sport news IAN LADYMAN: Erik ten Hag is at Manchester United to take a wrecking ball to ... trends now
Under a grey Mancunian sky, Erik ten Hag became the sixth man in nine years to attempt to bring some sunshine back to Manchester United.
It will not be an easy task. The competition between modern Premier League heavyweights Liverpool and Manchester City has been built on a platform of previously unseen excellence.
United, meanwhile, have been allowed to plumb new modern depths.
Erik ten Hag has a big job ahead of him after his first press conference as a Man United boss
He will be looking to take a wrecking ball to what has been built at United in recent seasons
Ten Hag was at Crystal Palace to see United lose on Sunday. He arrived in Manchester on Monday just as City were preparing to parade their fourth league title in five years though the centre of town.
So United’s new manager knows the task at hand and as he starts work, on a three-year contract, the 52-year-old perhaps has little choice but to break it all down in to manageable pieces.
‘I think we are in need of a process and this is a start,’ he said with heavy tones of understatement.
Sitting before a strangely small group of journalists, this was an unveiling that looked and felt rather low-key and that was probably appropriate.
Ever since Sir Alex Ferguson’s title-winning squad of 2013 could not be persuaded to perform the same tricks for his successor David Moyes, each incumbent to follow has inherited an even bigger mess than the one before.
Ten Hag referenced last season’s second-place finish as proof that United have a better squad than many believe. But, deep down, he knows what everybody else knows. That was a fluke.
United earned 74 points last time round and that would have secured them fourth place this year. Still not good enough, but better for sure than the 58 points mustered from a season just finished that was split between Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and Ralf Rangnick.
A look at the league table reveals all about Manchester United circa 2022. Just 16 wins from 38 games, 12 defeats and, perhaps most shocking of all for a club built on attacking football, a goal difference of precisely zero. The last time that any United team failed to register a positive in that particular column was 32 years ago.
Ten Hag spoke of his desires to get Man United back on terms with Man City and Liverpool
So Ten Hag knows he is not here to apply finesse or a gloss finish. He is here to take a wrecking ball to all that has been built in error over recent years.
