Erik ten Hag’s first season as Manchester United far exceeded expectations. The Dutch tactician took charge in the summer of 2022 after the Red Devils limped to a horrible finish to the 21/22 season and he arrived to a dressing room in turmoil, well-paid players not up to the task, and a fanbase at the end of its tether.
After a shaky start and a few bumps along the road, Ten Hag guided Manchester United to Carabao Cup success, an FA Cup final, a third place finish in the league, the highest win percentage of any United manager, and outperformed Pep Guardiola and Jurgen Klopp to 35 wins in his first 50 matches at the helm in the Premier League (29 wins in 50 for Guardiola and 23 for Klopp – any excuse to bring up that stat).
The players Ten Hag brought to Old Trafford had a lot to do with last season’s performances, as well. One of ten Hag’s signings last year, Casemiro, admitted to watching United’s first few matches under Ten Hag and telling his agent to get him to Old Trafford so he could fix things. And fix things, he did; the Brazilian’s experience and fight were exactly the spark United needed after so many passive performances. Aside from Casemiro, though, ten Hag’s transfers and heavily linked targets have been players he’s either worked with or scouted himself during his time in the Eredivisie, which hasn’t gone unnoticed among the fanbase, despite the successes of last season.
Why have Ten Hag and his team focused so heavily on players he knows? Do these targets reveal a lack of confidence in the squad he inherited, or a hesitancy to take risks and step into unfamiliar territory? What began with pursuits of Jurrien Timber, Frenkie de Jong, and Cody Gakpo ultimately ended with Christian Eriksen (trained with Ten Hag’s Ajax after leaving Inter Milan), Lisandro Martinez, Antony, and Tyrell Malacia, who Ten Hag scouted and admired during the left-back’s time at Feyenoord.
It’s not uncommon for managers to bring former players with them to a new club; Jose Mourinho and Nemanja Matic seem to be joined at the hip, while Antonio Conte brought Ivan Perisic with him to Spurs. These are instances of one player, though. Ten Hag brought three in his first transfer window with United.
This summer has been more of the same, with United signing Mason Mount and Andre Onana. Ten Hag has been a fan of Mount since Chelsea loaned their former midfielder to Eredivisie club, Vitesse, in 2017 and ten Hag even handed the midfielder United’s fabled (though, some might call it cursed) number seven shirt. Onana, meanwhile, was Ten Hag’s goalkeeper at Ajax. United have also been linked with Fiorentina midfielder, Sofyan Amrabat, who played for Ten Hag at FC Utrecht.
While it’s understandable and not at all surprising that he brought familiar players with him–and to be fair to Ten Hag, his signings have done well–the fact that it’s become a pattern each transfer window is raising eyebrows. Rival fans will argue the Dutch manager is filling the dressing room with players loyal to him and even some United supporters have grown tired of players from the Eredivisie, claiming the Dutch league’s level is too far below that of the Premier League while pointing the finger at Donny van de Beek, Memphis Depay, and even Antony after his bright start faded a bit. Of course, you take the criticism of rivals with a pinch of salt, but are United supporters within their rights to demand a higher level of talent brought to their club?
Should Manchester United’s manager aim higher than familiar faces from a familiar league? Considering the quality of past Eredivisie signings like Ruud van Nistelrooy, Jaap Stam, Daley Blind (who is class, by the way), and Lisandro Martinez, one could assert that it’s more about the player than the league when it comes to targeting players from the Eredivisie.
An argument can also be made that ten Hag and his representatives, SEG–who represent Gakpo, Zidane Iqbal, and now represent Hojlund–are so active in United’s transfers because the Red Devils don’t have a stellar track record in the market. Bayern Munich and Ajax are two of the most well-run clubs in football, with some of the best recruitment, scouting, and technical staff in the world; ten Hag could rely on them to find quality talent during his time at Bayern Munich II and Ajax. United’s recruitment over the years, however, has been, well, hit-and-miss. Paying too much in transfer fees and wages without developing and selling players for profit over the years belies more than a few glaring inadequacies in United’s talent identification. It doesn’t help that five managers have come and gone in the last decade, either. The squad ten Hag inherited was a Frankenstein’s monster compiled by managers with different systems and player preferences, most of whom weren’t suited to ten Hag’s tactics, kept around for too long, and shared responsibility for the club’s failures in recent years.
We are starting to see a shift, however, after Ten Hag found his feet with familiar faces in the dressing room. After Mount and Onana, United have now ramped up their pursuit of next big thing, Rasmus Hojlund, goalkeeper Zion Suzuki, and have centre-back Axel Disasi earmarked after missing out on Kim Min-jae. After a successful first season, ten Hag can now branch out a little bit and find players with traits that fit his system.
I guess it all comes back to that age old adage, “Trust the manager.”
Ten Hag is a manager who is always thinking, always planning, and always learning. He knows the pressure at Manchester United is different than any other club he’s managed and he knows the fans–and board–have high expectations. His job is on the line and every decision–from substitutions to swapping wingers during a match to transfers–could have long-term repercussions as far as his time in the Old Trafford dugout is concerned. If he had to get the band back together to remedy the wounds from last season and kickstart his United rebuild, then so be it. Ten Hag wouldn’t target a player he didn’t think would improve United and suit his system–whether right away or after a bit of coaching and development–so it falls to even the most diehard United supporter to back their manager. This especially applies to his signings, whether it’s the top player in the top league or a completely unknown player from the second tier of the most obscure country you can think of. Trust the manager, back the players, and give them time. Rome wasn’t built in a day, after all.