A Man Utd player told Andy Mitten after last season’s FA Cup final victory that Erik ten Hag’s style of play allows relegation fodder to ‘carve them open’, the journalist has said.
Ten Hag saved his job by beating Man City at Wembley to claim his second trophy in two years as Man Utd boss.
It didn’t just save his job, but it somewhat salvaged what was a miserable campaign for the Red Devils, who recorded their worst Premier League finish.
The Dutch manager – who currently leads the Premier League sack race – was expected to be sacked by Sir Jim Ratcliffe but ended up signing a new contract after the club’s new co-owner failed to land any of his managerial targets.
There were rumours involving Thomas Tuchel and Gareth Southgate but Ten Hag stayed and has started the 2024/25 season very poorly.
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Heavy home defeats to Liverpool and Tottenham have put him under severe pressure, with journalist Ian Ladyman’s criticism of Ten Hag after the 3-0 loss to Arne Slot’s side ringing true.
Ladyman slammed the repeated mistakes Man Utd have made under his management.
When told to explain himself, he confidently and swiftly replied: “constantly turning over the ball in your own half, playing the ball out from the back, getting mugged, chances coming off the back of it, counter attacks where you are outnumbered, giving up endless chances”.
Tottenham dominated from start to finish in Sunday’s 3-0 victory at Old Trafford and the reaction has been extremely negative.
‘You cannot have teams in the relegation zone coming to Old Trafford and carving us open’
There have been several reports claiming that Ten Hag is on borrowed time and The Athletic’s Andy Mitten has lifted the lid on a damning conversation he had with a Man Utd player after last season’s FA Cup final win over City.
Mitten claims that the players did not say with confidence that Ten Hag should stay, nor did they say he should be sacked.
However, there are ‘clear issues between players and manager about his style’, with one player baffled that teams in the relegation zone are able to come to Old Trafford and ‘carve us open’.
The report states:
For their part, the players are entitled to an opinion. They’re not all scheming to sack every boss. An hour after the FA Cup final win, I spoke to half a dozen of them outside the dressing room and asked them about the manager. The words weren’t being recorded. Not one said the manager should absolutely be sacked. And not one said he should absolutely stay. Yet there were clear issues between players and manager about his style.
“You cannot have teams in the relegation zone like Sheffield United and Burnley coming to Old Trafford and carving us open,” said one. To get to and win the cup final, United had changed their style following that humiliating defeat at Palace. Then Ten Hag listened to the coaches around him. Pragmatism triumphed and wins followed. But now we’re seeing individuals — Micky van de Ven of Spurs and his compatriot Bart van Rooij of Twente — carving United open.
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