The 2023/24 season has not been an easy campaign for Manchester United so far. Despite the fact that they have reached a second consecutive FA Cup final under Erik ten Hag, where they will face Manchester City once again, the Red Devils will certainly be less than satisfied with this season.
Ten Hag’s side had a disastrous campaign in the Champions League. They crashed out in the group stages, finishing rock bottom, and conceded 15 goals along that way. As per Opta Joe, that is the most a Premier League side has ever conceded in the group stage in a single season.
In the Premier League, United currently sit in seventh place, on 50 points, 16 points adrift of a top-four spot, with Aston Villa currently occupying fourth in the table. However, according to Understat’s expected points table, United are massively overachieving and in reality should be 15th on 37 points.
With 2023/24 being such a frustrating season for the Red Devils, there is naturally plenty of speculation over the future of Ten Hag, and whether or not he will be the manager of Manchester United next season.
Manchester United manager news
According to a report from The Sun, new United owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe has run out of patience with Ten Hag and will sack him at the end of the season, regardless of the outcome of the FA Cup final next month.
This followed reports that new United technical director Jason Wilcox is completing a full review of Ten Hag’s tenure at Old Trafford, with James Ducker of The Telegraph explaining Ten Hag will “effectively be on trial over the next month”.
Should United decide to sack Ten Hag, they could well look to replace him with a former Premier League manager who has been out of work for just over one year. The man in question here is former Brighton and Chelsea boss Graham Potter, who was sacked by Chelsea on the 3rd of April 2023. Remarkably, the Sun now suggest he is the 'leading candidate' to take over at Old Trafford.
According to GiveMeSport, Potter is well liked within some circles at United, and they even suggested he had a “secret meeting” with Dan Ashworth, the man waiting to step into the role of Sporting Director at Old Trafford.
Why Potter would be a bad option for Man Utd
Despite his success at Brighton, which led to Chelsea appointing him on the 9th of September 2022, Potter struggled at Stamford Bridge, and his aforementioned sacking in April last year was certainly justifiable.
With that being said, the environment that Potter was working under at Chelsea was far from perfect. It was the beginning of a new ownership model for the Blues, with Todd Boehly just months into his reign.
A damning report from The Athletic summed up just how tough Potter’s reign was. The squad was so bloated some of the players “had to change in the corridor”. These are nigh-on impossible conditions for almost any manager to have to work in.
Therefore, it is important not to judge Potter solely on his time at Stamford Bridge. The back three systems he deployed during his tenure at Brighton made for fantastic viewing. He often utilised a 3-4-3 or a 3-4-2-1 at the Amex, and although he did branch out to four at the back systems at Chelsea, he is most famously known for his back three formations.
With that being said, there are surely better options out there than Potter. United’s squad is not necessarily the most suited to the former Chelsea manager's back-three formation. In his next job, the Englishman may well look to implement the systems that he had the most success in the past.
However, crucially, Potter might not be best suited to work in a chaotic, or unsettled environment such as the current situation at Old Trafford. He's already had that once at Chelsea and it didn't go well. The backroom staff at United are truly a work in progress, and whilst targets such as Jason Wilcox and Omar Berrada have been landed, Ratcliffe’s ideal footballing setup is not yet complete.
It is something to consider for INEOS, who must be careful not to see a repeat of Moyes’ appointment a decade ago. The West Ham boss was appointed after success with Everton, similar to Potter’s time at Brighton, but was sacked just 10 months later. Potter’s best success has come in a settled environment at Brighton and under similar conditions in which Moyes worked in at Everton. Sadly, that is not something that United can necessarily offer him at this time.
Regardless, Ratcliffe needs to tread carefully. If he does decide to sack Ten Hag, appointing Potter could backfire massively, and set the new era at Old Trafford back even more.
Potter or not, it is an appointment that needs great consideration, and ultimately Ratcliffe must select the best available candidate to take United back to the top.
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