Erik ten Hag has made progress at Manchester United this season and his influence has extended beyond Old Trafford this winter, with a number of his first-team players performing well at the Qatar World Cup after benefiting from working under him.
Marcus Rashford has been outstanding for England, scoring three goals, which has catapulted him into the conversation for the Golden Boot, Luke Shaw has started every match for England and he's enjoying a renaissance on the international stage, while Harry Maguire has responded to his critics, although he perhaps hasn't benefited from working with Ten Hag as others have.
Bruno Fernandes has been wonderful for Portugal, contributing two goals and two assists, Casemiro has been Brazil's best player and Raphael Varane and Lisandro Martinez have featured for France and Argentina respectively.
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Ten Hag, who is known to be obsessive about the game, will be following the festival of football in Qatar with great satisfaction, knowing that his players are delivering on the biggest stage, which can only bode well for their return to Manchester.
The words 'togetherness' and 'spirit' have been regularly used by Ten Hag this season and, although he's clearly helped the squad, which was devoid of confidence, he's not the type of coach who would publicly take credit for players' improvement.
Ten Hag is deliberately modest in his press conferences, as his priority is the team and morale in the dressing room, but the players have made sure to praise the 'discipline' he's instilled at Carrington.
Although the Dutchman will be pleased with his players' performances at the World Cup, he will be aware of the consequences of their success. FIFA's decision to award Qatar the World Cup was absurd and eventually made worse by moving the tournament to winter, which has wreaked havoc with the domestic schedule.
After the challenges of the pandemic, the winter World Cup has interrupted the Premier League season again and United will return to domestic football against Burnley in the League Cup on December 21, just three days after the final in Qatar.
England, the Netherlands, Portugal, Brazil, France and Argentina all have chances of progressing to the latter stages of the World Cup and that means the squad that Ten Hag names to face Burnley in the League Cup will be significantly weaker than usual.
United could be without Shaw, Maguire, Rashford, Tyrell Malacia, Fernandes, Diogo Dalot, Fred, Casemiro, Antony, Varane and Martinez for the match and that is problematic, especially for Ten Hag, who has preferred to play his strongest teams.
The League Cup is an opportunity for silverware that needs to be taken seriously. Manchester City and Liverpool will play each other in the next round, while Newcastle, Leicester and Brighton are the only other remaining teams that should pose a threat and it's a chance to reach the final that can't be wasted, with United currently suffering their worst trophy drought for over 40 years.
Ten Hag will be desperate to defeat Burnley, but the World Cup has undoubtedly made the round-of-16 encounter more challenging than it would have been. Burnley are also managed by Vincent Kompany and that adds another element of intrigue.
There have been 16 United players at the World Cup this winter and the silver lining is three of those, Christian Eriksen, Facundo Pellistri (who is likely to leave the tournament on Thursday) and Hannibal Mejbri, are set to return. Hannibal will return to Birmingham, where he's on loan for the season, but Eriksen and Pellistri will be available to play Burnley.
Pellistri has spent two years at the club without making his debut, but Eriksen has become undroppable this season and he could be instrumental against Burnley after unexpectedly finishing bottom of Group D at the World Cup with Denmark.
After a strong Euro 2020 campaign, Denmark were tipped to reproduce that form in Qatar, but they've already checked out and that will give Eriksen the opportunity for a much-needed rest ahead of his return to United to start in the League Cup.
Ten Hag will have David de Gea, Victor Lindelof, Donny van de Beek, Scott McTominay, Anthony Elanga, Anthony Martial, Alejandro Garnacho and Jadon Sancho at his disposal for Burnley and Eriksen is a welcome addition to that weakened roster.
Eriksen has been superb this season and he could be the deciding factor against Burnley, such is his quality.
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