Steve McClaren has worked alongside Manchester United managerial candidate Erik ten Hag as well as Sir Alex Ferguson.
Ten Hag was McClaren’s assistant in the Englishman’s first year in charge at Twente in 2008/2009, and they were champions by May 2010.
McClaren was Ferguson’s right hand man during the Treble season, and says that both managers are the best he has seen at altering the course of matches.
In an interview with the Telegraph, McClaren has gone into detail on what impressed him most about ten Hag, and paints a picture of a super-driven, hard-working manager.
“I said to Erik, ‘Have you got our first day organised?’ Over the next two hours he talked me through six weeks of pre-season work. Every last detail was accounted for. Every document ready. Every drinks break planned. He would say, ‘There is 20 minutes here for you to do your specific session and then we do this’.
“I had never seen anything like it before or since. For both individuals and for the team the work was the best I had seen. The detail was logged even down to what the coaches would be wearing on each day, and that we would all come out together. He had planned what equipment had to be carried out and when it had to be brought back in.
“I would occasionally say to Erik during a session, ‘We just need that goal moving to the halfway line’, and he would ask every player in the squad to do it. All 22 players. Everyone goes. That’s the way he likes it. His great strength lies not just in his attention to detail and organisation.
“He has a clear philosophy of how he wants to play football; the environment he wants to create. The player progression programme was a key part of Twente. He has done that at Ajax too, for each player from the academy to the first team. You look at Hakim Ziyech and now Antony, a very good player who will be the next one to go.”
“I have seen this Ajax team and it’s very good. Erik is very disciplined and people have to buy into that and have that work ethic. Tactically he’s outstanding. He worked with Pep [Guardiola] at Bayern Munich and took in his philosophy too. They called him ‘Mini Pep’ out there. He’s ready. A lot of top clubs in Germany and England will be out to get him.”
“I thought I worked hard until I met Erik,” he says. It was not just Ten Hag’s meticulous planning, McClaren notes, it was his ability to analyse games in real-time and recommend changes that affected matches. “The only other one I would have seen do that?” McClaren reflects. “That would have been the gaffer”.
Ten Hag has already been interviewed by United and he is the only manager who it has been widely reported United have spoken to.
That said, it seems the club is looking to keep its options open and we await the outcome of what has already been a drawn out managerial recruitment process, which shows no real signs of coming to a swift end.
- Erik Ten Hag’s managerial record and style of play
- Erik Ten Hag’s five most expensive transfers
- Ajax’s last five managers before Ten Hag and where they are now
- Five Ajax players Ten Hag could sign for Manchester United
- Ten Hag’s comments when Van de Beek left Ajax for Old Trafford
- Six key issues for Manchester United’s next boss
- The three biggest wins of Ten Hag’s managerial career
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