In his first 48 Premier League games in charge, Erik ten Hag has helped Man Utd win two more points, but lose more than in the last 48 games under Ole Gunnar Solskjaer.
According to statistics from the British newspaper Sunsport , in 48 Premier League matches under Ten Hag - most recently a 0-3 loss to Man City at Old Trafford on October 29, Man Utd won 28, drew six, lost 14 matches and earned 90 points.
The "Red Devils" controlled the ball 53.5%, shot a total of 744 times, scored 69 goals and conceded 59. They passed 24,195 times, had an accuracy of 82.7% and tackled 818 times.
Compared to the last 48 Premier League games under Solskjaer, Ten Hag's current Man Utd have lost more, conceded more goals, had less possession, made fewer passes and had lower accuracy. These are notable statistics because Ten Hag wants to build a possession-based, proactive style of play, while Solskjaer pursues a defensive, counter-attacking style of play.
Specifically, in the last 48 matches under Solskjaer, Man Utd won 25, drew 13, lost 10, earning 88 points. The Old Trafford team controlled the ball 54.8%, shot a total of 676 times, scored 89 goals and conceded 60 times. They passed 26,016 passes, had 84.6% accuracy and tackled 671 times.
Solskjaer when he was still leading Man Utd. Photo: EPA
Sunsport considers the number of tackles and goalscoring ability to be the biggest differences between Solskjaer's Man Utd and Ten Hag's. Scoring 20 more goals shows that the attack with Anthony Martial, Mason Greenwood, Edinson Cavani, Paul Pogba, Cristiano Ronaldo and Romelu Lukaku still works well under Solskjaer.
Meanwhile, Christian Eriksen, Mason Mount, Antony, Marcus Rashford, Rasmus Hojlund and Wout Weghorst did not score regularly last season, causing Ten Hag's Man Utd to suffer many unfavorable results. Of which, Rashford has only scored one goal, while Hojlund has not opened his account through the first 10 rounds of the Premier League this season.
A former legend at Man Utd, Solskjaer was appointed to replace Jose Mourinho in December 2018 with the hope of reviving Old Trafford. The Norwegian coach achieved his best results in the 2020-2021 season, when he led Man Utd to the runners-up position in the Premier League and Europa League, in addition to reaching the semi-finals of the English League Cup and the quarter-finals of the FA Cup. Solskjaer is the first official manager not to bring any title to Man Utd since Frank O'Farrell 50 years ago. Man Utd's win rate under Solskjaer is only 55%, after 167 matches.
Coach Ten Hag celebrates the League Cup after winning the title with Man Utd in the 2022-2023 season. Photo: Reuters
According to Transfermarkt , Man Utd spent $490 million on 14 players under Solskjaer, including recruiting Edinson Cavani and Tom Heaton on free transfers. Among the expensive contracts are Harry Maguire, Jadon Sancho, Bruno Fernandes, Aaron Wan-Bissaka, Raphael Varane and Ronaldo.
After sacking Solskjaer, the Old Trafford club appointed two interim coaches, Michael Carrick and Ralf Rangnick, and then promoted Ten Hag to the permanent position from the 2022-2023 season. The Dutch coach was somewhat successful in his first season, helping Man Utd finish fourth in the Premier League to return to the Champions League and win the League Cup - the first title since 2017.
But this season, Man Utd started badly, currently ranked eighth in the Premier League with 15 points, scoring 11 goals and conceding 16. In the Champions League, the "Red Devils" ranked third, behind Galatasaray, Bayern and were at risk of being eliminated from the group stage. The disastrous 0-3 loss to Man City at Old Trafford on October 29 made Ten Hag's seat start to shake.
During the first three transfer windows at Old Trafford, Ten Hag spent up to 474 million USD to bring in 16 players, with the most expensive deals belonging to Antony, Rasmus Hojlund, Casemiro, Mason Mount, Lisandro Martinez and Andre Onana.
Hong Duy
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