I hadn’t finished licking my wounds from watching our bitter local rivals Manchester City tore United apart at the weekend, when another embarrassing defeat and team performance kicked me when I was down.
I feel like a broken record after 10 years, post-Sir Alex Ferguson, of bemoaning the culture of mediocrity which has bestowed my beloved soccer club. However, I can honestly say I have never seen it or felt it being this bad.
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A second 3-0 thrashing in as many games as Manchester United hosted Newcastle United in the Carabao Cup (English League Cup). Midway through the first half, with United already 1-0 down, the 8,000 travelling Newcastle fans inside Old Trafford started singing to United manager Erik ten Hag: “You’re getting sacked in the morning.”
Being in the ground myself, it was hard to disagree.
Consecutive 3-0 defeats are never going to go down well at Manchester United, especially after so many more poor results already this season and the finger of doom is firmly pointing at the manager, understandably.
Is Ten Hag To Blame?
Just six months after the end of a successful first season as manager, Ten Hag’s reign has descended into chaos. Man United have lost 8 of their 15 games in all competitions, including five at home.
In 10 games at Old Trafford this season, they have conceded first six times and shipped 16 goals in total. In all competitions home and away, they have conceded 26 times at a rate of 1.7 per game. Such dire defending in front of their own goal would not matter so much if they could score goals regularly, but they cannot.
To cut Ten Hag some slack he has had to deal with a lengthy injury list of key players which has robbed him of his first-choice defence, but this is a gigantic crisis by anyone’s measure.
For me, as a die-hard Manchester United a huge amount of the ‘blame’ focus needs to be on the players themselves. It is evident for all to see there is deep unrest in the dressing room and on the pitch. In every position there have been sub-standard performances, lazy passing, no urgency and evidently no plan.
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United captain, Bruno Fernandes, has come under fire for swapping leadership qualities for petulant outbursts. Marcus Rashford appears to have checked out altogether, his lack of desire to run and meek attempts at goal are painful to watch and have seeming timed with being handed an eye-watering 5-year contract worth in the region of $90m. Rashford is certainly not playing like a $90m soccer player. Casemiro, once one of the best players in the world is either a walking red card or out injured. Goalkeeper Onana has shown hot and cold performances with some calamitous errors thrown in to the mix. Centre forward, Anthony Martial leaves all United fans scratching their heads, it is largely pointless he even plays…..the list goes on.
As boo’s echoed around Old Trafford at the full-time whistle, Erik Ten Hag still had enough support among Man United fans to be applauded down the tunnel by the few who endured last night until the bitter end however that will not last forever. He may not have to worry yet about Newcastle’s taunt of “getting sacked in the morning” but he is facing a race against time to turn things around.
Latest Odds
Here are the latest odds for Ten Hag to be the Manchester United coach on the final day of the current soccer season:
Yes: Even
No: -140
Should the Glazer family and the Manchester United board show ten Hag the door, who comes in to replace him? Could it be any one of these names?
- Zinedine Zidane
- Graham Potter
- Antonio Conte
- Julian Nagelsmann
- David Beckham
- Wayne Rooney
- Diego Simeone
- Or me, Natasha Turkington
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