Simon Jordan believes that the Manchester United job will prove too big for ‘small man’ Erik ten Hag.
United bounced back from humiliating back-to-back defeats – to Brighton and Brentford – with an energetic and impressive 2-1 victory over Liverpool on Monday night.
While a win over their arch rivals has done wonders for confidence in the camp, it’s still clear that there’s plenty of work to do at Old Trafford, with changes needed from top to bottom at the club, if they’re to close the gap to Liverpool and Manchester City.
Fans went home with smiles on their faces and renewed optimisim having inflicted the first defeat on Jurgen Klopp’s side in 2022, but according to Jordan, it’s best that they don’t get carried away.
He said on the White and Jordan show: “I think that they were very fortuitous to come against a very poor Liverpool side in the first 20 minutes that did everything that a side shouldn’t do against a very fragile, confidence-bereft Manchester United.
“They gave United their head and for the rest of the game I thought that Liverpool were the far better side.
“Man United needed that result and with all due respect, I think it’s much easier to play against a side like Liverpool than it will be to play against Southampton, or than it is to play against Brighton or Brentford.
“It doesn’t alter the landscape for these players. In my mind, they are still mental minnows.
Jordan then went on to discuss Ten Hag and stated his belief that the United job will be too big for him.
Ten Hag won praise for dropping Cristiano Ronaldo and Harry Maguire against Liverpool, but Jordan insisted that proved nothing – and was not impressed by the Dutchman’s post-match interviews.
He said: “Do you know what I took away from that interview yesterday? Honestly, I looked at Ten Hag and thought that this job is going to be too big for him. That was my take away.
“I watched him step up at the end and I saw a small man in a suit that doesn’t fit him and I thought ‘you don’t look like I thought you would’.
“Do you know what I thought he’d look like in personality and demeanour? Jaap Stam, with his chest out.
“I know he doesn’t have the physical components of Jaap Stam and when I saw his list of rules about you won’t do this, and you won’t talk outside the dressing room… Ronaldo isn’t fit, it’s an easy decision.
“It’s easy not to play Ronaldo because he isn’t match fit.
“I don’t look at it and think it’s such a brave decision. Because the media create such a back story about how important Ronaldo is, it doesn’t mean that Ten Hag is so brave that he doesn’t follow the narrative of the scribes.”
“I looked at Erik ten Hag and I thought ‘This job will be too big for you’”
“I watched him, and I looked at a small man in a suit that doesn’t fit him and he didn’t look like I thought he would.”
Simon Jordan doesn’t think Ten Hag is the man to take #MUFC forward. pic.twitter.com/0cfP7ZMPAE
— talkSPORT (@talkSPORT) August 23, 2022