Ten Hag has made fatal mistake Klopp avoided that could cost him Man United job

Ten Hag has made fatal mistake Klopp avoided that could cost him Man United job

Not everything at Manchester United is good. The Red Devils are off to their worst start to a season since 1962–1963, having lost eight of their first fifteen games.

At the midway point of the Champions League group stages, they are eight points behind Liverpool and the top four in the Premier League standings and in eighth place. Their losses to Galatasaray and Bayern Munich further make it difficult for them to advance.

Their most recent low was a 3-0 loss to Newcastle United at Old Trafford on Wednesday night in the League Cup fourth round. They had won the competition last year, their first and only trophy since 2017, at Wembley in February against the same opponents.

Their setback to the Magpies was their second straight 3-0 loss at Old Trafford; only a few days prior, they had been destroyed by local rivals Man City in the Manchester derby. As a result, it seems likely that Erik ten Hag, the manager of the Premier League, will be the next to go; the Times claims that the Dutchman is “on thin ice” and that the club is looking at other options. He has only been employed for eighteen months.

All is clearly not right at Old Trafford when you factor in the off-field turmoil, which includes the expulsion of Cristiano Ronaldo and Jadon Sancho after arguments with their manager, well-documented scandals of much greater severity and the moral conundrums they raise, and the ongoing saga surrounding the Glazers’ ownership of the team and potential takeover.

For any club, such undesirable news off the field would be a distraction. However, given that they continue to be jeered both at halftime and after the final whistle against Newcastle, only Ten Hag and his players can truly know how much they are affecting the United dressing room and their performances.

Nevertheless, the Dutchman has pledged to persevere, stating that he is the ideal candidate to halt Old Trafford’s continuous decline that began with Sir Alex Ferguson’s departure in 2013.

After Newcastle’s defeat, he remarked, “I understand when the results are not there it is logical they are questioning that (Ten Hag’s position).” But I’m sure I can pull it off.

We are in a difficult situation right now, and I accept responsibility for it. However, I’m a warrior. It’s a challenge to me.

“It is below the standards everyone expects from Manchester United.”It has to be corrected because it is far from satisfactory. I accept accountability for it. They are not playing well, and that is my team.”

We’ve had a lot of setbacks so far this season, but you can never use that as an excuse; you always need to produce results. Clearly, Sunday and this evening were not at all like that.”

In Ten Hag’s first season as manager, United not only won the League Cup but also placed third in the Premier League to qualify for the Champions League again. However, the fact that Chelsea, Tottenham Hotspur, and Liverpool were all having bad seasons unavoidably helped these attempts.

Even though the latter may still be having difficulties, United’s chances of making it to the Champions League this season are already diminished by the Reds’ and Spurs’ recent surge to the top four. Ten Hag’s “progress” at Old Trafford since signing from Ajax in the summer of 2022 is naturally being reevaluated. He was also outplayed in last year’s FA Cup final defeat to Man City and Europa League quarterfinal elimination by Sevilla.

It would be simple, of course, to blame his dressing room. After all, since Ferguson left the team ten years ago, United has stuck to the same formula. When things go hard, they disappear, whether it’s under David Moyes, Louis van Gaal, Jose Mourinho, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, Ralf Rangnick, or Ten Hag.

Ten Hag should undoubtedly find this to be an even harder pill to swallow given that he has previously worked with five of his current players at Ajax or Utrecht, was instrumental in bringing four of them to Old Trafford, and has been able to spend an incredible £412 million on new players over the last three transfer windows thanks to United’s support in his high-profile battles with Ronaldo and Sancho.

Of that sum, just £191 million went into bringing the three former Ajax players Lisandro Martinez, Antony, and Andre Onana back together. For the record, he had previously collaborated with Donny van de Beek as the Dutch powerhouse’s manager, and Sofyan Amrabat, the club’s most recent loan addition, was a player for Ten Hag at Utrecht.

Ten Hag certainly knows these former Ajax players better than most, as only four of the fifteen players have ever made over 100 games under his tutelage. But do they even meet the necessary standards?

Yes, Martinez had a great start to his career at Old Trafford prior to an injury, but Antony, the second-most expensive player in the club’s history, has turned out to be a big-money bust. Onana, however, is struggling to replace David de Gea after a dismal debut to his United career riddled with mistakes.

Van de Beek may not have been acquired by Ten Hag for United, but since rejoining his former manager in Amsterdam, the midfielder has never been able to replicate his prior success. Regarding Amrabat, he seems to be a last-minute rush purchase from Fiorentina, who hasn’t shown that they can keep up with the brisk tempo of English football thus far.

Liverpool supporters will not be unaware that Ryan Gravenberch is another player who has played more than 100 games for Ten Hag.He was a £40 million deadline-day acquisition from Bayern Munich, and under Jurgen Klopp at Anfield, he is thriving while his former teammates struggle at Old Trafford.

Only five players have played for the German at Mainz and Borussia Dortmund, and he has never reunited with any of his former Liverpool teammates despite prior attempts to sign Christian Pulisic and Mario Gotze for the Reds.

In the end, he preferred to start over with fresh concepts, and when the Reds developed under his direction, it became evident that they were superior. The advantages of a clean slate are evident in the way Gravenberch has begun his Liverpool career, having jumped at the chance to work under Klopp and turn around his career after faltering at Bayern.

On the other hand, Man United are once again regressing after making some initial progress under Ten Hag. Furthermore, it is undeniable that the players the Dutchman has reconnected with are somewhat to responsible for the issue, even though his entire squad is currently failing them.

Ten Hag’s position is further undermined by their staggering losses in comparison to the outrageous transfer fees, raising further doubts about his judgment. While Onana keeps making mistakes, the £86.3 million signing of Antony appears to be among the worst transfer deals in Premier League history. Furthermore, the goal of these high-profile additions is ostensibly to help the team advance.

Then, how many of the players currently at Old Trafford has he genuinely improved since joining more than 18 months ago? Once more, it stands in sharp contrast to Klopp’s personal experiences since taking over as Liverpool manager in October 2015.

And even though the Reds had their worst season ever under the German last year, the club continued to believe in him to turn things around, thus he never once lost the dressing room. Indeed, after spending £150 million on a midfield makeover to address an aging roster that was stalled in transition, Liverpool appears to be back on track while their fierce rivals find themselves back in crisis mode.

It was noted on social media this week that the Reds were enjoying their first steps of rebirth in the 11th season after their last title win, winning a cup treble under Gerard Houllier and qualifying for the Champions League for the first time – four years before being crowned champions of Europe in Istanbul. This puts their current situation against Liverpool and their own 30-year drought to be crowned champions of England again into context.

At this point at Old Trafford, United seems to be regressing even farther. Ten Hag was supposed to be “their Klopp,” the manager who would bring the team together and lead them to success, but the evidence to date points to a different conclusion. It is obvious that things will deteriorate before they can possibly begin to improve.

Man United is still a broken team with an even more damaged locker room. Over the past ten years, we have all witnessed countless instances of managerial turnover. The situation always comes to one conclusion, and it is nearly hard to stop the downward spiral.

Even though Ten Hag may not yet be a broken manager, he still has a lot of work ahead of him to change the situation at Old Trafford, as club executives are apparently beginning to look for alternatives. The next half a year will be critical.

They are already eliminated from the League Cup, and they will play five away games from Old Trafford before playing Chelsea at the beginning of December. They will first go to Newcastle United. They play Bayern Munich at home to wrap up their Champions League group stage before visiting Liverpool on December 17—still stinging from their 7-0 loss at Anfield the previous season—to continue their journey.

A journey like this could be the last straw for Ten Hag at United if his luck doesn’t change soon. That’s assuming he can make it there at all, as doubts over whether he is the best candidate for the position are unlikely to go away very soon.