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Ten Hag and Ashworth in tandem
Call it the warmest of rapprochements. A work in progress. An uneasy truce or standoff of convenience. However you boil it down, there is no escaping how dubious Sir Jim Ratcliffe’s Ineos-led football department was of Erik ten Hag’s candidacy to continue as Manchester United manager. After the Dutchman survived despite the sounding out of a plethora of potential replacements, can he and Dan Ashworth, the club’s new sporting director, strike up a strong professional relationship and work in concert to drive the team forward? There is a desire from Ten Hag and Ineos to do so – of course there is – but the test of any cracks in the Dutchman’s status may come if United lose three on the bounce or eke a couple of draws while stinking the pitch out.
Marcus Rashford, Rasmus Højlund, Antony, Jadon Sancho, Alejandro Garnacho and Amad Diallo: a sextet of forwards whose combined Premier League goal return last season was a minuscule 26. Højlund, Antony, Sancho cost a combined £226m, while Rashford, Garnacho and Diallo would most likely raise, conservatively, £150m were they to be sold this summer. So from a near £400m attack squadron you should reasonably expect better than a little more than four strikes each in the league, per season. This is what Ten Hag’s new assistant manager, Ruud van Nistelrooy, who as United’s No 9 scored 150 goals in 219 appearances, will aim to change. Goals depend on service, too: last term, Højlund, as the lone No 9, lived off crumbs. This coming season the Dane will also have the new £35.3m centre-foward, Joshua Zirkzee, as competition and, the hope is, someone who can share the scoring burden. United cannot, again, misfire upfront.
Van Nistelrooy has replaced Benni McCarthy as United’s principal forwards coach. Rene Hake has superseded Mitchell van der Gaag as another assistant manager. Jelle ten Rouwelaar is now the goalkeeping trainer. All three are Dutch like Ten Hag, who has attracted scrutiny for drawing on his homeland when recruiting players familiar to him from his time in the Netherlands, namely Antony, Tyrell Malacia, Christian Eriksen, Lisandro Martínez and André Onana, with Zirkee adding to the list this summer. Yet Ashworth et al did not balk at Ten Hag peopling his inner circle with fellow countrymen. “I look at quality,” Ten Hag has said. “This is the Premier League. Not only in assembling your player group do you look for the absolute top – the same applies to coaches, specialists, and staff members. You see that in almost the entire English top flight: managers surround themselves with international top talents, often people with whom they have a trust bond or who they already know. I looked for people I knew were good.”
With Martínez in the team, United’s defensive unit is a far spikier, robust proposition, and the problem has been that the Argentinian’s two seasons so far at the club have featured a host of injuries. On returning after six weeks out from a calf problem sustained against Brentford in late March, Martínez played 66 minutes, against Newcastle and Brighton, then shone when starting in United’s 2-1 FA Cup final triumph over Manchester City, again underscoring how vital he is to the side’s cause. Leny Yoro excelled in a 45-minute first-half debut against Rangers on Saturday and while these are very early days for the new £52.2m signing, the 18-year-old’s blend of pace, composure and height alongside Martínez’s warrior-like attitude and technical smarts may prove a dream ticket in central defence.
In United’s 2-0 victory over Rangers, Onana was culpable once again of spraying mid and long-range passes to either no one, the opposition, or out of play. This is a weakness first spotted on last summer’s pre-season tour after Onana had recently joined from Internazionale and was a leitmotif of his play throughout the season. After captaining United in the second half versus Rangers, the Cameroonian was asked about the coming campaign. “We’re going to America to prepare for the Premier League. It’s a tough league, the best league in the world, so we’ll be ready for the new season,” he said. “Last season, I don’t want to talk about it so this season it’s going to be nice.”. The 2024-25 campaign is undeniably a big one for the 28-year-old and his team. The two, of course, are interdependent.