Another abject performance, another three points lost, more humiliation for Manchester United and no more excuses for manager Erik ten Hag.
He cannot blame injuries, he cannot blame upheaval at the club. Ineos gave Ten Hag everything he wanted in the summer transfer window. They have bought him five top class players, they have sold his troublemakers. They have given him a shiny new Dutch coaching team, they have given him a new contract, they have given him a new club doctor and new physios.
Ten Hag knows he can’t use his usual excuses for United’s dismal start to the season, so he has decided to respin last season’s unmitigated disaster as a success with a bizarre twist of logic that suggests desperation, delusion or just plain child-like bluster.
“Listen, we won behind City the last two seasons the most trophies – so we performed better than anyone else,” he said before the Liverpool debacle. “Those are the facts.”
After the game, he was singing the same tune.
“I am confident, at the end of the season we will have a big chance to win another trophy.”
In response to a question about the long-term tactical problems, he replied “are you sure? I don’t think so… or you wouldn’t win trophies like we did and to beat big opponents. So I’m sorry for you.
“I think we won after Manchester City, we won the most trophies in English football. I’m sorry for you.”
Does Ten hag really believe, or expect us to believe, that United are the second best team in English football because they won the Carabao Cup in 2022/23 and the FA Cup in 2023/24?
Does that make United better than Arsenal, who finished nine points ahead of them in the first of those two seasons and 29 points ahead of them last term? Birmingham City won the Carabao Cup in 2010/11 and Swansea City in 2012/13, did that make either of them the second best team in England at the time? Were Wigan Athletic the second best team in England when they won the FA Cup in 2012/13?
This nonsense from Ten Hag has to stop.
If he genuinely believes United are the second best team in England, he needs to be sacked and sent to a psychiatrist immediately. If he thinks he is smarter than the rest of us and can hoodwink us with this nonsense, then he is an ignorant buffoon.
Interestingly, former manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer made the absolute opposite claim about trophies in a 2021 presser (via The Independent).
“In the league position you see if there’s any progress for me,” Solskjaer said. “That’s always the bread and butter of the season that you see how capable you are of coping with ups and downs.
“Any cup competition can give you a trophy but sometimes it’s more of an ego thing from other managers and clubs to finally win something.
“It’s not like a trophy will say that we’re back, no. It’s the gradual progression of being in and around the top of the league … sometimes a cup competition can hide the fact you’re still struggling a little bit.”
Solskjaer was sacked when United were eighth in the Premier League and by his own standards he will have accepted that was justified even though they finished second in the previous season.
Ten Hag’s United are 14th after three games having finished eighth last time around.
Ineos gambled on the Dutchman when they weren’t convinced enough about the alternatives. We are only three games in to the new season, but the rhetoric coming out of the 51 year old’s mouth already suggests that he is out of his depth and that the gamble is one that will not pay off.
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Erik ten HagOle Gunnar Solskjaer
Red Billy
Red Billy is the managing editor of The Peoples Person, author of three books and totally obsessed with football's transfer market. Billy still insists Matteo Darmian and Alex Telles could have made it at United given half a chance.
