Erik ten Hag is staring into the abyss at Manchester United after a start to the season that has extinguished all the goodwill he started the season with.
The 3-3 draw vs FC Porto stressed the issues that have been at Manchester United under Erik ten Hag all season and there’s no respite.
Aston Villa being the last challenge before the international break is sure to make Ineos trigger-happy as a gap of about two weeks gives ideal time to the prospective new man to get his feet under the table.
Results have undoubtedly been bad, and it hasn’t been a case of just bad luck that can be written off, but there are wider issues at play too.
Recent reports have emerged that a certain Man United duo is playing a big role in Ten Hag’s job, which is in peril with the board.
Ineos concerned with Ten Hag’s handling of duo
Despite the underwhelming results, outside pressure, and even fan support wavering to an extent after the Tottenham loss, one thing has been constant.
In a departure from the usual, it looks like the players are still on Ten Hag’s side and he hasn’t lost the dressing room.
It is perhaps why he has held onto the job for so long, since managers like Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and Jose Mourinho lost their job for less because the situation with the dressing room was untenable.
However, players backing Ten Hag doesn’t mean that the board is happy with the manager’s handling of the players.
CaughtOffside reports that Ineos is concerned with Ten Hag’s inability to get the best out of two players at Old Trafford which is playing a big part in his wavering job security.
The first is Joshua Zirkzee, who has impressed in everything but scoring, and the board thinks that Ten Hag has been unable to get the best out of him in the system in place.
The second is Alejandro Garnacho, where the board is concerned with the player receiving irregular minutes in the first-team despite impressing pretty much every game.
Making sense of the report
Zirkzee has struggled to get going on the scoresheet after a sterling debut but United probably knew that they weren’t getting a prolific assassin when they bought him.
He has been as advertised, expertly linking up the play and bringing others into the game, and the team looks better in attack with him at the tip of it.
The only thing Ten Hag can be blamed for is his insistence on sticking with the 4-2-3-1 formation when a potential Zirkzee-Rasmus Hojlund partnership could be tried.
Even there, Hojlund has only just returned from injury and began shaking off the rust. Furthermore, they are the only two natural senior strikers at the club so risking them both at the same time might not be wise.
As for Garnacho, Ten Hag has been open about wanting to rotate out wide after the injury nightmare of last season.
Amad and Marcus Rashford have also been subjected to it, with the Rashford sub vs Porto bordering on unbelievable.
Still, Ten Hag went through with it, such is his commitment to rotation this season. If anything, he brought on Garnacho for Rashford that day and gave a glowing assessment of his performance after the game.
Therefore, while it is clear that Ten Hag has already done more than enough to force Ineos to think about his future, his handling of the duo shouldn’t be the factor that condemns him ultimately.
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