Ever since Erik ten Hag arrived, he’s breathed new life into a dying club bringing with him fresh talent, world class players and bringing the United stars back to peak performance. In just under a year Erik ten Hag has brought a struggling side to 3rd place and Carabao Cup glory. Last season before Erik joined, Ralf Rangnick’s side were in 7th and having a horrible time, the fans where losing hope and after nine years since winning our last title, that was understandable. They wanted Rangnick out!
Enter Erik ten Hag, manager at the time of Ajax and assistant manager to Pep Guardiola at Bayern Munich. To say the man has worked with some incredible people and has had some great achievements, is an understatement – he’s a football legend! When he arrived he had his naysayers, but he was the spark United needed. He has brought Rashford back to life, strengthened the defence and created one of the best attacks in the English Premier League.
One of ten Hag’s greatest skills is taking advantage of what he has got. He’s not broken the bank, nor made any insane transfers, he’s just brought out the shine in what he already had. But one, if not the greatest things he’s done for the club, is bringing in the Brazilian brick wall Casemiro. The man is a defensive beast. He makes strong tackles, has good ball movement, and can score goals. He’s the cog the United team were missing ans he’s been integral to the team’s midfield and overall play.
The other big transfer Erik has made is another Brazilian, his pal from Ajax, the magical Antony. He’s skilful, fast and has some of the best dribbling moves in the Prem. His spin confuses his opponents, making it easy for him to glide through defences and make good opportunities. He has a very strong cross, making him good at assists. His finishing isn’t perfect, but he has it when it counts, and he’s working constantly on improving it. He expertly kicks the ball giving it enough height and speed to glide into the back of any net.
By far ten Hag’s best transfer value is the Danish midfielder Christian Ericksen. He’s fast, agile and can score goals. For a time he was one of the top assisters in the league, but all this has bean halted thanks to a vicious tackle by Andy Carroll which resulted in Ericksen suffering a severe knee injury causing him to be unable to play until mid-April. A real shame and a huge blow to United’s midfield. This caused ten Hag to bring in another player, his friend from Bayern Munich, the mighty midfielder Marcel Sabitzer on transfer. He’s skilful on the ball and can score goals. On the 19th of March in the FA cup quarterfinals, Sabitzer scored his first goal in a United Shirt by flipping the ball over the keeper and into the net after an expert assist from Luke Shaw.
Ten Hag also brought in two World Cup winning defenders, Raphael Varane and Lisandro Martinez. These two are defensive steel alongside club legends Aaron Wan-Bissaka and Luke Shaw making this back line almost impenetrable. Their legendary keeper David de Gea is now the longest serving United keeper. This team is legendary!
Ten Hag has also brought in the Netherlands forward Wout Weghorst who pushes the ball up the pitch with purpose, as well as being a strong defensive asset. He’s great at assisting goals, making strong tackles and crosses, has a strong shot, can score powerful goals, all as evidenced in his hat trick against Argentina.
Ten Hag’s team are truly a force to be reckoned with all led by the fearless Bruno Fernandez and, the header king, Harry Maguire. This team has been completely re-engineered from a dying wreck into a trophy winning side once more. Just last week they made the semi-finals of the FA cup and became quarterfinalists in the Europa League. This side is not perfect by any means, but ten Hag is well on his way to making Old Trafford into the impenetrable fortress it once was.
Behind the scenes though there are some problems the club need to tackle such as the many problems with Old Trafford, the stadium, and how its falling into disrepair, the roof leaks, the rat problems, the peeling paint, the outdated facilities; the whole stadium basically needs to be renovated.
Carrington also came under scrutiny for its outdated facilities by Cristiano Ronaldo last year. On the 5th of April 2022 United announced a multimillion revamp of this famous training ground. To update its training facilities the club are also seeking player input as part of this revamp, so they know what to replace and improve. But more work still needs to be done to stay on top.
All these issues should be resolved by United’s new owners whoever they might be. Hopefully they will invest the money needed in the club. With the two main bids for United being submitted by The Qatar government and by Sir Jim Ratcliffe through INEOS, the final bids are being made this week. Qatar have already detailed their redevelopment plan to fix all the main issues with the club, but human rights concerns have been razed by many.
Newcastle united also are owned by the Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, which likewise razed human rights concerns due to Saudi Arabia’s not great human rights record.
Other clubs like Manchester City have Middle Eastern owners although in Manchester City’s case it’s Sheikh Mansour from UAE, a country which doesn’t give rise to the same human rights concerns as Qatar and Saudi Arabia.
Sir Jim Ratcliff’s INEOS are trying to appeal to the fans and with Sir Jim being a United fan since his childhood, he says it’s his passion. INEOS also own other major sports teams such as Lausanne-Sport based in Switzerland, Nice in France, as well as having a third share in the Mercedes F1 team.
This is a huge step for United because the Glazers are widely reported was having taken a lot of money out of the club in dividends and not sufficiently reinvested back into the club. The Glazers have treated it more like an investment and haven’t tried hard enough to further the club or its team and facilities.
The Glazers also took the club into debt which was as high as £203.6 million in 2019 effectively killing the club’s growth. The Glazers had no ambition nor were investing the money required to keep the club at the forefront of European football. This, combined with bad manager performances, stupidly expensive transfers like Paul Pogba and his £89M fee, has killed the club. It’s been 10 years since United last won a title in 2013 and 11 years since Sir Alex retired and handed the reins to David Moyes. All these factors have contributed to the downfall of United over the past 10 years and let other clubs rise to prominence in our absence, such as Arsenal, Liverpool, and Manchester City.
But now United are back. Ten Hag has the vision, strategies, and tactics to take us back to the top and he is the true successor Fergie looked for all those years ago. It’s “Fergie Time” again! Coupled with potential new owners, United are becoming a force to be reckoned with once more. So, bring on Wembley …. for the reds go marching on .. on … on!
Ten Hag’s strategies
So why are these strategies of ten Hag so good? Well, the one thing ten Hag is expert at is exploiting the best of each of his players. He knows how they play, their skills and weaknesses, and he positions them and trains them around this. His most common formation is the 4-2-3-1 which consists of 4 defenders in a straight line, 2 central midfielders and 3 attacking midfielders instead of wingers. He plays a lone striker up front who can drop back down into midfield giving Rashford on the left wing chance to drift across into a more centralised area. Ten Hag has also previously used the 4-1-4-1 formation most famously against Barcelona in the Europa League. This formation is heavily reliant on Casemiro being the lone defensive midfielder allowing him to drop back and form a 5-man defence which is super effective. This formation is very balanced but practically has no midfield.
Ten-Hag has created 2 wonder kids in Facundo Pellistri and Alejandro Garnacho. These 2 have been incredible for the reds this season. The 22 and 20 year old have greatly impacted the reds performance, to the point of Garnacho becoming a starter for them this season and scoring increasable goals when he needs to.
Ten-Hag has revived Luke Shaw and Aron Wan-Bisaka to become great attacking defenders one again to the point where Luke Shaw is one again considered in the debate of the greatest attacking left backs in the Premier League.
Ten-Hag relies heavily on his defenders and CDM (Casemiro) due to his formation and play style being very attacking centric focused on the attacking press and scoring goals Ten-Hags United can play a position based game as well meaning they can make chances all of these factors have culminated in the revival of the club and the return to a top finishing position, not even Fergie won a trophy in his first season at United.
I’m very excited to what the progression of the club over the next few years its truly a very exciting time for United, and:
NEXT YEAR – THE TREBLE HERE WE COME!