The most pressing issue Erik ten Hag had on his to-do list upon his appointment at Manchester United was to fix the rotten culture at the club.
The Red Devils had reached 'sleeping giant' stage, a titan of a club sleep-walking into the abyss without a trophy in five years. While he hasn't had the chance to end the silverware drought just yet, Ten Hag has already made great strides at sorting out the atmosphere in the United dressing room.
He appears to have gone about doing this in a way eerily similar to his big-six counterpart Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta. The Spaniard is famed for being quite the disciplinarian with his Gunners troops and is keen to make clear he will not tolerate any slackers or troublemakers.
Ten Hag has seemingly gone down the same route during the opening exchanges of his Old Trafford reign. The Dutchman has already had to deal with the knock-on impact of one training ground bust-up after Alex Telles and Hannibal Mejbri came to blows at the back-end of last season, before Ten Hag had even officially taken over.
Then-manager Ralf Rangnick was reportedly so disheartened by what he had seen from the two players he ended the training session prematurely. Ten Hag made sure to act in a far more decisive manner than his predecessor.
Putting the interests of United before the interest of any individual player, Ten Hag quickly sent Telles out to Spain where he will spend the rest of the season after signing for Sevilla on loan. Initially, it looked like Mejbri would avoid a similar fate, but alas he too was temporarily culled, spending this term on loan at Championship side Birmingham.
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Ten Hag has proven he is not afraid to discipline the entire team as a collective either. After match-day two of the Premier League season, which came in the form of a humiliating 4-0 defeat away at Brentford, the ex-Ajax boss went old school with his punishment.
Having been told that the Bees players had run a staggering 13.2 kilometres further as a team than United during the Saturday evening clash, Ten Hag had his players report for duty on Sunday to make up the distance and run the same amount on what was meant to be their day off.
That appears to have done the trick, as United have not lost in the league since. That disastrous trip to West London kickstarted a remarkable run of four wins from four, including victories over arch enemies Liverpool and top-four rivals Arsenal.
As a result, United now sit fifth in the Premier League table, one point outside of the top four. It marks a rapid rise from when they were rock-bottom two games into the campaign, which is a product of Ten Hag holding his nerve and having the courage of his convictions.
