On December 3, Manchester United’s manager Erik ten Hag witnessed his team lose away from home at St. James Park against Newcastle United FC for their 10th loss of the season. Despite the current discontent at Old Trafford, a startling statistic implies that Ten Hag is, in reality, United’s greatest manager ever and has had an even better start to his Manchester United career than Sir Alex Ferguson.
Since Ten Hag now has a higher victory rate than all of the previous permanent United managers (excluding temporary managers), all eyes are on him to deliver. He is one of the best managers currently at United since Sir Alex Ferguson’s retirement with 52 wins in his first 84 matches (Opta Analyst) for United since he took over.
Na Erik ten Hag stats 👀
E don improve. 💯 pic.twitter.com/t6GV7Ay6hp— MUIP (@ManUtdInPidgin) December 2, 2023
With 895 wins in 1,500 games, club great Sir Alex Ferguson finished his 26-year tenure as United’s manager with a 59.67% win percentage. Third on the list is Jose Mourinho, who won 58.33% of his 144 games in charge, and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, who won 54.17% of his 168 games (stats according to Opta Analyst).
It remains to be seen how Erik gets out of this situation that he and his side are stuck in, with a poor start to the season as he will be looking to make amends right away. Also, Erik ten Hag has many of his first-team players injured which is one of his major problems resulting in poor performances.
Sir Alex Ferguson praises Erik ten Hag for his start at Manchester United
Sir Alex Ferguson is one of the greatest managers in the world of soccer and has won numerous amount of trophies with Manchester United. Since his retirement from the sport, many managers were appointed at Man Utd but nobody could live up to his expectations.
However recently, Sir Alex Ferguson was all praises for the current United manager Erik ten Hag, and the work he did in his first (2022-23) season with them. Sir Alex said, “Erik mentioned it this morning, and I think he’s right. United are based on success and he’s going the right way about it. His signings have been really good, I think that was important.”
Sir Alex Ferguson on Erik ten Hag after winning the EFL Cup! pic.twitter.com/5H9a1C4hfH
— Suhail (@SuhailChowdhary) February 27, 2023
He further continued, “And he’s got a grip of the club which is really, really big for him. When you come to United, you try and get off to a good start right away and he’s doing well, he really is.” Erik is one of the most high-profile managers and his previous job with AFC Ajax speaks volumes of the skills and tactics he possesses.
It remains to be seen now how he turns the tides and gets his team up and running for the remainder of the 2023-24 season. With the January transfer window coming up, United and Erik may well be looking to bolster their squad with some much-needed additions to the squad.