Why Ten Hag Failed At Old Trafford

Erik ten Hag

 

Erik ten Hag craved control at Manchester United but it meant that, with problems piling up, there was nowhere to hide. In the end, his fingerprints were all over too much of the failure — there were no excuses left — and Sunday’s 2-1 defeat at West Ham United proved to be his final act as manager.

Ten Hag did it his way, accommodated by the club at almost every turn, but still couldn’t make it work.

The Dutchman enjoyed a lot of control while at Man United. He dictated details from the length of the grass to aid quicker passing to the layout of Old Trafford. Early on in his reign, Ten Hag was allowed to redesign a group video analysis room at Carrington — complete with a huge screen, tiered flooring and interior decoration featuring images of United fans — at a cost of more than £200,000. Yet his changes weren’t restricted to the facilities.

Ten Hag changed the way players prepared for games, asking them to arrive four hours early for matches at Old Trafford in their own cars rather than spending the night before at a Manchester hotel and arriving together on a coach.

He repurposed a large hospitality suite and turned it into a prematch room for his squad. He moved the lockers in the dressing room so the defenders sat to his left, and the midfielders and forwards sat to his right, when he stood in front of his tactics board.

At Old Trafford, Ten Hag insisted on switching the benches around to be nearer the tunnel, even though it meant his technical area would then straddle the halfway line, which, in his opinion, would give him a better view of the game.

He was told it would cost money to make the change because the home benches are heated and the away benches are not, but Ten Hag put his foot down and got his way. He often did.

United knew what they were getting when they hired him from Ajax Amsterdam in the summer of 2022. Club bosses were told a story that when he first arrived at Ajax in December 2017, he continued to use a suitcase embroidered with the branding of his former club, FC Utrecht. He was told it was perhaps not the best look for the Ajax manager to be carrying Utrecht merchandise, but he liked the bag and used it anyway. Ajax bosses told their United counterparts that it showed “Ten Hag’s stubbornness in a nutshell.”

Ten Hag was the same at Old Trafford, but with so much control came ultimate responsibility for performances and results that were eventually deemed unacceptable. After a little over two years, four months in charge, Ten Hag was sacked on Monday after a run of just four wins from 13 matches in all competitions to start the 2024-25 season.

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