Eddie Howe for Man Utd? Better than Erik ten Hag but no thanks…

It wouldn’t be much of an upgrade from Erik ten Hag to Eddie Howe for Man Utd and it would be really dull.

Shall we have some mails on Arsenal and Liverpool? Or other clubs? Send them to [email protected]

No way no Howe for Man Utd

A list of top-tier trophies won by Eddie Howe (no the Championship doesn’t count):

He’s still young though so there’s time I suppose. Let’s have a look at the Premier League titles that English managers have won:

Not even a sniff, though Howard Wilkinson won the last, pre-Premier League, 1st division title. 32 years ago. Six English managers have managed to win a trophy since, but not the big one. That’s abysmal actually.

Would Eddie Howe even do that well at United? His Newcastle are good at holding the big teams to account (unless there’s a trophy on offer) but they are largely dull and that doesn’t go down well at Old Trafford. In fairness though, we are objectively worse than Newcastle right now. I’m not sure Howe would do a worse job in the league but that’s a low bar. We should also remember that the reason Newcastle aren’t stinking up Europe like United right now is because Ten Hag knows how to win a cup.

The biggest problem with Howe is not that he would be difficult to extricate from his contract but that United are not going to be after him as I suspect Dan Ashworth isn’t his biggest fan considering Howe questioned just exactly what Ashworth did during his tenure.

So can we just nip this one in the bud before it even starts?

And just a quick one or two for Dara: if that was a knee-high challenge from Bruno then Maddison must be in surgery this week, having his knee removed from half way up his tibia. And to say Bruno tried to get sent off is complete nonsense, especially as it shouldn’t have been a red card in the first place. Though that level of incompetence is what we’ve come to expect from United.

There’s a weird perception of Bruno that he gives up or doesn’t run enough. That’s never been my impression of him and it’s not backed up by the stats. Current poor form aside, he’s been the only reliable United player in terms of performance and injuries, probably since Fergie left. I hope he appeals the red, but he deserves a bit of time off playing for this disastrous team.

Ash (sticking with most of my predictions but not confident about any of them) Metcalfe

MORE ON THE MAN UTD MESS FROM F365:

👉 Top 10 Manchester United lows under the doomed Erik ten Hag

👉 Big Midweek: Ten Hag sack, Arsenal v PSG, Aston Villa host Bayern, Foden, big Championship clash

👉 Next Man Utd manager: Who should Red Devils appoint if they sack Ten Hag?

Ten Hag is an objectively bad coach for Man Utd

In a letter that was published in July I explained how important UCL qualification would be for INEOS and that “…if at any point that looks in serious doubt Ten Hag will be sacked, which could be as early as October”. Here we are in October with this a very real possibility.

About midway through last season is when I gave up on Ten Hag when he quite clearly made a serious injury crisis worse by exposing the team with high risk tactics rather than closing ranks to weather the storm. However, the start to this season has made me reflect on just how bad it’s been under the Dutchman.

Everyone remembers the terrible start to his tenure with two embarrassing defeats to Brentford and Brighton though this first season also contained Ten Hag’s best time as United manager. There was a run of 31 games where his side won 24 with only 5 draws and 2 defeats and included 9 wins in a row. I believe this ‘purple patch’ helped build the fan support that still sustains him to some degree along with the cup wins. Yet on closer inspection we can note this run is bookended by the heavy 6-3 defeat to Man City and the 7-0 loss to Liverpool.

In the 81 matches since that Liverpool game United have won just 39 with 27 losses and a goal difference of only +18, a large chunk of which came against league one Barnsley a few weeks back. For context Jose only suffered 28 losses in his entire awful tenure of the club.

Mitigating factors don’t account for this, injuries and bad ownerships don’t excuse bad coaching. How many times has a player been allowed to run straight through midfield then cut back across the box for a tap in at the back post? A few dozen at least. How many times does our defensive midfielder get caught high up the pitch leaving a gaping hole behind? A dozen times per game?

It doesn’t matter if the red card was technically correct or not, it doesn’t matter if the VAR gave a penalty or not for a handball. Neither of these things cost us the result against Spurs. You could see within the first 5 minutes we were going to lose as is so often apparent with Ten Hag’s United.

This is not the players. The idea that Man United have bought badly is a remnant of times past. The squad is pretty good, perhaps not league winning but certainly better in quality and depth than Spurs and Villa.

This is fundamentally bad coaching. The style of play and the tactics he employs don’t work consistently enough to be successful in the Premier League. There have been precious few times when this team have looked very good and mostly this is when Ten Hag is forced into an approach that is contrary to his norm. His stubbornness will cost him his job, it’s just a matter of time.

Dave, Manchester

Can somebody explain Ten Hag please?

Be it the mailbox regulars or the writers of F365, please help me get an answer to this.

I don’t think there’s any United fan, even the delusional ones who can’t agree with the general analysis that we were beaten thoroughly by Spurs on every front on Sunday. But makes me wonder, then how did ETH ever get successful at Ajax? Was there no playing pattern there? How was he able to get clear instructions into that team? Was the Dutch league so bad and no other coach/manager worth their salt was operating at the same time as him? Assuming even if there were none, how did he find relative success in UCL?

At United, even if I forget when CR7 wanted to leave in June’22, got no offers, threw his toys out of the pram (sorry Ronaldo soy boys) and left after that Piers interview in Nov’22, or the captaincy issue of Maguire, how did he manage to finish 3rd over the mighty Liverpool and win a cup? Or the injury riddled second season with the Greenwood return saga, or the Sancho saga, or the Rashford saga, and still manage to dish out a few victories and end with another cup? And all this with new owners coming, new people to report to, old management leaving, how did he manage that?

My question is what is so wrong with ETH? Did he or didn’t he do any of the things above at Ajax? Why does he lose so badly and the pundits, media, social media, online fans can’t wait to get rid of him from United?

Please help!

Thank you,

AVM Phoenix (nothing else to say)

He’s just a Dutch Lawrie Sanchez

After reading this morning’s Mailbox and seeing Hot Richard’s list of caparisons for Ten Hag I wanted to offer up my own. Lawrie Sanchez.

Did bits with Northern Ireland before ultimately coming up short but earning a good solid reputation. Got a PL job, showed a complete lack of imagination in just buying a load of his old players and stank the gaff out. Sound familiar?

Adam (Leeds)

It’s hard supporting a team this sh*t

As a Manchester United fan, I’ve spent my life fending off the “glory hunter” jibes (despite them being my nearest league team and falling in love with football at Italia 90, before they got good). It was slightly tiresome, but it was a very small price to pay for all the glory. Sure, any defeats or travails we suffered were the big story of the day, but they were buried under the trophies, so it was a small amount of rough counterbalanced by a lot of smooth.

Things, it’s obvious to say, are now very different, both in terms of us as a club, but also the media landscape. We are still the biggest news story because we’re the most supported club, so we have the most fans but also the most “haters”; we drive the most clicks. We’re also shit. Like, properly, properly shit and, bar the odd flicker here and there, have been for over a decade.

As such, it’s becoming an exhausting process to support us now. Click on F365 the day after yet another nadir like Sunday and there’ll be 15 articles saying why we’re shit, how we’re shit, what was shit and what can be done to make us less shit. Pop on any football podcast and half the show will be dedicated to exact same issues for the next 3 weeks. Every which way you turn there’ll be a think piece or meme telling you once again that your team is shit. We know. Believe me, we all know.

So I’m not asking for sympathy, football is a horrible business now and we’re one of the baddies, but I’d just like to highlight one of the cons to following such a big side. Smaller clubs can be shit quietly, a club the size of United can’t. The shitness will broadcast loud and clear, far and wide, and very much on repeat.

Lewis, Busby Way

Conspiracy corner

I didn’t want to believe it. I am an Arsenal fan and didn’t want to believe all of these emails citing a conspiracy from the refs. People have to be crazy to believe this right?

Well, I am afraid I am crazy. There is no denying it anymore. We have conclusive proof of conspiracies. Sending Fernandes off to give Ten Hag an excuse for losing is irrefutable proof that the refs are against Man Utd and will do whatever it takes to keep Ten Hag in a job.

Dave (Conspiracies are tiresome) Bracknell

Why VAR?

So I’ve looked outside and the burning hellscape has not frozen over, so imagine my confusion: both Dale Johnson from ESPN AND Dermot Gallagher on Sky have confirmed that the Bruno red was obviously and clearly incorrect. That aligns with the punditry at halftime, full time and general sentiment.

So the ref has made a game-changing, split-second decision from a bad angle and subsequent reviews using technology have clearly shown that decision incorrect.

And yet here we are. So what, exactly, is VAR for, if not situations like this?

Ryan, Bermuda (it doesn’t matter that it’s a good thing as it might get ETH out, that’s not the point)