Manchester United manager Erik ten Hag has been praised by former Dutch footballer Ronald de Boer for dropping Harry Maguire and Cristiano Ronaldo from the club's starting XI.
United have won four successive Premier League matches following the defeats to Brighton and Brentford, with wins against Liverpool, Southampton, Leicester and Arsenal. Neither Maguire nor Ronaldo have started in any of these wins as Ten Hag made some bold decisions over his starting line-up.
Dropping the club captain and a five-time Ballon d'Or winner within the Dutchman's first few months at the club would not have been an easy choice by any means. They are the sort of decisions that can define your time at a club as a manager, for better or for worse.
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Maguire started in both of United's opening defeats to Brighton and Brentford, and has since only featured for ten minutes in the following four games, coming on as a substitute against Arsenal last weekend.
Ronaldo has featured more regularly than the centre-back, but since Ten Hag dropped the 37-year-old following the 4-0 defeat in West London, he has only played 80 minutes of football across the four subsequent games.
These types of decisions have earned the Dutch manager praise from De Boer, who says that Ten Hag is doing the right thing by picking the players who are performing well in training, regardless of who they are.
He told Sky Sports : "Of course, he [Ten Hag] has great players. But what I like the most is that he put players on the bench that a lot of people thought he wouldn't dare to do so, like Maguire, and of course, Ronaldo.
"I think now you see a bit back what Man United was about like two years ago when they turned [finished] second with great football. And I think that is something to build on. And hey, they have some young, great talents and I think Ten Hag is used to putting players [in the starting XI] who perform well in training.
"And even if you're young [it] doesn't matter, and I think that says something about the manager."
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