New Manchester United manager Erik ten Hag should follow the example set by Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta as he looks to turn the Old Trafford club’s fortunes around, Paul Scholes has claimed.
Ten Hag has been appointed United’s new manager and will take charge at the end of the season. He is set to inherit a struggling team and an imbalanced squad, with United out of the race to finish in the top four and qualify for the Champions League.
The Dutchman is United’s fifth permanent manager since Sir Alex Ferguson retired in 2013 and former midfielder Scholes says Ten Hag should take the same “no-nonsense” approach as Arteta since the Spaniard took charge at the Emirates.
Arsenal defeated United 3-1 on Saturday to strengthen their top-four hopes, with Arteta trusting youth and moving away from high-paid senior players such as Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang in his attempt to rebuild the club.
“It is certainly a big job for him, it is a big job for anybody,” Scholes told TalkSport. “I suppose there is an element of risk about it and there will be about any manager that you might appoint.
“He has done really well at Ajax, I think he has got a really good pedigree, working with Pep [Guardiola] at Bayern Munich as well. But he just has to believe in his methods. This job is 10 times the job of Ajax, we know they are the best team in Holland, and they always will be.
“Manchester United is a worldwide football club and he is going to have to take criticism at times because that’s the way it is going to come. I think he has got a group of players who are talented but just has to get this group of players to believe in his methods, I think it is quite obvious that this group of players, with the last manager especially, haven’t believed in what they have been coached and haven’t believed in the way they have been playing.
“He has to be a tough manager, a little bit like Arteta at Arsenal, he has done a big rebuilding job and took no-nonsense. I think this manager has to be exactly the same.”
