For a while now, the belated success of Mikel Arteta at Arsenal has been a useful shield for under-fire managers to hide behind.
Give me enough time and resources, they would say, and I can turn your fortunes around just like Arteta did at Arsenal.
Now, there are certainly similarities between the situation Arteta inherited at the Emirates and the one Erik ten Hag sunk his teeth into at Manchester United. Two sleeping giants beset by flawed recruitment, a host of overpaid, underperforming players, and owners who would not know a good footballing decision if it slapped them squarely in the face.
Arteta led Arsenal to eighth in his first full season. Then, fifth. By 2022 – two-and-a-half years into the role – Arteta had The Gunners going toe-to-toe with Manchester City at the top of the Premier League table.
But after Ten Hag’s own eighth-place finish, can he emulate what the Spaniard has down in North London? That is the question Ten Hag must answer, with successive defeats to Brighton and Liverpool only serving to embolden his growing throng of critics.
Erik ten Hag has a lot to prove at Manchester United
According to The Guardian, it is not only those outside of Old Trafford who are starting to doubt Ten Hag’s suitability for the role.
There are reportedly ‘serious concerns’ within Ineos’ new football structure about Ten Hag’s tactics.
And while the former Ajax boss may have picked up more trophies in two years than Arteta has in nearly five, Arsenal remain on a journey of constant improvement. The gap between The Gunners and the Red Devils has only grown during Ten Hag’s tenure.
“I don’t care what anybody says, he is so far out of his depth its unreal,” Stan Collymore, the former England international, says in his Caught Offside column.
“I am sure Sir Jim Ratcliffe and INEOS have come in and agreed to let him stay on because they’ve looked at the time Arsenal have given Mikel Arteta and thought; ‘see, if we trust the process, it can work out’.
“Ten Hag isn’t Arteta though.
“I know Arsenal have only won one FA Cup with Arteta but there is clear and obvious progression being made season after season under the Spaniard. And, more importantly, the team have their identity back. The Gunners play technically exciting and fast-paced free-flowing football.
“Historically, United have played the same kind of electric, all-action football. Devastating, defence-splitting counter-attacks. But they are absolutely no where near rediscovering that identity under Ten Hag.
“At best, they’re too passive and at worst they’re boring. He has got to go.”
Red Devils urged to go for Carlo Ancelotti
Amid all the inevitable hand-wringing that accompanied another heavy defeat to Liverpool, it must be said that Man United do look a better team from last season, even if there is still so much work to be done.
They outplayed Man City in the Community Shield – Pep Guardiola hailing their threat in attack – theyposted an XG of nearly three against Fulham, and were an unfortunate offside away from beating Brighton in their own backyard.
Liverpool also scored three goals from three shots on target last time out.
They managed 11 attempts in total, down from 28 the last time the two old rivals went head to head at Old Trafford in April.
The decision to stick with Ten Hag after talks with Thomas Tuchel, Roberto de Zerbi and more, meanwhile, always felt like something of a marriage of convenience. United may jilted the Dutchman at the alter had a proven, elite-level manager who ticked all of their boxes been available.
Collymore, meanwhile, believes there is one name that stands out above the rest when discussing potential Ten Hag successors.
“With the exception of Pep Guardiola and Jurgen Klopp, the pull of Manchester United should still be big enough to make any manager in the world think about taking the job,” he adds.
“Ineos should be out there trying for Carlo Ancelotti.
“Yes, ‘Don Carlo’ is very much a Real Madrid man, but why not say to him; ‘You’ve won everything there is to win in Madrid, do you want to come here and make us great again?’
“Regardless of what he’d say, Ancelotti is the calibre of manager United should be targeting.”
Accumulating five Champions League winners’ medals amongst 30 trophies as a manager, Ancelotti is somewhat removed from the sort of coach Ineos appear to prefer.
The Italian is 65 years of age, while the United chiefs appeared to be leaning towards a younger, more long-term appointment when it looked as if Ten Hag’s time was up in the summer.
Once labelled a ‘fantastic‘ manager by none other than Sir Alex Ferguson, Ancelotti considered taking over at Old Trafford back in 2013, per Cadena Cope.
He had already given his word to Real Madrid, however, pushing United in the direction of the doomed David Moyes.
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