Manchester United have recently wielded the axe on Erik ten Hag’s tenure, and one of his former players explains what went wrong for the manager at Carrington.
The Red Devils resorted to the Dutch tactician in the summer of 2022 in the hopes of restoring the club’s old glories. But after 2+ years in charge, the management ran out of patience, with the team residing in the bottom half of the Premier League.
The hierarchy thus decided to put an end to the 54-year-old time at Old Trafford, replacing him with Ruben Amorim.
For his part, Ryan Babel tries to explain what went wrong for his compatriot in England.
The 37-year-old is remembered in the Premier League for his spell at Liverpool between 2007 and 2011. But the well-traveled winger also played under Ten Hag when he made a brief return to Ajax in January 2020.
Babel identifies two factors that played against the former Man United boss, beginning with the failure to recruit his main targets.
“I experienced Ten Hag at Ajax, and he was very clear on his vision and on how he wanted to play,” said the retired played in his interview with Instant Casino (via The Mirror).
“Over the years I’ve seen managers succeed and managers fail and that’s not because they are bad managers all of a sudden.
“You have the arguments as to why it didn’t work out for him at United. Did he spend money? Yes, he did, but I also think that he missed out on some of the players that he really, really wanted while he was at Manchester United.
“There were occasions where he couldn’t get his top targets and he had to divert to plan B, plan C. Maybe the players he was presented with couldn’t execute the type of football he wanted to play.”
Ryan Babel reveals the blunder that cost Erik ten Hag his job at Manchester United
Aside from the signings, Babel felt that Ten Hag wasn’t malleable enough to adjust to the Premier League, which proved to be his undoing.
“I do know that he is a great coach, he has a great vision, he has a great eye for football but, again, the Premier League is a different ball game to the Dutch way of playing,” Babel added
“It is not always suitable in the Premier League to play with those principles. In the Premier League, you need to be able to adapt. You need to have a plan B for strategy. I’m not sure if he had that.
“I think he was too wedded to his plan and tried to make it work even when it was turning against him. That’s what I believe happened. It’s sad of course to see a fellow Dutchman go down like that, but I’m sure he will bounce back.”
