ruud van Nistelrooy could replace Ten Hag permanently if he impresses as interim coach, after stepping up from his role as assistant, but deep down he must know that’s an impossible task. United’s outlook won’t suddenly improve now Ten Hag is gone, because he assembled a mediocre group of players, many of whom have no business playing for one of the world’s biggest clubs.
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Getty Images SportBizarre Eredivisie bias
Ten Hag’s bizarre insistence on targeting players with experience in the Eredivisie proved to be his undoing. In addition to De Ligt and Mazraoui, he also brought in Lisandro Martinez, Andre Onana, Christian Eriksen, Mason Mount, Tyrell Malacia and £85m ($110m) show pony Antony, while loan deals were arranged for Wout Weghorst and Sofyan Amrabat.
Martinez has established himself as a fan favourite for his combative style, but the Argentine’s form has been patchy and he’s been plagued by injuries. Onana, meanwhile, is starting to show signs of the quality he exhibited between in the sticks for Inter, but his basic errors cost United vital points last season, and he still doesn’t inspire confidence among the defenders in front of him.
The rest of those signings can be written off as average at best, and completely useless at worse, with Antony and Mount falling into the latter category. United can’t even find a willing buyer for Antony now, despite reportedly being ready to accept a £45m ($58m) loss in their initial investment in the Brazilian, while Mount has spent more time in the treatment room than on the pitch since his £60m ($78m) arrival from Chelsea last year, having seemingly lost the hunger he had in his early years at Stamford Bridge.
United are also still lumbered with a well-past-his-peak Casemiro, and Hojlund has yet to convince anyone he can spearhead a revival as the club’s long-term No.9. So much money has been wasted, and another squad overhaul will be necessary due to the damage Ten Hag has done.
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GOALWhat’s next?
Garnacho and academy sensation Kobbie Mainoo are the only players who should be safe when that process starts in January. Not even current captain Bruno Fernandes is beyond reproach anymore, while Rashford has used up all the credit he had in the bank with supporters over the last two seasons.
It’s a bleak situation, but United have to start completely from scratch. According to The Athletic, the club is already negotiating a deal for Ruben Amorim, who has worked wonders at Sporting CP since joining the Portuguese giants in 2020. That is the kind of appointment that should generate optimism for the future, but it could be a long time before the United faithful starts feeling genuine excitement about their team again. The Red Devils are further behind the elite sides in the Premier League and Europe’s other top divisions than ever before.
Ratcliffe’s vow that United will “knock City off their perch” by 2027 has aged terribly. INEOS should have sacked Ten Hag immediately after acquiring a 25% stake in the club at the start of the year, which would have ensured the new manager breathing room to gradually turn the tide.
Alas, Amorim, or whoever ends up filling Ten Hag’s shoes, will be walking into a disaster zone. United are 14th in the Premier League table, seven points adrift of the Champions League places already, and face an uphill battle to qualify for the Europa League knockout phase.
It’s entirely possible that things will get worse before they get better, but at least now there is room for hope again. United were going nowhere with Ten Hag steering the ship. He was always out his depth, despite his best attempts to convince everyone otherwise. And he’s set the bar so low, that surely the only way is up from here.
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