Erik ten Hag is coming under increasing pressure at Manchester United. They've made a dismal start to the 2023-24 campaign and the feeling around the club is reminiscent of the latter days of his predecessors Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, Jose Mourinho and David Moyes.
The Dutch tactician has credit in the bank after leading the Red Devils to the League Cup last season, ending a six-year trophy drought, while getting them back into the Champions League with a respectable third-place finish.
However, things have taken a discernible downward turn since that high point at Wembley in February. The Red Devils have made their worst-ever start to a Premier League season and have lost more matches than they've won in all competitions.
They were well beaten by Manchester City and suffered another 3-0 loss as a heavily-rotated Newcastle XI outclassed them at Old Trafford.
They're now out of the League Cup, six points off the top four in the Premier League, and their hopes of qualifying from their Champions League group remain in doubt after losses to Bayern Munich, Galatasaray and FC Copenhagen.
“I still don't think that there's that much pressure on him. I think he's had a good year and he's bought a bit of time in that respect,” United legend Paul Scholes told TNT Sports following the 4-3 defeat away to Copenhagen.
“He's had bad injuries but as you say, nine defeats in 17 games is not good enough.
“I know managers have been sacked in that second or third year. I don't think we can afford to do it anymore, we've got to let this fella get on with it.
“I think he's been good up until this point and I go on to this season, I know it's not been that great but he's got a bit unlucky tonight.
“They're going to have to play better teams than Copenhagen but I thought there was a little bit of fight there tonight, just lacking still that bit of leadership. Maybe if a Casemiro was in there things might be different.”
We've taken a closer look at how Manchester United's record this season compares to the last three times the club hierarchy made the decision to get rid of a permanent manager mid-season – 2021-22 under Solskjaer (sacked in November), 2018-19 under Mourinho (sacked in December) and 2013-14 under Moyes (sacked in April).
Erik ten Hag (2023-24)
Played: 17
Won: 8
Drawn: 0
Lost: 9
Goals for: 24
Goals against: 30
Clean sheets: 5
Win rate: 47%
Loss rate: 53%
Goals per game: 1.41
Goals against per game: 1.76
Ole Gunnar Solskjaer (2020-21)
Played: 17
Won: 7
Drawn: 3
Lost: 7
Goals for: 28
Goals against: 29
Clean sheets: 2
Win rate: 41%
Loss rate: 41%
Goals per game: 1.64
Goals against per game: 1.70
Jose Mourinho (2018-19)
Played: 24
Won: 10
Drawn: 6
Lost: 8
Goals for: 38
Goals against: 35
Clean sheets: 5
Win rate: 41%
Loss rate: 33%
Goals per game: 1.58
Goals against per game: 1.45
David Moyes (2013-14)
Played: 51
Won: 26
Drawn: 10
Lost: 15
Goals for: 86
Goals against: 54
Clean sheets: 21
Win rate: 50.9%
Loss rate: 29.4%
Goals per game: 1.68
Goals against per game: 94%
Davichi
12
Those United fans pointing fingers at ETH and even the players still don't get that the problem at the club is the Glazers. Unit they change their ways or sell the club to someone who is interested in trophies rather than just money, United will not be able to compete at top level. Klopp saw this and that's why he rejected the chance to coach United before joining Liverpool. Even Pep will never accept the kind of project the Glazers offer, if he had the chance to. Those guys do not care about football but only how much they make at the end of the season and that's why they don't spend big to get the top players the team is in serious need for, they don't spend enough to maintain and upgrade the facilities at the club so how do you expect any coach to deliver with average players who work with substandard facilities?