Comparing Ten Hag’s second season at Man Utd with Van Gaal, Mourinho and Solskjaer…

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Manchester United manager Erik ten Hag before the Premier League match at St. James' Park, Newcastle.

Ben Stewart
4th December 2023

There’s no denying that Erik ten Hag has had some troubles during his second season with Manchester United, but how does his record compare to Louis van Gaal, Jose Mourinho and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer in their second season?

The Red Devils currently find themselves seventh in the table, having lost six of their opening 14 matches. Of course, there is still plenty of time to turn things around, but the early signs have been fairly concerning.

There’s no denying that Ten Hag did a superb job at Old Trafford last season as he was able to galvanise the squad and finish third in the Premier League.

Plenty of United fans are still backing the Dutch boss to find a solution to their problems and the 53-year-old still has plenty of credit in the bank from last season.

Following their latest defeat against Newcastle, Ten Hag backed his team to turn things around and decided to stand by his players after a difficult afternoon.

“We had a tough first half and said at half-time we were pleased to be in the game. We had a good comeback in the last part of the game. We will talk tomorrow with the team about it. We go back, we will talk about this and move in to Wednesday,” Ten Hag told TNT Sports.

“As I said, I will talk with my team. We had some chances. We thought we scored a goal but it was offside. We could have scored.”

“This team is resilient. We have seen it after [loss against Manchester] City. We had a bad defeat and we stick together. We have a plan and we keep going.”

While some United managers have been a victim to second-season syndrome in the past, others have built upon the foundations that they set during their first year in charge.

We’ve taken a closer look at Ten Hag’s second season so far and have compared his record with Van Gaal, Mourinho and Solskjaer’s second seasons at the club.

Note: for Solskjaer we have used data from the 2020–21 season which was his second full season in charge of the club.

Erik ten Hag’s second season

Games: 14
Won: 8
Drawn: 0
Lost: 6

Goals per game: 1.14
Goals conceded per game: 1.21
Points per game: 1.71

Current position: 7th

Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s second season

Games: 38
Won: 21
Drawn: 11
Lost: 6

Goals per game: 1.92
Goals conceded per game: 1.16
Points per game: 1.95

Final position: 2nd

Jose Mourinho’s second season

Games: 38
Won: 25
Drawn: 6
Lost: 7

Goals per game: 1.79
Goals conceded per game: 0.74
Points per game: 2.13

Final position: 2nd

🗣️ “We won together 3 titles at Man U, unfortunately the last 3 titles of Man Utd…. I wish the club all the best”

Jose Mourinho was the last manager to win a trophy with the club and says he is disappointed that people mostly focus on the negativity 👇 pic.twitter.com/jP8cMxWaJG

— Sky Sports News (@SkySportsNews) May 11, 2022