A much clearer and definitive break down of United's problems than any mainstream media, without resorting to lazy stereotypes or character assassinations. Adam is the best football analyst on YT.
Right? I feel like i watched so many videos but this one is so makes actual analysis rather than having an agenda to blame the manager or certain players
It is so much clearer when an analysis is backed up by facts and figures! Thank you for this. I was among the many who begged to give ETH another chance after our FA Cup win last season thinking there was a turn-around on the horizon, but things just ended up much the same.
TEN HAG wasn't that BAD Man Utd won TWO trophies in TWO seasons Ole gunna as Manager did zero trophies in TWO seasons Do you expect Man Utd to win 4 trophies in one season ? ALL OTHER PREVIOUS MANAGERS BEFORE OLE GUNNA WERE WORSE THAN TEN HAG except ALEX FERGUSON !!!
I don’t know why more actual football shows don’t use the pictographs you do when providing analysis. Makes it so clear and easy to follow. Great work as always Adam.
I said this several times. ETH was too stubborn. I love me a manager that's flexible, be ready to make as much tactical adjustments as possible so far as you outsmart your opposition.
Thats the thing - he needed to realise that what works in medium level leagues, might not work in a very top level league. He should have taken a step back and tried something different or more conservative - but he was all too easily found out by some of the worlds best managers.
@@krisbanksayange5065My preference is the guardiola type managers who have a core philosophy and makes changes according to the circumstances without breaking away from the core principles. Allows flexibility all while maintaining an identity. But it takes an extremely intelligent manager to do that and keep a balance.
@@idk-dz3fo as a Porto fan i can tell you now, you just described Amorim. In 4 years his 3 4 3 evolved in amazing ways, the core principles never changed though.
ETH wanted players to fit his sytem, but he should rather adapt a system with the players he's got instead. but yeah stubborn is probably the right word.
Adam makes the best football-related analysis anywhere in media. Very level-headed, respectful and seems to hit it on the head everytime with how he interprets a teams tactics.
United fan of 40 years, Adam. Thanks for your entertaining videos. Anyone who watches all the games who knows a bit about football could see perfectly what you just described. He never had the midfielder (6) he needed to play the way he wanted to play and many other things he did just didn't make sense. The system was dependant on not making errors in high risk situations but also dependant on taking the risks that lead to errors. It was a semi-suicidal system. After we had watched Fred be catastrophic near his own goal with the ball at his feet for years the first thing Erik did was try him at number 6 in this 'play out from the back' risky tactic that requires a goalkeeper with feet, technical defenders and a top number 6. He had De Gea, Maguire, Wan Bissaka, Fred and Varane... none of whom are comfortable with that. How him, or any of his coaching staff thought that would work was insane. He changed it and got his midfielders closer together and went long. This actually worked and after Ronaldo f*cked off (because his ego couldn't handle his wage cut and the fact his legs wouldn't do what his brain told them any more) they started to look ok, even with Weghorst up front. Rashford scored goals and united were killing teams on the break with pace and the players seemed to be playing with less pressure. The problem was that he ran his first 11 into the ground in the autumn/spring of the first season and had this mantra of "we have to win every game because we're Man Utd". This is of course, bollocks. If he had rotated, sacrificed the FA cUP after the first trophy win and thought ahead, his squad would have been very capable of winning the Europa League as well as the League Cup during that first season. They ended up getting battered because there was nothing left in the tank and reports of training being too intense as well probably didn't help matters. The results fell off dramatically in March 2023 and never really recovered. In fairness to him.. during the 2nd season he suffered a horrendous injury crisis and at times inexplicable collective loss of form on the fit playing staff the likes I've never seen in 40 years. When you look at your team and the best you can get out of your players is a 4 out of ten you're in big trouble. The Cup Final was great but it did have the feel of an underdog win because the football Gods had just decided that a City win was too obvious. When the whole world is so convinced of a certain outcome for such a long time it often happens and I was glad I placed the bet I did. He did not know how to play against teams that are stronger either. He went to City in the first season and instead of doing what Solskjaer did (which actually worked) he ignored that, benched Fred and left Eriksen in there looking lost against a superior midfield. He consistently dropped points or did not gain them when smarter game plans or in game decisions would have changed things. Sequences of games where he should have gained 6 or 8 points more with the quality of his players were a common trend. Sometimes you just have to know how to get a draw away from home against a team that is in better form than you. You do not do it by playing 6 up front and having a non existent midfield. I like Erik and I think he really got the club. He took a battering from the press when it wasn't always justified but he always took it like a man and tolerated far more than any other manager would have and remained composed. He was very respectful of the History and the Munich memorial service which he attended unlike some other managers post Ferguson.. he just had a blind spot, or stubborness, or inability to understand the league he was in and how it works. Ultimately, philosophy is moot if you can't get the message across, don't have the correct personnel and can't get the players to do it consistently. The league, in the end was too strong for him and where United are as a club at this moment in time to implement what he was trying to do. New guy plays 3 at the back, inverted wide men and flying wing backs. That should give you something to get your teeth into for the next Man Utd related video. It might actually suit the players if they can motivate themselves to actually work harder than their opponents (which people forget is often the key to winning football matches).
You are spot on. He went and ran his team into the ground in the post world cup, cup run. We faded so hard after the League Cup win and beating Barcelona. Sad fate for Erik, I also liked him but it didn't work out.
They have so much more in common than you give credit for. Both are male, both are professional football managers, both have ten fingers each, two eyes, both have the letter 'e' in their name, both are from Europe, both probably have a dog, certainly they both own a pair of shoes. So much in common.
I can name a few more: they both played a turgid brand of football (whether forced or deliberate), they are also the only two managers since Sir Alex retired to win two trophies for the club, they both had a season finishing in the top 4 but being miles off Man City, and so on.
There are so many contradicting factors in the United squad, and this video highlights problems that fans have known about for years. Why buy Rasmus Hojlund? When the profile of player that fit the squad was more like Wout Weghorst and the ideal signing was Harry Kane, why go for a player who doesn't match that profile in any way? Like Arsenal and Liverpool have a system where the centre forward is more a facilitator than a goalscorer, but United decided the best solution was to get somebody closer to Haaland. Only City have spent years culminating a squad and culture that is super creative and just needs a body that scores goals in the middle. Thats why City could play that way regardless of the striker being Aguero, Jesus, Alvarez, Torres. United wanted to do the same but asking "shoot first" players like Rashford, Antony, Garnacho, and even Bruno, to be the engine. You end up with a system that works for nobody. Ten Hag spoke about the influence on what he was brought in to do, his original mission from the Glazers, to be pro-active out of possession and to control games in possession. But did they sign centre backs who allowed for that? Aside from Martinez, and just this summer De Ligt and Yoro (yet to play a game), no. So a pro-active pressing plan was needed but a pragmatic defensive line had to be used. It's only this season that this has been fixed, and United have conceded fewer chances and fewer goals, but they haven't scored goals to win games because the attacking unit still suits nobody. And as much as people bound around that figure of the £600+ million spent or the £100m on Antony, the real problem and the thing nobody seems to wrap their head around is that over the 11 years since Ferguson left, £1.5 billion has been spent on a squad that is not suited to any style of play, that is full of ageing players and overpaid egos, and we can't get rid of them. It will take years for Ineos to truly dig out the rot at this club and ultimately Ten Hag is just another part of that rot.
@@SimianWonder As a fellow Liverpool supporter, I'm still fuming ETH leaves with a record of 2W-2D-2L against us. He should've been in the job until he received the beating at Anfield that his shit tactics deserved!
Adam, you just put down exactly what went wrong at United, we as fans just cannot put a finger and say what is the main cause of the failure, but your video and the explanation has shed some light and it was very enlightening. I have subscribe to your channel. Keep doing your thing.
I think you summed it up very well. Coming up on 60 years as a United fan and it feels a lot like the relegation season. The players didn't seem to buy into what he was trying to do and it's easy to understand why. So now we go to a young Portuguese manager and he's a great fit etc...just like Eric was. At this stage I'd settle for them playing 5 at the back and hoofing the ball to a big lad up front. Anything at but getting a drubbing from every team that turns up and puts a shift in. Another page turns
Great analysis Adam. Particularly the part about Onana near the beginning. Whilst he's done well this season, I was so excited about us signing him due to the risky nature that he played with in terms of coming out the box, playing one-twos and getting involved in play. In a season and a few months so far, all I've seen him doing for us is staying on the edge of the box, slowing play down and playing the most simple passes or long diagonals. It reaks of a fear of criticism or making mistakes. Amorim or the next manager if not him should free Onana a little more, alongside all the other issues we clearly have.
@@indexpictures as bad as we are, comments like this are so unjustified. there is no club with the power or prestige like us in england and so, as bad as we are and have been, we will eventually get it right because we won't stop being the biggest club in the country and so we will will the league and cl a lot sooner than people think
@@ryan_lmao you are the 2nd biggest club in england by every metric except "fans in africa" & again, you will not win in the next 20 years. you have City, Liverpool, Arsenal, Chelsea, Villa, Spurs to overhaul first. 7th is your ceiling
@notreal1477 But in the one season Arteta took the cups seriously he won. His aim was always to improve in the league, ten Hag failed at league football
Absolutely nailed it. It was incredibly discouraging watching what you talked about unfold over the last few years. Terrible tactics and bad luck with VAR have turned this into period of just unwatchable football at United. Glad that the page is being turned, but it feels like we are still looking at a 2 or 3 year period before United are relevant again.
Would love to see a vid on Glasner’s turnaround with Palace, what they were doing right last year, why they were so dreadful to start this season, and how they’ve turned it around to beat two champions league teams in the span of 4 days!
United did very well in their first season with erik because he adapted his system to what he had at his disposal pretty well, this was of course after those first few games where he tried to have his way completely with a squad nowhere near suited for it. Plus casemiro was still one of the best around. Then, come next season, after a few more transfers, he abandoned the system that served him well the season before and tried the system he wanted all along. This went woefully, any of the players who were used to or would've done well in this system were out injured and none of the rest of the squad were used to playing that way and or were suited to the system. Nevertheless, ten hag sacrificed that season for the greater good of getting his system he wanted from the start more implemented, I mean, he swapped de gea for onana so he really had to do that. Casemiro also lost his legs and he was by far their best player the season prior. And now we reach this season, a few more transfers, a few more injuries, players underperforming instead of overperforming like they had the previous two seasons (which saved ten hag massively) no real progress is visible to most eyes, and you get kicked out the door. The main thing I'll never get is, why did he spend so much on hojlund? The kid is honestly superb but he never suited what erik was trying to do? Did he hope he could morph him into the next great drop in, hold up, flick on and link up striker? Simply bizarre.
One thing you're missing. Ten Hag wanted Harry Kane with Hodjlund being the young up and coming striker off the bench. It was the board who decided to take a punt on Ten Hags backup targets
@@EvieWillNotDie Disagree tbh. Expecting a young player to adapt to pretty much the opposite playstyle they've played for their entire lives just doesn't work. He's as far removed from that type of striker as you can get. Everyone thought united would change how they played when he was signed, but it was just the same thing with a striker that didnt fit
This literally happened at the end of the video about Arsenal vs Liverpool! 😂 Go and give it a watch, it's really funny. Excellent skewering of Carragher and Keane halfway through as well.
LOL this was the most respectful way you could have ever said that most things he done was shxt. This is an actual skill. Also, I know my analysis is bang on when I sound exactly like you! Love the videos!
He hung himself with his transfer seasons. First season he adapted. Many of the games were won exactly because of the changes he made that he was criticized for being terrible at in season 2 and 3. Antony did have his RB overlap him the first season though he also rarely chose to use it and often was out of sync when he did do it. That first season almost nobody got any rest. Everyone was overplayed and two of the best players were aging stop gap signings, one of which cost a fortune. It didn't help that Casemiro was doing great before his legs died in the second half and every time he'd get subbed the fans would complain "the best DM" has to go off for McFred. The domino effect was a long time coming. To make it even worse, I think he thought he got Eriksen as a squad player and was going to sign a great number 8 to start, with Eriksen being a rotation for Bruno. You can go back to an early Eriksen interview where he talks that he then thought he was going to play in attacking midfield, safe to assume not ahead of Bruno. Nobody has forgotten the De Jong chase disaster. A lot went wrong and with some dark magic they managed third with some of the scrappiest wins. Come season 2 everyone got injured to no real surprise. Not having a left back to overlap Rashford killed his game entirely along with not recognizing he prefers to shoot a lot more than create. Højlund being the only striker really available at all instead of getting minutes after Martial, who fits Rashford perfectly, made it even worse. Ten Hag must have not liked the comments he was playing Oleball in season 1 and had nothing to offer of his own, so he kept trying to force his way after because he'd get the sack if he spent all that money to hover around 5th position for three years playing "the same" as the last manager. It's all or nothing and he got nothing, sort of. Almost nobody that should have been sold after season 1 was and same goes for the second one. The squad average age did improve, but everyone cost too much money and there was no way he'd be able to get all the young players to perform like a team in its second or third stage of rebuild. He agreed with Rangnick on the open heart surgery statement and was talking like he did understand they need to sign a lot of players, but the prices he was agreeing on being spent made no sense. Surely, instead of getting incredibly young Yoro for that large sum on a huge wage and never managing to play him, he could have gotten a left back and an experienced temporary CB to fit his style in the present time. Getting yet another developmental player as a striker in a team in its third year of rebuild didn't help. It's like he thought he had 5 more seasons and 3 billion to finish his team, or that the next transfer season will be the good one where they buy low and sell high.
Good analysis, you forgot de gea got him 3rd, the wins were scrappy the football was rubbish, I seen it from game 2 first season, all relying on individual players , it was rubbish.
ETH 650 million, 2 years, 2 trophies. Artetta, 600million , 6 years, 1 trophy. History will retrospectively look kindly upon him same as it has with moyes and mou.
@@notreal1477 Why bring up Arteta? Is winning the League Cup and FA Cup as opposed to just the FA Cup, for 50M extra, the barometer for success? United are arguably no better now than when Ole was fired - but with 650M spent.
Recruitment has been baffling, even during Ineos' time in charge. United had been lacking a LB who can stay fit all season yet none were signed during the last 2 seasons when it's obvious both Shaw and Malacia are struggling to get fit. Then we have also know United have the softest midfield in the Premier League and again no signings were made until Ugarte. Signing Casemiro is a panic-driven mistake. And to this day, Christian Eriksen remains an important midfield option and that speaks for itself, no disrespect to the player. And we are still short of options in the middle once Mainoo gets injured. The point is, there is no strategic transfer plan to address the more pressing shortcomings in the squad. And we've had 5 windows already since ten Hag got the job. Though not all blame is on him when it comes to transfers.
They realistically had to spend money where they spent anyway. With Varane gone, they needed a top level CB who is ready now, thus MDL. Whereas even with Yoro, albeit injured, they still had to play Evans a lot. On the flip side, without Martial, there was no striker the whole of last season to back up Hojlund, so someone like Zirkzee would had been coming. Whereas Maz is a very good RB, better than AWB on the ball. I feel they had a eye on Ugarte the whole off season, but PSR consideration meant they had to wait till McT was sold to have the funds to buy Ugarte. I would say the midfield isn't actually that terrible, there is a rotation of Casemiro, Eriksen, Mainoo and Ugarte, with Mount if he is ever fit, but that the player they are missing is not a Mainoo back up, but an Eriksen back up. On the LB side, yeah, I agree on that. But going into the off season, Shaw was at least fit enough to take part in the Euros, the team could had suddenly found themselves with 3 LBs if Malacia progressed well. But a whole season of both injured meant you would want at least a temporary proper solution anyway, rather than ask 2 players who was out for most of the year to play the entire season.
The United midfield could be good with Mainoo, Ugarte, Mount, Casemiro and Collyer to pick from. ETH tactics exposed the midfield, big time. Playing either Eriksen or Casemiro alongside Mainoo was ridiculous both lack pace and the energy to cover so much space. Also the front 4 press was pathetic, only Hojlund and Bruno seemed to know when and how to press. Rashford and Garnacho are both awful of the ball, whether that was down to laziness or not knowing what to do, i don't know but i would guess laziness. Also both are so selfish on the ball, put a cross in !!!! I'm fed up of them both cutting inside then shooting.
Thanks for the analysis & stats...for all of this time watching utd under ETH ive seen exactly this with my eyes....but never dissected it so thoroughly. Honestly its a relief to see that my eyes werent lying... so many many problems & to be honest this could have been a 2 hrs video. Ultimately the lack of crosses, lack of positioning, massive chances & XG conceded...not to mention how lucky we were to get a few last min goals... its a horror show... ETHs lack of communication, stubborness, lack of charisma just compounded all of this... The losses to Liverpool alone were shambolic but the so called lesser teams destroyed us too...even coventry coming back for 3-0 down... Ineos could easily have sacked ETH the moment they came in last dec... he was literally saved by a quirk of fate...the takeover not being official until Feb 24, the FA cup miracle & the fact Ashworth & Berrada weren't in place until Mid July. I just get the sense he'd have been gone much earlier if any or all of these timings were earlier... I believe Berrada & Ashworth realised if theyd sacked him in mid july...they'd only have 1 month to get a new manager, makes sales & purchases... so begrudgingly bit the 200m bullet & bought players that collectively they saw a future in & then crossed their fingers ETH would start off ok. The fact the car went in reverse through a brickwall meant they already took tje decision to sack him & spent those early weeks searching for a solution...hence why they pushed the button & got Amorim so rapidly. The only ironic fortune was that we faced Liverpool 3 games in & got killed...it meant the process to his downfall didnt last until January.
in short: Ten Hag’s tactics were fundamentally flawed. He aimed to make Manchester United a high-pressing team, winning the ball high up the pitch and scoring during transitions. However, he also wanted to maintain a solid defence, which led to conflicting objectives. The team's lack of pace in defence made them vulnerable to counterattacks when the press was broken, resulting in a significant number of goals conceded. While United managed to score plenty of goals, this was primarily due to the individual quality of the players rather than Ten Hag’s tactical approach. Ultimately, Ten Hag was unable to resolve these issues, leading to his dismissal.
Watching this video made me realise that the changes could've been easily implemented. Dalot pushing on the right, so Anthony can invert. 3 defenders with Martinez "as full back" tucking in. Mainoo and Cas in the centre, with Eriksen/Bruno floating. Garnacho on left. So essentially 5 defending, 4 attacking and floating 10.
As a United fan, I am sad but not surprised to see him go - the XG numbers show that the forwards were creating chances, but couldn't finish to save their lives. His first season was promising, but the litany of injuries to the first choice back-4 and a failure to adapt to using the slower backup centrebacks in the second season resulted in a tactically incoherent setup. I don't think I'm alone in being disappointed by ten Hag going 'all in' on this 'best transitional team in the world' philosophy, when many of us were expecting the squad over his time in charge to morph into a side that could break on the counter, but would spend the majority of its time controlling games in possession.
One thing you forgot to mention, Man United haven't had a left back most of Ten Hag's seasons in charge. Thats why Dalot was played on the left, and not the right. Its also why Rashford was played on the right wing, because it was noticed that he conflicted with Dalot, and it's why Zirkzee was brought in.
That xG stat you showed where we should’ve been relegated absolutely shocked me. I’ve been a United fan since I was about 5 I’m 20 tomorrow so it’s been a while. I’m very thankful to erik for the moments and also putting in expectations at the start which ole had carelessly thrown out the window. He made the players realise that you can’t just forget errors you have to learn from them. Sadly he needed to use his own principles. Time after time after time we were ripped apart yet erik never learned from his mistakes. And it was really frustrating to see his stubbornness in that sense. He can’t have been oblivious to the fact that his system wasn’t working yet he still did it. And yes when we had players fit and when they did follow his plan to a tee we did pull off some upsets. The Liverpool game for example 4-3 at OT. But like look at the next FA cup game after that. We nearly got absolutely embarrassed by Coventry a good side I don’t want to cause any offence to Coventry fans but not in the premier league because their players aren’t premier league level and that’s fine. The inconsistency was what ruined this for me. Inconsistency in effort, player rotation. All sorts. But erik was meant to be the one to deal with that. And he didn’t. So I’m glad he’s been sacked overall. We need to start winning games but crucially we need to start learning again. The amount of times I’ve said in the group chat that what ten hag was doing was by definition insanity. If I had a quid for every time I said that I’d be about 100 quid richer 😂. I’m thankful for the moments and memories he’s provided and the signings he’s made but he really did need to go
The 7-0 against Liverpool was enough by itself. It's one thing to get hammered 3- or 4-nil, but 7 shouldn't be possible at this level. It's not Sunday League. Can you imagine Real Madrid keeping their manager if they got so badly beaten by Barca?
What happened was that Ten Haag got a crash course on what it's like to deal overpaid mercenaries who will snub you if they think you lack character. Ten Haag was used to dealing with kids who were brought up on tika taka from an early age. He tried to get these grown men to play this style and and it's clear that some simply refused so he just allowed them to play their own style in the end. You and tell that Slot is a more confident man than Haag, he's got swagger whereas Ten Haag looks like an old student with no character. So basically, the players stopped playing for Haag at some point and started to do their own things and that was obvious and a similar thing happened for Poch at PSG and Chelsea.
- Lacked the ability to recognise how to use players' abilities well. - Didn't tend to adapt things mid-game to fix issues. - Seemed to have a bad relationship with players - i didn't like how Sancho was treated, and felt relieved when Jadon showed his form at Dortmund and Chelsea I kept waiting for 'things to fall into place' (when the injuries healed, when the few new players were brought in) but as time went on, the trust that anything would change for the better kept getting ever lower. The dropping of basically our most in form player, Amad, from the team this season had me lose any last bit of patience I'd had.
Is there no 'oversight' in the system, is the Director of Football (and his staff) unable to identify these failings, or propose alternatives to the Manager? OK the DoF has only been in position for a few months, but I recall there being analysts, video recordings, data etc. which could be put on the DoF's desk on day 1 and if not there, the DoF should have been screaming down the corridor for them. The weekly "where we cocked up" reports bound into a volume. Some sort of "Matchday Cock Up" spreadsheet to show whether or not there were changes, trends etc. Meanwhile, 6 sets of new shirts and shorts every season. Priorities.
@@cellanjones28 I guess it depends. What happened afterwards did not seem great to me. And it's not like Jadon was the only player who struggled with Ten Hag. I don't want to dump on Ten Hag too much, but I don't see his player management as a strength of his. Having not been at training sessions, I could be off, but it's the impression I've got.
As someone not at all vested in British football fandoms, but also having been following footy for ages and ages and happened to always have a liking towards ManU's winning ways of the 2000's, this absolute kino had to end sooner rather than later. I dare argue it's late, even. Now it's a matter of how do they get rid of the criminal wastes of roster space whose value was never what ManU paid for them, and has tanked tenfold since.
I found Adam's incisive and mega accurate analysis videos just yesterday. Haven't stopped watching them since. If MoTD could find time to use Adam showing the breakdown of even just a single match it would improve that programme 10 fold, no I lie, 100 fold. Listening to three aged ex footballers droning on about the same stuff every week has been boring for several years now.
Exactly what I've been saying. ETH is the master of his own downfall. His formations and refusal to connect defence and attack let us down so many times. Fernandes has been allowed to play as a second striker leaving the midfield open so many times, and we are so bad at pressing it is laughable. Looking forward to a change.
The biggest problem i feel under ETH is they could not kill the game off, either by not scoring at all or not scoring more or knowing how to control the game when having the lead. how many times we were 2 0 up and allowed the opponent to get back to the game, how many chances they had to miss? happened so many times, and it was just frustrating
@@kelly980 Most football clubs will laugh you off the door if you show them these stats that you can get for free on google lmao. These stats that you and I have access to are useless. I worked with a football club in Australia and they spent hundreds of thousands on analytics and it wasnt about xg and all those simple bullshit stats. Cant even imagine what kind of stats those clubs with hundreds of millions to spend would use but I guarantee you no youtuber would have access to any of those.
I think ten Hag is a good coach. However he was very stubborn at Man United. He could not come to terms with the fact that his Ajax tactics did not work against most premier league teams. And this is okay. But he also did not adjust his tactics to be able to win games. He will do better in another league, I'm sure. The fans will always be grateful for the good memories he made with Man United.
Thank you Adam, very clearly explained. Basically, all along we could see ETH wasn't adapting to the results, or available types of players well enough, and repeating the tactical flaws with too much space in midfield, wrong players to cope etc. The phrase that is banded around a lot; 'Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results'
Love the video as ever, but the timing of this sacking seems very strange to me. I'm not watching every Man U game, but over the past couple weeks even though the results haven't been impressive the football certainly has looked a lot better. Silly mistakes defensively are still costing them goals, but offensively they've looked a lot more a threat and consistent on the ball. In the Fenerbahce and West Ham games, United had more than enough quality chances to win the game, but the players did not finish those. It felt to me maybe like it was starting to click for them, at least in this little time period (they could've always reverted back to shit). Just feel a bit bad for Ten Hag cuz as you say, he's an intelligent and good manager. Clearly it didn't work at Man U but I wish him the best going forward
"but the timing of this sacking seems very strange to me" - How? We are 14th in the PL and 21th in the Europa League. "I'm not watching every Man U game, but over the past couple weeks even though the results haven't been impressive the football certainly has looked a lot better." - It has not. The football is as boring as the worst games under LVG. "Silly mistakes defensively are still costing them goals" - They are not silly mistakes if they happen all the time and decide results. "It felt to me maybe like it was starting to click for them" - When? The team wasn't getting results and the football was ugly as sin. I wish Erik moves on and has a good career, but the sacking was absolutely deserved.
@@LucasEduardo-jm7nd All fair points. I totally agree results haven't been impressive at all, and I do think for most of this season United haven't looked particularly good or interesting. My point came from just the last handful of games. While I don't watch every United game like I said, I did watch them against Brentford and Fenerbahce. I thought in their win over Brentford they looked genuinely good, and definitely should've scored more than 2 goals. They also created more than enough good opportunities to win against Fenerbahce and even just from the highlights of the West Ham game I can see it was the same where they could've won or at the very least drawn if they'd been more clinical. Your point about it not just being silly mistakes if they happen so often is very fair though. That is a big recurring theme with this United side for sure
This guy just cooked evey mainstream pundit. This makes total sense why this team never worked. Brilliant analysis without using the same recycled assumptions
You articulate, demonstrate and make simple the complex. I appreciate how you help me verbalise the “wtf” sounds I make watching United. Great video as ever.
It absolutely baffles me how rashford is still in this team, he has been in all the failed teams manager after manager and he has never reached his potential. He needs to be sold or benched asap if they want to move forward
Now we got him and Anthony!!! So the issues will continue as it will be impossible to get rid of them… so the new manager will have the same issues, if we didn’t have the players to play ten hags system how are they going to adapt to amorims lol
Ten Hag always reminded me of an FM manager who never understood "player preferred moves" while using plug-and-play tactics designed around specific squad collections. For coming from a country and club who developed the holistic "Total football" philosophy, he didn't seem to understand how each of his pieces fitted together. Or rather, he never seemed to attempt to train/adapt his players to fit the system or the stem to the players.
If 10Hag is the successor of Sir Alex Ferguson, he will be sacked last season. However, because we have hired and fired several coaches without success, we tried to give him chance after chance. The biggest issue of 10Hag's tenure is lack of in-game adjustment. No plan B. Once the opposing coach figured it out, that is the end. In addition, to get Antony at that price is just crazy, especially 10Hag coached him in the past. To prioritize Mount's signing is another puzzling move to me, given Mount's injury history and one year left on the contract. My question to you is: do you think 316 in attack is ever going to work? It seems too risky and exposes the back line.
Such a comprehensive and clear analysis again, Adam. It just never ceases to amaze me how rigid ETH has been throughout his 2,5 years of reign, with zero self-reflection. It's like this system is the only thing he knew how to organize and manage and he would have needed a 100% specific players to make it work. He had no capacity to adapt to anything, or considering the unique skillset of each players, that's why he failed. Watching his interviews and him not taking responsibility for ANYTHING was embarrassing, frankly. Some Man U fans still blame the players for getting all these post-Fergie managers sacked, but even if the dressing room is toxic, a truly good coach can inspire players to be better and work together. I believe that there's a lot of potential in their players, I would be surprised if Amorim didn't get significantly better results with them in a short while. I feel like Ten Hag lacks not only management but interpersonal skills, as well as self-awareness. Not sure how he can dig himself out of this hole at any other club in the future.
This nicely summarises what a lot of us all have "felt" about how Utd set up. Nice to see the numbers behind them. I'll be interested to see if, just by setting up differently we can see an huge improvement, or actually, the players just aren't very good and need over hauling yet again.
As a united fan it gives 2 feelings. On the one hand, he had some great moments where it seemed like some ideas were implemented. On the other hand, those moments were short lived, plus he gave 0 tactical explanation in interviews, in stead just kept defending himself. Well explained here, always the big gaps between attack and defense are so frustrating to watch
Having watched your videos religiously ever since I found your channel I can't help but feel so much relief not having to see you despair to do more videos about Ten Hag's disasterclasses, and not having to collect any more of those frames with the big ass red rectangles of open space (which I am curious, how many do you have in store after all this time?). However, I am sad as everything because I am a Sporting fan and I'm just counting minutes until he's announced in United, with close to no hope that he'll stay. On the other hand: finally I'll see him covered here which is... great? I guess. Let's see what the future reserves, and at least I'll be waiting for your analysis on Ruben Amorim's (gotta work on that last name pronunciation!) tactics.
That had been my issue for a while with ETH, he never fixed issues that strung up, you saw so many goals conceded where the same thing would be happenning and it was the same flaws being exploited, but I still kept hoping, what broke it for me was the Liverpool game this season, not just because we lost but because the loss was eerily similar to the loss against them in pre-season. In the past I blamed the players, and for years it had been a issue with Woodward terrible policy of overspending, giving every player a inflated contact etc, but under Eric these were his players, and the mistakes we were making we the same no matter who was playing, it became apparent the issue with the system being played.
I think your video helped me connect the dots with all the information I had prior. ETH has a game plan that requires young and aggressive players that fight for turnovers and control but had a squad that didn't fit his system and had to recruit from his academy team when he didn't get his targets. That and his stubbornness to keep punishing his players with banishments and excessive training for bad results were all unpopular and led to many injuries made him unpopular which led him to lose the locker room. Ultimately so many things were out of place which is why the team was so dysfunctional except for that FA Cup performance. One of my all time favorite Manchester United games. Wow. Well he's gone so now we have to look forward to Amorim and I'm hoping it works out because I'm losing it watching all these managers get rinsed by this club. This shouldn't be happening and all the fans are fed up.
Huge relief. It felt like the players were playing with a straight jacket on. And on other occasions playing like headless hens, like they were playing football for the first time in their lives. I'm getting mad writing this so I'll stop. Great summary sums up this mess.
Best football content as usual. The tactical errors were so obvious from day 1 against Brentford, that none of the Utd/Ineos triple key members(Berrada/Ashworth/Wilcox) plus two assistants to point it out, they just let him swimming in the swarm again and again, EtH would like to do so, btw. Also, they extended EtH's contract to reward him, while they've already decided to sack him before match against City, then eventually sacked him on Oct, that cost Utd another 9m and lost chances to hire better coaches like Tuchel, Hansi Flick, De Zerbi, etc. Also, they agreed to fulfill EtH's desire for unreasonable amount of money. They overpaid for Anthony, Mount, Ugarte, etc. The league table reflects a shame result for these triple, they should be responsible for it, too. Although Anthony and Mount weren't brought under Ashworth period. I understand they're trying to correct it by appointing Amorim on Oct instead of January, because they want to save the season while Utd are still breathing in Europa League and Premier League.
The bit around 13:00 was spot on, saw it so many times. Antony working on his own was always going to fail and two inverted wingers was never going to work for a no9 like Hojlund. Should've either swapped the wingers around (Rashford RW and Antony LW) or put AWB at LB and Dalot RB so he could support Antony and overlap to put crosses in. One of the only games he put Rashford at RW (champions league) Hojlund scored from a Rashford cross 😂
That part about the wingers, especially Dalot and Rashford wanting to get into the same position, that really hit the point home. I think it was probably a lot to do with ETH being stubborn, and wanting to implement the same tactics even if he didn't have the right players, and maybe not wanting to confuse the players by switching formations and tactics every week. You do kind of feel sorry for him though, he didn't have a left back for about a year, and then Martinez was out for a year, and Yoro and Hojlund get injured before the season even starts! But still, a manager has to be versatile, and these are professional football players too, and they should be able to do a job in a different position if necessary, and should easily be able to adapt to different tactics. Hopefully things will be better under Amorim..
Good summary this. I do think personnel could have made a big difference, something he didn’t (couldn’t with regards to a left back) get right. But failing to adapt to the players he had available was mad. He could have tweaked 2 roles in that set up and had a very different end to his time. Amorim will have to deal with and adapt to a lot of the same challenges that Ten Hag seemingly did nothing about.
Can you do a vid on Flick’s Barca? I know the channel normally focuses on the Prem, but 4-1 against Bayern and 4-0 against Madrid back to back deserves some attention 😂
Dalot actually played right back for most of last season n we had 0 left footed left backs fyi Eth wanted dalot to offer different solutions at full back either pulling wide for space or coming into half spaces as another 10 to create overloads The problem was and is players shoot when tue shot isn't on instead of looking for the extra pass in the box or recycling the possession - which is soothing sporting do alot.
ETH run out of excuses. He was given a lot of money to bring in his players. But yet after getting his players the results get worse. It will be a challenge for new manager as his team is full of ETH players.
A much clearer and definitive break down of United's problems than any mainstream media, without resorting to lazy stereotypes or character assassinations. Adam is the best football analyst on YT.
Yeah the mainstream media are utter shite anyway. A bunch of celebrity-wannabes who really are a waste of space.
Right? I feel like i watched so many videos but this one is so makes actual analysis rather than having an agenda to blame the manager or certain players
It is so much clearer when an analysis is backed up by facts and figures! Thank you for this. I was among the many who begged to give ETH another chance after our FA Cup win last season thinking there was a turn-around on the horizon, but things just ended up much the same.
TEN HAG wasn't that BAD Man Utd won TWO trophies in TWO seasons Ole gunna as Manager did zero trophies in TWO seasons Do you expect Man Utd to win 4 trophies in one season ? ALL OTHER PREVIOUS MANAGERS BEFORE OLE GUNNA WERE WORSE THAN TEN HAG except ALEX FERGUSON !!!
@@TheLetterK81mourinho did better than eth
Ole tho despite not winning trophies(he came close)
I don’t know why more actual football shows don’t use the pictographs you do when providing analysis. Makes it so clear and easy to follow. Great work as always Adam.
It takes work.
All about manufactured drama and storylines
Too much work, actual brain required.
Pundits just want to come to work without any preparation. I bet they don't even know who's playing until they arrive at the studio.
its actually sobering watching this video in how stubborn Ten Hag was with a style that never worked.
I said this several times. ETH was too stubborn. I love me a manager that's flexible, be ready to make as much tactical adjustments as possible so far as you outsmart your opposition.
Thats the thing - he needed to realise that what works in medium level leagues, might not work in a very top level league.
He should have taken a step back and tried something different or more conservative - but he was all too easily found out by some of the worlds best managers.
@@krisbanksayange5065My preference is the guardiola type managers who have a core philosophy and makes changes according to the circumstances without breaking away from the core principles. Allows flexibility all while maintaining an identity. But it takes an extremely intelligent manager to do that and keep a balance.
@@idk-dz3fo as a Porto fan i can tell you now, you just described Amorim. In 4 years his 3 4 3 evolved in amazing ways, the core principles never changed though.
ETH wanted players to fit his sytem, but he should rather adapt a system with the players he's got instead. but yeah stubborn is probably the right word.
This is one of the best channels on TH-cam. Adam Cleary deserves a pay increase because non matter his salary, he’s not getting paid enough
TH-cam money is good bro
I agree but tell us the truth, is that u Adam? 😂😂
He should just start his own youtube channel - would make more than he's making now and we'd all follow him
He’s a great football communicator.
Adam makes the best football-related analysis anywhere in media. Very level-headed, respectful and seems to hit it on the head everytime with how he interprets a teams tactics.
United fan of 40 years, Adam. Thanks for your entertaining videos.
Anyone who watches all the games who knows a bit about football could see perfectly what you just described. He never had the midfielder (6) he needed to play the way he wanted to play and many other things he did just didn't make sense. The system was dependant on not making errors in high risk situations but also dependant on taking the risks that lead to errors. It was a semi-suicidal system.
After we had watched Fred be catastrophic near his own goal with the ball at his feet for years the first thing Erik did was try him at number 6 in this 'play out from the back' risky tactic that requires a goalkeeper with feet, technical defenders and a top number 6. He had De Gea, Maguire, Wan Bissaka, Fred and Varane... none of whom are comfortable with that. How him, or any of his coaching staff thought that would work was insane. He changed it and got his midfielders closer together and went long. This actually worked and after Ronaldo f*cked off (because his ego couldn't handle his wage cut and the fact his legs wouldn't do what his brain told them any more) they started to look ok, even with Weghorst up front. Rashford scored goals and united were killing teams on the break with pace and the players seemed to be playing with less pressure.
The problem was that he ran his first 11 into the ground in the autumn/spring of the first season and had this mantra of "we have to win every game because we're Man Utd". This is of course, bollocks. If he had rotated, sacrificed the FA cUP after the first trophy win and thought ahead, his squad would have been very capable of winning the Europa League as well as the League Cup during that first season. They ended up getting battered because there was nothing left in the tank and reports of training being too intense as well probably didn't help matters. The results fell off dramatically in March 2023 and never really recovered.
In fairness to him.. during the 2nd season he suffered a horrendous injury crisis and at times inexplicable collective loss of form on the fit playing staff the likes I've never seen in 40 years. When you look at your team and the best you can get out of your players is a 4 out of ten you're in big trouble. The Cup Final was great but it did have the feel of an underdog win because the football Gods had just decided that a City win was too obvious. When the whole world is so convinced of a certain outcome for such a long time it often happens and I was glad I placed the bet I did.
He did not know how to play against teams that are stronger either. He went to City in the first season and instead of doing what Solskjaer did (which actually worked) he ignored that, benched Fred and left Eriksen in there looking lost against a superior midfield. He consistently dropped points or did not gain them when smarter game plans or in game decisions would have changed things. Sequences of games where he should have gained 6 or 8 points more with the quality of his players were a common trend. Sometimes you just have to know how to get a draw away from home against a team that is in better form than you. You do not do it by playing 6 up front and having a non existent midfield.
I like Erik and I think he really got the club. He took a battering from the press when it wasn't always justified but he always took it like a man and tolerated far more than any other manager would have and remained composed. He was very respectful of the History and the Munich memorial service which he attended unlike some other managers post Ferguson.. he just had a blind spot, or stubborness, or inability to understand the league he was in and how it works. Ultimately, philosophy is moot if you can't get the message across, don't have the correct personnel and can't get the players to do it consistently. The league, in the end was too strong for him and where United are as a club at this moment in time to implement what he was trying to do.
New guy plays 3 at the back, inverted wide men and flying wing backs. That should give you something to get your teeth into for the next Man Utd related video. It might actually suit the players if they can motivate themselves to actually work harder than their opponents (which people forget is often the key to winning football matches).
Superb comment this 👍
@@adamferguson1513 It took me about half an hour! 😂
You are spot on. He went and ran his team into the ground in the post world cup, cup run.
We faded so hard after the League Cup win and beating Barcelona.
Sad fate for Erik, I also liked him but it didn't work out.
Very well written 👏
@@PoisonDwarf28 Thanks.. once I started I couldn't help myself.
Cheeky opposition penalty area appearence on Onana's Inter heat map
I found it funnier when he was on the wing
I laughed so much at his heat map, what a madman 😂
Onana in Havana
5:35 "...as nimble across the ground as a portable toilet" 😀
🥲
... because he kept losing football matches.
Don't hate on the video mate
Duh? The video explains why tho doesn't it?
Sums up the video in 6 words.
Why did he keep losing matches?
slow down egghead
Did not expect Erikson to make a Ten Hag Out Analysis, fairs
Bro 💀
His accent is pretty good 🤣🤣
You seriously put a shed load of work in Adam, thanks for your efforts!
Erik Ten Hag recently compared himself to Mourinho.
The only thing they have in common is both were fired in their third season at United
And Mourinho had a better win % than ETH with an arguable much worse United team
They have so much more in common than you give credit for. Both are male, both are professional football managers, both have ten fingers each, two eyes, both have the letter 'e' in their name, both are from Europe, both probably have a dog, certainly they both own a pair of shoes. So much in common.
@@robbiedavey2439 mourinho had a much much better team
He had a much better twam than ten hag
I can name a few more: they both played a turgid brand of football (whether forced or deliberate), they are also the only two managers since Sir Alex retired to win two trophies for the club, they both had a season finishing in the top 4 but being miles off Man City, and so on.
There are so many contradicting factors in the United squad, and this video highlights problems that fans have known about for years.
Why buy Rasmus Hojlund? When the profile of player that fit the squad was more like Wout Weghorst and the ideal signing was Harry Kane, why go for a player who doesn't match that profile in any way? Like Arsenal and Liverpool have a system where the centre forward is more a facilitator than a goalscorer, but United decided the best solution was to get somebody closer to Haaland. Only City have spent years culminating a squad and culture that is super creative and just needs a body that scores goals in the middle. Thats why City could play that way regardless of the striker being Aguero, Jesus, Alvarez, Torres. United wanted to do the same but asking "shoot first" players like Rashford, Antony, Garnacho, and even Bruno, to be the engine. You end up with a system that works for nobody.
Ten Hag spoke about the influence on what he was brought in to do, his original mission from the Glazers, to be pro-active out of possession and to control games in possession. But did they sign centre backs who allowed for that? Aside from Martinez, and just this summer De Ligt and Yoro (yet to play a game), no. So a pro-active pressing plan was needed but a pragmatic defensive line had to be used. It's only this season that this has been fixed, and United have conceded fewer chances and fewer goals, but they haven't scored goals to win games because the attacking unit still suits nobody.
And as much as people bound around that figure of the £600+ million spent or the £100m on Antony, the real problem and the thing nobody seems to wrap their head around is that over the 11 years since Ferguson left, £1.5 billion has been spent on a squad that is not suited to any style of play, that is full of ageing players and overpaid egos, and we can't get rid of them. It will take years for Ineos to truly dig out the rot at this club and ultimately Ten Hag is just another part of that rot.
The moment when Arne Slot was able to breakdown EtH’s tactics from last season to this season in about 1min 30s i knew Ten Hag was cooked
Yep. I'm a Liverpool fan, and that moment must have been so humilating for a rival manager.
@@SimianWonder As a fellow Liverpool supporter, I'm still fuming ETH leaves with a record of 2W-2D-2L against us.
He should've been in the job until he received the beating at Anfield that his shit tactics deserved!
@@stevendchu 7 nil isnt enough? lol
@@stevendchu dont be greed, you guys had a 7-0 too
Oh I enjoyed that match so much!....even Seven Hag's reaction told me that he knew that he is getting cooked that day!!
Adam, you just put down exactly what went wrong at United, we as fans just cannot put a finger and say what is the main cause of the failure, but your video and the explanation has shed some light and it was very enlightening. I have subscribe to your channel. Keep doing your thing.
I think you summed it up very well. Coming up on 60 years as a United fan and it feels a lot like the relegation season. The players didn't seem to buy into what he was trying to do and it's easy to understand why. So now we go to a young Portuguese manager and he's a great fit etc...just like Eric was. At this stage I'd settle for them playing 5 at the back and hoofing the ball to a big lad up front. Anything at but getting a drubbing from every team that turns up and puts a shift in. Another page turns
Bring back 4-4-2
ten Hag isnt young, he's older than Pep lol
This is the kind of analysis MOTD needs. Makes proper sense and spells out exactly what ive been wtching for the last 2 and a half years. Spot on!
Great analysis Adam. Particularly the part about Onana near the beginning. Whilst he's done well this season, I was so excited about us signing him due to the risky nature that he played with in terms of coming out the box, playing one-twos and getting involved in play. In a season and a few months so far, all I've seen him doing for us is staying on the edge of the box, slowing play down and playing the most simple passes or long diagonals. It reaks of a fear of criticism or making mistakes. Amorim or the next manager if not him should free Onana a little more, alongside all the other issues we clearly have.
Liverpool 7-0 was the first time United were figured out. 4-1-4-1, Casemiro required to cover an extreme amount of space
they will never be the same. took their banter era to a different level. they won't win the league or CL in the next 20 years.
@@indexpictures as bad as we are, comments like this are so unjustified. there is no club with the power or prestige like us in england and so, as bad as we are and have been, we will eventually get it right because we won't stop being the biggest club in the country and so we will will the league and cl a lot sooner than people think
Just think, as bad as united and ETH were. They still won more in 2 years than artetta and arsenal have in 6 years.
@@ryan_lmao you are the 2nd biggest club in england by every metric except "fans in africa" & again, you will not win in the next 20 years. you have City, Liverpool, Arsenal, Chelsea, Villa, Spurs to overhaul first. 7th is your ceiling
@notreal1477 But in the one season Arteta took the cups seriously he won. His aim was always to improve in the league, ten Hag failed at league football
Great video. I like that you’re factual and not like some of the fan channels and just ranting.
Absolutely nailed it. It was incredibly discouraging watching what you talked about unfold over the last few years. Terrible tactics and bad luck with VAR have turned this into period of just unwatchable football at United. Glad that the page is being turned, but it feels like we are still looking at a 2 or 3 year period before United are relevant again.
13:02 the FM equivalent would be buying a player without checking his profile first
Southgate England vibes
If PSG are after that wonderkid, you dont need to check the profile.
Hes already chosen PSG.
@@anthonyduffy6953
So true! 😹
Would love to see a vid on Glasner’s turnaround with Palace, what they were doing right last year, why they were so dreadful to start this season, and how they’ve turned it around to beat two champions league teams in the span of 4 days!
United did very well in their first season with erik because he adapted his system to what he had at his disposal pretty well, this was of course after those first few games where he tried to have his way completely with a squad nowhere near suited for it. Plus casemiro was still one of the best around.
Then, come next season, after a few more transfers, he abandoned the system that served him well the season before and tried the system he wanted all along. This went woefully, any of the players who were used to or would've done well in this system were out injured and none of the rest of the squad were used to playing that way and or were suited to the system. Nevertheless, ten hag sacrificed that season for the greater good of getting his system he wanted from the start more implemented, I mean, he swapped de gea for onana so he really had to do that. Casemiro also lost his legs and he was by far their best player the season prior.
And now we reach this season, a few more transfers, a few more injuries, players underperforming instead of overperforming like they had the previous two seasons (which saved ten hag massively) no real progress is visible to most eyes, and you get kicked out the door.
The main thing I'll never get is, why did he spend so much on hojlund? The kid is honestly superb but he never suited what erik was trying to do? Did he hope he could morph him into the next great drop in, hold up, flick on and link up striker? Simply bizarre.
One thing you're missing. Ten Hag wanted Harry Kane with Hodjlund being the young up and coming striker off the bench. It was the board who decided to take a punt on Ten Hags backup targets
@moavais4194 yes but you'd hope a young player would've adapted more by now but ten hag simply didn't do a good enough job with him on that.
@@EvieWillNotDie Disagree tbh. Expecting a young player to adapt to pretty much the opposite playstyle they've played for their entire lives just doesn't work. He's as far removed from that type of striker as you can get. Everyone thought united would change how they played when he was signed, but it was just the same thing with a striker that didnt fit
@@marius8930 so that's on ten hag for wanting him
@@marius8930 so that is on ten hag
That game of thrones analogy is absolutely incredible. Subscribed!
"... he's what? Sacked? Oh FFS... I'm not leaving..."
-Adam Clery probably.
Thanks for the work
This literally happened at the end of the video about Arsenal vs Liverpool! 😂 Go and give it a watch, it's really funny. Excellent skewering of Carragher and Keane halfway through as well.
LOL this was the most respectful way you could have ever said that most things he done was shxt. This is an actual skill. Also, I know my analysis is bang on when I sound exactly like you! Love the videos!
Mind blowing content! Get this man in the sky studio!
Let's keep him away from the sensationalism of Sky...
I cant listen to carragher any more 😭😭😭😭
He’s goated FOR REAL FOR REAL! Adam is him!
He hung himself with his transfer seasons. First season he adapted. Many of the games were won exactly because of the changes he made that he was criticized for being terrible at in season 2 and 3. Antony did have his RB overlap him the first season though he also rarely chose to use it and often was out of sync when he did do it. That first season almost nobody got any rest. Everyone was overplayed and two of the best players were aging stop gap signings, one of which cost a fortune. It didn't help that Casemiro was doing great before his legs died in the second half and every time he'd get subbed the fans would complain "the best DM" has to go off for McFred. The domino effect was a long time coming. To make it even worse, I think he thought he got Eriksen as a squad player and was going to sign a great number 8 to start, with Eriksen being a rotation for Bruno. You can go back to an early Eriksen interview where he talks that he then thought he was going to play in attacking midfield, safe to assume not ahead of Bruno. Nobody has forgotten the De Jong chase disaster. A lot went wrong and with some dark magic they managed third with some of the scrappiest wins.
Come season 2 everyone got injured to no real surprise. Not having a left back to overlap Rashford killed his game entirely along with not recognizing he prefers to shoot a lot more than create. Højlund being the only striker really available at all instead of getting minutes after Martial, who fits Rashford perfectly, made it even worse. Ten Hag must have not liked the comments he was playing Oleball in season 1 and had nothing to offer of his own, so he kept trying to force his way after because he'd get the sack if he spent all that money to hover around 5th position for three years playing "the same" as the last manager. It's all or nothing and he got nothing, sort of. Almost nobody that should have been sold after season 1 was and same goes for the second one.
The squad average age did improve, but everyone cost too much money and there was no way he'd be able to get all the young players to perform like a team in its second or third stage of rebuild. He agreed with Rangnick on the open heart surgery statement and was talking like he did understand they need to sign a lot of players, but the prices he was agreeing on being spent made no sense. Surely, instead of getting incredibly young Yoro for that large sum on a huge wage and never managing to play him, he could have gotten a left back and an experienced temporary CB to fit his style in the present time. Getting yet another developmental player as a striker in a team in its third year of rebuild didn't help. It's like he thought he had 5 more seasons and 3 billion to finish his team, or that the next transfer season will be the good one where they buy low and sell high.
Good analysis, you forgot de gea got him 3rd, the wins were scrappy the football was rubbish, I seen it from game 2 first season, all relying on individual players , it was rubbish.
ETH 650 million, 2 years, 2 trophies. Artetta, 600million , 6 years, 1 trophy. History will retrospectively look kindly upon him same as it has with moyes and mou.
@@notreal1477 Why bring up Arteta? Is winning the League Cup and FA Cup as opposed to just the FA Cup, for 50M extra, the barometer for success? United are arguably no better now than when Ole was fired - but with 650M spent.
Recruitment has been baffling, even during Ineos' time in charge. United had been lacking a LB who can stay fit all season yet none were signed during the last 2 seasons when it's obvious both Shaw and Malacia are struggling to get fit. Then we have also know United have the softest midfield in the Premier League and again no signings were made until Ugarte. Signing Casemiro is a panic-driven mistake. And to this day, Christian Eriksen remains an important midfield option and that speaks for itself, no disrespect to the player. And we are still short of options in the middle once Mainoo gets injured. The point is, there is no strategic transfer plan to address the more pressing shortcomings in the squad. And we've had 5 windows already since ten Hag got the job. Though not all blame is on him when it comes to transfers.
They realistically had to spend money where they spent anyway. With Varane gone, they needed a top level CB who is ready now, thus MDL. Whereas even with Yoro, albeit injured, they still had to play Evans a lot. On the flip side, without Martial, there was no striker the whole of last season to back up Hojlund, so someone like Zirkzee would had been coming. Whereas Maz is a very good RB, better than AWB on the ball. I feel they had a eye on Ugarte the whole off season, but PSR consideration meant they had to wait till McT was sold to have the funds to buy Ugarte. I would say the midfield isn't actually that terrible, there is a rotation of Casemiro, Eriksen, Mainoo and Ugarte, with Mount if he is ever fit, but that the player they are missing is not a Mainoo back up, but an Eriksen back up.
On the LB side, yeah, I agree on that. But going into the off season, Shaw was at least fit enough to take part in the Euros, the team could had suddenly found themselves with 3 LBs if Malacia progressed well. But a whole season of both injured meant you would want at least a temporary proper solution anyway, rather than ask 2 players who was out for most of the year to play the entire season.
The United midfield could be good with Mainoo, Ugarte, Mount, Casemiro and Collyer to pick from. ETH tactics exposed the midfield, big time. Playing either Eriksen or Casemiro alongside Mainoo was ridiculous both lack pace and the energy to cover so much space. Also the front 4 press was pathetic, only Hojlund and Bruno seemed to know when and how to press. Rashford and Garnacho are both awful of the ball, whether that was down to laziness or not knowing what to do, i don't know but i would guess laziness. Also both are so selfish on the ball, put a cross in !!!! I'm fed up of them both cutting inside then shooting.
Thanks for the analysis & stats...for all of this time watching utd under ETH ive seen exactly this with my eyes....but never dissected it so thoroughly.
Honestly its a relief to see that my eyes werent lying... so many many problems & to be honest this could have been a 2 hrs video.
Ultimately the lack of crosses, lack of positioning, massive chances & XG conceded...not to mention how lucky we were to get a few last min goals...
its a horror show...
ETHs lack of communication, stubborness, lack of charisma just compounded all of this...
The losses to Liverpool alone were shambolic but the so called lesser teams destroyed us too...even coventry coming back for 3-0 down...
Ineos could easily have sacked ETH the moment they came in last dec... he was literally saved by a quirk of fate...the takeover not being official until Feb 24, the FA cup miracle & the fact Ashworth & Berrada weren't in place until Mid July.
I just get the sense he'd have been gone much earlier if any or all of these timings were earlier...
I believe Berrada & Ashworth realised if theyd sacked him in mid july...they'd only have 1 month to get a new manager, makes sales & purchases... so begrudgingly bit the 200m bullet & bought players that collectively they saw a future in & then crossed their fingers ETH would start off ok.
The fact the car went in reverse through a brickwall meant they already took tje decision to sack him & spent those early weeks searching for a solution...hence why they pushed the button & got Amorim so rapidly.
The only ironic fortune was that we faced Liverpool 3 games in & got killed...it meant the process to his downfall didnt last until January.
As an arsenal fan, the fact that we didnt get to play united before ten hag was sacked is more unfair than the rice red card.
As a United fan, even I'm inclined to agree...
As an Arsenal fan, you should be used to this by now! We're always sacking our shit managers before we play you.
As a chelsea fan...I had my fingers crossed he would last at least the first round of matches against us...
As a Liverpool fan...😂😂😂 It has been such a great treat watching Ten Hag and his eleven hags. Will be greatly missed.
in short:
Ten Hag’s tactics were fundamentally flawed.
He aimed to make Manchester United a high-pressing team, winning the ball high up the pitch and scoring during transitions.
However, he also wanted to maintain a solid defence, which led to conflicting objectives.
The team's lack of pace in defence made them vulnerable to counterattacks when the press was broken, resulting in a significant number of goals conceded.
While United managed to score plenty of goals, this was primarily due to the individual quality of the players rather than Ten Hag’s tactical approach.
Ultimately, Ten Hag was unable to resolve these issues, leading to his dismissal.
Adam Clery and the Ten Hag torture chamber saga coming to an end
Watching this video made me realise that the changes could've been easily implemented. Dalot pushing on the right, so Anthony can invert. 3 defenders with Martinez "as full back" tucking in. Mainoo and Cas in the centre, with Eriksen/Bruno floating. Garnacho on left. So essentially 5 defending, 4 attacking and floating 10.
Martinez was injured almost throughout the entire season, which is how Evans of all people ended up playing there at times.
As a United fan, I am sad but not surprised to see him go - the XG numbers show that the forwards were creating chances, but couldn't finish to save their lives. His first season was promising, but the litany of injuries to the first choice back-4 and a failure to adapt to using the slower backup centrebacks in the second season resulted in a tactically incoherent setup. I don't think I'm alone in being disappointed by ten Hag going 'all in' on this 'best transitional team in the world' philosophy, when many of us were expecting the squad over his time in charge to morph into a side that could break on the counter, but would spend the majority of its time controlling games in possession.
One thing you forgot to mention, Man United haven't had a left back most of Ten Hag's seasons in charge. Thats why Dalot was played on the left, and not the right. Its also why Rashford was played on the right wing, because it was noticed that he conflicted with Dalot, and it's why Zirkzee was brought in.
Great analysis, as always, thank you!
Poor guy didn’t get a pin
@@omarabdulghani8209stop being salty
@@omarabdulghani8209 what's a pin?
That xG stat you showed where we should’ve been relegated absolutely shocked me. I’ve been a United fan since I was about 5 I’m 20 tomorrow so it’s been a while. I’m very thankful to erik for the moments and also putting in expectations at the start which ole had carelessly thrown out the window. He made the players realise that you can’t just forget errors you have to learn from them. Sadly he needed to use his own principles. Time after time after time we were ripped apart yet erik never learned from his mistakes. And it was really frustrating to see his stubbornness in that sense. He can’t have been oblivious to the fact that his system wasn’t working yet he still did it. And yes when we had players fit and when they did follow his plan to a tee we did pull off some upsets. The Liverpool game for example 4-3 at OT. But like look at the next FA cup game after that. We nearly got absolutely embarrassed by Coventry a good side I don’t want to cause any offence to Coventry fans but not in the premier league because their players aren’t premier league level and that’s fine. The inconsistency was what ruined this for me. Inconsistency in effort, player rotation. All sorts. But erik was meant to be the one to deal with that. And he didn’t. So I’m glad he’s been sacked overall. We need to start winning games but crucially we need to start learning again. The amount of times I’ve said in the group chat that what ten hag was doing was by definition insanity. If I had a quid for every time I said that I’d be about 100 quid richer 😂. I’m thankful for the moments and memories he’s provided and the signings he’s made but he really did need to go
He should have been sacked at least 5 times
lol so true
The 7-0 against Liverpool was enough by itself. It's one thing to get hammered 3- or 4-nil, but 7 shouldn't be possible at this level. It's not Sunday League. Can you imagine Real Madrid keeping their manager if they got so badly beaten by Barca?
Thanks for the great explanation Adam . Its been a hard time supporting that lot for a while !
That's reference at 7:01 might be the funniest thing I've heard this week! 😂
What happened was that Ten Haag got a crash course on what it's like to deal overpaid mercenaries who will snub you if they think you lack character. Ten Haag was used to dealing with kids who were brought up on tika taka from an early age. He tried to get these grown men to play this style and and it's clear that some simply refused so he just allowed them to play their own style in the end. You and tell that Slot is a more confident man than Haag, he's got swagger whereas Ten Haag looks like an old student with no character. So basically, the players stopped playing for Haag at some point and started to do their own things and that was obvious and a similar thing happened for Poch at PSG and Chelsea.
Damn 3 videos in 2 days 😁😁
That Onana heat map was crazy
- Lacked the ability to recognise how to use players' abilities well.
- Didn't tend to adapt things mid-game to fix issues.
- Seemed to have a bad relationship with players - i didn't like how Sancho was treated, and felt relieved when Jadon showed his form at Dortmund and Chelsea
I kept waiting for 'things to fall into place' (when the injuries healed, when the few new players were brought in) but as time went on, the trust that anything would change for the better kept getting ever lower.
The dropping of basically our most in form player, Amad, from the team this season had me lose any last bit of patience I'd had.
Is there no 'oversight' in the system, is the Director of Football (and his staff) unable to identify these failings, or propose alternatives to the Manager? OK the DoF has only been in position for a few months, but I recall there being analysts, video recordings, data etc. which could be put on the DoF's desk on day 1 and if not there, the DoF should have been screaming down the corridor for them. The weekly "where we cocked up" reports bound into a volume. Some sort of "Matchday Cock Up" spreadsheet to show whether or not there were changes, trends etc. Meanwhile, 6 sets of new shirts and shorts every season. Priorities.
most of it yes. he gave sancho 6 months off to deal with his mental problems and you think that's bad ?
@@etherealbolweevil6268 they have only been in the job a few months.
@@cellanjones28 I guess it depends. What happened afterwards did not seem great to me. And it's not like Jadon was the only player who struggled with Ten Hag. I don't want to dump on Ten Hag too much, but I don't see his player management as a strength of his. Having not been at training sessions, I could be off, but it's the impression I've got.
@@benedictjephcote6815 the only players who struggled was part of the ronaldo click.
Excellently explained, couldn't you have given Ten Hag a bell
As someone not at all vested in British football fandoms, but also having been following footy for ages and ages and happened to always have a liking towards ManU's winning ways of the 2000's, this absolute kino had to end sooner rather than later. I dare argue it's late, even.
Now it's a matter of how do they get rid of the criminal wastes of roster space whose value was never what ManU paid for them, and has tanked tenfold since.
I found Adam's incisive and mega accurate analysis videos just yesterday. Haven't stopped watching them since. If MoTD could find time to use Adam showing the breakdown of even just a single match it would improve that programme 10 fold, no I lie, 100 fold. Listening to three aged ex footballers droning on about the same stuff every week has been boring for several years now.
he left without ever telling us what the plan was...
Life is good when Adam uploads
I cant believe Adam Clery died but is being forced to keep making videos as a ghost
Thought nobody noticed it. He was in the Astral plane doing the video, while surping coffee reading the news on Ruben. Multitasking
He actually survived the attack from Ten. It's a seasonal creative choice
Is because they didn't let him sleep
That last point summed it all perfectly, just doing the same crap over and over expecting it to magically click.
They didn't "have" to sack him, they could have done a service to humanity to keep him in for the comedy
Exactly what I've been saying. ETH is the master of his own downfall. His formations and refusal to connect defence and attack let us down so many times. Fernandes has been allowed to play as a second striker leaving the midfield open so many times, and we are so bad at pressing it is laughable. Looking forward to a change.
Its incredible how he spent.a fortune and made the team worse
As a United fan I loved this video man. This was awesome and I feel like I learned a lot!
The biggest problem i feel under ETH is they could not kill the game off, either by not scoring at all or not scoring more or knowing how to control the game when having the lead. how many times we were 2 0 up and allowed the opponent to get back to the game, how many chances they had to miss? happened so many times, and it was just frustrating
I mean, Adam just said what the biggest problems were with stats and evidence.
@@kelly980 Most football clubs will laugh you off the door if you show them these stats that you can get for free on google lmao. These stats that you and I have access to are useless. I worked with a football club in Australia and they spent hundreds of thousands on analytics and it wasnt about xg and all those simple bullshit stats. Cant even imagine what kind of stats those clubs with hundreds of millions to spend would use but I guarantee you no youtuber would have access to any of those.
I think ten Hag is a good coach. However he was very stubborn at Man United. He could not come to terms with the fact that his Ajax tactics did not work against most premier league teams. And this is okay. But he also did not adjust his tactics to be able to win games.
He will do better in another league, I'm sure. The fans will always be grateful for the good memories he made with Man United.
I'll miss him.
Thank you Adam, very clearly explained. Basically, all along we could see ETH wasn't adapting to the results, or available types of players well enough, and repeating the tactical flaws with too much space in midfield, wrong players to cope etc. The phrase that is banded around a lot; 'Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results'
2:07 yo is it seriously true that Jevans has started more games than Martinez under ten hag? 😮
If it is true, it's probably due to injuries.
Love the video as ever, but the timing of this sacking seems very strange to me. I'm not watching every Man U game, but over the past couple weeks even though the results haven't been impressive the football certainly has looked a lot better. Silly mistakes defensively are still costing them goals, but offensively they've looked a lot more a threat and consistent on the ball. In the Fenerbahce and West Ham games, United had more than enough quality chances to win the game, but the players did not finish those. It felt to me maybe like it was starting to click for them, at least in this little time period (they could've always reverted back to shit). Just feel a bit bad for Ten Hag cuz as you say, he's an intelligent and good manager. Clearly it didn't work at Man U but I wish him the best going forward
"but the timing of this sacking seems very strange to me"
- How? We are 14th in the PL and 21th in the Europa League.
"I'm not watching every Man U game, but over the past couple weeks even though the results haven't been impressive the football certainly has looked a lot better."
- It has not. The football is as boring as the worst games under LVG.
"Silly mistakes defensively are still costing them goals"
- They are not silly mistakes if they happen all the time and decide results.
"It felt to me maybe like it was starting to click for them"
- When? The team wasn't getting results and the football was ugly as sin.
I wish Erik moves on and has a good career, but the sacking was absolutely deserved.
@@LucasEduardo-jm7nd All fair points. I totally agree results haven't been impressive at all, and I do think for most of this season United haven't looked particularly good or interesting.
My point came from just the last handful of games. While I don't watch every United game like I said, I did watch them against Brentford and Fenerbahce. I thought in their win over Brentford they looked genuinely good, and definitely should've scored more than 2 goals. They also created more than enough good opportunities to win against Fenerbahce and even just from the highlights of the West Ham game I can see it was the same where they could've won or at the very least drawn if they'd been more clinical.
Your point about it not just being silly mistakes if they happen so often is very fair though. That is a big recurring theme with this United side for sure
I think he has proven why a 2 man rest midfield is necessary. They support the defence better when the opponents counter attack
Petition for Adam Clery to be the next Man United Manager:
That's sick. I would not wish that fate upon my worst enemy.
yeah sure after all he has managed such great clubs. if only football was played on board.
This guy just cooked evey mainstream pundit. This makes total sense why this team never worked. Brilliant analysis without using the same recycled assumptions
You articulate, demonstrate and make simple the complex. I appreciate how you help me verbalise the “wtf” sounds I make watching United. Great video as ever.
It absolutely baffles me how rashford is still in this team, he has been in all the failed teams manager after manager and he has never reached his potential. He needs to be sold or benched asap if they want to move forward
Now we got him and Anthony!!! So the issues will continue as it will be impossible to get rid of them… so the new manager will have the same issues, if we didn’t have the players to play ten hags system how are they going to adapt to amorims lol
Ten Hag always reminded me of an FM manager who never understood "player preferred moves" while using plug-and-play tactics designed around specific squad collections. For coming from a country and club who developed the holistic "Total football" philosophy, he didn't seem to understand how each of his pieces fitted together. Or rather, he never seemed to attempt to train/adapt his players to fit the system or the stem to the players.
If 10Hag is the successor of Sir Alex Ferguson, he will be sacked last season. However, because we have hired and fired several coaches without success, we tried to give him chance after chance. The biggest issue of 10Hag's tenure is lack of in-game adjustment. No plan B. Once the opposing coach figured it out, that is the end. In addition, to get Antony at that price is just crazy, especially 10Hag coached him in the past. To prioritize Mount's signing is another puzzling move to me, given Mount's injury history and one year left on the contract. My question to you is: do you think 316 in attack is ever going to work? It seems too risky and exposes the back line.
Great video and definitely opens my eyes to how he played things
Such a comprehensive and clear analysis again, Adam.
It just never ceases to amaze me how rigid ETH has been throughout his 2,5 years of reign, with zero self-reflection. It's like this system is the only thing he knew how to organize and manage and he would have needed a 100% specific players to make it work. He had no capacity to adapt to anything, or considering the unique skillset of each players, that's why he failed. Watching his interviews and him not taking responsibility for ANYTHING was embarrassing, frankly.
Some Man U fans still blame the players for getting all these post-Fergie managers sacked, but even if the dressing room is toxic, a truly good coach can inspire players to be better and work together. I believe that there's a lot of potential in their players, I would be surprised if Amorim didn't get significantly better results with them in a short while.
I feel like Ten Hag lacks not only management but interpersonal skills, as well as self-awareness. Not sure how he can dig himself out of this hole at any other club in the future.
This nicely summarises what a lot of us all have "felt" about how Utd set up. Nice to see the numbers behind them.
I'll be interested to see if, just by setting up differently we can see an huge improvement, or actually, the players just aren't very good and need over hauling yet again.
Adam is the best at this isn’t he? There’s never a vid that I haven’t cracked up at 😂
i feel kind of relief, your last example with match with Brentford and Wast Ham surprised me a lot
As a united fan it gives 2 feelings. On the one hand, he had some great moments where it seemed like some ideas were implemented. On the other hand, those moments were short lived, plus he gave 0 tactical explanation in interviews, in stead just kept defending himself. Well explained here, always the big gaps between attack and defense are so frustrating to watch
Onana being a La Masia graduate is not talked about enough
Having watched your videos religiously ever since I found your channel I can't help but feel so much relief not having to see you despair to do more videos about Ten Hag's disasterclasses, and not having to collect any more of those frames with the big ass red rectangles of open space (which I am curious, how many do you have in store after all this time?). However, I am sad as everything because I am a Sporting fan and I'm just counting minutes until he's announced in United, with close to no hope that he'll stay. On the other hand: finally I'll see him covered here which is... great? I guess. Let's see what the future reserves, and at least I'll be waiting for your analysis on Ruben Amorim's (gotta work on that last name pronunciation!) tactics.
Really enjoy your analysis Adam. Keep it coming 👍
Wow this was actually a really good video, lot of the points made a lot of sense and exposed ten hag's lack of talent id and player profiling
Hated...adored...never ignored.
That had been my issue for a while with ETH, he never fixed issues that strung up, you saw so many goals conceded where the same thing would be happenning and it was the same flaws being exploited, but I still kept hoping, what broke it for me was the Liverpool game this season, not just because we lost but because the loss was eerily similar to the loss against them in pre-season.
In the past I blamed the players, and for years it had been a issue with Woodward terrible policy of overspending, giving every player a inflated contact etc, but under Eric these were his players, and the mistakes we were making we the same no matter who was playing, it became apparent the issue with the system being played.
I think your video helped me connect the dots with all the information I had prior. ETH has a game plan that requires young and aggressive players that fight for turnovers and control but had a squad that didn't fit his system and had to recruit from his academy team when he didn't get his targets. That and his stubbornness to keep punishing his players with banishments and excessive training for bad results were all unpopular and led to many injuries made him unpopular which led him to lose the locker room. Ultimately so many things were out of place which is why the team was so dysfunctional except for that FA Cup performance. One of my all time favorite Manchester United games. Wow. Well he's gone so now we have to look forward to Amorim and I'm hoping it works out because I'm losing it watching all these managers get rinsed by this club. This shouldn't be happening and all the fans are fed up.
Nobody calls it a locker room. It's a changing room !!!! Take your Americ"nt crap elsewhere.
Huge relief. It felt like the players were playing with a straight jacket on. And on other occasions playing like headless hens, like they were playing football for the first time in their lives.
I'm getting mad writing this so I'll stop. Great summary sums up this mess.
Best football content as usual.
The tactical errors were so obvious from day 1 against Brentford, that none of the Utd/Ineos triple key members(Berrada/Ashworth/Wilcox) plus two assistants to point it out, they just let him swimming in the swarm again and again, EtH would like to do so, btw. Also, they extended EtH's contract to reward him, while they've already decided to sack him before match against City, then eventually sacked him on Oct, that cost Utd another 9m and lost chances to hire better coaches like Tuchel, Hansi Flick, De Zerbi, etc. Also, they agreed to fulfill EtH's desire for unreasonable amount of money. They overpaid for Anthony, Mount, Ugarte, etc.
The league table reflects a shame result for these triple, they should be responsible for it, too. Although Anthony and Mount weren't brought under Ashworth period. I understand they're trying to correct it by appointing Amorim on Oct instead of January, because they want to save the season while Utd are still breathing in Europa League and Premier League.
Happy Birthday FourFourTwo!
What an amazing video. I was all for supporting ETH..but the way you present it - crystal clear. Disaster. Well played Sir!
What i never understood was how good Ajax was under him, but he never made Man U play like them under his management.
superv work! thank you!
Really good video mate
He was a huge failure as a manager and as a human.
12:50 i love the fading out of existence...really shows Antony and his ability fading at UTD
The bit around 13:00 was spot on, saw it so many times. Antony working on his own was always going to fail and two inverted wingers was never going to work for a no9 like Hojlund. Should've either swapped the wingers around (Rashford RW and Antony LW) or put AWB at LB and Dalot RB so he could support Antony and overlap to put crosses in. One of the only games he put Rashford at RW (champions league) Hojlund scored from a Rashford cross 😂
That is terrifying that we should have allowed another 13 goals last season. Unlucky at scoring, but lucky in that we weren't even worse defensively.
That part about the wingers, especially Dalot and Rashford wanting to get into the same position, that really hit the point home.
I think it was probably a lot to do with ETH being stubborn, and wanting to implement the same tactics even if he didn't have the right players, and maybe not wanting to confuse the players by switching formations and tactics every week.
You do kind of feel sorry for him though, he didn't have a left back for about a year, and then Martinez was out for a year, and Yoro and Hojlund get injured before the season even starts!
But still, a manager has to be versatile, and these are professional football players too, and they should be able to do a job in a different position if necessary, and should easily be able to adapt to different tactics.
Hopefully things will be better under Amorim..
amazing video! Thank you very much
Good summary this. I do think personnel could have made a big difference, something he didn’t (couldn’t with regards to a left back) get right. But failing to adapt to the players he had available was mad. He could have tweaked 2 roles in that set up and had a very different end to his time. Amorim will have to deal with and adapt to a lot of the same challenges that Ten Hag seemingly did nothing about.
Can you do a vid on Flick’s Barca? I know the channel normally focuses on the Prem, but 4-1 against Bayern and 4-0 against Madrid back to back deserves some attention 😂
Dalot actually played right back for most of last season n we had 0 left footed left backs fyi
Eth wanted dalot to offer different solutions at full back either pulling wide for space or coming into half spaces as another 10 to create overloads
The problem was and is players shoot when tue shot isn't on instead of looking for the extra pass in the box or recycling the possession - which is soothing sporting do alot.
ETH run out of excuses. He was given a lot of money to bring in his players. But yet after getting his players the results get worse. It will be a challenge for new manager as his team is full of ETH players.
This is really great work thanks