FA Cup Final win won’t save ten Hag as managerial favourite emerges at Man United

Time and time again this season Erik ten Hag has failed to inspire his Man United side to victory.

Of late, a number of points have been lost in the latter stages of games that the Red Devils should really have put to bed long before.

A typical example is the FA Cup semi-final against Coventry.

United were 3-0 up and cruising with around 20 minutes left to play, and still only managed to get the game to penalties by the skin of their teeth and a dubious VAR call.

New part-owner of the club, Sir Jim Ratcliffe, was in attendance along with his right-hand man, Sir Dave Brailsford, as well as members of the Glazer family, and what they will have seen on the pitch is likely to have made their blood boil, considering how much better Coventry became over the latter stages of the match.

Ten Hag unlikely to continue even if Man United win FA Cup

The performance mirrored many others across the 2023/24 campaign.

Bombed out of Europe entirely at the group stage of the Champions League, they set a new record for goals conceded by an English team in the process.

Their -1 goal difference is the only negative one out of the top seven teams in the Premier League, with Tottenham being the next nearest on a +16 goal difference.

It’s seems abundantly clear that the Dutchman is no longer the right man for the job, and Fichajes note that the axe will fall on him regardless of whether Man United manage to win the FA Cup Final next month against close rivals Man City.

That is close geographically, because the two teams are poles apart on the pitch at present.

If United want to get anywhere near to the level of Pep Guardiola’s side, they have a long, long way to go.

The same report also suggests that former Chelsea manager, Graham Potter, is the preferred candidate of the new regime to take over from next season.