Erik ten Hag proved to his Manchester United players that they aren’t the only ones expected to do the hard yards - by joining them on the infamous punishment run that followed their humiliation at Brentford.
Ten Hag infuriated his squad by cancelling their day off and ordering them to report for duty at the club’s Carrington training base just 24 hours after the chastening 4-0 defeat. After being told that his players had run 13.8km less than their Brentford counterparts, the angry Dutchman instructed them all to run that distance in scorching 33-degree temperatures.
But he then showed international stars like Cristiano Ronaldo and Bruno Fernandes that he was also prepared to shoulder some of the blame for the Gtech Community Stadium calamity by matching them step for step over the full 8.5-mile distance. Ten Hag was said to have been left physically shattered by the experience - but his pain made a deep impression on his players.
