Erik Ten Hag’s rein at Manchester United has been filled with controversies and fallouts. Despite facing criticism from fans and media, the Dutch coach has delivered two trophies in the two seasons he has been at Old Trafford. While many had their reservations about his future after the Premier League season, he was able to win a few hearts following the FA Cup trophy by beating Manchester City in the Final.
However, the FA Cup trophy has not guaranteed him a job at the club next season. According to reports, the club management is having an official season review this week to determine his future with United. They have held meetings and discussed other names to replace him, but nothing has been made official yet. The Athletic conducted a survey, where they asked their subscribers if they felt that Erik Ten Hag deserved to be sacked. A whopping 75% of the readers backed Ten Hag, while the others had their doubts about his future.
In the same survey, they were also asked who they would prefer as his replacement. Mauricio Pochettino turned out to be a fan favourite with 38.4% of the votes, while Thomas Tuchel came second with 24.6% of the votes. While the official decision would not be made based on this survey, it is interesting to know what fans think about Erik Ten Hag. The Dutch manager has been heavily backed by the fans despite leading them to an eighth-place finish in the Premier League table. They also picked Pochettino as their man to replace Ten Hag, which also seems strange as he also did not have a great season with Chelsea.
Why are Manchester United fans backing Erik Ten Hag?
Erik Ten Hag came to Manchester after having a successful spell at Ajax. He led the Dutch side to three league titles and a famous run to the Semi-Final of the UEFA Champions League in 2019. His style of football was attractive and it got all the United fans excited. However, life in England did not start well for Erik Ten Hag. The club had some heavy defeats at the start of the 2022-23 season but picked up well. He also had a falling out with club legend Cristiano Ronaldo and this led to the Portuguese international to leave the club.
Despite all of the noise around the club, Ten Hag managed to lead the Red Devils to a Carabao Cup victory and help them finish third in his first season. There were expectations of things picking up from there, but it was not to happen and a big reason behind that was the injury problems at the club. Right from the very get-go, Ten Hag had some big players ruled out due to injuries. His centre-back pairing of Raphael Varane and Lisandro Martinez struggled to start games together as they faced multiple injuries during the season.
Luke Shaw, who is one of the best left-backs in football only played 12 PL games. He has been out of action since February and the team also did not have anyone to replace him as they were also without the services of Tyrell Malacia for the entire season. Aside from this, the likes of Mason Mount, Harry Maguire and Anthony Martial also faced injury problems, which seemed to make things very difficult for Ten Hag.
Does Erik Ten Hag deserve another chance at Manchester United?
The Dutch manager has already shown the fans that he has the ability to win trophies. However, he has also time and again reiterated that injuries have been a source of disappointment to his team. The 54-year-old stated that he had a conversation with the owners and they had reassured him that he would be the coach next season. However, the official review will be where everything will be assessed and that will determine if he has done enough to deserve another year at Manchester United. While he has the support of the fans, it is difficult to predict what the owners decide as they have already started talks with a few other names to replace him.
