Before we completely move on from Erik ten Hag, I thought it would be correct of me to talk about some of the more memorable moments under the Dutchman as while it ended prematurely, it's not as if his time at the club was entirely shite.
Just 99% shite 😅.
Here are my top 5 favorite memories that ten Hag has left behind.
5. United 2-1 Liverpool (22/23)
This first moment was actually his first official win as MUFC manager.
After a truly terrible start to life at Old Trafford in which he lost his opening two matches at home to Brighton (2-1) and a humiliating 4-0 hiding at Brentford, ten Hag and co were in desperate need of something. Anything.
With LFC up next, it wasn't looking good brev.
We all feared the worst taking into consideration the previous season's 5-0 and 4-0 hammerings at the hands of Klopp's men. I even predicted a 4-0 loss in this one.
ten Hag was in desperate need of a performance and that is exactly what he got.
In one of the more United displays by the team, Erik ten Hag's red army put on a show for all. The home side were on top of their biggest rivals from the get go and eventually got the breakthrough through a certain Jadon Sancho 👀.
He sat James Milner down before calmly slotting the ball into the bottom corner to give United a deserved lead.
The second half saw Dr Marcus Rashford MBE double the lead as he was played through by his former team-mate Anthony Martial. While Mo Salah pulled one back for the visitors, United managed to hold on with ten Hag picking up his first and much needed win for his new club.
He proceeded to say this in his post-match interview with Sky Sports:
"You can see what they can achieve. They can play fucking good football."
😂😂😂 Absolute classic.
What happened to that guy?!
4. Antony winner v Barcelona
The two games against Barcelona in the Europa League were incredible. Two of the best games of football I've seen United play in a long time and to do it against such an opponent made it even better. This showed that we were capable of playing some top stuff.
The return leg at Old Trafford though, was a night.
2-2 from the first leg, Barcelona were given a penalty for a very soft foul by Bruno on Alejandro Balde just inside the box.
Robert Lewandowski proceeded to just about squeeze the ball into the net despite David de Gea getting a hand to it.
Feeling harshly done by, United came out all guns blazing in the second half and were all over Xavi's men.
Fred of all people equalized to get us back in it not long after the restart. You know when he's scoring, something is going to happen.
And with just under 20 minutes remaining, fellow Brazilian Antony had one of his finest moments at the club.
After Bruno Fernandes steals the ball off of Raphinha from the left-wing, he puts the ball across and after a couple of deflected efforts, it made it's way to Antony who perfectly placed a shot on his left-foot into the bottom corner to give Marc-Andre ter Stegen no chance.
United were ahead and Old Trafford was absolutely rocking. We hadn't seen it like that in a while nor have we seen it often enough over the past decade.
We held on and got through to the RO16.
What a goal. What a moment. Old Trafford bouncing. You couldn't ask for more than that.
3. THAT Amad goal
You know the one.
Coming up against the greatest foe in the quarter finals of the FA Cup, we got the hardest draw possible with fears that this might be the end of the road and last chance to win silverware for the season.
The game was very open which it had to be considering the score line. A 7-goal thriller (of the good kind for United this time) where we went ahead, were brought back, went behind, scored a late equalizer in normal time, took the game to extra-time, went behind again, drew level once more only for Amad to go and do this:
He then picked up one of the most boss second yellows for taking his shirt off. He said he forgot that he had the first and proceeded to remove his shirt in the celebrations.
Who could blame him?
But that goal was awesome not just because it was in the QF of the FA Cup, not only because it was a last-minute winner, not only that it was important in going on to win the trophy, but also because it was Liverpool and that goal seemed to be the moment where the season sort of derailed as after that defeat, they were inconsistent to the end of the season going from potential quadruple winners to winning just the Carabao Cup in what turned out to be Jurgen Klopp's final season at Liverpool.
His final campaign was the same as ten Hag's first.
Incredible 🤣.
2. Carabao Cup win
This isn't the most glamorous of trophies. I mean it has three handles for crying out like.
But a trophy it is nonetheless.
It also happened to be our first trophy in six years which is something unheard of when it comes to United.
So while it may not have been the one we wanted, beggars can't be choosers.
Casemiro and Marcus Rashford scored the 2 goals that ultimate won us the game over a tough Newcaslte side who were chasing their first trophy since the 60s!
There's always someone out there who is worse off than you, right?
Yet despite lacking glamour, lifting the trophy felt like a changing of the tide, a 'shifting of momentum at Old Trafford' if you will.
Having not won a trophy in such a long time, seeing the improvement in some of our players like Rashford - who would go on to have his best season in terms of output (30 goals and 11 assists), improvement in the play and just overall good feeling at the club after the toxicity of the 21/22 campaign, made us all feel like this could really be the time when things change for the better at MUFC.
However, that was kind of as good as it got.
1. FA Cup win
But this was better than lifting the Carabao Cup even more so because of the season we had, and even more so because it was against those fools City.
To know that we had one of our worst seasons ever yet managed to beat Liverpool and City (our two biggest rivals) on route to an unlikely triumph in the FA Cup, made this win all the more satisfying.
The entire run to the final and ultimately lifting the trophy was quite a ride.
We began with an old school, away days trip to League Two outfit Newport County who managed to give us a game as United threw away a 2-goal lead and had to win the match 4-2.
An event in itself.
We then had a pretty routine 2-0 win at Wigan which was followed by that epic against Liverpool.
However, if we thought that that was full of drama, we hadn't seen nothing yet.
Facing the Championship's Coventry City in a semifinal at Wembley, this game could only go one way, right?
And that prediction seemed true as United cruised to a 3-0 lead with 30 minutes remaining. Erik ten Hag then decided to make some changes and give rest to some players while minutes to others.
We were all in agreement that this was a good idea considering the situation of the game.
But then United did the most United thing of all and managed throw away that 3-goal in that half an hour with Coventry making one of the most incredible comebacks in football history.
Even in extra-time, if not for Coventry's Haji Wright's big toe being slightly bigger than Aaron Wan-Bissaka's, United would've been knocked out in the most dramatic of fashions with Coventry completing an incredible comeback.
Thankfully for us, Wright was offside and the game went to penalties. Two misses for Coventry and four conversions for United saw Erik ten Hag's men progress to the final to face City in the second-straight Manchester Derby FA Cup final.
Fuck me this was one hell of a roller-coaster.
Never before had I died and been brought back to life 🥵.
Coming up against the might of Pep and City, United were given no chance. There were also a lot of rumors that regardless of the result, ten Hag will lose his job anyway.
But what occurred was perhaps one of the best performances United have had not only under the Dutchman but also since Sir Alex Ferguson's retirement.
Goals by two academy products Alejandro Garnacho and Kobbie Mainoo (which made this win all the sweeter) in the first half was enough to seal the deal and for United to lift their 13th FA Cup and ten Hag's second trophy in two years. Only Jose Mourinho had managed such a feat in his time at the club post the Ferguson era.
This resulted in INEOS keeping Erik ten Hag as there was no way they could've let him go following that most unlikeliest of victories. There was an overabundance of support for the Dutchman from large portions of the fan base which meant Sir Jim Ratcliffe and co would've had to make a decision that wouldn't make them the most popular of owners. I'm sure they wouldn't have wanted that not long after joining the club.
Subsequently, keeping ten Hag didn't work out as he was sacked on the 28th of October, just over two months into the new campaign.
His time at the club wasn't what we all expected as we never saw what we saw at Ajax happen at United. He did make some big calls (ahem Ronaldo) and improve the mood to an extent, but even lifting the two trophies wasn't good enough for me to say that it was a complete success for him at Old Trafford.
He made too many mistakes especially towards the end and not truly believing in his own beliefs and principles was a big disappointment for me because the whole reason I wanted him to become United manager was his style of play.
I was really annoyed that he never stuck to his guns and instead adapted to the players rather than the other way round. This is something incoming boss Ruben Amorim needs to try and change.
I would rate ten Hag's two-and-a-half years at the club a 5/10. Neither shit nor great but wasn't good enough.
Even still, it's not as though ten Hag didn't leave us without some great moments and lasting memories.
This post was a sort of thank you for all that he did and although it didn't go how I wanted, I'm still grateful for these moments as well as others throughout his two-and-a-half years at Old Trafford.
Thank you Erik and I wish you all the best for your future.
What was your best moments under Erik ten Hag?
Background Image: Erik ten Hag lifts the FA Cup forMan Utd | Image credit: Getty Images via Goal