‘I am a fighter and I am in that fight’: Erik ten Hag and Manchester United in the shadow of the father
Manchester United men’s team have been struggling this season including two successive 3-0 home defeats. Inevitably, there is talk of the manager Erik ten Hag’s position being under threat unless he oversees an upturn in results. In his first season in charge, United won the League (Carabao) Cup and finished third in the Premier League to earn a return to the Champions League. So what has gone wrong this season? Reading the reports in the papers, and thinking about it as someone who works with organizational dynamics, a few things jumped out.
Fresh legs – Ten Hag has brought players over from his former club Ajax who are not performing well and this has led people to question his decision-making or ‘smarts’. It is understandable that he might want to have players he feels he can trust and who have performed for him before, but I wonder what this communicated to the existing United players. Trying to replicate a ‘formula’ or even re-create the same team in a new context is unlikely to work when what is needed is fresh thinking about the situation as it is in the here and now.
The dressing room – in time-honoured fashion the manager is reported to have ‘lost the dressing room’, by which is meant that the players have lost confidence in him and are not following his directions. He appears to have lost his leadership authority over those he manages but, currently, retains the support of the club executive. A key question for me is whether Erik is able to sustain his own internal authority; his self-belief that he is a good manager with an excellent track record who can turn the team around. What support might be needed to sustain this and get the team behind him?
Off-field turmoil – Papers’ report: “Throw in all the off-field turmoil, from Cristiano Ronaldo and Jadon Sancho being banished following squabbles with their manager, well-documented much more serious scandals and the accompanying morality quandaries, and the ongoing debacle surrounding the Glazers’ ownership of the club and a possible takeover, and it’s clear that all is not well at Old Trafford at all.”
The extent to which these kinds of disturbances impact the ability of the manager to manage and of the players to perform seems to me to be greatly underestimated in football. They need to be protected, as much as possible, from these wider concerns and helped to maintain 110% 😉 focus on performance on the pitch. The ‘morality quandaries’ include some serious accusations which may indicate a deeper disturbance in the club that needs to be addressed. It is not simply about an individual’s behaviour but asking what they represent of the dynamics in the group and its culture.
Who’s the Daddy? – “The Dutchman has vowed to fight on, insisting that he is the right man to stop the downward spiral at Old Trafford that has been ongoing ever since Sir Alex Ferguson’s retirement in 2013.”
Though he left United 10 years ago, Alex Ferguson and his era hang heavy over the club, its players and a series of unfortunate managers who have failed to replace the father of the modern era at Old Trafford. The job description for manager might as well read, ‘replacement for lost father figure sought. Must be prepared to fail to live up to idealised representation of heroic leader.” The ghost of Ferguson stalks the corridors of Old Trafford. United are currently in 8th place in the Premier League and only 5 points behind 4th place Liverpool but the perception is of failure and a ‘downward spiral’. The England men’s team went through a similar process before the decision to appoint the relatively inexperienced Gareth Southgate. No miracles were expected, but the FA have stuck with him and allowed him to develop into the role and build a team that he believes in, and which believes in him. It would be interesting to explore what a similar process would be in Manchester that would enable the club to move beyond its current post-Ferguson malaise.
One thing that strikes me is that there is no obvious maternal figure in the Manchester United set-up. By this I mean a person, or a function within the organization, that is focused on taking the emotional temperature of the team and can provide a thinking mind amid the turmoil and fighting. I would prioritise helping people within the organization to establish this role.
Into battle - after the 3-0 defeat to Newcastle United, Erik ten Hag said ‘I am a fighter and I am in that fight’ and one of the players, Scott McTominay, has ordered his teammates to “fight like dogs” in the coming matches. By ‘fighting’ they presumably mean trying harder, being determined, doing their best, but the fighting metaphor indicates a state of mind where they are in a battle against an unnamed enemy whom they must conquer. I don’t think it is the opposition teams but something operating within the team as a result of the above difficulties. Fight-flight is classic anti-task behaviour where anxiety has overwhelmed the team’s capacity to work as an effective group. Understanding this might help them to better direct their energies towards playing better as a team and working out how to beat the opponent.
On the up – How can Erik ten Hag and his squad re-find the capacity for thinking and creativity? In his post-match interview, he says something about his players having difficulty adapting to the way that different teams play. This indicates a stuck state of mind (in the team as a whole) which is mainly occupied with defending itself against fear and anxiety and is therefore unable to be open to new ideas, ways of playing and creative solutions to the problems facing the club. It is always extremely difficult to instigate change in organizations which are in the grip of such primitive defences. It is reported that the executive of the club have ‘no desire to replace Ten Hag, who they have backed as the right man for the long term’ not least because to do so would cost the club up to £15m. They need to make good on this by showing full confidence in the manager and working with him to regain his authority over the team and begin a process of repairing the damage done by 10 years of turmoil. This might mean, in the short term, accepting that repeating the highs of the Ferguson era is an unrealistic, and ultimately harmful, goal for the club, manager, players and fans. In due course a new, different, Ten Hag era might be allowed to emerge.
Quotes are from the following articles:
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