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Manchester Evening News
Manchester Evening News
Sport
Charlie Wilson

Erik ten Hag's frustrated three-word message to Manchester United players in training

Manchester United are into their second week of preparations at Carrington before they travel to Asia this week to begin their pre-season tour.

United completed their first signing of the summer in Tyrell Malacia on Tuesday, and expect to add Christian Eriksen and Frenkie de Jong to the squad in the coming days and weeks, while a bid has also been lodged for Ajax defender Lisandro Martinez.

This final week of training before travelling to the first stop on their pre-season tour in Bangkok will give Ten Hag a few more days at assess his players. All but one of United's players who were on international duty in June returned to the club earlier this week, with Cristiano Ronaldo the only absentee, and here are a few things we spotted during one of Ten Hag's training sessions after United released a highlights clip.

READ MORE: United have the same pre-season problem Paul Pogba and Romelu Lukaku gave them

Ten Hag's frustration

At one stage during the footage, Ten Hag can be heard shouting that his players are making "too many mistakes" in a passing drill.

Ten Hag is known to be a demanding manager and won't settle for mediocrity in training as he bids to get United back on top.

Fernandes' determination

Bruno Fernandes returned to United training on Monday ahead of what is undoubtedly a big season for the Portuguese star. The 27-year-old is coming off the back of a disappointing campaign by his standards, only scoring 10 league goals and failing to recapture the form United fans had seen from him during his first 18 months at the club.

A lot of cardio

Every team at this point will be doing a lot of fitness work in order to get their bodies right for the upcoming campaign, whilst giving the coaches an idea of where each player is at physically.

But a good sign for United fans will be that Ten Hag is certainly going to make them work off the ball. We know the Dutchman wants his side to be intense in the press, and we're already seeing signs of this in training with the amount of running the players are doing - with and without the ball.

Intricate build-up

Most of the footage that we have seen from United's training shows the team building their passing from the back as they attempt to progress up the field. It's certainly noticeable how Ten Hag wants his team to keep the ball, and how to use it in certain situations.

This is going to put much emphasis on United's defensive midfielders, who will be tasked to take the ball from the centre-backs and look up for the field for a quick pass, rather than going long.

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