Erik Ten Hag’s Reign Officially Begins At Manchester United

Erik Ten Hag's reign at Manchester United has officially started, after the Dutchman worked with his new players at the training ground for the first time on Monday.

London, June 28 (IANS): New Manchester United manager Erik ten Hag’s reign has officially started, after the Dutchman worked with his new players at the training ground for the first time on Monday. Ten Hag arrived at the club’s Carrington training ground at around 8 am, and is understood to have taken his players out onto the training pitch in as early as 9 am for more than two hours. It is understood that almost 30 players participated in the session, allowing Ten Hag to get an opportunity to get to know some of his new colleagues, and cast a watchful eye over their progress.

The new coach was joined on the training pitches by assistant coaches Mitchell van der Gaag, and Steve McClaren. The latter was also iconic manager Sir Alex Ferguson’s assistant at Man United, including when the club won an iconic treble in 1999.

The likes of David de Gea, Tom Heaton, Phil Jones, Victor Lindelof, Anthony Martial, Marcus Rashford, Jadon Sancho, Luke Shaw, Axel Tuanzebe and Donny van de Beek were seen in the first training session with the new coach. Also present were younger players, such as Alvaro Fernandez, Alejandro Garnacho, Zidane Iqbal (who recently signed a new contract with the club), Charlie Savage, Shola Shoretire and Charlie Wellens. The aforementioned Garnacho had an extra three weeks of holiday due to playing for the Argentina U-20 team in the summer, but opted to check in with the squad in a bid to impress Ten Hag and earn more first-team action.

Some of his squad will be away for a bit longer, having been involved in the international fixtures during early June. But, there were still more than enough members of the squad for ten Hag to hold a first training session and start teaching his footballing ideology to the players. The players started the session with medical tests, as per the usual routine for the first day back, and continued it by working in the gym before moving out to the grass pitches.

One of the ex-Ajax manager’s first moves was to get the club groundsman to cut the grass on the training ground to a short 15mm length, therefore ensuring he can implement his passing style of play and encourage his players to keep the ball on the ground. He also insisting on all of his players eating together after training. Sir Alex Ferguson made a similar demand, and Ten Hag is continuing it. He feels that socializing at meal times helps to build a team spirit.