Erik ten Hag sack prediction claims as six ‘most important’ Man Utd players named
Has Gary Neville said that ‘Ten Hag won’t last’? Has he balls. And the Manchester Evening News hit on a winning combination…
Quote unquote
Mediawatch is clearly something of an old-fashioned dullard on such matters but if you are going to go massive (and the image is taken from the top story on the MailOnline football homepage on Thursday morning, so they went massive), then it’s actually not okay to be putting ‘TEN HAG WON’T LAST’ in quote marks. Because nobody said that. Least of all Gary Neville.
What Neville said was this: ‘On the pitch the players in shock, the performances woeful and a manager struggling in front of our eyes. We’ve seen it before, we know how it ends and we’ve had enough.’
He did not say ‘Ten Hag won’t last’ or anything remotely close. He didn’t even say Ten Hag, FFS.
At most, it was a hint of a sacking and absolutely not a ‘prediction’ (looking at you, Evening Standard).
The Importance of being Important
Over at the Manchester Evening News, their job is to try and find reasons/excuses for United’s rotten form and they have stumbled upon one in the form of the absence of Luke Shaw.
Manchester United’s start to the season has highlighted who their most important player is
Apparently, ‘in Shaw’s case, his absence can’t be overstated. His form last season led his manager to label him the best left-back in the country’.
On the contrary, it really can be overstated. Right there.
There’s no doubt that Shaw is a big miss – though crediting him with Marcus Rashford’s goalscoring exploits last season is a tad rum – but the MEN themselves rated him below both Casemiro and Rashford in their player ratings for last season.
But it’s that ‘most important player’ trope that rang a Mediawatch bell.
Bingo. This was literally five days ago…
Manchester United’s most important player might be unavailable for the derby
Five days is obviously an awful long time in football as the ‘most important player’ five days ago was Casemiro, though the piece in question does point out that ‘any time Casemiro was absent last season was significant and the team struggled when he didn’t play, but considering his recent performances, his unavailability hasn’t felt particularly detrimental’.
Almost like he’s not their ‘most important player’ at all but somebody at Reach has pin-pointed this as a high-performing headline.
As recently as September, this great accolade was given to neither Casemiro or Shaw…
Erik ten Hag might have discovered his most important player at Manchester United
On this occasion it was Raphael Varane. Because of course the ‘most important player’ in this sh*tshow of a season is always one who is currently not available.
It was not always thus. From early September:
Rasmus Hojlund will help Manchester United’s two most important players
Two of them? And that ‘most important’ pair were Marcus Rashford and Bruno Fernandes.
And this was from early August, before this nonsense of a season began…
Erik ten Hag could have a new most important player at Manchester United this season
Fair to say that they were slightly wrong about Andre Onana. But if you throw enough shit at the wall, then some of it surely sticks.
The season is not even three months old and yet Manchester United have six candidates for their ‘most important player’. Who’s next? Our money is on Aaron Wan-Bissaka. Watch this (most important) space.
Mounting obsession
You know who definitely isn’t Manchester United’s most important player? That would be Mason Mount.
But he is definitely Manchester United’s most important player when it comes to attracting traffic to a website supposedly dedicated to London football (football.london).
On the Thursday morning after a Chelsea win, they opt for ‘Cole Palmer proves Pep Guardiola right as Mason Mount becomes Chelsea laughing stock for Man Utd’ and ‘Mauricio Pochettino’s Chelsea favourite faces repeat of Mason Mount Man United transfer regret’.
Even Chelsea writers know there’s no joy in writing about Chelsea.
Players unhappy with losing matches shock
A brief return to the Manchester Evening News for their ‘exclusive’ claim that ‘Some Manchester United players starting to doubt Erik ten Hag’.
They have lost eight of 15 games this season; at this point the real news would be if no Manchester United players were doubting Ten Hag.
Let’s have the story…
There is increasing unrest among a number of Manchester United players amid the team’s plight this season.
We should f***ing think so.
