The debate is raging over Erik ten Hag’s future at Manchester United after a majorly underwhelming FA Cup semi-final performance.
Erik ten Hag is proud of reaching the FA Cup final for a second successive season. But that won’t count for much if Manchester United lose the final to City again.
Momentarily, there is plenty of reflection on the team giving up a three goal lead against Coventry City.
Manager Erik ten Hag is under major scrutiny, with the team’s collapse doing him no favours. Gary Neville believes his job will be safe if he wins the final, but clearly, that is a big if.
Erik ten Hag ‘on trial’
Manchester United have appointed technical director Jason Wilcox, and he was at Wembley along with the Ineos senior team, including Sir Jim Ratcliffe and Sir Dave Brailsford.
With Wilcox making an assessment over what he finds over the next month, The Telegraph report Erik ten Hag is effectively ‘on trial’ between now and the end of the season.
The manager has been dealing with injury issues all season, but there are major questions over his tactics, with the team too open, from the very first day of the campaign through to now.
Former Manchester United defender Rio Ferdinand believes there is a critical mistake Ten Hag made by not changing the team’s style.
Erik ten Hag’s error
Speaking to Five, Rio Ferdinand said Erik ten Hag should have shifted to a more defensive style and taken a pragmatic approach to deal with the ongoing injury crisis.
He said if Ten Hag had done this, supporters and media may have been more sympathetic, and acknowledged that he is managing in difficult circumstances.
He said: “If he set up to become a counter-attacking team, and said ‘we’ve got too many injuries and can’t play any other way’, boom, he probably would have been guaranteed his job next year on that basis.
“We wouldn’t have been as open, wouldn’t have conceded as many shots, and wouldn’t have lost as many games I’m sure, but its difficult.”
In some ways, Ten Hag should be admired for sticking to his principles, but his preferred style is too high-risk, conceding an excessive number of shots per game, and is hard to watch from week to week.
Adopting a totally defensive approach would have brought it’s fair share of criticism too, especially if he did so against lower league opponents like Coventry, but a more rigid defensive structure is certainly needed.
United have been easy for teams to play against this season. Some of that is on the players and the poorly constructed squad, hit by injuries, and some of that is on the manager.
It is too late to expect he changes his style heading into the final month of the season.