After 38 matches in the 2023/2024 season, Erik ten Hag's well-paid team wrapped up with the worst-ever English Premier League finish. https://www.espn.com/soccer/story/_/id/40172669/man-united-premier-league-worst-ever-finish When first appointed, Erik ten Hag (EtH) showed much promise by becoming the fastest Manchester United manager to reach 20 competitive wins, achieving the feat in 27 games in the season 2022/2023. Nevertheless, MU suffered its heaviest defeat in history with its with their traditional rival Liverpool 7-0 at Anfield. He bagged the EFL Cup for his first season effort.
As you can see, one of the biggest problems that remained to be the Achille's Heel until today is the goal differences. Amongst the top 5 in the Season 2022/2023, MU had the lowest number of goal differences among the top 5 finishers.
One of the greatest features in MU is the number of goals scored back in Sir Alex Ferguson's days. He had ensured that the team scored plenty of goals and the strikers were amongst the Golden Boots players or strong contenders. Notable winners included Ruud van Nistelrooy (25), Cristiano Ronaldo (31), Dimitar Berbatov (20), Robin van Persie (26) - and it ended in 2012/2013 season. Some 11 years back. Number of goals scored by the individual in brackets ( ). This was thought to have been resolved with the introduction of Rasmus Hojlund, who after 30 matches scored 10 goals and 2 assists with his first goal created in the EPL after 14 games without finding the net. https://www.unitedinfocus.com/opinion/rasmus-hojlund-defends-himself-over-first-season-scrutiny-at-man-utd-but-he-should-never-have-had-to/
Season 2023/2024 The Day of Infamy
Worst ever finished in EPL history. Here's why. Despite spending big on transfers at £167.4m for the season, Man Utd failed because of
Injuries sustained by key players and when they came back, they were never the same. Marcus Rashford was notable and instrumental at one point. Somehow, the physio failed unlike the days of SAF where he had Rob Swire as the Head Physio.
Lost of concentration. Diego Dalot was amongst the best players but his last few games were suicidal at best. We lost at dying minutes due to unnecessary giveaways and penalties.
New goalkeeper. Andre Onana was pretty unproven and took a bit of time to get his shoelaces done despite being named 5th best in the world for 2023. David De Gea was just as bad during his first year at MU but became a key player thereafter.
Poor decisions by EtH. He had made some terrible decisions in selections and substitutes. He should have introduced the right type of players and given a chance to young players earlier on like Manoo and Amad that had proven themselves at the later stage of the games. Introducing Garnacho was probably one of his best decisions.
Working as a team. The hallmark for past successes of a Man Utd team is that they work together as a team. Too many individualistic selfish plays and the striker such as Hojlund did not get much of a service. The best game was Man Utd vs Liverpool at the FA Cup quarter-final where everyone worked together to ensure that they won at the death. Despite handed a lower league Coventry and were leading 3-0 comfortably, the game finished at 3-3 draw, went into overtime and was fortunate to have a last-minute decision given to them otherwise Coventry would have been in the final and trooped out alive after the penalty. All-in-all, the team failed the fans and the Manager.
Should Erik ten Hag be sacked?
EtH joined Ajax in 2017, where he won three Eredivisie titles, two KNVB Cups, and led the team to the semi-finals of the 2018–19 UEFA Champions League. He was then appointed as Manchester United's manager in 2022.
Early first half of the season when Chelsea was languishing at 12th place, fans were baying for its club manager's Mauricio Pochettino's blood. They ended up finishing 6th place and may be good for the Europa League provided Man Utd does not win the FA Cup. EtH was said to have spent £407m on transfers during his tenure. However, compared to the £1billion transfer fees by Chelsea, he would have said to make a good deal to restructure the team. Nevertheless, there needs to be a microscope on his buys like the £88.3m spent on Antony who turned out to be a big see-saw. Mind you though, Antony's saving grace was getting Man Utd into the FA Cup semi-final scoring at the 87 min. for a 2-2 before a legendary win 4-3 in the dying minutes. The question is whether there's a conflict of interest to buy at such a high cost for a low-returning player. EtH failed to invigorate the team. He relied too much on the services of Marcus Rashford, Scott McTominay and Bruno Fernandes, the team captain even though they had bad performances over a length of time. Crucially, Fernandes was not as talismanic as he was in the previous year. My take: I would have begged for Man Utd management to consider retaining EtH for just one more year as I would have requested the same for Jose Mourinho. Sir Alex Ferguson took a bit of time to settle the club but when he did, he made it a legacy thereafter. Not at fault: If the spate of injuries is the reason for putting out-of-position players like Casemiro as a defender when he is best as a defense midfielder. At fault: If it is bad tactics and strategy because that's what a manager is hired for.
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