Man City beaten 2-1 to win FA Cup – has Erik Ten Hag done enough to keep Man Utd job?

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Cup winners 

Manchester United well and truly upset the odds on Saturday afternoon, when Erik Ten Hag’s side stunned the world of football with an impressive 2-1 win over Premier League champions and rivals Manchester City to win the FA Cup. The impressive, defensive display proved more than enough to pick off a lacklustre Pep Guardiola side that were caught on the break twice in the second half with goals from Alejandro Garnacho and Kobbie Mainoo, before Jérémy Doku scored a late consolation goal in the second half. The win now means the Old Trafford side can call themselves champions of football’s oldest cup competition for the first time in eight years. 

However, for Ten Hag, the victory will be a little more personal in nature. Reports in England prior to the game strongly suggested that the Old Trafford club had already contacted Ipswich town manager Kieran McKenna as a potential successor to the Dutch manager. And some reports went as far as to suggest that Ten Hag may well lose his job regardless of what happened at Wembley Stadium on Saturday. When asked by the BBC about his future after the match, Ten Hag admitted that he “didn’t know” if the cup victory would be his last match at the club. So what is Ten Hag’s record like at Man Utd and could the club draw a line under it all regardless of the success at Wembley?

Erik Ten Hag’s cup record at Man Utd 

Despite what his current predicament at the club may suggest, Ten Hag’s record in domestic cup competitions is actually rather impressive since he made the move to Man Utd. In his first season at the club, Man Utd reached the final of both the League Cup and FA Cup, where they won the former with a 2-0 win over Newcastle and lost the latter in the aforementioned defeat to Man City. This season hasn’t been as impressive, with Newcastle getting revenge for the final defeat by knocking Man Utd out in the fourth round of the League Cup. But Ten Hag can now undoubtedly point to two cup wins in two seasons, following Saturday’s win over Man City. And that’s certainly not a bad record for any manager. 

Erik Ten Hag’s European record at Man Utd

Unfortunately, Ten Hag’s rather impressive record in knock-out competitions hasn’t seemed to extend to European games. In his first season at the club, Man Utd featured in the Europa League and despite getting through their group with relative ease, the Old Trafford club only just squeezed past a poor Barcelona team in the first knock-out round, before losing convincingly to Sevilla in the quarter-finals. Concerns over Ten Hag’s side struggling against good teams was only offered further proof this season, when Man Utd failed to get out of a Champions League group that featured Galatasaray, Copenhagen and Bayern Munich. Over the course of the six games, Ten Hag’s side picked up just one victory and one draw. 

Remarkably, during his time at Ajax, Ten Hag’s side got out of the Champions League group stages in two of the four seasons and in one instance went as far as the semi-finals of the competition. In total, the Dutch tactician’s record while at Ajax amounted to an average of 1.81 points per game. Since joining Man Utd, that average has dropped to just 0.67 points per game. And in many ways underlines the stark contrast in fortunes for Ten Hag from one club to the next. 

Erik Ten Hag’s Premier League record at Man Utd 

However, the record at Man Utd that has really dogged Ten Hag since he made the move to England is the manager’s performances in the Premier League. There, all Man Utd managers are judged the most and the former Ajax manager has certainly come up short. This season saw the club finish eighth with just 60 points from 38 games – the second worst return for any Man Utd team in Premier League history and the second poorest points tally since 1991. And, again, this seems to be a notable far cry from the kind of numbers Ten Hag used to pick up with relative ease back in the Eredivisie. 

Indeed, this season’s average of 1.58 points per game is Ten Hag’s worst return in a domestic league competition since 2016, with last season’s decent return of 1.97 still some way off what the manager achieved at Ajax. In total, Ten Hag’s Premier League record stands at just 1.78. Which is an almost 18% drop in points compared to his record in the Netherlands. And while many would expect Ten Hag to find the Premier League more challenging, there’s little doubt that Man Utd fans would have been expecting a far better return than that.