The FA Cup final proved why Manchester United should both keep Erik ten Hag and sack him. Arsenal supporters aren’t quite sure why they got into it.
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Marching
The race for promotion to the Championship has been fantastic this year, culminating in an entertaining and closely fought play-off final on Sunday.
Watching Leicester demolish the Saints at St Mary’s last autumn I was all but convinced the Foxes would secure one of the automatic promotion places but I was never entirely convinced by Russell Martin’s philosophy of maximising possession. The approach seemed too vulnerable against teams playing quickly on the counter. After a long unbeaten run I was happy to be proven wrong and was pleasantly surprised by the tactical flexibility Martin showed in preparing a completely different play in the final against Leeds (who were unlucky to finish without a title despite picking up a lot of points in the season).
It will be interesting to see if Russell Martin evolves his footballing philosophy when faced with the challenge at the highest level.
Saint Remy
Arsenal’s performance
“I was disappointed with Arsenal’s performance on Saturday. I felt like we were having a really good season and Saturday just let us down. After a great run of form (16 wins from 18 games) it’s disappointing to end the season like that on Saturday.”
What? Arsenal didn’t play? So why on earth did they get two emails trashing us and acting as if it had any effect on our season? I mean, I know it’s the usual two culprits but there’s no need to publish them.
I understand why people were happy that City won the league. I would have felt the same if a rival team had played them for the title. If Arsenal had won it would have meant something. But United winning the cup will have no impact on Arsenal..
Jamie Kafash, AFC, North London
The idea that United have had a better season than Arsenal only makes sense within the context of what each club aspires to and the standards that are set. Currently, United’s standards are clearly mid-table, so it is understandable that fans would believe that United had a better season than Arsenal because they won the FA Cup. Apparently, this is how we now need to think about Manchester United Football Club when talking about the club.
Like other mid-table teams, they had no chance of winning the league this season. They cheated out an inferior trophy against a City team still reeling from the weekend’s celebrations. Don’t you think it’s a bit different to compare yourself to a team that is clearly aiming to win the league, as opposed to actually winning the league, but is also aiming to win the Champions League and go toe-to-toe with arguably the greatest English team of all time?
MAW, LA Gooner (Honestly, winning our 15th FA Cup wouldn’t have given us much satisfaction about the season if we’d finished second, well behind City, when the aim was to at least legitimately challenge for the title again. Again, standards…)
I remember at the time we needed an FA Cup win to salvage a miserable season that saw Liverpool miss out on a top four finish and finish in eighth place, and to add some semblance of success to a miserable season. I feel like I’ve heard that somewhere before. The difference is that we weren’t deluded enough to feel like we had a good season.
Club football is all about rewards. You get rewards the next season depending on how well you did in the previous season. We all know that the Champions League is bigger than the Europa League, which is bigger than the Europa Conference League.
That being said, the FA Cup is not bigger than the top four and is considered inferior. That is why it only gets to play in UEFA’s inferior tournaments. I don’t rate the Carabao (Carling Cup). In the old days, it was just an excuse to use reserve players. Teams like Swansea and Tottenham won it. I find it funny that Mr. Bad Wolf thinks the FA Cup is ranked higher than the top four. INEOS says the FA Cup is irrelevant when analyzing ETH. Think about it. This cup you rate so highly is called irrelevant.
Jose Mourinho was sacked before the cup final because the cup was meaningless.
As Arsenal fans we know we fell short, we’re hurt, but we’re proud… but don’t say that winning the FA Cup is better than what Arteta and his team achieved, we’ve been in those same shoes before and we know it’s not better at all.
Kufre, Port Harcourt, Nigeria
What a way to go out
A day on from that glorious high, the feeling remains that this was United’s best post-Fergie performance. There have certainly been other great games and trophies won, such as Ole’s win over PSG, but to overcome such difficulties against the best team in the country and win a major trophy given the circumstances of the season is unprecedented in the last decade.
Ten Hag At last, they found a strategy the players could follow, but it wasn’t particularly complicated: they would press high and aggressively even when they lost possession, but only in the first phase, and if they didn’t win the ball back they would have to quickly regroup. The tight defensive shape of the 4-2-4 gave City a wall to break through, with two dogged warriors to pounce on anything that got through.
In attack, surprise starter Rashford was due to make a run in behind but, as we’ve seen in previous derbies, Walker is faster and stronger than him. With that path blocked, play switched to Garnacho – great, great Garnacho – who outshone £100m Gvardiol throughout the game.
We have witnessed a recklessness in throwing the ball forward when the opportunity arose over the past few months, but that has now disappeared. Moments to break through City’s high line were considered and relatively rare, with both Bruno and Mainou choosing to hold on to the ball and wait for a better opportunity. When the counter punch came it was devastating.
There was talk last week that it would be either Doku or Kovacic who would be the unpredictable starter for City. This choice determined whether Pep would attack wide or press. With the Croatian in the starting line-up, Pep played into Ten Hag’s hands. They had no openings as the play was all centred. Every once in a while, an attacker would find space and the bald Moroccan battering ram would roar in to thwart them and usually take them down too.
Manchester United in turmoil
👉 Six reasons why Jim Ratcliffe shouldn’t sack Erik ten Hag as Manchester United manager
👉 Jim Ratcliffe has been slammed for a “very lackluster” FA Cup decision which has infuriated Manchester United staff.
All United players were fantastic. Even the substitutes, who Ten Hag always makes mistakes with, played their part perfectly. The discipline and belief was the opposite of the standard this season and that’s why I can’t praise the manager for that. After the heavy defeat away to Palace, the traveling fans were singing and chanting for the team until they were told to leave by stadium staff. Many of the United players spoke about it in their post-match interviews on Saturday. How encouraging and confident the fans have been. Thank you to the best away supporters in the world. You should hold the cup in your hands.
This says a lot about Ten Hag’s position. It was always going to be the case that Ineos wanted their own people at the club. Almost all the key figures behind the scenes have already been sacked. The manager needed to perform at his best to get out of this, and he didn’t. This game aside, Ten Hag has failed to manage his team well, regardless of the circumstances.
I think INEOS are uncomfortable with the level of power and authority he has at the club. He basically dictates everything about the team’s activities including training schedules and meals, which doesn’t really fit with the modern club United aspire to be. I think they’ll fire him and hire an up-and-coming coach (probably McKenna) who will be content to just coach the team he’s been given.
I like Ten Hag and it’s the right decision for United’s long-term future, but the way he left is terrible.
Dave, Manchester
What a way to stay
Now that ETH has won another trophy, he is asking himself how he is measured. Do they have to play aesthetic football to please the media and the pundits? How did it fare for Potter, De Zerbi and Howe? Angers were media darlings at the start of the season but are now derided as naive. Even Arsenal, who currently hold the “Joga Bonito” crown, are yet to win a trophy after five seasons.
Sure, we played badly for much of the season, drawing and winning games we should have lost, but we also provided some memorable entertainment in the process. The Liverpool Cup match may have been the best match of the season in terms of entertainment value.
In a results-driven business, ETH can point to three cup finals, two trophies, a Champions League appearance and a Europa League appearance in two years. Obviously? Probably not. Luck? So what. In the meantime, he’s developed two academy players and has a healthy pipeline underway. Isn’t that the “United DNA” that Neville and co. talk about? Ah, the answer to Alan Shearer’s question about why it took MUFC so long to play so well is probably because ETH was able to field their first-choice centre-back for only the fifth time this season.
So what happens if he is sacked? ETH can legitimately claim that he will be snapped up by a top club and win trophies, but MUFC still need to clean up their organization to do all the things that ETH (and his predecessor Rangnick) said needed to be done.
ETH lacks Klopp’s charisma So he was never in the media’s favour and sometimes comes across as cranky, but he wasn’t and shouldn’t have been hired to be nice, and sacking him now would show that despite everything that has changed, MUFC remains the same.
Adidasmufc (If I were ETH I would tell the board to either support me or fire me so I can get a better job)
📣 In the comments! Should Manchester United sack Erik ten Hag? Join the discussion here.
Great Scott
Like most United fans, and probably Will Ford, I am still in shock from winning the FA Cup.
A lot of words have been written, but very few were written before the game (or hastily rewritten after), but none of them mentioned the most amazing moment I saw in the entire game: when Scotty McTominay not only passed, but dribbled past the ball and dispossessed multiple City players on the touchline.
Still, it’s too unlikely, so I might have to watch the game again to make sure it wasn’t a fever dream. I don’t think the kid had the strength to do that. I guess it was just a special day.
Bad Wolf (Sir Jim, give him four more years)
Ah, FFP.
If our defeat allows Ten Hag to keep his job, can we reduce that number to 114 for community service?
Paul, Manchester
Shear Class
How wonderful it was to see Ten Hag put Alan Shearer back in his little box again in his post-match interview with the BBC.
Bagpuss
A shattered childhood
It has become very clear to me that there are those in the media who do not want United to be successful again.
Beefy United
Manage Troyes
Moving away from the FA Cup for a moment… but still somewhat relevant, I want to briefly touch on City Football Group, and in particular Troyes, a relatively small French club.
They appear to have been used as a front for the City Group to acquire players and staff, resulting in their relegation from League One to two leagues in the space of two years.
And now Savio, who joined Manchester City for a former record fee, has been swapped around within the City group over the past few years, presumably to get a work permit or something.
In my view, that’s pretty ruthless and suits a group with 115 areas of concern.
enjoy!
Bad Wolf
