Man Utd legend: 'I wish Ten Hag had left differently'

"I think many Man Utd fans wanted Ten Hag to stay as head coach. Things didn't go as planned. Personally, I wish Ten Hag had left in a different way," legend Gary Neville commented on the departure of coach Erik Ten Hag on Sky Sports.

On the evening of October 28, Man Utd announced the sacking of coach Ten Hag, 21 months earlier than the contract term. Having to pay 16 million pounds in compensation, the team's leadership still "bite the bullet" because of the poor results. After 9 rounds, the Old Trafford team is in 14th place with the worst start in Premier League history.

"It's hard to accept that they're 14th. You can't be in such a low position when you're in charge of Man Utd, especially when the season is nine rounds old. Under such enormous pressure from the fans, what's going to happen has happened," Neville said.

Gary Neville was disappointed and regretful after Ten Hag's departure.

He also pointed out that Coach Ten Hag's biggest mistake when he was in charge was in the transfer business. The Dutch coach brought 21 players to Old Trafford, but only Andre Onana and Lisandro Martinez kept their starting positions. Meanwhile, there were countless failed contracts, the most typical cases were Antony and Mason Mount.

"Man Utd have been a team lacking personality and identity for two and a half seasons. The team's transfer business is also not good, sometimes terrible. I was really shocked to see Casemiro starting against West Ham instead of Ugarte - who was brought in this summer to replace Casemiro," Neville added.

This is not the first time Ten Hag has chosen a strange starting lineup this season. In the match against Aston Villa, Ten Hag left 7 expensive contracts (a total of 335 million pounds) on the bench. Instead of trusting Lisandro Martinez or Matthijs de Ligt, Ten Hag started Maguire – Evans. This is the central defender pairing of Leicester City from 5 seasons ago. In midfield, Manuel Ugarte had to be the backup for Eriksen.

Overall, Man Utd's performance under Ten Hag has not been too bad, with 70 wins in 128 games. In fact, after Sir Alex Ferguson, Ten Hag is the coach with the second highest winning percentage at Man Utd (54.7%), only behind Jose Mourinho (58.3%).

Ten Hag's problem is that he is conflicted between philosophies, especially in the way he uses people. He places great importance on bringing familiar players to Old Trafford, but when Man Utd needs them most, Ten Hag makes surprising and ineffective decisions. This is one of the reasons why Man Utd's board of directors lost patience with the Dutch coach, leading to the decision to fire him despite the huge compensation.

Thanh Loc

Source: https://vtcnews.vn/huyen-thoai-man-utd-uoc-ten-hag-ra-di-theo-cach-khac-ar904422.html