Trouble in Portugal

FC Porto v Manchester United

In the first 30 minutes when Rashford and Hoijlund scored I thought to myself that Ten Hag was a lucky man and had escaped scrutiny yet again.

However, in the way we have all become accustomed to, United quickly bottled their 2-0 lead before half time and conceded a third just after.

It was looking like the scrutiny around Erik Ten Hag was only going to get worse.

Watching him take Rashford off the pitch when he was finally looking like he had re-gained his confidence from the 21/22 season made all fans question his IQ.

Post-match, Ten Hag gave the excuse that he was thinking about Sundays game against Aston Villa when he took Rashford off.

CBS News analyst and former football player Charlie Davies, questions whether Ten Hag knows what he’s doing, and claims he is not even focussed on winning the game at hand, when Rashford probably played the best 45 minutes of his season so far and is still young enough to recover for the weekend.

Ten Hag then controversially substituted De Ligt and Martinez, bringing on Johnny Evans and harry Maguire in the 80^th minute.

Fans were outraged.

Why on earth he would bring on two centre-backs in the 80^th minute when you are 3-2 down in Europe? Lucky for him, Maguire scored a header in the 91^st minute to make it 3-3 and save United from humiliation.

Attached is a video of streamer Mark Goldbridge (famous Manchester united fan and critic) reacting to the substitutions in the 80^th minute in a rather hilarious manner all while accusing Ten hag of trying to get sacked as he would receive a £17 Million payout and even including a ramble about a centre parcs holiday. The clip does contain strong language.

Comments

From Hope to Heartache: Ten Hag's Run at the Stretford End is Over

Thank You Erik Ten Hag, well kind of. How many people can say they've been sacked but got 17 million quid in the bank? 9 premier league games into the season and the management have had enough - he’s sacked. Just months after a contract extension as well. I had mixed feelings about him, as mentioned in previous posts I found it disturbing how we had a distinct lack of play style but turned up in big games such as Liverpool in the FA Cup Quarter Final earlier this year then struggled to beat championship side Coventry in the semis only to then dominate Manchester City in the final. I will always rate him for winning these trophies, bittersweet. I also think he has had more than enough chances considering, specifically giving us one of our worst premier league finishes last season and then an absolutely abhorrent start this season with us currently sitting in 14 th place. In terms of new managers, it’s simple for me, exactly as I said to my mate the second...

Fenerbahce Away: European Nights Aren't What They Used To Be

Mazraoui starting in midfield was an interesting selection by Ten Hag. I don’t understand why he didn’t switch the formation to a 4-4-2 in the absence of our captain instead of playing people out of position. Lindelof looked poor at the back, and I think he was at fault for the equaliser. This is how I would have lined up giving Garnacho and Rashford some great linkup opportunity. Then Dalot loves to venture up the pitch as well so maybe this combination should be trialled. Eventually we could have had Amad/Rashford taken off and Zirkzee on. I don’t think he should be starting as a striker when he constantly tries to play like a 9.5, dropping into midfield. I can’t deny the chemistry between Zirkzee, Mazraoui and Eriksen for the goal though. We saw brilliant link up play between from the trio mentioned above which left Eriksen with an easy finish. WOW! Ugarte saved us in the first half from a CERTAIN goal, with a stunning sliding block across the goal line. Just take a second to w...

Problems in the dugout and on the pitch for United

This blog has been created as part of a Marketing assignment at Strathclyde University. As a long-term football fan, and Manchester United fan, I’m taking this opportunity to discuss some of the struggles my childhood club have been facing in the past decade as well as current, week-to-week easy-to-understand analysis of our performances and players. I am dedicating this first post to a short discussion about management and structure at the club. So far with the new season I am seeing more individual errors, with Casemiro a name to mention. With the signing of Ugarte I fully expect his game time to be reduced significantly as he has become a liability. Nobody will be surprised if he is sold in the January transfer window. Then we reach the problem with the manager; can anybody actually tell me Erik-Ten Hags style of play? It has been 3 years and I still could not tell you his style of play or what he brings to the club. It is frustrating to watch us be...

Struggles at the Stretford End

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