New manager Erik ten Hag arrives at Old Trafford with an impressive resum\u00e9. In four and a half seasons at Ajax, he led the club to three titles in the Dutch Eredvisie, and brought a very young underdog team all the way to the Champions League semi-final against Spurs in 2019 (the season that Liverpool won the title). Only a miraculous 96th-minute second-leg goal by Lucas Moura prevented ten Hag’s Ajax from advancing to the Champions League Final.<\/p>\n

After Ajax’s Champions League success in 2019, the superclub vultures swarmed for ten Hag’s young stars. Within two seasons, the core of that great 2018-19 team was gone — Hakim Ziyech left for Chelsea, Donny van de Beek to Manchester United, Matthijs de Ligt to Juventus, and Frenkie de Jong to Barcelona.<\/p>\n

Ajax has long been a powerhouse in the Netherlands. But compared with the biggest clubs in England, Germany, Spain, Italy, and France, Ajax have much less money and glamor with which to entice world stars.<\/p>\n

But ten Hag and Ajax invested the incoming money paid for their departing players well, and the manager settled in with a new group quite quickly. In the 2019-20 season, the pandemic stopped league play in March. Unlike England’s Premier League, the Eredvisie never completed that season and no league title was awarded. However, Ajax were in first place when COVID hit.\u00a0 The following season, Ajax won both the league and the domestic cup titles, but did not advance out of the group stage of the Champions League. Last season, ten Hag departed Ajax with a third league title, and also advanced to the knockout stages in the Champions League. Ten Hag won 74% of his matches in his four-plus seasons at Ajax.<\/p>\n

Tactically, ten Hag typically uses a 4-2-3-1 formation. Like Klopp, ten Hag directs his teams to press immediately after losing possession, and seeks to create scoring opportunities from this counter-pressing. In possession, ten Hag’s teams typically overload one side of the pitch, attempting either to exploit a man advantage on the flank or drawing the defense and switching play to the now-vacated spaces on the opposite side.<\/p>\n

Without doubt, ten Hag is a good manager, and he may even be a great one. Given time and the right type of support, there’s no doubt that ten Hag could rebuild Manchester United into a Premier League power. BUT … Will he get that time? Will he get that support?<\/p>\n

Recent evidence suggests that he will not.<\/p>\n

From 1986 to 2013, Sir Alex Ferguson served as Manchester United’s manager for 26 seasons, and he won 13 Premier League titles and two Champions League trophies. This is the tenth season since Fergie’s departure, and ten Hag is United’s eighth manager. They have won no Premier League titles and have finished outside the Top Four five times, including last season.<\/p>\n

Ten Hag is certainly not the first good manager to take over at United since Ferguson left. Louis van Gaal and Jos\u00e9 Mourinho both brought incredible managerial records to Old Trafford — between the two of them they had won 14 league titles in the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Italy, and England, and also had won three Champions League crowns. But with Manchester United, neither of these two European managerial legends could succeed.\u00a0 In fact, neither made it to the end of a third season.<\/p>\n

Now, on the heels of losing 4-0 to Brentford, ten Hag finds himself in the middle of the same quagmire that has swamped every United manager since Fergie. The ghosts of past glory are everywhere, bringing with them the entitled expectations of fans and ownership. For their part, United’s owners have spent plenty of money — United pay more wages than any team in England. But the players being paid that money have not earned it and don’t deserve it — certainly not as a group.<\/p>\n

As noted above, United’s players have been recruited by a bunch of different managers, who have all employed different tactical approaches. The team does not fit together, and many of United’s talented players long ago gave up being happy in a Red Devil shirt. After just one season back in Manchester, Cristiano Ronaldo wants out. Club captain Harry Maguire is not a good enough center back to start for any team that expects to finish in the Top Four in England. New midfielder Christian Eriksen literally came back from the dead to have a good season last year for Brentford, but is not a Top Four midfielder at this late stage of his career. And there are substantial questions whether ten Hag’s new center back signing, Ajax’s Lisandro Martinez, is tall enough to work in the Premier League at the highest level.<\/p>\n

I could go on and on. Bruno Fernandes is extremely talented, but not much of a presser, which his manager desperately needs. Jadon Sancho would seem to be a good fit for ten Hag, but has yet to gain any momentum since returning to his home in England after tearing up the German Bundesliga with Dortmund.<\/p>\n

Real Madrid’s Casemiro is the most recent superstar to arrive, and perhaps he will help. Or, more likely, he’ll become just as frustrated as his former teammate Raphael Varane and the rest of his new United teammates.<\/p>\n

Without the type of players that ten Hag needs to make his system work, he is unlikely to win in the short term.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the weight of expectations and the ghosts of past glory mean that it will be quite difficult for ten Hag to reach the long-term. It will not be easy for ten Hag to succeed where Mourinho and van Gaal failed.<\/p>\n

From my perspective, I wish ten Hag nothing but the worst. Serves him right for choosing Manchester United<\/p>\n

FFF.<\/p>\n