Erik ten Hag given full Man Utd backing BEFORE the Liverpool humiliation

Manchester United chiefs expressed their support for Erik ten Hag two whole games into the season. Welcome to the back pages…

Back, sack and crack
‘Erik ten Hag given FULL backing by Man Utd chiefs – even if results don’t improve soon’ is The Sun headline on a story that we would like to label ‘what the f*** did you expect them to say?’.

The quotes from Omar Berrada and Dan Ashworth adorn every back page as if this was some massively significant vote of confidence when the reality is that the interview took place BEFORE Manchester United lost 3-0 at home to Liverpool.

The scenario at that juncture was that Berrada and Ashworth were just two games into a very long-term project at Manchester United, and United had won one of those games and narrowly lost the other in slightly unfortunate circumstances.

Did anybody expect them to cast any doubt at all on the management of Ten Hag, who was given a contract extension less than two months before?

Imagine the headlines if Berrada had said “well we’re giving this chancer a couple of months”. Imagine the uproar if Ashworth had admitted that Ruud van Nistelrooy is in a live audition for the role.

‘Erik ten Hag will be given time to turn Manchester United’s season around – despite their humiliating defeat to Liverpool,’ says the back page of the Daily Mirror.

There’s a small detail missing: He was backed BEFORE the ‘humiliating defeat to Liverpool’. Unless they were asked whether they would still back Ten Hag if they were tw*tted 3-0 by Liverpool, then those quotes are irrelevant.

United suffered back-to-back Premier League losses with Sunday’s 3-0 mauling at home to their arch rivals, who maintained their 100 per cent start to the season. That defeat has left United down in 14th place in the Premier League and piled the pressure on Ten Hag just three games into the new campaign.

But Old Trafford’s new hierarchy are sticking with the Dutchman…

The ‘new hierarchy’ are three actual football matches into their reign. This is not sodding Chelsea.

The Daily Mail also go with the line that ‘ERIK TEN HAG has the full backing of his Manchester United bosses despite Sunday’s embarrassing collapse against Liverpool at Old Trafford’.

You literally cannot give anybody your ‘full backing’ despite an incident that’s not yet happened. No matter how desperate you find yourself for a back page.

MORE ON MAN UTD MESS FROM F365:
👉 16 Conclusions on Man Utd 0-3 Liverpool: Ten Hag sack, great Gravenberch, Casemiro done, ‘unprofessional’ Szob
👉 Five reasons for Manchester United fans to be cheerful features the Ten Hag sack
👉 Zirkzee 8th), Ugarte 5th): Ratcliffe-era Man Utd transfer decisions ranked from worst to best

Mirror Mirror, on the wall…
Daily Mirror journalist David McDonnell has done an admirable job of interviewing, transcribing and then giving an accurate description of what was said by Omar Berrada when he was asked how long it would take for Manchester United to become a major force again.

New Manchester United chief executive Omar Berrada says it is impossible to put a timeframe on the club’s return to challenge for major trophies again.

Because of course he did. He is not a f***ing idiot.

So what he said was pretty anodyne and incredibly generic on the subject of creating a successful football club:

“What I can say is it has been demonstrated when you look at the teams who have been successful consistently for many years it’s because they have the right coach, they have signed the right players, they have the right structure around the coach and the players and you need to take good decisions consistently for many years to get into a position where you are a financially sustainable club that is competing to win every single competition – which is where we want to be.”

It’s not exciting but it’s what Berrada said. But that’s really not good enough for the Mirror, who have click-baited a perfectly reasonable news story by an established journalist to within an inch of its sorry life.

So Berrada saying it takes the right coach, players, structure and then good decisions ‘consistently for many years’ becomes:

Man Utd chief Omar Berrada demands four major changes that could end title drought

We know exaggeration is standard but that’s not exaggeration; it’s pure shite. He has ‘demanded’ nothing, and certainly not any ‘changes’.

And then the sister sites get involved, with the Express headline screaming: ‘Omar Berrada names four changes Man Utd must make to win titles again’.

Nope.

But the worst is from the Daily Star, who saw that sexy Mirror headline and thought they just didn’t go far enough:

Man Utd chief Omar Berrada makes ‘impossible’ title confession and wants four changes

Because of course he said it was “almost impossible to put a timescale to answer that question”. FFS.

And it will be left to McDonnell – whose name appears on all of those stories – to explain himself to Manchester United.

Make your mind up, already
Elsewhere on the Mirror website…

Man Utd have already decided manager ‘first in line’ to replace Erik ten Hag if he’s sacked

Six paragraphs in we discover that this story – given second billing on the Mirror football homepage – is based on a piece of content from the Daily Mail. In mid-July.

So that explains the ‘already’. Which is one hell of a way to re-package old news.