KEY POINTS

  • Ajax's Erik ten Hag has been tipped to replace Solskjaer on the Manchester United sidelines
  • There is doubt that ten Hag would leave the Dutch side in the middle of the season
  • Signing him would be a massive coup in favor of Manchester United thanks to his high-level knowledge of attacking football

The managerial position at Manchester United looks to feature, but the latest favorite to replace Ole Gunnar Solskjaer is reportedly unwilling to leave his current side just yet.

Ajax boss Erik ten Hag has been linked to be the next manager at Old Trafford, but a new report claims that he is not willing to leave the reigning Eredivisie champions in the middle of the season.

Ten Hag is a highly-regarded personality among his peers and leaving the top-tier Dutch side right now would be a distasteful move, according to unnamed sources from the same report.

The International Business Times could not independently verify the claims put forward.

In the early part of the year, it was reported that the Tottenham Hotspurs were targeting ten Hag as their new manager but failed in their bid to acquire him as well.

After Manchester United’s loss to Manchester City over the weekend, many fans believe that having the Dutchman replace the Norwegian on the sidelines would be the major change they need in order to salvage a once-hopeful season.

After all, the Ajax connection at Old Trafford is there as tem Hag and rarely used midfielder Donny van de Beek played a big role in getting the Dutch side to the semifinals of the UEFA’s Champions League, where they were ousted by a Tottenham Hotspurs late goal from Lucas Moura.

According to the Manchester Evening News, getting the 51-year-old manager would solve the problem that Solskjaer has admitted to struggling in completing: finding a definitive style of football for the Red Devils to buy into.

The report also notes that ten Hag has used Solskjaer’s preferred formation of 4-3-3 football, but many think that the current Ajax manager would be better suited to applying it on the field.

Ten Hag’s coaching style of featuring a highly fluid but rarely porous attacking football would work well with the personnel that Manchester United currently has on the roster.

The Red Devils have been struggling to get back to form lately in the top-flight English football league, despite their run of success in the Champions League group stages.

With around two weeks to spare due to the international break before facing Watford, the club needs to make a decision as soon as possible on whether they would change managers or not so the team can get past this problem and focus strictly on playing football.