How difficult was Ten Hag when he first came to Man Utd
Hans Kraay, Ten Hag's close friend and former teammate at De Graafschap, now a broadcaster in the Netherlands, revealed the tense situation when this coach first arrived at Man Utd. "Ten Hag deserves success at Man Utd. People don't realize that he had to go through a minefield in the first five months," Kraay told the Daily Mirror. "From the beginning the club was in chaos, because of the 'mines' laid by Ronaldo. But Ten Hag came to Man Utd, because he saw the potential and the challenge."
At the end of March 2022, Louis van Gaal advised Ten Hag to refuse, when Man Utd approached his compatriot coach. Van Gaal thinks that Man Utd is commercial and not suitable for compatriot Erik ten Hag to develop his career. Van Gaal is one of the most successful coaches in the world, but failed to manage Man Utd between 2014 and 2016. He won only one FA Cup and was sacked when he could not win tickets to the Champions League, as well as the ability to compete in the Premier League. The play that Van Gaal applied to Man Utd was criticized as boring.
Kraay revealed: "You know what Van Gaal said to Ten Hag? He said 'Erik, Man Utd is a big mess, don't go there'. But Ten Hag still did. He wasn't afraid to explain. solve it all and go around Ronaldo's mines."
According to a close friend, the great thing about Ten Hag is that he is practical and never wants to be a flash coach like many of his colleagues like Jose Mourinho.
According to British newspaper Sportmail, Ten Hag accepted to lead Man Utd even though he knew that applying a new training method at Old Trafford could cause him to "clash" with Ronaldo. That has been proven, when Ten Hag many times had conflicts with Ronaldo, in the first half of the year sitting in the hot seat at Old Trafford.
The Dutch coach pushed Ronaldo to the bench for missing pre-season, explaining that he was not used in the 3-6 defeat by Man City out of "respect" and the penalty for leaving early in the match against Tottenham. In response, in November 2022, the Portuguese striker was accused of being "betrayed" by Ten Hag and publicly criticized Man Utd in a 90-minute chat on Piers Morgan Uncensored. More than a week later, the Old Trafford owner terminated the contract half a year early with Ronaldo.
Ten Hag corrected his discipline right from the moment he started leading Man Utd in June 2022. He laid down the rules: no backs or crosses, players must improve their fitness and body language, end the factions in the dressing room, squads play on a training basis and no Default main team, players are penalized for being late, not complying with nutrition regulations and other regulations.
After the 0-4 defeat at Brentford at the beginning of the season, Ten Hag forced the students to practice more and run more distances than the opponent throughout 90 minutes - about 13.8 km. The 53-year-old coach received the respect of his students when he ran with him at this training session. "Ten Hag probably didn't know if he actually ran the 13.8km. So three weeks later, Ten Hag could barely walk," Kraay said.
But thanks to discipline and effort on the training ground, Man Utd flew high when he lost only one of the last 22 matches in all competitions, and is expected to win a treble. The army under Ten Hag won the League Cup, currently third in the Premier League, met Burnley in the quarter-finals of the FA Cup on March 17, and faced Real Betis in the 1/8 round of the Europa League. Today, the "Red Devils" marched to Liverpool's Anfield stadium in round 26 of the English Premier League.
