It wouldn’t be a surprise to note that Erik ten Hag is a dead man walking at Man United, particularly in the wake of the Red Devils latest performance against Coventry City in the FA Cup semi-final.
The Premier League outfit were strolling towards a win before the Sky Blues mounted one of the best comebacks ever seen in the competition, and but for a debatable VAR decision the Championship side would’ve made the final against Pep Guardiola’s Man City.
It showed the world just how poor United’s defending can be at times, and that’s certainly not the face that Sir Jim Ratcliffe would be expecting is beamed across the globe.
Erik ten Hag wants more fire power at Man United
To that end, it’s difficult to imagine that the Dutchman will still be in position by the time the summer transfer window opens, but that hasn’t stopped him pleading with the new owners for some new blood.
Intriguingly, however, it’s at the opposite end of the pitch where he’s concentrated his efforts in the wake of a lack of goals from the likes of Rasmus Hojlund, Marcus Rashford and others.
“I think it would help,” he said when asked about the importance of having a proper goalscorer in United’s ranks, per Goal.
“You need more options. You need double positioning in every position. Some positions we didn’t have the choices this season – the striker position, the left-back position – and that has a negative impact on the results.”
All of United’s ills can’t be blamed on the manager of course, though it’s always the man on the bench that carries the can when things are not going well.
The likelihood of the club qualifying for next season’s Champions League is minimal at present, and that surely would’ve been the bare minimum required for there even to be a consideration that ten Hag gets to carry on after the end of this season.
Even an FA Cup Final win against Man City is unlikely to save the Dutchman’s skin, so his demands for players in certain positions is likely to fall on deaf ears.