Manchester United are in their worst form since 1989-1990

Manos Staramopoulos • 9 de octubre de 2024

Ten Hag has entered his 3rd season as the Red Devils captain but signs of improvement are yet to be seen. In fact, results are starting to resemble the nightmare days of Manchester United before Sir Alex Ferguson took over and put them on top of the world.

Erik Ten Hag head coach Manchester United from 2022.

Reasonably, most (if not all) Manchester United fans are now wondering how long the Dutchman, Erik ten Hag, will be at the helm of their team's technical leadership. The Dutchman has entered his 3rd season as the Red Devils captain but signs of improvement are yet to be seen. In fact, results are starting to resemble the nightmare days of Manchester United before Sir Alex Ferguson took over and put them on top of the world.


In the recent game in Birmingham, United drew 0-0 against Aston Villa and Ten Hag's side are now in 14th place in the Premier League after 7 matches. A not beautiful harvest, rather a sad one, which certainly does not suit the history and size of the club...


Stop far 89/90


To find a similar poor start for United, then, one has to go back in time. To be precise, in the 1989/90 season, when United had collected only 7 points in the same number of matches! In the 25 years that have followed from then until today, never before at this point in time have the "red devils" been in such an unfavorable position.


For the sake of history, let's remember that time in United, among others, Paul Ince, Brian McClaire, Mark Hughes, Gary Pallister, Steve Bruce, Jim Leighton, etc. played. Then the 1989/90 season was Sir Alex Ferguson's 3rd in a row, who was still trying to reshape the whole club and not just the playing part of the team.


Ten Hag, on the other hand, did not take into his hands the ruin that the legend of world football had to manage at the time and for this very reason his achievements made history.

 

The saddest thing of all is not the poor results, but the overall image of the team. There doesn't seem to be any progress in whatever game plan the Dutchman is trying to go through now, while he has exactly the tools he has asked for.


Given United's management is not the best and rightly so the fans express their displeasure at every chance you give them. But they have given Ten Haag a bloated wallet to make any transfer moves he deems necessary.


The Dutchman's excuses have now dried up for good and the two Cups that Manchester United have won in his wake cannot in the least replace the psychological state of the team's fans, every time they see their favorite team unable to  cross pass (in exaggeration).


And for anyone who still has doubts about Ten Haag's "achievements", just think that Brentford against Wolves (05/10, 5-3) scored as many goals as United have scored in the entire season, exactly five.


Ten Hag firmly at the helm


Meanwhile, while many expected that the summit I had called for Tuesday morning (October 8) Sir Jim Ratcliffe would probably also mean the removal of Ten Hag, things turned out quite differently. The meeting of the managers of the club, according to the English Media, showed once again that the Dutch coach has won the trust of the United people and the decision taken is, for now at least, not to change the coach.


It is denied, in fact, that there was contact with Thomas Tuchel, who appeared as the main candidate to replace the Dutchman. And life in Manchester goes on…




Manos Staramopoulos

Journalist and Analyst of International Football and Affairs

Chief Editor English Zone of Discoveryfootball.com

Athens (Greece)

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