The games that convinced Manchester United to get rid of Erik ten Hag

Despite losing the first two league games of the Premier League season, Erik ten Hag had made a fine start to his Manchester United career with a League Cup victory and an impressive Europa League knock-out win over Barcelona. They were third in the league, only five points off leaders Arsenal when bitter rivals Liverpool came to visit. That good start came to a shuddering halt when they were thrashed 7-0 at Anfield by Jürgen Klopp’s men. It tied the heaviest defeat in United’s history – the sheer humiliation of the defeat, to Liverpool of all teams, soured what had mostly only been good vibes around his team to that point.
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Ten Hag had qualified Manchester United for the Champions League in his first season but his campaign was a disaster. The lowest point came in a wild game away to Copenhagen, a team with a fraction of the budget of United. The Red Devils had been dominating 2-0 before Marcus Rashford was sent off, which allowed Copenhagen back into the game as they made it 2-2. A Bruno Fernandes penalty in the second half gave United the lead again and they had looked comfortable before a collapse in the last 10 minutes saw the Danish side record a famous victory. It led to United finishing bottom of their group, with only five points from six games, an unacceptable result for any manager.
Manchester United’s finished eighth last season, their worst position in the Premier League era, with a negative goal difference. Defeats to Fulham and Bournemouth at home could also be considered among the lowest points, but a 4-0 dismantling by Crystal Palace in early May was arguably the nadir. The £60 million signing Casemiro was a disaster when standing in at centre back as United were outplayed at Selhurst Park. United’s disastrous season led to reports that Ten Hag would be sacked after the FA Cup final, but after their impressive victory over Manchester City the board decided otherwise.
Ten Hag was still on borrowed time as manager heading into this season, despite the FA Cup win, but was backed in the market with several new signings. Immediately, though, it looked like more of the same after they were outplayed by Liverpool at home, losing 3-0. When Spurs came to Old Trafford, it was already a high-stakes game for Ten Hag but they were behind within three minutes as Tottenham centre back Micky van de Ven ran through the entire United team under minimal pressure to set up Brennan Johnson for a tap-in. Ten Hag blamed Fernandes’s red card, later rescinded, for the defeat, but United were as bad with 11 men as they were with 10 as they were easily beaten.
The final straw for Ten Hag ironically came after one of United’s better performances of the season – albeit a first half in which they squandered chance after chance, the worst of which was full back Diogo Dalot rounding the goalkeeper and then blazing over an open goal. Failure to take their chances was duly punished by West Ham in the second half. Although Ten Hag could be rightly aggrieved with a contentious penalty decision that proved decisive, United’s poor second half performance and defeat amounted to Ten Hag’s final act.