6 times Erik ten Hag saved himself from the brink of the sack at Man Utd

Manchester United manager Erik ten Hag is proving himself something of an escape artist, seemingly always able to pull a rabbit out of the hat and deliver a result just as he looks most at risk of losing his job.

Ten Hag will justifiably point to his record of delivering two cups in two seasons at Manchester United, resulting in him signing a new contract in the summer, but league results have been iffy for over a year now and it’s a long time since the Dutchmen felt secure in his job.

We’ve identified six occasions in which Ten Hag delivered a big, important win to earn himself more time in the dugout.

Man Utd 2-1 Brentford (October 2024)

We could’ve chosen several examples from United’s sorry 2024-25 campaign so far – stopping the rot following the 3-0 defeats at home to Liverpool and Tottenham – so we’ll go for their latest win, if only for the cumulative effect.

The writing looked on the wall for Ten Hag at Old Trafford when they went into half-time one goal down at home to Brentford. At the time the statistics were damning; they were the lowest scorers in the entire division, having gone seven halves of Premier League football without finding the back of the net.

But they rallied admirably, producing a dominant second-half display with a more clinical edge, Alejandro Garnacho and Rasmus Hojlund providing the goals.

Once again, Ten Hag lives to fight another day.

Man Utd 2-1 Man City (May 2024)

The big one.

After guiding Manchester United to one of their worst league campaigns of recent times – an eighth-place finish, 14 defeats, the first time they registered a negative goal difference in the Premier League era –they salvaged something big by beating their city rivals at Wembley.

Ten Hag made a tactical tweak that paid off big time to deservedly come out on top over Pep Guardiola’s all-conquering Manchester City in the FA Cup final.

After the season they’d endured, you can’t imagine that Ten Hag would’ve remained in the post had not – against all odds – come out of with silverware, and with it European football.

“Erik is a good guy and had been doing his best, but doing too much,” Sir Jim Ratcliffe told The Times, offering mitigation for United’s poor results last term.

“He was trying to sort out the squad and fix leaks in the roof at the same time.”

Coventry City 3-3 Man Utd (April 2024)

You might argue that United’s last-gasp comeback victory over Liverpool in the quarters bought Ten Hag a stay of execution, but he could’ve clung on after that – whereas he would surely have been toast if they’d squandered a three-goal lead against Coventry City at Wembley.

The Red Devils blew away Coventry in the FA Cup semi, only to see the Championship outfit come from three goals behind to take the goal to extra time. And only the most marginal of VAR offside calls denied the Sky Blues a famous late winner.

Ten Hag came out swinging in the aftermath when asked by a reporter whether he was embarrassed by coming within a hair’s breadth of losing at Wembley to second-tier opposition.

“No. Absolutely not,” Ten Hag blasted back.

“You [the media] made enough [of it] and the question: ‘Is it ­embarrassing?’ No, the reaction from you was ­embarrassing. It is the comments. Top football is about results. We made it to a final and we deserved it not only by this game but also the other games.

“We lost control for 20 mins, we also had bad luck [at] 3-2 [with a deflected goal], 3-3 [a questionable penalty].

“Penalties were very good and we made it to the final, it is a huge achievement. Twice, in two years, is magnificent. For me as a manager [at United and Ajax], four cup finals in four years. The comments are a disgrace.”

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Man Utd 3-2 Aston Villa (Dec 2023)

This big Boxing Day win came two days after the news that Ratcliffe had agreed to buy a 25% stake in the club, with his Ineos Group to take control of football operations.

While that wasn’t officially ratified until a couple of months later, the new boss might’ve made a statement of intent by immediately making a big call.

And there would’ve been good reason to, because defeat at home to Unai Emery’s high-flying Aston Villa would’ve left their Champions League hopes hanging by a thread midway through the campaign – so often a sackable offence.

As it was, United moved five points off the top four to keep faint hopes alive. That gap only grew in the latter half of the season, but by that point Ten Hag’s side were chasing FA Cup glory.

Man Utd 2-1 Brentford (Oct 2023)

This wasn’t the first 2-1 comeback win over Brentford in October that’s alleviated the pressure on Ten Hag.

Let’s go back 12 months and United went into the dying minutes on the brink of a third successive home defeat for the first time since 1979. Step up Scott McTominay and two goals deep into added time to turn things around completely.

It would be overstating to suggest that Ten Hag looked in serious danger of the sack back then, but results and performances were far from healthy. We’ve seen chairmen – hello, Roman Abramovich – sack coaches for much less.

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Man Utd 2-1 Liverpool (Aug 2022)

We’ll start with a caveat here; we’re not seriously suggesting that United would’ve considered sacking Ten Hag after just three matches at the helm.

But this was an absolutely massive win at the time; pivotal to Ten Hag turning things around after the disastrous start to life he’d made at Old Trafford; a 2-1 defeat at home to Brighton followed by a truly shocking 4-0 loss at Brentford.

Follow that with a bad home defeat to their biggest rivals (and they have recent form for that, before and after Ten Hag’s appointment) and faith he was the right man for the job – from the players, board, fans – would’ve been in short supply.

It’s not inconceivable that had United lost that day the Ten Hag might’ve soon been over before it had a chance to begin, crashing and burning spectacularly like fellow ex-Ajax man Frank de Boer.

As it was, United’s impressive 2-1 win over Jurgen Klopp’s Reds can be pinpointed as the moment he began to turn things around en route to a decent campaign, ending a six-year trophy drought and getting them into the top four.