6 times Erik ten Hag saved himself from the edge of the pocket at Man Utd

Manchester United manager Erik ten Hag is proving himself to be something of an escape artist, seemingly always able to pull a rabbit out of a hat and deliver a result just when he seems most at risk of losing his job to lose.

Ten Hag will rightly point to his record of winning two cups in two seasons at Manchester United, which resulted in him signing a new contract in the summer, but league results have been in doubt for well over a year and it’s been a long time that the Dutch felt so safe in his work.

We’ve identified six occasions when Ten Hag scored a big, important win to earn more time in the dugout.

Man Utd 2-1 Brentford (October 2024)

We could have picked several examples from United’s dismal 2024/25 season so far – stopping the rot after 3-0 defeats at home to Liverpool and Tottenham – so we’ll go with their latest win, if only for it cumulative effect.

The writing was on the wall for Ten Hag at Old Trafford when they went into halftime one goal behind at home against Brentford. At the time, the statistics were damning; they were the lowest scorers in the entire division, having gone seven halves of Premier League football without finding the back of the net.

But they recovered admirably to produce a dominant second-half display with a more clinical lead, with Alejandro Garnacho and Rasmus Hojlund providing the goals.

Once again Ten Hag lives to fight another day.

Man Utd 2-1 Man City (May 2024)

The big one.

After leading Manchester United to one of their worst league campaigns in recent times – an eighth-place finish, 14 defeats, the first time they have recorded a negative goal difference in the Premier League era – they pulled off a big save by beating their city rivals at Wembley to beat. .

Ten Hag made a tactical adjustment that paid off big time, earning victory over Pep Guardiola’s all-conquering Manchester City in the FA Cup final.

After the season they had had, you cannot imagine that Ten Hag would have remained in the post if he had not emerged – against all expectations – with silverware and thus European football.

“Erik is a good guy and did his best but did too much,” Sir Jim Ratcliffe told The Times, offering a solution to United’s poor results last season.

“He was trying to get the crew in order and fix leaks in the roof at the same time.”

Coventry City 3-3 Man Utd (April 2024)

You could argue that United’s last comeback win over Liverpool in the quarter-finals earned Ten Hag a stay of execution, but he could have hung on afterwards – while he would certainly have been disappointed if they had squandered a three-goal lead. against Coventry City at Wembley.

The Red Devils blew away Coventry in the FA Cup semi-final, only to see the Championship team come from three goals behind and take the goal into extra time. And only the most marginal of VAR offside calls denied the Sky Blues a famous late winner.

Ten Hag came out swinging in the aftermath when a reporter asked him if he was ashamed of having narrowly lost to second-rate opposition at Wembley.

“No. Absolutely not,” Ten Hag responded.

“You (the media) have made enough of it and the question: ‘Is it embarrassing?’ No, your reaction was embarrassing. It’s the comments. Top football is all about results. We reached the final and we deserved it not only through this match, but also through the other matches.

“We lost control for twenty minutes, we were also unlucky (at) 3-2 (with a deflected goal), 3-3 (a questionable penalty).

“The penalties were very good and we made it to the final, it’s a huge achievement. Twice in two years is wonderful. For me as a manager (at United and Ajax) four cup finals in four years. The reactions are a shame.”

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Man Utd 3-2 Aston Villa (December 2023)

This big win on Boxing Day came two days after news that Ratcliffe had agreed to buy a 25% stake in the club, with his Ineos Group taking control of the football operations.

While that wasn’t officially confirmed until a few months later, perhaps the new boss could have made a statement of intent by making an immediate big call.

And there would have been good reason for that, as defeat at home to Unai Emery’s high-flying Aston Villa would have left their mid-season Champions League hopes hanging by a thread – often a punishable offence.

As it was, United moved five points clear of the top four to keep their faint hopes alive. That gap only widened in the second half of the season, but by then Ten Hag’s team was on the hunt for FA Cup glory.

Man Utd 2-1 Brentford (October 2023)

This was not the first 2-1 win over Brentford in October to ease the pressure on Ten Hag.

Let’s go back twelve months and United went into the final minutes on the brink of a third successive home defeat for the first time since 1979. Bring on Scott McTominay and two goals deep into extra time to completely turn things around.

It would be an exaggeration to suggest that Ten Hag appeared to be in serious danger of dismissal at the time, but the results and performances were far from healthy. We have seen presidents – hello Roman Abramovich – fire coaches for much less.

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Man Utd 2-1 Liverpool (August 2022)

We’ll start with a caveat here; we’re not seriously suggesting that United would have considered sacking Ten Hag after just three games at the helm.

But this was an absolutely huge victory at the time; crucial for Ten Hag who turned things around after the disastrous start to life at Old Trafford; a 2-1 defeat at home to Brighton, followed by a truly shocking 4-0 defeat to Brentford.

Followed by a bad home defeat against their biggest rivals (and they have had recent form for that, before and after Ten Hag’s appointment) and the confidence that he was the right man for the job – from the players, the board, the fans – would have been scarce.

It is not inconceivable that if United had lost that day, the Ten Hag would have been over before it had a chance to start, crashing just as spectacularly as former Ajax player Frank de Boer.

As it was, United’s impressive 2-1 win over Jurgen Klopp’s Reds can be seen as the moment he started to turn things around on his way to a decent season, ending a six-year trophy drought and putting them in made the top four.