Very early into his tenure as Manchester United boss, Erik ten Hag signalled his intent to implement an aggressive pressing game at Old Trafford.
Following his first pre-season game in charge of the club, which delivered a standout 4-0 win over Liverpool in Melbourne, he stated: "We want to press, we want to press all day and play proactive football. Sometimes we can do that high but, if not possible, we have to read it as a team and drop lower. But we want to press and that has to be the intention all day."
Implementing such a style was an ambition of Ten Hag’s predecessor, interim manager Ralf Rangnick. However, he quickly came to the conclusion that the players were not capable of playing in such a way and abandoned the approach.
