Victory over Liverpool could secure Erik ten Hag's future at Manchester United — defeat could spell the end

Defeat to Liverpool on Sunday could spell trouble for Erik ten Hag. Photo: Robbie Jay Barratt/Getty Images

Erik ten Hag faces Jurgen Klopp twice in the next three weeks. The Liverpool manager's farewell party will go a long way to ensuring there are no managerial changes at Manchester United in the near future.

There is no sugarcoating the importance of Sunday's FA Cup quarter-final for the Dutch. trainer.

The first of his meetings with Klopp at Old Trafford before April 7 will have a huge impact on how much faith Ten Hag has left in the club's revival. Win and Ten Hag — to steal Klopp's famous line — will turn some of his doubters into believers.

Lose and the international break will feel like an eternity, 13 days until United's next match away at Brentford. filled with speculation, all of it negative.

We often view the November international holiday as a management graveyard as chairmen and owners decide whether changes are needed to change the direction of the campaign.

The upcoming match seems more important in determining the way forward at Old Trafford. «Beware the Ides of March» and all that.

This generally applies everywhere. Whether it's coaches and players contemplating their next move to a bigger or better club, or boards checking for preferred targets, you can rest assured that the bulk of the work and key decisions leading up to summer announcements are happening right now.

As Fenway Sports Group's new head of football, Michael Edwards knows he will be accelerating the search for Klopp's replacement to ensure a smooth transition.

By Sunday evening it will become clearer whether Sir Jim Ratcliffe will give the green light or pause the search for an alternative to Ten Hagu to lead the new recovery process.

Given his situation, as I have already written in this column, the United manager is effectively on trial — with many arguing that the FA Cup quarter-final draw is a nightmare for Ten Hag. Things could have gone differently. Instead of seeing danger ahead of the Liverpool game, he should have seized the opportunity.

A positive result could help change perceptions of him. If he wins the FA Cup, this season's prospects will change radically, especially given the quality of the opposition still in the competition.

After Ratcliffe took control of United, he stated that he wanted to topple Manchester City. . Make no mistake: Liverpool and United will always judge each other. Matches against historical opponents are always more meaningful.

Scoring a goal against Manchester United and beating them simply means more. Photo: Alex Livesey/Getty Images

United can beat most teams and still face criticism if the performance is not up to par, as happened against Everton last weekend. When United meet Liverpool, it's always about the result.

The position of these two clubs as England's most successful means that these fixtures generate more excitement than any other on the fixture calendar, with only the city derbies looming. Winning brings more satisfaction, while losing brings more pain.

Managerial changes often occurred after the realization that one club was too far behind its north-western neighbor, and results in this match were especially poor for managers who are already under pressure, have a habit of setting the stopwatch to the end of the reign.

Brendan Rodgers' fate was sealed after the defeat to United in September 2015, as it later emerged that FSG held their first meetings with Klopp in New York soon after.

José Mourinho was sacked as manager » United after defeat at Anfield in 2018. The testy reaction to being outplayed required immediate reassurance from fans that a change of direction was in the offing. Three years later, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer was sacked a month after a 5-0 defeat at Old Trafford.

Ten Hag's experience against Liverpool has been a mixed bag so far. Early in his reign he defeated the naysayers by a score of 2–1. The noise began after a couple of unsuccessful performances in August 2022. They quieted down for a long time after the victory over Liverpool at Old Trafford.

Days like these have been in short supply and the speed with which Liverpool have reasserted their dominance over United after trailing by eight points last season is one of the reasons Ten Hag now finds himself in such a difficult situation. History can provide some solace.

The FA Cup will always be synonymous at Old Trafford with the trophy that marked the beginning of Sir Alex Ferguson's glorious reign. Every time the under-pressure United manager clinches a hard-fought, narrow tournament win, Mark Robins' ears burn.

Casemiro's last win against Nottingham Forest in the last round was more worthy of comparison with the goal that changed the history of English football more than any other, given that it was in the same stadium and against the same opponents where Ferguson's team won a famous victory in 1990 on the way to his first major honor in England.

The importance of Sunday's match will not be lost on Casemiro and Manchester United. Photo: Catherine Ivill/Getty Images

As a football-mad teenager, I always saw United more as a cup team than a title contender. I was at Wembley to see them beat Everton in 1985. Eighteen months later, Ron Atkinson was sacked.

United's last trophy-winning manager, Louis van Gaal, learned of his sacking before the 2016 final, unable to build on that success as the club had already decided to appoint Mourinho . If Ten Hag were to repeat this victory, it is difficult to imagine United would refuse his services.

The flip side of this argument, of course, is that they are playing a Liverpool side who, despite their injuries, have produced one result. Their best performance in years came in the second half of the 1-1 draw with Manchester City.

Klopp and his players will smell blood. Against lesser opposition, Klopp may be tempted to play more of his young players. Before the last round against Southampton, I was among the many Liverpool fans who were hoping to make progress in the FA Cup, but were secretly happy that after winning the Europa League Cup, priority was being given to the title fight and the Europa League.

The pairing with United changed that. As Klopp said ahead of the third-round clash with Arsenal, you can't compromise in games like this.

Klopp knows his time is coming to an end and is set to go out with a bang. Ten Hage has a responsibility to challenge those who fear he is about to leave United sobbing.