Erik ten Hag continues to rewrite the rule book for his Manchester United stars just a few months into his Old Trafford tenure.
While questions continue to swirl around whether Cristiano Ronaldo was given permission to leave the stadium 10 minutes before the end of United ’s final pre-season friendly on Sunday, Ten Hag’s reputation as a strict disciplinarian was further enhanced by a demand placed on the players who were not in his matchday squad.
Ronaldo was substituted at half-time of the 1-1 draw against Rayo Vallecano having made his first appearance under new manager Ten Hag since he signalled his desire to leave the club. United have not commented on whether his swift exit was sanctioned after pictures of the 37-year-old heading for the car park were circulated on social media.
A group of players not in the matchday squad - including David de Gea, Bruno Fernandes and Marcus Rashford - left the directors’ box with the game still ongoing, but they were permitted to.
But Ten Hag had told those not part of yesterday’s squad that they still had to report to Old Trafford so the entire squad could eat lunch together - despite not arriving back from Saturday’s trip to Oslo until about 8pm the night before.
The inactive players then watched most of the friendly against a La Liga side featuring former United striker Radamel Falcao. Amad Diallo, the young Ivorian who replaced Ronaldo at the interval, put United in front just over two minutes into the second half only for Alvaro Garcia to level nine minutes later after Tom Heaton saved an initial attempt.
United gave a debut to £55m recruit Lisandro Martinez, who will be the shortest centre back in the Premier League, and a first start to free agent addition Christian Eriksen. Both performed well, though the showing from youngsters James Garner and Alejandro Garnacho will give Ten Hag more to ponder ahead of Sunday’s Premier League opener at home to Brighton.
While both could end up going out on loan, their assertiveness in pre-season could sway the new manager into keeping them as fringe squad members.
“We’ve had a good pre-season, we made progress and we are ready for the season,” Ten Hag told MUTV afterwards. “But I know there is still a lot of room for improvement and we have to improve. This is a process that will continue during the season but next week it is about the result as well.”
"We want to give the young players who deserve a chance the opportunity to play. He [Garnacho] showed himself during pre-season and that’s why he played. He played pretty well and his performance was really good."
Since Ten Hag’s arrival in May there have been countless stories about the rules he is enforcing and the values he is instilling. There was another visible change at Old Trafford yesterday afternoon, though: the club have switched the dugouts at his request.
From now United will have the seats closer to the tunnel and Stretford End because when he visited for the first time at the end of last season the new manager noted the previous set up was a little unusual.
