Wayne Rooney has praised Erik ten Hag and claimed many of his former Manchester United teammates did not enjoy playing under Louis van Gaal.
Van Gaal was dismissed immediately in the aftermath of guiding the club to the FA Cup in 2016 – their first major trophy in the three years since Sir Alex Ferguson's retirement. The Dutchman had stabilised United’s results after David Moyes disastrously succeeded Ferguson in 2013 but failed to deliver a title challenge.
Rooney was the captain under Van Gaal at Old Trafford and the former forward did not believe that United should have parted ways with the Dutchman at the end of that 2015/16 campaign, as he believed that the club were moving in the right direction.
United had finished in fifth place in the Premier League, missing out on Champions League football for the following campaign having been eliminated at the group stage of the competition earlier that campaign – with many of the club’s fans disgruntled at the sterile football.
Jose Mourinho, who had been dismissed from Chelsea months earlier, replaced Van Gaal in the Old Trafford dugout. He would guide the club to the Europa League and EFL Cup trophies in his first campaign but was dismissed in December 2018 with the club languishing in sixth place in the Premier League.
Rooney has now spoken of current United boss, Ten Hag, and praised his man-management, with specific reference to Marcus Rashford. The former England captain believed this style drew more parallels with Sir Alex Ferguson than it did with Van Gaal.
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“I would trust any call Ten Hag makes with him, because Ten Hag has handled Marcus so well,” Rooney wrote in his column for The Times. “His man-management has been a major strength. From everything I’ve heard about him, a lot of what he does is actually common sense.
“There are high demands on the players in training sessions and in games but at the training ground you need to create an environment where people enjoy coming to work and that is what he has done.”
Rooney added, referencing back to his time at the club: “It’s what Sir Alex Ferguson did too and it’s why players struggled under Louis van Gaal because under Louis — although I liked him — it felt too serious for a number of the squad.”
