Erik ten Hag’s future at Manchester United is under question less than six months after signing a new contract under a new ownership team.
Three wins in 11 games is far from good enough and with a tricky run of fixtures on the horizon, the need of the hour is for urgent results.
It can be argued that by combining this season’s form with the nightmare of the 2023/24 season, he should have already been sacked.
However, so far, one thing was working in favour, Erik ten Hag hadn’t lost the support of the dressing room and Man Utd fans never got the feeling that players had downed tools.
That is what spelled the end of every previous Man Utd manager which is something Ten Hag has avoided thus far.
The dressing room’s immediate stance on the manager has now been confirmed in Jonny Evans‘ recent comments.
Jonny Evans on Erik ten Hag
It was said at the start of the season that if Jonny Evans becomes as important this season as he was last year, something will have gone very wrong.
With all due credit to Evans, that has exactly been the case since in a functional, well-drilled team, Evans would be a distant fifth choice at best.
Instead, things reached such a head before the international break that he started alongside Harry Maguire vs Aston Villa and was actually one of the best players on the pitch.
Evans has been a model professional when there’s chaos around him and Ten Hag will be thankful for his recent comments as well.
Evans spoke to Sky Sports in the buildup to the Brentford game and praised Ten Hag, marking him out as a “man of principles”, while refuting suggestions that there’s a mentality issue in the squad.
He said: “He’s [Ten Hag] a very strong-minded man and I admire him for that. He’s very principled in the way he wants to work and the way he is as a person.
“He very rarely changes and that shows real strength. He believes in who he is and who he wants to be and his message is always the same and very consistent.
“I don’t think [there’s a mentality issue]. It’s an easy thing to look for when things aren’t going well but it’s not something that can be measured. I don’t get that feeling from the squad either.”
Erik ten Hag’s quality might be his downfall
Evans stresses that the qualities he admires the most about the manager are his consistency and fierce self-belief in his methods.
While that is certainly admirable and sorely needed to tackle the job of Man United’s scale, there’s a fine line between self-belief and stubbornness.
Ten Hag has skirted that line closely for a while now, be it in his handling of the tactical system at the club which has been exposed countless times, or his inability to be flexible as the situation demands.
When questioned, he continues talking about the two trophies he’s won in the two years at the club which is far from a solution to everything wrong at Old Trafford.
Ultimately, his biggest quality, which is his confidence in his ability, might prove to be his downfall if he refuses to change anything and sleepwalks into further losses because the current iteration of the squad just isn’t it.
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