How Ten Hag fares in history after 50 games
Erik ten Hag marked 50 games in charge of Manchester United on Thursday evening, when his side faced Sevilla in the quarter-finals of the Europa League.
It's been a rollercoaster ride so far, with United still competing on every front as we head into the final weeks of the Dutchman's debut campaign.
Ten Hag has already lifted the Carabao Cup, winning the first trophy available to him as our manager. And the boss, his coaching staff and players will all be striving to land more silverware before we sign off for the summer.
But Erik's half-century feels like an apposite time to stop and take a breath, and appreciate just what an excellent job he has done during his short time in M16 so far.
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After two games of his United reign, few would have bet that, in mid-April, Ten Hag's team would be safely ensconced within the Champions League spots and within touching distance of ending the season with three major trophies.
Infamously, Erik kicked off with a 2-1 home defeat to Brighton & Hove Albion back in August. The next weekend brought a humiliating 4-0 trouncing at the hands of Brentford.
But the turnaround since that dark day has been little short of magnificent. And as I write, Erik is on course for statistically the best debut season a United manager has ever made.
Here's why...
Despite losing those first two competitive games, Ten Hag currently boasts the best win ratio of any Reds boss in history (70 per cent).
Of course, his 50 games thus far is a much smaller sample size than Sir Alex Ferguson's Herculean tally of 1,500 (59.67 per cent of which were wins), or Sir Matt Busby's 1,140 (50.53 per cent). And at this stage, no one is comparing his achievements to theirs. But what we can confidently state, as fact, is that Ten Hag has made a better start to his United tenure than anyone else over their first 50 games.
Sir Alex won 22 of his first 50 games; Sir Matt 26. Erik has won 35 and was minutes away from a 36th victory when Sevilla benefited from two own goals to draw 2-2 at Old Trafford on Thursday night.
If Erik's current 70 per cent win ratio is maintained until the season's end, it will be our highest average since 1905/06, when Ernest Mangnall led us to 31 wins from 42 games (73.81 per cent). It's worth pointing out that 38 of those matches were played in the Second Division of the Football League (the other four came in the FA Cup).
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In winning the first major trophy available to him, Ten Hag has matched Jose Mourinho's efforts during 2016/17.
The Portuguese, of course, went on to add the Europa League to the Carabao Cup that term. So we'll have to wait and see if Erik can lift another piece of silverware before 2022/23 ends.
But delivering our first trophy for six years was a milestone of undoubted relevance, and sparked euphoric scenes at Wembley following our 2-0 victory over Newcastle United 2-0.
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