Erik ten Hag Fired by Manchester United; Ruud van Nistelrooy Named Interim Manager

Manchester United announced it sacked manager Erik ten Hag a day after suffering a 2-1 defeat to West Ham United in the Premier League.

"We are grateful to Erik for everything he has done during his time with us and wish him well for the future," the club said.

Red Devils legend Ruud van Nistelrooy, who joined Ten Hag's staff at the start of the season, will take over as the interim manager.

Ten Hag's fate was pretty much sealed in the summer, when Manchester United openly courted other candidates before ultimately sticking with him. It's tough for a manager to come back from being undermined to that degree.

The hiring of Van Nistelrooy did Ten Hag few favors, too. In the retired striker, the supporters had a clear alternative they could rally around if United got off to a slow start.

The managerial change is fully justified. Manchester United is 14th in the league table after finishing eighth last season. The club has opened the Europa League with three straight draws as well, so making a deep run in a winnable competition is far from assured.

The question is whether sacking Ten Hag actually solves anything.

The arrival of Jim Ratcliffe as a minority stakeholder seemingly promised change at Old Trafford. Despite only assuming 25 percent of the club's ownership, Ratcliffe and INEOS gained significant control over the football-related decisions.

The early returns of the Ratcliffe era aren't encouraging as it resembles the sort of listlessness and lack of direction that steadily settled under the Glazer family's ownership.

United not only retained Ten Hag but also backed him to the tune of €200 million-plus in transfer spending. Around €60 million of that went to two players (Matthijs de Ligt and Noussair Mazraoui) signed because of their familiarity with the manager from his time at Ajax.

It took Ratcliffe and INEOS nine Premier League matches to decide Ten Hag wasn't the right fit after all. In the meantime, Manchester United watched Mauricio Pochettino and Thomas Tuchel, two experienced managers linked with the club in the summer, take national team jobs.

Van Nistelrooy will presumably have every opportunity to prove he's worthy of the job on a permanent basis. He should benefit from the fact things can't possibly get much worse than they are right now.

But the underlying problems at Manchester United might be far too large for any one manager to address.