Ten Hag loses the dressing room despite surviving Man Utd sack

Carlo Garganese

• 9 Oct 2024 16:00 BST
• 4 min read

Erik ten Hag may have survived the sack this week but his Manchester United future remains in severe doubt amidst suggestions he has lost the dressing room.

The Daily Mail reports that many Man Utd players are unhappy and puzzled by Ten Hag’s decisions as manager recently, and have lost faith in him.

Ten Hag’s rotation policy has not gone down well with the Man Utd squad, with many players feeling it makes it difficult to build up a rhythm and create a chemistry with teammates.

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Players can’t understand why Ten Hag is rotating central defenders, such as the decision to bring in Harry Maguire and Jonny Evans against Aston Villa in place of Matthijs de Ligt and Lisandro Martinez.

Also, the call to take Marcus Rashford off at half time against Porto when United were leading 2-0 has been criticised.

Ten Hag and his staff have also annoyed players by saying that some players look tired.

All this follows on from a number of well-publicised run-ins that Ten Hag has had with players since joining in 2022. The likes of Cristiano Ronaldo and Jadon Sancho have had explosive bust-ups with Ten Hag, leading to them leaving the club.

CaughtOffside have suggested that Ten Hag has probably lost the dressing room at Old Trafford, which makes it difficult to see him lasting too much longer at the club.

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Ten Hag survives Man Utd sack

For the short term, though, Ten Hag is safe, despite a disastrous start to the season that sees United languishing in 14th position in the Premier League.

Ten Hag has survived the Manchester United sack during the current international break and will be in charge for the club’s next match against Brentford.

The Times report that Ten Hag has survived the much-anticipated executive summit held in London on Tuesday by United chiefs.

The United board held a six-hour meeting at INEOS’ offices in London where it was decided that no action would be taken to sack Ten Hag.

The meeting was chaired by Sir Jim Ratcliffe, the Ineos owner and United’s largest single minority shareholder. Also present were Ineos head of sport, Sir Dave Brailsford, United CEO Omar Berrada, sporting director Dan Ashworth, the sporting director, and technical director Jason Wilcox.

Ten Hag will be in charge for Man Utd’s next match against Brentford on Saturday 19 October at Old Trafford.

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It was widely reported that Ten Hag risked the sack on Tuesday after a disastrous start to the 2024-25 season.

But having seemingly lost the dressing room, how much longer can he cling on to his job at Man Utd?