Manchester United’s turnaround between October’s derby with Manchester City and the return fixture on Saturday suggests Erik ten Hag can be the man who finally casts Sir Alex Ferguson’s gilded era in sepia.
At the Etihad Stadium United were blitzed 6-3 by the champions, going 4-0 down before half-time and 6-1 down after 64 minutes, on a dark afternoon for the club that featured hat-tricks from Erling Haaland and Phil Foden. Ten Hag’s men were fortunate not to suffer a double-digit defeat, and the Dutchman’s verdict was pithy: “We were not on the front foot and we were not brave in possession. [There] was a lack of belief.”
The humiliation caused swathes of United fans to leave the stadium at half-time, and by the final whistle United had a goal difference of -3 and were sixth, eight points behind City. The revival in the 10 league matches since has been remarkable, the closing of the gap to Pep Guardiola’s side the brightest feather in Ten Hag’s cap.
There has been just one defeat, at Aston Villa. Of the 30 available points, 23 have been won. United have risen to fourth and are level on 35 with Newcastle, their goal difference at +7. Victory at Old Trafford would take them to within a point of City.
Ten Hag is proving he can fight fires while constructing a formidable team structure and a consistently varied, winning mode. United can now counterattack and penetrate in possession, a calling card of elite managers. Casemiro, a former Real Madrid player, says: “Few managers in my career had the same obsession to win.”
For a small sample of Ten Hag’s work consider the following. Casemiro, a 59th-minute replacement for Scott McTominay at the Etihad, has dislodged the Scot and is making a case for being United’s first midfield general since Paul Scholes in his pomp 20 years ago. Lisandro Martínez, another summer signing, is a “warrior” centre-back whose thirst for battle accentuates the silkier attributes of Raphaël Varane, who is the Rio Ferdinand to his Nemanja Vidic.
In this, too, Ten Hag has solved the Harry Maguire problem: how to discard a captain whose slowness and clumsiness are a consistent problem. Ten Hag picked him for the opening two games, witnessed desultory losses to Brighton (2-1 at home) and Brentford (4-0, away), and had good reason to drop him.
Ten Hag’s headaches have also included Jadon Sancho’s loss of form and focus, Anthony Martial’s injury issues, and one that was a veritable migraine: Cristiano Ronaldo’s divisive disaffection. The manager’s explanation for not fielding him as a substitute at the Etihad included talk of “respect” for his career. Seventeen days later Ronaldo raised two fingers to Ten Hag and fans by refusing – twice – to come on as a substitute as United beat Tottenham 2-0, the Portuguese exiting down the tunnel, after his half-time flounce from Old Trafford in July’s friendly with Rayo Vallecano.
Here Ten Hag’s shrewdness in constantly billing Ronaldo as an asset while refusing him an automatic berth reaped a dividend. And it would be no shock to learn that he chess-moved how this might cause the forward to do what he wanted but what Ronaldo’s hero status disallowed: force the Portuguese to force himself out. Ronaldo did, by informing Piers Morgan there was “no respect” for the manager in an interview that presaged his departure by “mutual consent” during the World Cup.
Ten Hag has, too, shrugged off any thoughts of uncertainty regarding his future after the Glazers announced United were for sale, focusing on making his side an attractive, ruthless proposition. For the first time since Ferguson left a decade ago England’s 20-times champions are expected to win when under par, as in Tuesday’s 3-0 Carabao Cup defeat of Charlton. A prime factor in this is Ten Hag’s prowess in improving many of his charges, and an ability to shuffle his pack and still come up trumps, shown by Luke Shaw’s impressive switch from left-back to centre-back and Aaron Wan-Bissaka’s positive return when replacing Diogo Dalot after injury.
The pluses keep on coming. Rashford has 15 goals in 25 games and is the poster boy for Ten Hag the expert coach, who constantly coaxes the forward to lock in an all-game concentration and allow his pace, strength and skill to make him United’s matchwinner and a current shoo-in for all footballer of the year shortlists. To the successful raids for Casemiro and Martínez can be added the nascent talent of Tyrell Malacia, the free-signing steal of Christian Eriksen and the exuberant play of Antony who, while overpriced at £85m (and rather left-footed), is scoring again just as City come into view.
A suspicion is that Ten Hag assessed United’s previous scattergun recruitment and decided to be the de facto director of football by acquiring four footballers trusted from their work in his native Eredivisie (Antony, Eriksen, Malacia and Martínez) and being brave enough to take the fall if this backfired.
Ten Hag and United are thriving. From the past 12 matches there have been 11 wins. They face Nottingham Forest in a Carabao Cup semi-final and City’s exit on Wednesday makes them narrow favourites to end a six-year trophy drought. The incoming loanee Wout Weghorst may be satirised as a 6ft 6in, route-one “lump” but he will be third choice behind Martial and Rashford and there should be scant surprise if Ten Hag utilises the big Dutchman wisely.
Further encouragement can be found in the relentless creativity of Bruno Fernandes and the emergence of Alejandro Garnacho, who at 18 is a pocket-dynamo impact-sub to throw at tiring opponents.
There is more: Ten Hag handles all inquisitors on his terms and as with, say, Ferguson, Guardiola and Jürgen Klopp, keeps the media corps happy with colourful turns of phrase such as the “we got into a tennis match and we want to play football” offering after the win over Bournemouth.
After the dog days of losing the opening two matches came four straight victories, including over Liverpool and Arsenal, before this mini-revival was stiff-armed by City. United bottled the challenge, to paraphrase Ten Hag, for whom “play with courage” might be the alternative motto to the “good is not good enough” he regularly declaims.
City, of course, are the division’s pre-eminent side, the title-winners in four of the five past seasons, led by the glittering talents of Kevin De Bruyne and Erling Haaland and masterminded by the genius Guardiola. They will be smarting from Wednesday’s defeat by Southampton, and Saturday’s meeting being a fierce local squabble offers further incentive.
But the United who walk out at Old Trafford on Saturday lunchtime are a different beast to the one so easily dismantled in the autumn.
