Where does Erik ten Hag rank in the post-Alex Ferguson Manchester United era?

Not a single one of United’s eight managers in the post-Ferguson era have come close to matching the Scot’s win rate of 59.67 per cent

For Manchester United fans the pattern is wearisomely familiar. A new manager comes in. There is immediate uplift, results improve. At the end of a positive first season he signs a new contract, there is talk of at last finding a proper successor to Sir Alex Ferguson. Then in the second season, fissures appear. Instead of expected improvement, there is sustained deterioration. This accelerates to the point, early in their third season, when the axe falls. And so the process starts all over again. Though this time, we are told, the directors will get it right.
Now Erik ten Hag has been sacked, a total of eight managers have taken control of matches in the 11 years since the great man moved from the touchline to the directors’ box. And none of them have come close to matching his win rate of 59.67 per cent, sustained over an astonishing 1,500 matches in charge.
It is easy to see their flaws, easy to see where they failed. Locating where they went right, less so. But who was the best of them? And where does Ten Hag rank?
Scouring the globe for someone to stand in for six months until they appointed a new manager to replace Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, United’s board reckoned a veteran no longer actually working as a manager would be the perfect choice. Smart, articulate, and brilliant at English he may have been, but the inventor of gegenpress failed totally to impart any of his enthusiasm for high-energy, intensive football on a squad evidently waiting for the full-time manager to arrive. By the end of his tenure he had visibly given up and was telling everyone who would listen that United were unmanageable. He was probably right.
A good man and fine manager he may be, but almost from the moment he arrived Moyes was overwhelmed by United. “The Chosen One”, as the banner in the Stretford End anointed him, made the big mistake of dispensing with the coaching staff he inherited, and found his methodology unable to impress the title-winning veterans in his changing room. It takes something to turn champions into also-rans, but Moyes managed to squander a legacy of players of the standing of Rio Ferdinand, Robin van Persie, Nemanja Vidic and Wayne Rooney within the space of just nine months. 
United’s longest-serving, most decorated player was reckoned the perfect stand-in after the shambles of the Moyes era. A bit of continuity, a return to the values of the Ferguson era: he embodied all that. But his record was underwhelming. His lack of experience squashed any ambition he might have harboured to get the job permanently. And, after a spell as Louis van Gaal’s assistant and some time in charge of Wales, his private life imploded, making him virtually unemployable outside the club he co-owns, Salford City. 
The only one of Ferguson’s successors to remain unbeaten, albeit that he only took charge of two matches, Carrick looked made for the job. Calm, rational, dignified, he clearly had the ear of the dressing room. Perhaps wisely, given the shambolic nature of the club, he made himself unavailable for further promotion and decided to continue his education at Middlesbrough. 
An unequivocal hero to the United faithful, initially his bright, enthusiastic decency cleansed the place of the toxicity left by Jose Mourinho’s fall-out. For his first few months, abetted by the tactical input of Carrick and Kieran McKenna, his smartly recruited coaching staff, optimism abounded. Ole was at the wheel. But he was obliged to preside over a dressing room seeped in poison and quickly sank into decline. His most significant moment was the Europa League final in May 2021. Had he won that, how different things might have been. But he lost and was evicted from the premises within six months.
When he walked into Old Trafford he carried the bearing of a man wondering why it had taken the club so long to appoint the obvious successor to Ferguson. Exuding self-regard, he gave great press conferences, and was capable of magnificent mimes on the touchline. But the football over which he presided was dull to the point of excruciating. While he did win a trophy, with victory in the FA Cup in 2016, it was done in the least adventurous manner possible. And only he appeared to be surprised when he was replaced soon after. 
Like Mourinho, he too won two trophies and delivered immediate revival. Like Mourinho, for a while it seemed he was making sustained progress. Heavily backed in the transfer market, however, his major tactical concept appeared to be reconstructing the Ajax side with whom he had won so much in the Netherlands. When his purchases largely underwhelmed, however, he looked like a man lost, constantly making the same tactical mistakes in the hope that somehow this time they would work. His principal plus was the promotion of Kobbie Mainoo to the first team.  
In many ways, the Portuguese arrived at Old Trafford three years too late. He was one of the few managers with an ego of sufficient scale not to be daunted by following Ferguson. When he did finally arrive he appeared immediately at home. 
He won two trophies in his first season, in his second was Premier League runner-up (which, he claimed, was his finest achievement in football) before his inevitable toxic self-destruct act overwhelmed him. He also made the best signing of the post-Ferguson era: Zlatan Ibrahimovic, who, albeit for just a season before injury curtailed him, lit up the place.