There is still more than halfway of the Premier League season to go but Erik ten Hag has transformed Man United into a credible force.
The renovated briefing room at Manchester United’s Carrington training complex is dominated by a monochrome mural of matchgoers.
The room, with tiered seating at the request of Erik ten Hag, was hastily completed while United travelled to Thailand and Australia during pre-season. The message Ten Hag drums into the players with the image they are greeted with as they step through the door: play for the fans.
During the Manchester derby, Casemiro, Raphael Varane, Fred, Marcus Rashford, Antony and Harry Maguire engaged with the supporters. Others doubtless did, too.
Also read: Casemiro and Raphael Varane are driving United’s reconnection
Lisandro Martinez and Scott McTominay prepared to emerge at 1-0, popped their bibs back on at 1-1 and embarked on more of a cheerleading charge than a warm-up. Both mobbed Rashford.
Even the quiet Aaron Wan-Bissaka roused the crowd at 1-0 with footwork befitting a dancefloor. That restored some of the belief that had been sapped by Jack Grealish’s headed goal.
Wan-Bissaka, so detached from the squad in pre-season he didn’t drop to the WACA turf for the playfully punitive push-ups, suddenly looks more confident than he ever did under the manager who pushed for his £50million transfer.
“The times I have been with people in the streets, in the toughest period of the club, they have always been supportive with myself, with the club,” Bruno Fernandes told me on Thursday. “The love they have for the club, they have shown that.
“The Liverpool game they showed that. From the first minute the stadium was loud. You could hear the fans support you. We won that game also because the fans cheered us, pushed for us and made us believe more in our qualities and ourselves, and that support from them is always important.
“Since I’ve been in the club, that has been amazing even more so when the club was in its toughest period.”
Ten Hag was unsure whether to drag McTominay towards the Stretford End or tweak his instructions when Fernandes whipped the ball past Ederson. For someone so stoic, it is noticeable Ten Hag loosens up in the euphoric moments of United’s biggest wins.
Ten Hag has reconnected the players with the supporters. The derby was five months and a day since United’s away-dayers spat ‘You’re not fit to wear the shirt’ at Brentford. Some players swerved approaching them for fear of reprisals.
One fan in the away end messaged to express his dismay that Ten Hag did not walk across the pitch to acknowledge them. The last time Ole Gunnar Solskjaer did that, he was specifically booed and officially sacked 17 hours later.
The way it is going, Ten Hag won’t have to pay for a pint in Manchester again. Whenever he reemerges for the second half at Old Trafford he urges the ‘singing section’ to live up to their billing. They do.
Switching the dugouts has had an underrated effect. The United bench is not as distant and it feels as though there is a stream of energy between Ten Hag and the hardcore contingent by the tunnel that manager and supporters feed off.
Character was as vital as quality with Ten Hag’s additions. United did not always bow to Ten Hag’s wishes. The feedback they received on one target that Ten Hag recommended was he was a “lazy b—–d” and “difficult to manage”. United have rooted out most of the rotten apples.
In nullifying the peculiar power struggle between Cristiano Ronaldo and Maguire by dropping both, Ten Hag has a more harmonious dressing room to manage. Maguire has started two Premier League games in five months but his stout defending in the dying embers against Wolves and City helped secure six points.
The commitment of players regular and rotated is unquestionable. Facundo Pellistri could be forgiven for feeling alienated yet was as bright as a button on his long overdue debut against Charlton Athletic. Another fringe player has spoken effusively of Ten Hag’s direct management.
The only player who abandoned the tenets of professionalism – Ronaldo – is gone. Those who work in the Carrington canteen laughed at Ronaldo’s claim it had not changed since he first left in 2009.
Alejandro Garnacho and Rashford know you cross Ten Hag at your peril. Both have responded resoundingly.
“That shows the manager gives the same respect to the ones who are playing, to those who are more important, less important, scoring more goals, less goals, saving goals,” Fernandes said of the discipline. “That is a mark the manager made already in the past with other players but was not in the news.”
One player was disgruntled by his treatment and has complained Ten Hag has his favourites. There is next to no evidence of that and the player in question has form for undermining competitors for his place.
Ten Hag’s human touch has started to shine through. Sources at United have spoken about how tactfully he has dealt with Jadon Sancho. Ten Hag approached Sancho and sought feedback before manager and player settled on a possible solution.
Had the players objected to the onerous running session 24 hours after the soul-destroying day at Brentford United might still be in flux. Ten Hag’s willingness to run with the players was a unique and productive piece of man-management.
Ten Hag forced the players to watch the first half of the Brentford debacle together in the briefing room that could double for a director’s home cinema. The certification would not have been suitable for children.
A source close to Ten Hag says he was so incandescent with rage he “wanted to kill” the United players. The screening at Carrington “was not pleasant” but necessary. United channeled that negativity into the uplifting defeat of Liverpool nine days later.
Ten Hag was grateful for the extended gap between fixtures. He quickly decided to drop Maguire for Raphael Varane, a more significant selection than Ronaldo’s demotion. Varane has been absent for three of United’s four defeats under Ten Hag and sustained an ankle injury with the scoreline only 1-0 at City in October.
United beat Liverpool at home in the league for the first time in four-and-a-half years. In reflecting on the performances against Brentford and Liverpool, Ten Hag muttered, “f—–g hell”. Those two words encapsulated two drastically different performances.
Every day, Ten Hag strolls past an illuminated trophy cabinet on the upper floor of the central building at Carrington. City fans derided United with a rendition of “just like the Scousers, you live in the past” on Saturday. Under Ten Hag, they are a team for the present and the future.
With a top tier manager.
