Jermaine Jenas believes that Erik ten Hag’s counterattacking strategy, which defeated Manchester City in the FA Cup final, will not be accepted by Manchester United supporters as they consistently perform well in the Premier League.
Sir Jim Ratcliffe is allegedly lining up England manager Gareth Southgate as Ten Hag’s replacement, putting Ten Hag under intense pressure at Old Trafford.
After leaving Bayern Munich, Ratcliffe is also rumoured to be considering Thomas Tuchel.
Despite rumours that Ten Hag would be fired following the FA Cup final, Manchester United co-owner Daniel Ratcliffe has not yet fired the Dutchman despite his stellar performance against the nation’s greatest squad.
Ten Hag had shown so much promise at Wembley that it would be cruel to fire him, but the Premier League’s 2023–2024 performances were extremely uneven.
In light of this, former Tottenham midfielder Jenas feels Ratcliffe ought to fire him. Supporters are hoping for “attacking, exciting football” instead of the counterattacking approach that helped Spurs defeat rivals Man City.
“Are Manchester United into a little bit of a pickle having put in one of their best performances of the year to get that win?” the fans and everyone else’s thoughts are asking, he said to talkSPORT.
“I still believe that they should focus their attention elsewhere since, in my opinion, a manager’s success is measured throughout the course of a season.
“Keeping in mind that that performance was a very special and bespoke-designed performance for one game, when I look at Manchester United right now.
Therefore, it was very much like, “Manchester United fans are not going to accept that week in and week out at Old Trafford. Manchester City are going to have a lot of the ball, we can sit in and play counter-attacking football.”
“They want to play offensive, thrilling football, they want to be on the ball, they want to dominate games, right?
Thus, I haven’t personally witnessed… How long has he been there—two years? Not many performances have I watched where I can sit here and say, “That’s an Erik ten Hag performance.” I’m still in the dark about what he does!
In response to a question from talkSPORT host Andy Goldstein about how long it takes for players to adjust to a manager and their strategies, Jenas said, “I don’t think it takes two years.”
“I believe that six months is a good amount of time to kind of look at a team and say, ‘Well, you might not be winning games, but I totally understand the direction that this team is now moving in, and even during that period of time I’m prepared to accept the losses because you’re trying this and you’re trying that.'”
“It’s true that Erik ten Hag has had a bit of a nightmare in terms of injuries, but we also need to take that into consideration when observing him.
Luke Shaw, Tyrell Malacia, has been without a left side for a very long time. Simply said, I’m not convinced.
“I understand why Manchester United supporters should be incredibly grateful for the trophies he has won over the past several years because, as anyone who has played for Spurs knows, those kinds of things don’t happen very frequently and the supporters would be thrilled to have either of the two.
However, I simply don’t think he’s the guy who can put Manchester United back in the dominant position they need to be if I’m thinking two, three, or five years ahead for their supporters.
