Ten Hag likelier to lose patience with Man Utd than be sacked

Ben Jacobs

19 Aug 2022 21:50 BST
3 min read

Manchester United will not pull the plug early on Erik ten Hag's reign at Old Trafford, writes CBS journalist Ben Jacobs.

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Ten Hag arrived at United at the start of the summer after impressing at Ajax, where he lifted three Eredivisie titles in four seasons between 2018 and 2022 and also masterminded his club's stunning run to the 2018-19 Champions League semi-finals.

But he has quickly found out that the dysfunctional Premier League giants represent a whole new challenge.

The Dutchman's time on the bench kicked off with two painful defeats at the hands of Brighton and Brentford that leave United bottom of the table.

Things will not get any easier in United's next outing, against Liverpool on Monday, while frustrations over the club's failures in the transfer market and the spectre of the unresolved Cristiano Ronaldo situation are further headaches for the manager.

Despite this inauspicious start, though, he is more likely to jump than be pushed at this stage, but neither of those scenarios are probable unless United's crisis intensifies over the coming weeks and months.

Still too early to judge Ten Hag

Erik ten Hag, Man Utd, 2022/23 — © ProShots

It is still too early to have concerns about Ten Hag, during the Ralf Rangnick era they had the opportunity to make a patient decision to go for Ten Hag over, for example, Mauricio Pochettino so to U-turn on that now would be more damning on the board than on Ten Hag.

It's more a case of whether Ten Hag himself loses patience, and that's not going to happen imminently, but you can already tell that he is slightly shocked at what he has inherited, and that is the internal perspective at Manchester United.

As the ownership carry on making the same mistakes and as executives do things 'the Manchester United way', in practice no one department at Manchester United has a clear plan on how to firefight what even after two games is looking like another crisis and drama at the football club.

The reaction of the players is almost to feed off that negativity, so they're lacking confidence and belief. And the Ronaldo situation does not help either.