Erik ten Hag believes Manchester United need players with the character to cope with the scrutiny and pressure of life at Old Trafford, as Jadon Sancho is set to follow Donny van de Beek to the exit after failing to realise his potential at the club.
The Dutchman managed Van de Beek at Ajax, where he played in a side who reached the Champions League semi-finals, but gave him just two Premier League starts for United and just 21 minutes of first-team football this season before the midfielder joined Eintracht Frankfurt on loan.
And Sancho, one of the most expensive players in United’s history, is set to return to Borussia Dortmund on loan after the two clubs agreed a deal in principle.
Seeing how some players have struggled at Old Trafford has convinced Ten Hag that it is a question of finding footballers with the personality to survive as he argued it is simpler to play for almost any club other than United.
He said: “That is always on those players and how much confidence you have in your capabilities but I can tell you one thing – the Premier League is tough, Manchester United, that is tough to play there because it is more easy to play in almost any other team than Manchester United because the pressure is that high always.
“You have to deal with that. But if you have confidence in yourself, this is the best challenge and this is definitely the best club you want to be at as a player. It depends on player to player, and it depends especially on the character of the player, their personality.”
Ten Hag admitted that Van de Beek, a £40m signing in 2020, is not the player he was when he worked with him at Ajax.
“He has had many injuries, first of all. I worked now with him for two years [at United] and before he was under different managers here,” he added. “He had a loan before as well. Actually, from the first moment I came in here at Manchester United, he wasn’t the player he was at Ajax because he was injured.
“So many times he was not available and then he struggled for a long time to recover from that injury. That is probably the main reason why he was not playing. We decided for a loan in the summer but it didn’t come and then his opportunities are few because also we make appointments and we make agreements with players and contract players in that position. The competition was high.”
United go to Wigan in the FA Cup on Sunday with Ten Hag expecting Rasmus Hojlund to return after he missed the defeat to Nottingham Forest with illness.
But he has warned that Casemiro and Lisandro Martinez could be weeks away from returning to first-team action. The midfielder has not played since 1 November while the defender has been out since September,
“They are a long time already back on the grass and now they return back into team training but not fully so partial,” Ten Hag explained. “Now they have to make the next steps and that may take some days, I think even weeks.”
