Next Man Utd manager: Two frontrunners to replace Ten Hag revealed as major Liverpool fear emerges

Managers Graham Potter and Roberto De Zerbi

Graham Potter and Brighton boss Roberto De Zerbi are the two leading contenders to replace Erik ten Hag as manager of Manchester United, and a report has detailed a Liverpool-related difficulty the Red Devils will have in attracting the ‘best in class’.

Sir Jim Ratcliffe and his INEOS cohorts are determined to launch a revolution at Old Trafford. Despite only being a minority owner, Ratcliffe has full authority to shape Man Utd as he sees fit and his first order of business is to appoint the ‘best in class.’ Work on that front is already well underway.

Omar Berrada has been successfully drafted in from Manchester City and will become Man Utd’s new CEO once a period of gardening leave concludes.

Elsewhere, United hope to appoint Newcastle’s Dan Ashworth as their sporting director and Jason Wilcox – recently of Southampton – as their technical director.

Berrada, Ashworth and Wilcox are all regarded extremely highly in the industry and their arrivals should give United the type of elite leadersherip they’ve sorely lacked in the post-Ferguson era.

But if Ratcliffe is truly serious about putting Man Utd back at the summit of English football, a change of manager may also be required.

United have crumbled under Ten Hag this term and the Dutchman’s tactics have been branded as ‘kamikaze’ by club legend Rio Ferdinand.

Speaking earlier in April, Ferdinand said: “If kamikaze, open sesame, no control of the game football is what we’re looking for, he has it nailed on and is doing a great job at it because that’s what we’re playing.”

United have given up a mind-boggling 107 shots to opposing sides in their last four league matches – none of which they’ve won.

Champions League qualification is almost certainly beyond them, while an FA Cup victory would merely paper over the cracks.

According to Manchester World reporter, Rich Fay, United’s new quest to appoint the ‘best in class’ could result in Ten Hag being dismissed.

Man Utd delays will harm pursuit of excellence

However, the fact Man Utd are yet to make a firm decision one way or the other on their manager could leave the club scrambling for second tier options.

Fay highlighted Liverpool, Bayern Munich and Barcelona all being in the market for new managers this summer.

That trio of clubs have known they need a new manager for many months and in Liverpool’s case, work on appointing Sporting CP’s highly-rated Ruben Amorim has already taken place.

Fay noted that by the time Ratcliffe does axe Ten Hag – if indeed he does – high calibre managers will already have their next moves ironed out.

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Potter, De Zerbi the frontrunners

The reporter did stress that Man Utd are conducting early background checks on potential new bosses right now.

Julian Nagelsmann is admired, though the belief is the Germany boss will replace Thomas Tuchel at Bayern.

As such, Fay stated ‘Graham Potter and Roberto De Zerbi are understood to be the current frontrunners for the job.’

In the reporter’s words, those two candidates are ‘not exactly in keeping with their best in class approach.’

Potter has remained out of work since being fired by Chelsea one year ago in April of 2023.

De Zerbi has earned rave reviews for the work he’s conducted at Brighton and led the club into their first ever European campaign.

However, like Ten Hag, De Zerbi has been criticised for his open approach that has resulted in Brighton suffering heavy defeats on the regular.

Just this season alone, Brighton have lost 6-1 to Aston Villa, 4-0 to Luton Town, 3-0 to Fulham, 3-0 to Arsenal and 4-0 to Roma in the Europa League.

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