Is it time for Manchester United to sack Erik Ten Hag?

Manchester United manager Erik Ten Hag has had a good time at the club, especially if his first season alone is considered.

The Dutchman arrived after doing some fine work on the books of Ajax, and most people expected him to succeed in making one of England’s biggest clubs great again.

Ten Hag was a popular appointment because we all watched his Ajax team deliver top performance, most notably in the 2018/2019 Champions League season.

The young team won at Bernabeu and the Allianz Stadium and it was a joy to watch in that campaign as they also dominated the Dutch top flight.

Ten Hag did not leave them after that season as he stayed on despite losing most of the boys that made that team unstoppable.

When the time was right, he chose Manchester United as his next club, with the Red Devils calling for a saviour after many managers tried to make the team great again following the departure of Sir Alex Ferguson.

When He came to the club, everyone knew he had a huge task on his hands, but they also expected so much from him because he came with a big reputation, and Manchester United tickets holders hoped he will get them back to the top.

First season success

In Ten Hag’s first season as the manager of Manchester United, he helped the Red Devils reach the final of the FA Cup and won the Carabao Cup, while finishing inside the top four.

It was a remarkable feat for a United side that had struggled in the previous years under the leadership of Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and Ralf Rangnick.

United fans warmed up to Ten Hag after seeing their team deliver fine performances and show signs of returning to the Alex Ferguson days.

The Dutchman’s first season was good, as he seemed to get the best from some players, most notably Marcus Rashford, who scored more goals in a campaign than he has ever done for the club.

United also returned to the Champions League and ended his first year by winning the Carabao Cup, so there seemed to be a blue print to follow at the club.

Falling out with players

But that feel good factor did not last long as the Red Devils began unravel in his second season as the club’s manager.

Ten Hag struggled to get the best from his players as he had done in the first campaign and began to fall out with some, as was the case with Ronaldo in the previous term.

The Portuguese attacker felt he wasn’t respected enough by the new manager and asked to leave the club.

We mostly understood United terminating Ronaldo’s contract because he had given a shocking interview to Piers Morgan in which he criticised the club and its manager.

However, not long into this new season, he also fell out with Jadon Sancho, who had struggled since he moved to the club.

Sancho stubbornly refused to apologise to his manager for his actions, and the Englishman was banished from the first team for months.

The attacker will only return to playing while on loan at Borussia Dortmund in January, and reports began to circulate that Ten Hag had lost at least 50 per cent of the dressing room.

That is a huge number of the group to lose, and he probably must be thinking he has to offload some players from the squad in the summer.

However, one certain thing is that falling out with too many players or losing the dressing room rarely ends well for the manager.

Failing to improve players

Ten Hag made Rashford a monster in front of goal in his first season at the club, and it was a remarkable achievement because the striker is the main man in that team.

Rashford has remained a one-club man, so seeing him in terrific form showed the team was making good progress under the Dutchman.

However, this term, the striker’s form has tailed off again, and he is back to being as average as he has been for most of his career.

Rashford is not the only United player who was expected to do better this term and doesn’t seem to have improved.

The likes of Casemiro and Antony have also been terrible, and the latter will probably never justify why Ten Hag forced the Red Devils to splash the cash on him from Ajax.

Considering how well United performed in Ten Hag’s first season, the team has regressed this term, and the Red Devils do not need a manager whose team will fluctuate.

They have watched Manchester City, Arsenal, and Liverpool make consistent progress and will want that, and the only way it can happen is if the players improve.

Grooming youngsters

Some of United’s established stars may not have improved under Ten Hag, but the Dutchman seems to have the cooperation of the youngsters in the team.

He was praised for how he developed the likes of Matthijs de Ligt and Frenkie de Jong, among others, at Ajax, and he is doing so at United.

Alejandro Garnacho has always shown that he is a top talent, and Ten Hag has promoted him to the first team and helped the Argentinian to thrive.

Garnacho is now a starter at United and is sometimes their best players on the pitch in games.

Ten Hag deserves credit for helping the Argentinian alongside the likes of Kobbie Mainoo, who has come from almost nowhere to capture the hearts of Premier League fans.

Mainoo is already being talked about as a potential member of the England squad for Euro 2024, and he only just broke into the United team.

Ten Hag faced questions when he opted to sign Rasmus Hojlund from Atalanta instead a more established striker.

However, the Dane is beginning to find his feet at the club and now scores with more regularity, proving him right to trust in youth again.

One area Ten Hag has done well is grooming youngsters, and if he is judged on that alone, he will easily be kept on as the team’s manager.

New owners

Sir Jim Ratcliffe has spent several years trying to buy United as a lifelong fan of the Red Devils, but he could only become a part-owner of the club as the Glazer family refuse to sell the club.

He is happy with that role and will become the face of the club’s ownership. Ratcliffe also owns the French club Nice, so he knows how to run one, not exactly a successful one.

He will bet on himself to make United a great team again, and one of the decisions he has to make is whether or not Ten Hag will remain the club’s manager.

He has spoken about several matters at the club and refused to give a vote of confidence to Ten Hag in his interviews.

United are hopeful he will bring change to the team, and Ten Hag could be axed at the end of the term, with Ratcliffe installing someone he believes can do the job as his replacement.

Conclusion

In two seasons, Ten Hag has experienced highs and lows as the manager of United and the Dutchman wants to be trusted for the long-term.

But that has to be earned as his team must significantly improve in this second half of the term to give him a chance to manage them again next season.