Manchester United’s last three permanent managers lost their jobs on October 28, November 22 and December 18. Erik ten Hag, dismissed on Monday, had been in position for two years and four months. Ole Gunnar Solskjaer lasted two years and 11 months, Jose Mourinho two years and six months. Before Mourinho, Louis van Gaal was in the role for two years.
There’s an unedifying symmetry here. United and their fans do back their managers strongly, they give them time, but there comes a point when the situation – for the club and most fans – becomes untenable. United are 14th in the Premier League after nine games with four wins in the last 14 games. It’s nowhere near good enough, just as it wasn’t in November 1986. That’s when Ron Atkinson lost his job, replaced by Sir Alex Ferguson who stayed for 23 years.
This football season started, like most do, with optimism. Fans were encouraged by the new signings, by the new decision makers and the high of beating Manchester City in the FA Cup final had lasted all summer. As ever, United fans hoped for a brighter future and have idealised versions of what every new signing will be – and they hope that at the least they’ll be an upgrade on the players replaced. When they struggle to live up to those levels, the disappointment is palpable. It only gets worse when fans look across to see how well their main rivals are doing.
In numerous polls over the summer, the overwhelming majority of supporters wanted Ten Hag to continue as manager into this season, but that backing for the Dutchman soon dissipated with defeats: from the fans, officials and the players. Ten Hag put the most positive spin on events because if he didn’t believe in his plan, then who would? Before the Brentford game at Old Trafford two weeks ago, I asked him: “What makes you think that you can still succeed at Manchester United? What have you seen that the critics are missing?”
“We also must climb a mountain, but this is top football,” he replied. “You must face challenges. Sometimes it goes up, sometimes it goes down but I am sure we will make it a success as we did in the last two seasons. We are in the right direction and underneath I see good things. I see good patterns and I see the good stats that confirm we are in a good direction but of course the league table is not lying. We are where we are and that is not good enough.”
He made valid points, but even after the FA Cup success and peak of Ten Hag’s United tenure, there were doubts. I spoke to half a dozen players after the FA Cup final. Not one said he should be sacked; not one said that things could go on as they were. One said that United simply can’t let teams in the relegation places come to Old Trafford, dominate, cut through the midfield and create numerous chances.
But some of that is also on the players, just as some of the blame for Ten Hag losing his job should be on them. It’s not the Dutchman’s fault that half his team missed chances in the first half at West Ham on Sunday, but then when United are 14th as they are now, the manager must take the bulk of the responsibility.
The wins that breed confidence have been scant, the defeats and lack of goals a major issue. Ten Hag seldom varied from his principles and beliefs – his process. His compatriot Louis van Gaal was the same. Van Gaal later said that he didn’t have the players capable of executing his ideas. Ten Hag may say similar and the reality is that United seem miles off challenging for a title - but he was heavily indulged and enjoyed a power in the transfer market that subsequent United managers are unlikely to have under a new structure. United have continued to spend – nay squander – hundreds of millions on new players who don’t perform as hoped.
Managing United is difficult with numerous problems to be faced every day under extreme media and fan scrutiny. At times Ten Hag was the only person from the club to speak publicly and he did so in a calm and measured manner. He wasn’t a showman for the cameras, more a football obsessive who was trying to get things right using methods that had served him well elsewhere.
Ten Hag was well supported by fans and his employers and by this season, many of the players had been brought in by him, but not all the players were convinced. They didn’t try to undermine him; they just weren’t convinced. Before the recent away game at Crystal Palace, United did a simulation game before the match. This is normal and one United team had to play as Palace – who defeated United twice last season - so the players would be better prepared for the threats to follow.
Ten Hag picked out what he wanted to see happen when the ball came into the middle under Palace possession, but several players disagreed with his tactics. This was no mutiny, they didn’t always agree with Ferguson either, but it showed that not all of them were always aligned with what their manager wanted.
Ironically, United played some of their best football in the first half at Palace, just as the team had played well way at Brighton in the first half and at West Ham on Sunday. The second half performances dipped and United didn’t win any of those games. Goals are a massive issue: United have scored eight in nine league games.
Ultimately, that’s not good enough and the team aren’t just 12 points off the top of the league a quarter of the way into the season, but they’re well short of what Ten Hag’s men managed in his first season.
United took time to get going under their new manager but after the 6-3 October 2022 derby defeat at Manchester City, United won seven and drew two of the next nine games until a loss at Aston Villa. After that November game in Birmingham, United won nine games on the bounce – the final one against City in January 2023. February 2023 was Ten Hag’s best month, with six wins and two draws from eight games – and the wins included a first trophy since 2017 and two games against Barcelona, which saw United prevail.
Ten Hag did seem the man who would make Manchester United great again. He looked back at that time as an example of what his team could be, but injuries hit hard and continue to do so.
Alas, it wasn’t to be, and as with so many of the previous managers, Ten Hag met his fate a few months into the new season. He’s a good man, a good coach and he’ll be back, proud of the results at United and of his career as a manager. He never gave up, was never angling for his job, but he’ll wish that things had worked out differently, as did his fellow post-Ferguson predecessors.
