Manchester United draw to Aston Villa, is Erik Ten Hag’s time finally up?

Ten Hag’s soap opera is still not finished. The destiny of Manchester United’s manager has been at the heart of the matter for several days and the conclusion is far away from being reached. During the international break, all the attention of the media was focused on the question: will Ten Hag continue to guide Manchester United or will he be replaced by someone else? If we look at the last performances of the team the answer seems to be definitively negative, but the last word has not been said yet.

We need to rewind the tape just a moment. The latest developments have their origin from the draw against Aston Villa and then an escalation of rumours have taken place in Manchester, on the Red Devils side, concerning Ten Hag's future. On 6^th October, his team played at Villa Park against the team managed by Unai Emery; it turned out to be a very tough match since Aston Villa was in astonishingly good shape, just back from a surprising victory in the UCL against Bayern Munich.

As a result, Manchester United suffered a lot during the 90 minutes, even though they created a few scoring chances, such as the crossbar hit by Bruno Fernandes from a free-kick. The final score was emblematic, a colourless 0-0, with Ten Hag more and more on the grill.

Moreover, as a consequence of the uncertainty of Erik Ten Hag’s permanence, the atmosphere within the team is reportedly awful and this will not be helpful in bringing good results. Even the captain Bruno Fernandes said that this is not a positive moment for them, a declaration that proves how negatively the situation is perceived from the players’ point of view. In addition to this, the recent scandal of a microphone found in the dressing room of the team, on the occasion of the match against Aston Villa; despite not being a catastrophic case, is another piece in the puzzle of the terrible circumstances in which Manchester United is going through.

As the days pass, it seems that Ten Hag’s time on the bench of the Red Devils is running out. Manchester United’s management is continuing to think and reflect on how to deal with this issue, even if it is difficult to find a perfect solution: there are several problems, such as the lack of valid alternatives and the wage of the Dutch coach. The only certainty is that they need to do something to change the current situation and to shake the whole team; it remains to be seen if this will happen with Erik Ten Hag, or not.