Former Manchester United captain Gary Neville has hailed Erik ten Hag following his encouraging start to life in charge at Old Trafford, insisting he has been impressed by the way he appears to have formed a feeling of togetherness between himself and his players.
After experiencing the worst possible start to his United tenure, being beaten by both Brighton & Hove Albion (2-1) and Brentford (4-0) in his first two games in charge, Ten Hag has slowly started to turn the club's fortunes around. The Reds have won five of their last six Premier League outings and have won their last three games in the Europa League.
The Dutchman, poached from Ajax, was always going to need time to address United's woes and several issues, particularly defensively, still need ironing out, as highlighted by the 6-3 defeat to Manchester City a fortnight ago. However, the positives have certainly outweighed the negatives so far this season.
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And for former right-back Neville, who frequently analyses United in his role as a pundit for Sky Sports, Ten Hag has made a positive start to life in the Old Trafford managerial hot-seat, believing plenty of promise for the future is there for all to see, specifically after the recent wins over both Liverpool and Arsenal.
"I think the team are putting some movements together that look promising," Neville told the Mail. "When you look at the £1.3billion that has been spent, I still think 'I'm not looking at a £1.3bn team here'.
"But that's not Ten Hag, that has happened over the course of five, six, seven seasons. We are still not anywhere near City, obviously, but we have beat Liverpool and Arsenal and there is promise there.
"The next few weeks for United are tough. There are four to five tough games coming up that really will tell us where United are at in this first part of the season.
"The big thing for me is - we've talked about the ownership and that needs to change and be dealt with - but the manager has settled in pretty well and there looks to be a togetherness with the players and manager."
As well as trying to drill a new culture and philosophy into both the players and the club as a collective, Ten Hag has also had to handle one or two difficult situations, not least the uncertainty surrounding Cristiano Ronaldo's future for much of the summer. He also had to defend the summer signing of Lisandro Martinez, who had a shaky start to life in England, and deal with the situation concerning club captain Harry Maguire.
Neville added: "Ten Hag has come out of a very, very difficult period very well. I think that his handling of Martinez, when he was coming under pressure after Brentford, his handling of Maguire and the Ronaldo situation - big personalities and characters - has told us he is not going to shirk the big decisions."
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