Ten Hag the Man.
Happy new year, folks! A lot is happening at the club. The club is on sale, and Glazers might finally leave, but there is one man who knows what he is doing, and that's our boss, Ten Hag.
Since being appointed as manager, he has brought discipline and a mentality to the club. Although we are still doing the same in the league table, if you go by the club's position and points, you should also know that this is no FIFA or Football Manager. It's one of the most challenging jobs in the footballing world, with pressure coming from all sides and nobody from the club hierarchy at your side, being run by clowns. But despite all that, our team has started playing good football, and for the first time in years, we are seemingly going in the right direction. He also has the highest win percentage than any United manager in history after 24 games in charge, with 71%.
In yesterday's game against Wolves, which was a must-win game for us going into the new year, Ten Hag decided to drop Rashford. Reason being? He overslept. Yes, you heard that right. Shows that Ten Hag is the boss, and he doesn't care even if you are one of the key players. We risked dropping points doing that, as we weren't great in the first half, with Martial missing a big chance. Antony was ineffective. Garnacho, although he missed a big chance, he was effective. Sir Alex, during his reign, did something similar when he dropped several key players against Blackburn for disciplinary issues, although we lost.
But the significance of these decisions is that the managers decided to take the route of short-term loss for long-term success.
Rashford took the responsibility and took the goal after he came on.
I appreciate Ten Hag for doing this. Not dropping him would've undermined his philosophy of strict punctuality and discipline. A matter he pressed on from day one. The club always suffered from player power ever since the Moyes Era. Ten Hag has changed a lot of that since then.
Today, we are talking about everything Ten Hag has done to establish his control over the team. Diogo Dalot mentioned that Ten Hag's strict rules and tough love are for the club's greater good, with similar praises from De Gea and Bruno during the preseason. Player power has always been a problem in the club for the past decade, with it being one of the main reasons, alongside the Glazers, Ten Hag was precisely the kind of manager we needed.
Maguire and Shaw were dropped to the bench after the Brentford game due to bad performances. Let me remind you guys that Maguire was the captain of the club. Since then, Shaw has improved his game and Maguire, although dropped for most of the season, was solid when he came on, and I still hope he comes back stronger.
But we should also remember that Ten Hag is not just bossing around, not taking responsibility. He took responsibility during the Brentford loss and ran 13.8 km with the players as a punishment. In my opinion, this moment brought Ten Hag respect and control over the team.
During preseason, Ronaldo walked out of the stadium after being subbed off, which Ten Hag was not happy about and refused to come on against Spurs, our best team performance in years, resulting in him being dropped from the squad. He then went on to captain the team when Bruno and some other key players were rested, but he failed to prove himself while he missed many key chances and not helping the team in build-up play.
Ronaldo didn't get what he wanted in the end, with the club terminating his contract while nobody else in Europe wanted him. Now he's in Saudi Arabia, having signed for Al-Nassr in a big money deal. I guess karma comes at you, even if it's not immediate.
Rashford could've been pissed and frustrated, but instead, he redeemed himself by scoring the winner; this is just another example of how the mentality in the club has changed. The hug between Rashford and Ten Hag after the game shows us there was no bad blood between them.
The man, Sir Alex himself, said that Ten Hag was what the club needed. After the Forest game, Bruno said the club lacked stability, and the players were in control, which was changed with the arrival of Ten Hag. Let's not forget that this was the kind of respect Sir Alex got from the teams he managed; if you don't have discipline, you will be out of the team.
Once again, a happy new year; it's all down to this man for the club, and I believe it will be a better year than 2022.
Comments
Post a Comment