Slowly but surely, Erik ten Hag is starting to leave an impression on this Manchester United side.
And this week, he went into more detail about some of the key principles he’ll look to implement at the club in the near future. Speaking at a press conference during his side’s pre-season tour of Asia, Ten Hag revealed more information on how he wants his United side to play, with notable importance put on his side looking to ‘press’ aggressively without the ball.
“From every part of the team, I want proactivity. That’s most important, that players take the initiative. On the ball and off the ball, offence and defence.
“We only play man-marking in a certain moment. We want to press, all day. Proactive football, often high (up the pitch), but if not possible then we have to read it as a team and drop lower, but we still want to press, that has to be the intention all day”
Ralf Rangnick had similar ambitions when he arrived at Old Trafford and spoke early into his tenure about waiting to turn United into “pressing monsters”. Those aspirations never quite materialised though.
Under the German, the Reds too often looked disorganised and lacklustre, a point captured by the fact that in terms of PPDA - a metric used to measure pressing intensity high up the pitch - they finished the campaign ranking 13th in the Premier League.
Ten Hag’s record at Ajax though suggests his words are more than empty promises. His side ranked top in the Eredivisie for PPDA in each of his final two seasons with the club. It’s set to be an incredibly important pre-season in terms of laying the foundations to replicate that success at United this season.
But it’s not just what United do without the ball, but also with it that Ten Hag will be desperate to improve. We have already seen various training clips emerging over the last two weeks showing the former Ajax boss putting his new group through a series of drills.
However, the magnitude of the task facing the 52-year-old was obvious from one of the clips that emerged showing the group working on a one-touch and move exercise. The same is a form of an activation session and was common for Ajax players under Ten Hag. Concerningly though, it looked to be something that the United squad struggled with recently.
On the above clip, you can constantly hear Ten Hag reminding players to play the ball “on the right foot” as players struggled to grasp the concept of the drill, and in the end, Ten Hag is heard shouting at the group stating they were “making too many mistakes”.
In contrast, similar clips of the drill at Ajax show his former players illustrating more intensity and fluidity in their passing. It’s no secret that Ten Hag wants his United team to play fast, intricate attacking football next season, and being sharp in possession will be key to the success of the same.
Although the United players are still someway off the level needed to implement his ideologies, it’s still very early days into Ten Hag’s tenure. Confidence should still be high that the Dutchman has the coaching acumen to get this group where they need to be after a more prolonged period working with them.
