Erik ten Hag has given his verdict on what a successful season looks like, as well as his goals for the current campaign. The manager also spoke about the team’s newfound fighting spirit.
In his reign over United so far, Ten Hag has overseen some triumphant victories, like the ones against Arsenal and Liverpool, and humiliating losses, namely Brentford and Manchester City.
However, the fans’ faith in the Dutchman has never wavered. In recent years the fans have grown tired and frustrated at former managers and by the time their departures had come around, supporters had already been asking for it.
Jose Mourinho lost the fans with his style of play and feuds with the players. He was able to bring silverware to the club but inflicted more damage onto certain players’ confidence that it in the end, it was in the best interest of all parties’ that his United career ended when it did.
Ole Gunnar Solskjaer was a tougher one to take for the Old Trafford faithful, as everyone wanted to see the former club legend, who had scored possibly the most iconic goal in United’s history, succeed in the role. His time in charge saw so many highs and then, unfortunately, several lows.
One thing to be admired about Solskjaer was the love he has for his group of players; he would never speak badly of them to the press and instead, lift them up and build their confidence.
When Ten Hag was appointed, everyone from the board to the fans knew it had to be different. No more turning on the manager, pinning bad performances on him or calling for sackings and instead be patient, trust the process and let Ten Hag run the club exactly how he plans.
Ten Hag has his say
The boss did an interview with United fans this week via MUTV.
One supporter thanked Ten Hag for “instilling a proper fighting spirit back in our club” and for the work he has done over the past five months.
Ten Hag responded: “First of all, I want to emphasise, if you are talking about the spirit: one thing that I notice here, when you see the history, Manchester United in their history won a lot of trophies, a lot of titles. It was always by team spirit and fighting spirit.
“Manchester United also had fabulous offensive players, who I know were really the most creative and really recognisable players who fans could identify with. After all, it’s the team spirit and the team fighting that was the base that is in the culture of Manchester United.
“That is one of the things I wanted to bring back and I think we are going in the right direction. Sometimes you have a setback like Sunday and we are definitely not happy with the performance. I feel responsible.
“When I see my team on Sunday [losing to Aston Villa], that is not Manchester United. I know they are not robots but still we have to demand it, that they bring it every game on the pitch, as often as possible. That has to be really often, it has to be.”
